From totally harsh to thriving marsh

Driving along Waterfront Road in Martinez, the landscape feels exactly like the industrial heart of the East Bay. Speeding cars are flanked by the towering steel drums of petrochemical refineries, the rumble of I-680 and massive oil tankers gliding under the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. It is, by most definitions, a “harsh” environment.

Once visitors step through the gate at Pacheco Marsh, however, the world transforms. The roar of the highway fades, replaced by the rhythmic splash of tidal currents and the high-pitched call of the California black rail. Here, where Lower Walnut Creek meets the Suisun Bay, a $25 million, two-decade-long engineering feat was recently completed and opened to the public. What was once a scarred dumping ground for dredge spoils and a proposed junkyard is now a 237-acre pristine wetland.