For decades, parts of South San Diego Bay looked very different from the tidal wetlands that once occupied them. Former salt ponds had been separated from the bay, limiting natural tidal flows and reducing habitat for wildlife. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project, a partnership involving federal, state and local agencies and conservation groups began restoring the landscape in the late 2000s. By 2011, roughly 300 acres across the western salt ponds, the Chula Vista Wildlife Reserve and Emory Cove had been restored. The work included reshaping degraded areas, creating tidal channels, breaching levees to restore tidal influence and establishing native plant communities.
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