Located in California's western Contra Costa county, the North Richmond shoreline extends along the San Pablo Bay for seven miles between Point San Pablo and Point Pinole. The shoreline includes 540 acres of tidal marsh and over 900 acres of tidal flat, much of it privately held or otherwise unprotected. The National Audubon Society and BirdLife International have designated the North Richmond shoreline an Important Bird Area. Long neglected as an industrial backwater, there is now increasing pressure to develop the shoreline. Simultaneously, there is enormous potential for restoring the shoreline to benefit aquatic ecosystems and local citizens.
The communities along the shoreline, North Richmond and Parchester Village, are primarily minority, low-income communities wedged between industrial lands and brownfields. These communities have suffered compounded environmental injustices in the form of air and water pollution, legal and illegal dumping, toxic releases, and loss of access to the natural amenities along the shoreline.
NHI has designed outreach and restoration projects to inform people in these communities of the potential for restoration in their neighborhoods. Working with local citizens and municipalities, we have identified and advanced restoration opportunities in the Rheem Creek watershed and along the North Richmond Shoreline. NHI founded the North Richmond Shoreline Academy to provide educational and recreational opportunities for local citizens, oversee the first ever year-long bird census along the North Richmond shoreline, and begin restoration activities including the restoration of native oysters.
NHI coordinates with resource managers, stakeholders, and funders to implement the restoration plan, advancing a vision of aquatic ecosystem restoration and recognizing the enormous ecological value of this often neglected and overlooked portion of the San Francisco estuary.
For more information, please see our publications: Rheem Creek Watershed Assessment and North Richmond Shoreline Watershed Assessment.
Contact: Carson Cox
