San Francisco, California, July 18, 2011: The Journal of Coastal Research publishes an article about the ecological responses of sandy beaches to El Niño. El Niño events have devastating impacts to coastal communities around the world. However few studies have effectively evaluated the physical impacts and ecological responses to a major El Niño event. In this new article, researchers including ESA PWA's Senior Coastal Geomorphologist David Revell, PhD. investigate the specific impacts of a major El Niño event by integrating physical and ecological data sets to identify coastal response and recovery to sandy beaches.

Download a PDF of the article (PDF download will open a new window)

San Francisco, California, April 11, 2011: The World Bank and the IUCN announced the publication of Mitigating Climate Change through Restoration and Management of Coastal Wetlands and Near-shore Marine Ecosystems. The report, which addresses the benefits of protecting and restoring coastal wetlands, was researched and presented by a team of climate change experts, including ESA PWA's Climate Change Program Manager, Stephen Crooks, Ph.D.

The report documents worldwide examples of wetland carbon sequestration, discusses metrics for assessing restoration feasibility and outlines opportunities for incorporating wetlands into international climate change policy. Restoration of certain wetlands offers particularly high carbon sequestration benefits. For instance, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta wetlands system sequesters and stores harmful carbon dioxide at much higher rates than forests.

The Napa River flows though one of the most scenic landscapes in the Bay Area, and supports one of the largest remaining salmon runs, but it faces many challenges. In the mid 20th century the river corridor was squeezed from a broad ribbon to a narrow thread, as land managers cut off secondary channels and confined the river behind levees. At the same time urbanization and land drainage funneled more water into a narrower floodway. The result was channel incision – unable to spread its energy across a wide floodplain the river cut down into its bed, causing the banks to fail. Bed erosion and disconnection from the former side channels removed spawning and rearing habitat for Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, leaving juvenile fish exposed to fast flows. Bank erosion buried the spawning gravels and caused loss to valuable vineyard land.

For the last eight years ESA PWA has been working with Napa County and local landowners and vineyard managers to develop a restoration plan for the Napa River. The plan involves setting back levees and creating a series of restoration nodes where the river can spread out again into multiple channels and backwater alcoves. This gives juvenile fish a place to take refuge from the mainstem during high flows, and also creates conditions for riffle-pool formation. The video shows two of our restoration nodes following the two year flood. You can see many of the processes we intended to promote starting to occur. Over the next few years we hope to create more of these nodes over 13 miles of the river, and to monitor them so we can adaptively improve the design.

Los Angeles, California, January 16, 2011: Surfers Point project recognized as model for managing threatened California coast sites. ESA PWA provided coastal engineering and design to restore degraded shoreline and help manage shoreline retreat along this popular Southern California recreational site, located along Seaside Park in the City of San Buenaventura. The team’s design focused on a more natural restoration of the shoreline using native materials and moving facilities back inland, balancing recreational needs with natural conditions and processes. Construction crews are now removing the crumbling bike path, ripping out a 120-space parking lot and laying down sand and cobblestones. Click here for more news about this exciting project.

In the last decade there has been a growing awareness that California's coastal lagoons play a crucial role as areas where juvenile salmonids grow and adapt to salty water before migrating out to the ocean. Many of these lagoons, including the former Big Lagoon at Muir Beach have filled up with sediment due to historic logging and ranching in their watersheds, shrinking the valuable lagoon habitat. The linked article describes a project to restore lost salmonid habitat at Muir Beach in Marin. You can get a good view of the project if you walk between the Pelican Inn and the Muir Beach parking lot. Over the past several years, ESA PWA has worked with the National Parks Service and Golden Gate National Recreational Area to develop the plan for realigning the mouth of Redwood Creek. The restored creek and lagoon will provide much more area and suitable conditions for Coho salmon and Steelhead trout to gain weight (a strong predictor of survival chances at sea) before they start their journey into the Pacific. Click here for more news about this exciting project.

