Bradmoor Island & Arnold Slough – Tidal WetlandHabitat Restoration
The Project sites are diked and were historically managed to support duck hunting club activities. Both sites have levees and water control structures with managed wetlands on the interior and fringe tidal marsh and tidal channels on the exterior of the levees.
The Project restored tidal hydrology to about 470 acres on Bradmoor and 138 acres on Arnold to benefit native fish species. Restoring full tidal exchange created approximately 608 acres of mesohaline tidal habitat for Delta smelt and Longfin smelt thereby increasing wetland productivity to support the smelt food chain. Construction primarily consisted of breaching interior and exterior levees in strategic locations, grading down sections of the levees, and filling ditches near the breach locations to the elevation of the adjacent marsh plain in order to effectively restore tidal hydrology.
Bradmoor Island restoration also consisted of dewatering the project area using a series of strategically placed pumps and water management devices and removing three water control structures. As part of the restoration at Arnold Slough, a beach seine monitoring ramp was installed in order to facilitate effectiveness monitoring the interior of Arnold Slough.