Last summer, shovels began turning on a future landscape interpretation center at the edge of the Suisun Marsh, one of the four North American flyways and a stopping point for millions of birds on their 10,000-mile migratory path from Alaska to Patagonia.
Three miles of publicly accessible trails will weave through 15 newly constructed wetland ponds that will serve as habitat for the resting, nesting and feeding of migratory or native birds.
“We are inviting the birds to land,” said Veronica Cornett, project manager for the future Pacific Flyway Center. “That is the first and most important part of the project.”
The Pacific Flyway Center site is located about 6 miles south of the city of Fairfield. The 124-acre center will nest within an 845-acre site located between Interstate 680 and the Cordelia Slough. Most of the land is easement within the Suisun Marsh, a 116,000-acre nature preserve east of San Francisco Bay in Solano County that represents a little more than 10% of the remaining wetlands in California. Cornet estimates that each year, nearly a billion birds of 250 different species pass through the marsh.
The marsh walk is phase one, due to open in 2027. Phase two will be a 28,000-square-foot building, an all-in-one event space and education center. Visitors will be able to learn about the flyway and wetland ecosystems. Ducks Unlimited has supported the project with expertise on the habits and lifecycle of birds. The hunter’s association has conserved 16 million acres of waterfowl habitat in North America, according to Forbes magazine.
Read the Full Article by Ruth Dusseault at Local News Matters »