Menlo Park, California, September 7, 2010: The first phase of the Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, the largest restoration project on the West Coast, was officially opened at a ceremony attended by Senator Diane Feinstein and California Resources Secretary Lester Snow. The former Cargill Salt pond, now part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, is being transformed into a thriving wetland with islands for birds, new trails, and wooden walkway for the public. Michelle Orr, Director of ESA PWA's Wetland and Estuaries Team, led the PWA project team as they developed long-term restoration and public access plan for the 15,100-acre site, flood management solutions for 15 miles of bay shoreline, and construction drawings for the first phase of implementation totaling 2600 acres. Click here for more news about this milestone.

PWA Coastal Geomorphologist and Senior Associate, David Revell, discusses his involvement and scientific analysis of the Goleta Beach restoration project in Santa Barbara County.

Excerpt from Noozhawk.com, "David Revell: Scientific Analysis Girds Goleta Beach 2.0, Naturally." Published: June 29, 2010

Initial findings from this research formed the basis for a managed retreat alternative crafted for the county by the environmental engineering firm Philip Williams & Associates (PWA) at the end of the initial stakeholder process. This alternative was not selected as the preferred alternative, and so a second "Park Reconfiguration Alternative" was completed by PWA for the Environmental Defense Center and Surfrider Foundation and submitted to the state Coastal Commission. The Santa Barbara County Parks Department's proposed "Goleta Beach 2.0" uses the updated scientific basis from the Park Reconfiguration Alternative and enhances the recreational opportunities while balancing uses in Goleta Beach County Park with the use of the beach.

Link to article: Noozhawk, 6/2010

Link to video: http://www.ktvu.com/video/24317755/index.html

A large interdisciplinary study a team of researchers, led by Charles (Si) Simenstad of the University of Washington, are investigating the ecological functioning and evolution of Liberty Island, a naturally breached island that is seen as a template for restoration in the Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta. PWA is playing a major and central role the BREACH III: Evaluating and Predicting 'Restoration Thresholds' in Evolving Freshwater-Tidal Marshes. The project is exploring ecosystem geomorphic evolution, hydrology and sediment dynamics through field investigation and modeling. The hydrodynamic and sediment transport model (Delft 3D) will be a platform for the science community to investigate the role of Liberty Island in maintaining regional turbidity (favored conditions for Delta Smelt) and export of phytoplankton that supports the regional food-chain.

For full article:
Science News, 4/2010

To learn about those studies and some of the findings click here:
Science in Action, 12/2001 or contact PWA project manager Steve Crooks.

Ron Duke (HT Harvey), Michelle Orr (PWA Project Manager), John Bourgeois (SBSP Executive Project Manager), Mendel Stewart (Manager, SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge)

Construction for the restoration of Pond A8, a key component of the 15,100-acre South Bay Salt Pond (SBSP) Restoration Project, located near the Town of Alviso, broke ground on January 13. This project is the first to be constructed in California using funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Attendees included Michelle Orr (PWA Principal and Pond A8 Team Project Manager), Mark Lindley (PWA Senior Associate and Project Engineer), local politicians, stakeholders, local news media, environmental advocates and representatives from funding agencies, including NOAA, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD).

In addition to leading the planning and design consulting services for the SBSP Restoration Project, PWA is lead designer for the Pond A8 restoration, managing a multi-disciplinary team of wetland scientists, engineers, technical modelers and biologists. Pond A8 is a key step in the effort to restore 15,100 acres of former salt-evaporation ponds back to tidal marshes for fish, birds and other wildlife. Crews will build a 40-foot long concrete notch in the earthen levee along pond A8, a former industrial salt-evaporation pond, and then build eight large metal gates in it. Raising the gates will allow tidal waters to flow into the Guadalupe River near Alviso's Gold Street Bridge. The benefits of the concrete notch are threefold: it will increase tidal action into the river, widening and deepening the channel, which will help restore the pond to more natural historic conditions; the introduction of saltier water will slow and/or kill the growth of invasive marsh vegetation; and third, scientists will be able to more easily assess how much mercury--which has washed down the Guadalupe River into the Bay from the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines in South San Jose for 160 years--is buried in the mud of the river and salt pond bottoms, how it behaves chemically when stirred up and how it affects fish, birds and insects.

