I wasn't alone when I decided to "walk on the wild side" along the Napa River Bay Trail in a bracing wind one early spring day. Although not crowded in the least, this appears to be a well-loved place to walk and enjoy the prolific birdlife.
A mute swan is one of the inhabitants of the American Canyon wetlands. Kathleen Scavone.
Napa Valley's Living Landscapes: The Napa River Bay Trail, American Canyon's Best Kept Secret
Mar 27, 2022 at 11:55am
I entered the trail at the American Canyon Wetlands View Trailhead at Wetlands Edge Road and Eucalyptus Drive. (A handy brochure with a map can be found online.)
These lands were home to the Indigenous people called Patwin for thousands of years. Then, they thrived on the marsh's many plants, which they used for every phase of life. They wove beautiful multi-purpose baskets for carrying water, cooking, baby baskets, burden baskets for hauling items, ceremonial baskets, fish traps, and even constructed boats and huts from native marsh plants, like the tule reed.
The birdlife is breathtaking in all of its variety and numbers. The mixture of avian species here is attracted by the interconnected watershed systems that drain into San Pablo Bay.
In no time at all, I spotted American avocets with their long, up-curved bills used to consume small invertebrates that live in the shallow waters. Among the inhabitants found there are American wigeons, common gallinules, hummingbirds, green-winged teal, egrets, mute swans, northern mockingbird, northern shoveler and pied-billed grebes.
The trail's informative interpretive panels explain that great horned owls often roost in the stand of eucalyptus and descend in the evenings to hunt the prolific small mammals, such as the salt marsh harvest mouse who makes its home amongst the pickleweed, drinking salt water. Owls consume birds as well.
Prior to the 1850s this area, and the San Francisco Bay, contained miles-wide tidal marshes, which acted as a filter for the water with prolific tule, pickleweed and other native marsh plants. This habitat allowed for fish and avian species to spawn and nest and provided habitat for their food as well.
As the 1950s rolled around, almost 85% of the marshlands had been destroyed, diked or filled in.
It's interesting to trace back the Napa River to its humble source, just south of the summit of Mount St. Helena in the Mayacamas Mountains. One can picture the growth of the river as its 55-mile length is fed by tributaries from the Mayacamas range in the west, and those descending from the east via Howell Mountain and Atlas Peak. Finally, it arrives at the wetlands at American Canyon's Napa-Sonoma marshes, which then drain into the San Pablo Bay.
Here, at the confluence of the Napa River and the Bay, water from the Pacific Ocean intermingles with river water. An estuarine habitat has formed, giving homes to a diverse population of amphibians, fish, mammals and birds. Tides of the Pacific Ocean running in and out are noted all of the way to Napa's Trancas Street Bridge.
The city of American Canyon and the state of California own the lands of the Napa River Bay Trail, a segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail. This section, five miles of walking and bicycling paths, was once an American Canyon landfill site. The flat hill nearby is actually full of compacted trash remains from the second half of the 20th century.
A section of the trail called Glass Beach still holds glittering remains of the past's habit of discarding trash. Methane from the old-time landfill's waste decomposes to produce power now, by generating electricity in the nearby power station, and goats are used to eat down the tall grasses.
When the Bay Trail is completed, it is expected to surround San Francisco and San Pablo Bays with 500 continuous miles of hiking and bicycling trails.
Today scientists know how important wetlands are to the environment. It has been determined that reclaiming wetlands is a great way to gather carbon from the air to create carbon sequestration.
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed an executive order in 2018 that called for the state's emissions to be cut to zero by 2045. Leaders around the world are promising to reduce overall emissions by 45 percent by 2030. Researchers worldwide are quickly learning about the importance of carbon sequestration and its varieties — geological, industrial and biological — to slow climate change's effects that we are experiencing, such as fires, excessive weather events and rising sea levels.
Wetlands have been found to be efficient at carbon sequestration since the lands are often inundated with water allowing the carbon to be stored underwater, which protects it due to the lack of oxygen. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has found that the amount of carbon sequestration in wetlands is 10 times higher than in forest ecosystems.
Sadly, California has lost an astounding 90 percent of its once-prolific wetlands due to draining and other man-made activities. With newfound knowledge of the importance of the wetlands ecosystem, these lands will help humans as well as the many fish, waterfowl and other wildlife species to thrive.
The reasons to get out and enjoy wetlands are myriad. You're sure to find an excuse or two to visit. The wetlands' ability to improve water quality, encourage wildlife habitat and ecosystem productivity and reduce coastal storm damage supply educational opportunities, but for sheer recreation, take a walk on the wild side soon.
Maps can be found at napaoutdoors.org/parks/wetlands-edge-park.