Tijuana River Mouth State Marine Conservation Area

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Thousands of migratory birds and other wildlife have a new home on the shores of San Diego Bay. Four agencies and hundreds of volunteers are responsible for the new shore-side home. The agencies include the Port of San Diego along with its partners - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Coastal Conservancy, the Environmental Protection Agency and Ocean Discovery Institute. We’re standing here at the Chula Vista Wildlife Reserve. Across the bay is the San Diego Bay National wildlife refuge. And together these two special areas provide habitat for the California Least Tern, Western Snowy Plover, green sea turtle, Welding Savannah Sparrow and a host of migratory birds that swim as a river of birds down the pacific flyway during the migration season. This is a restoration project that involves teaming with four agencies and hundreds of volunteers. In all it will cover 280 acres of coastal wetlands in the Chula Vista wildlife refuge. To create the new home for the flying wildlife and creatures living in the water sixty thousand cubic yards of sand was excavated - enough to fill five thousand trucks. New tidal creeks and tidal channels were created For the foraging birds and sea life. The sand was transported by an under water pipeline nearly a mile and a half away to a salt pond in Imperial Beach This used to be a pond and now it's a really nice white beach which is basically just washed sand. I think it’s probably the nicest Least Tern habitat in San Diego County. One of the key functions of the Port is to be an environmental steward for the tidelands and all of its resources. This is the Port’s largest restoration project and represents over $7 million dollars worth of an investment. The Port and its partners want to thank the hundreds of volunteers with the San Diego Audubon Society and San Diego Oceans Foundation. The volunteers removed invasive plants throughout the restoration area and they spent many hours planting cord grass and pickle weed plants, along with coastal golden bush and San Diego sunflowers. In several months when the thousands of plants are flourishing, the birds and all the wildlife will be there. It is an incredible place at the Port of San Diego and a host of other partners have joined together to restore for wildlife and fish. None of these creatures are able to speak, but if they could the birds that fly along San Diego Bay the fish that swim here in the shallow waters and the many invertebrate creatures that live in the mud would all thank the American people and the people of San Diego and the Port District for their contributions to restoring South San Diego Bay.