Of the 15,100 acre restoration area, the project has completed restoration of 800 acres, has 1600 acres in construction, and 1500 acres in final design. PWA has completed or is currently working on design for four of the Phase 1 projects totaling 2600 acres.

Links to news coverage:
San Jose mercury News, 1/12/10
KCBS News, 1/13/10
NOAA has an article on their website

Photo by John Callaway

Dr. Stephen Crooks, PWA’s Director of Climate Change Services, will serve as a co-Principal Investigator for the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) Workshop on Tidal Wetland Carbon Sequestration and the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Model. Dr. Crooks with co- Principle Investigators John Calloway (University of San Francisco), Pat Megonigal (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center) and Abe Doherty (California State Coastal Conservancy) will gather a team of experts in wetland processes and modeling to “synthesize the current understanding of carbon dynamics in tidal wetlands and develop a model to assess the potential for carbon storage. The results of this model will play a significant role in evaluating the feasibility of tidal wetland restoration projects as a new category of carbon offset projects. The eligibility of wetland restoration projects for carbon offsets will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a significant new funding source for habitat restoration that will allow vulnerable coastal areas to adapt to impacts of future climate change."

The co-investigators will meet March 2010, Autumn 2010 and Spring 2011 at the NCEAS facilities in Santa Barbara. The outcome of the analysis will be a publicly available carbon sequestration model.

Link to NCEAS website

Bob Battalio, PWA Principal and Senior Coastal Engineer, talks with KTVU reporter John Fowler about the environmental impacts and implications of the cliff erosion issues in Pacifica, CA.

Link to videos on KTVU website: [ Dec. 21 | Dec. 29 ]

Stephen Crooks, Ph.D., PWA’s Director of Climate Change Services, will chair Restore America’s Estuaries’ (RAE) new National Blue Ribbon panel to explore and secure the role coastal wetlands play in sequestering greenhouse gases (GHG). The Panel's ultimate goal is to develop a national greenhouse gas offset protocol for wetland restoration projects. Marine and tidal wetland soils remove vast amounts of carbon dioxide, one of the most significant greenhouse gases, from the atmosphere.

Composed of leaders in science, environmental engineering, public policy, and carbon offset investing, the Panel will develop guidance for: 1) measuring greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration in tidal wetland habitats; 2) monitoring and verifying carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas flux in these habitats; and 3) establishing eligibility and performance standards for wetland-based GHG offset projects. These methodologies are vital components for the creation of a credible and high-quality greenhouse gas offsets protocol that will attract public and private investment in wetlands restoration activities.

Link to article on Restore America's Estuaries

PWA is pleased to announce the publication of "Quantifying activated floodplains on a lowland regulated river: its application to floodplain restoration in the Sacramento Valley" in the San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science Journal. The paper was authored by PWA staff together with Dr. Peter Moyle and Jeffrey Opperman from the University of California at Davis and The Nature Conservancy. The paper describes a process and methodology for quantifying the extent of frequently-activated floodplains: a type of historically prevalent, but now relatively rare, ecologically-valuable floodplains in the Sacramento lowland river system.  The analysis uses a specific hydrologic metric to indicate a “Floodplain Activation Flow” (FAF), which is the smallest flood pulse event that initiates substantial beneficial ecological processes when associated with floodplain inundation.

This use of hydrologic regime to identify quantities of “activated” floodplain provides a powerful approach to evaluating ecological aspects of floodplain restoration opportunities under current or alternative flow scenarios, a central concern of current flood planning efforts.

Link to article on [ PWA website | web ]

PWA, in coordination with the University of Washington Wetland Ecosystem Team (WET), developed and analyzed a suite of alternatives aimed at restoring tidal circulation, increasing site drainage and enhancing salmon rearing habitat within the Crescent Bay Marsh, formerly one of the largest barrier salt marshes within Whidbey Island, Puget Sound.  Over the past century, the marsh had been diked and ditched for agricultural use and its tidal channel inlet was replaced with a gated culvert, causing it to subside several feet below natural marsh elevations and significantly restrict salmon access.  PWA modeled tidal circulation for each restoration alternative to assess flood hazards to existing site infrastructure and predicted restored habitat acreages.  The team also designed the excavation of a stable tidal channel network within the marsh based on empirical data for the Puget Sound.

Excerpt from Whidbey News Times, "Salmon benefit as saltwater reclaims old Dutch farmland":
Published: August 21, 2009

The Summer 2009 “Sea Change” issue of Terrain magazine features Bob Battalio, a PWA Principal and Senior Coastal Engineer, and David Revell, PWA Senior Associate and Coastal Geomorphologist. They discuss the effects of sea level rise on coastal flooding and erosion in Pacifica and the Bay Area, as well as the implications of the Pacific Institute’s recently published draft report, “The Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on the California Coast.”

Excerpt from Terrain, “A Rising Tide” by Timothy Lesle
Published: Summer 2009

Sea level rise will not only flood vulnerable low lying areas but also increase the erosion along the coast of California. PWA scientists and engineers provided analysis and mapping of future flood and erosion hazards along approximately 900 miles of the California Coast. This work funded by the Ocean Protection Council was used by the Pacific Institute as the technical basis for their vulnerability assessment – The Impacts of Sea Level Rise to the California Coast. The hazard assessment conducted by PWA built on research by the USGS, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and the Coastal Data Information Program to evaluate the impacts of a 1.4 meter sea level rise by 2100. Under that scenario, 41 square miles of California coast may be lost to erosion, threatening the homes of 14,000 people. Significant transportation-related infrastructure and property are also at risk. PWA’s research was managed by David Revell, directed by Bob Battalio, and involved technical staff members Justin Vandever, Jeremy Lowe, Brian Spear, and Seungjin Baek.

Excerpt from the Pacific Institute Press Release:
Published: March 11, 2009

PWA was the lead consultant for the first formally adopted Coastal Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Plan in California, as part of the implementation of the statewide Sediment Master Plan being developed by the Coastal Sediment Management Workgroup (CSMW). The Plan is a first step in an ongoing effort to help the communities of southern Monterey Bay find wise, sustainable solutions to shoreline erosion. PWA’s work was managed by David Brew and directed by Bob Battalio.


Excerpt from the Executive Summary
Published: November 3, 2008

Sausal Creek is an ephemeral or seasonal stream that meanders through Portola Valley, open except for a 650’ culverted portion that runs under the entire length of the Portola Valley Town Center property. Opening a portion of Sausal Creek represents both a stewardship opportunity and a critical step in improved watershed health. The Sausal Creek daylighting is being led by environmental hydrologist Jorgen Blomberg, a key member of PWA's Design Team.

Excerpt from SF Chronicle article by Sam Whiting
Published: Sept 13, 2008

PWA is leading the development of the Pilarcitos Integrated Watershed Management Plan that identifies potential projects to restore the Pilarcitos watershed and recover steelhead trout and other native species. Bay Nature profiled the Pilarcitos Creek Restoration Workgroup, a diverse group of stakeholders representing local, state and federal agencies as well as local advocacy groups led by PWA in their summer 2008 issue.

Excerpt from Bay Nature article by Sarah Sweedler
Published: July 1, 2008

PWA is currently providing technical input and design to support the planning and evaluation of the Strawberry Creek Daylighting project in downtown Berkeley. In addition the article references Lincoln Creek in Auburn, California. PWA led the daylighting design for the Lincoln Creek project which was completed last fall.

Excerpt from SF Chronicle article by Sam Whiting
Published: Sept 13, 2008

The Sacramento District of the American Society for Civil Engineers gave their prestigious “Outstanding Engineering Project Award” to the recently constructed Bear River Levee Setback. The project involved setting back a mile of levee at the confluence of the Bear and Feather Rivers to improve levee stability and restore the floodplain (formerly cultivated for orchards) back to natural habitat. The restored setback area will support endangered species including Chinook salmon, Swainson’s Hawk and Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle. Levee setbacks are increasingly being looked at as a ‘win - win’ approach to strengthening California’s aging flood control levees while restoring natural floodplain area, 90% of which has been lost in the last 100 years.

PWA studied the geomorphic conditions of the site to ensure that the restoration had a sound physical basis that would support the ecological goals. One particular challenge was the legacy of 19th century gold mining in the Bear River watershed, which had buried much of the channel and floodplain under hydraulic mining sediment, creating low points that would strand fish during floods. We developed a sophisticated 2D sediment transport model to look at erosion and deposition patterns on the newly restored floodplain and along the levees. We also applied recent CALFED research carried out by PWA’s Betty Andrews and UC Davis’s Professor Peter Moyle on fish utilization of floodplains (known as the Floodplain Activation Flow, or FAF, concept). This research provided a way of evaluating which parts of the restored floodplain would most effectively build up the food chains needed to feed salmon, which use flooded areas to fatten up before migrating out to sea. Based on a study of FAF conditions we designed a special fish swale to make sure that feeding Chinook salmon were not stranded on the floodplain when waters recede after spring floods.

The project team was led by Bookman Edmonston and included PWA, MBK Engineers and EDAW. The team is currently designing a much larger scale setback for six miles of levee along the Feather River upstream from the Bear project. PWA’s project team included Betty Andrews, Andy Collison, Chris Campbell and John Stofleth.

Download a PDF of the ASCE Sac. Division 2007 Awards list

Sediments are flowing at the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project! Once an Army airfield built over 900 acres of subsided Baylands, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the California Coastal Conservancy are restoring this area back to sustainable mosaic of habitat for coastal wildlife. With sediments being a precious resource in San Francisco Bay the Hamilton Project is making good use of clean material from the Port of Oakland Deepening Project; sediment once destined for the deep ocean disposal. PWA is proud to have been involved in this milestone beneficial-use and wetlands restoration project from the early days of feasibility analysis through to recent detailed final design.


Excerpt from Marin Independent Journal article by Mark Prado
Published: January 19, 2008

PWA founder Philip Williams talks to Bay Area scientists about how rising sea levels and levee failures could have profound consequences for both Bay and Delta ecosystems, as reported by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Until recently, politicians and the public tended to view the problems facing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta levees as separate from the problems facing the San Francisco Bay. But now that human-made distinction is beginning to blur as scientists predict that rising sea levels and levee failures could have profound consequences for both ecosystems.


Excerpt from SF Bay Guardian article by Sarah Phelan
Published: November 7, 2007

Bay Nature, the prestigious award-winning magazine that dazzles the eye, included a Web Extra article which gave PWA's Andy Collison a chance to explain some complex computer models of the river channel and its flood plain. PWA is pleased that this high-profile project on the Napa River for the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team is included in Bay Nature's coverage of the river, the watershed and the valley. "(The) Napa River Restoration Project is a study in landowner responsibility. In 2002, faced with an impaired river and watershed in their backyard, the Rutherford Dust Society (RDS) voted unanimously to initiate a plan to manage and restore the four-mile reach of the Napa River through the appellation. Rather than wait for government funding, RDS created the RDRT subcommittee and looked to the region's landowners to fund the initial phase of the project." (from the RDRT site)


Excerpt from the Bay Nature Web Extra "Looking Ahead on the Napa River" by Dan Rademacher
Published: January, 2007

PWA celebrated the historic breaching of the restored Petaluma Marsh with the Marin Audubon Society and the Bay Area press was there to cover the historic event! All the local television news programs aired a piece in their evening broadcasts and it was the lead article of the Chronicle Bay Area section. The Chronicle photograph and the television coverage featured PWA's Ann Borgonovo and long-time client and partner MAS's Barbara Salzman.


Phil Williams made his traditional canoe leap through the breach which was caught on tape by all the local stations for a dramatic finish to the coverage. Also powering the canoe was PWA's head of Field Operations, Eric Donaldson.

Excerpt from San Francisco Chronicle article by Glen Martin
Published: December 9, 2006

A panel of international experts on coastal geomorphology and resource management, that included PWA founder Phil Williams, has made a unanimous recommendation to reconfigure the Mississippi Delta to replenish Louisiana’s disappearing coastal marshes. This was reported in a New York Times article, and other media outlets.


Excerpt from New York Times article by Cornelia Dean
Published: September 19, 2006

On September 21 at the Corinthian Club in Tiburon, The Bay Institute presented its Carla Bard Bay Education Award to Phil Williams at their annual event, Celebrating Headwaters 2 Ocean (H2O).
The Bay Institute created the Bay Education Award in 1992 to honor those who have significantly increased the public's understanding of and concern for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. The late Carla Bard, the former Chair of the State Water Resources Control Board and member of The Bay Institute Board of Directors, embodies the essence of this award. Bard, a champion of clean water, wetlands preservation and wild rivers, was considered a statewide leader on water issues. In 1998, The Bay Institute named the Bay Education Award in her name.

Past recipients of the Bay Education Award include: Glen Martin, 1992; Marc Reisner, 1993; Peter Moyle, Ph.D., 1994; Harold Gilliam, 1995; Harrison C."Hap" Dunning, 1996; Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc., 1997; Dave Weiman, 1998; Allen Garcia and Paul Martin, 1999; Nancy C. Swadesh, 2000; William T. Davoren, 2001; Jean Auer, 2002; John Hart and David Sanger, 2003; and Sallyanne Wilson, 2004.

Philip Williams & Associates has been selected to lead the Ballona Wetland Restoration project in Southern California. Under contract to the Coastal Conservancy, PWA will also work with the Department of Fish and Game and the State Lands Commission to define alternatives, conduct a feasibility analysis and develop a conceptual restoration plan for the enhancement of 600-acres of the Ballona Wetlands in Los Angeles County. The plan will enhance wetland resources, preserve open space and create managed public access compatible with the natural resources of the site.

The Ballona Creek watershed is largely urbanized and home to more than 1.5 million people. Urbanization of the watershed has significantly impacted the hydrology and water quality of Ballona Creek and the Ballona Wetlands. Located at the mouth of Ballona Creek, the wetlands continue to provide habitat for some threatened and endangered species. Enhancement of this property is one of the largest and best remaining opportunities to restore coastal wetland habitat in southern California. Restoration planning will be conducted within the landscape and watershed context, with attention paid to adjacent and ecologically related resources.

The project goals are:

• Restoration and enhancement of salt water influenced wetland habitats to benefit Endangered and Threatened species, migratory shorebirds, waterfowl, seabirds, and coastal fish and aquatic species. Restoration of seasonal ponds, riparian and freshwater wetlands, and upland habitats will be considered where beneficial to another project goal or biological and habitat diversity.
• To provide for wildlife-oriented public access and recreation opportunities compatible with the habitats, fish and wildlife conservation.
• To identify and implement a cost-effective, ecologically beneficial, and sustainable (low maintenance) habitat restoration alternative.

PWA will lead a team of biologists, restoration ecologists, geotechnical and traffic engineers, and cultural resource specialists. The team will also collaborate with the Ballona Wetlands Restoration Working Group (BWRWG), a stakeholder group comprised of interested parties, agencies and members of the public and the Science Advisory Committee, an interdisciplinary panel of experts formed by the Coastal Conservancy.