News Release

15th Anniversary Giacomini Wetlands Restoration Celebration

An aerial photo of the Giacomini Wetlands taken on February 10, 2009.

© Robert Campbell

News Release Date: October 20, 2023

Contact: Christine Beekman, 415-464-5135

POINT REYES STATION, Calif. – The public is invited to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Giacomini Wetland Restoration Project at Point Reyes National Seashore. The free event will be held on Saturday, October 28.

The project's history began in 2000 when the National Park Service (NPS) completed the acquisition of the property and initiated the process to restore the site to an integrated floodplain and tidal marsh. Eight years later, community members celebrated the return of tidewater to the 550-acre former dairy ranch more than 60 years after the last tidal inundation.

The Giacomini Wetlands now supports a wide variety of plant and animal species, including California black rails, threespine stickleback, and river otters. It also serves as an outdoor classroom, and favorite hiking and birding spot for school children, visitors, and locals alike.

Activities and programs:

8:30 am–10:30 am: Giacomini Bird Hike with Mary Anne Flett and John Dell'Osso (Registration required and limited to 22 participants.) Register through Eventbrite.

11 am–11:30 am: Story time at the Bear Valley Visitor Center. Join Author Sally Bolger as she reads her Giacomini Wetlands inspired children's book Fun in the Mud: A Wetlands Tale. (No registration required.)

1:30 pm–3:30 pm: Science Symposium at the Red Barn (No registration required.)

Presentations include:

• "The Economic Value of Ecological Restoration: Closing the Loop"
  Presented by Mark Cederborg, Managing Partner, Outset Advisors
• "Understanding Community Member Perceptions of Estuaries Relative to Restoration Project Progress in Tomales Bay, CA"
  Presented by Julie Gonzales, Ph.D., UC Davis
• "Restoring Vitality: Pasture to Wetland"
  Presented by Jules Evens, Principal, Avocet Research Associates)
• "Evaluating the Success of Restoration: A Practitioner's Perspective"
  Presented by Lorraine Parsons, Vegetation/Wetland Ecologist, PRNS, NPS

3:30 pm–5 pm: Hosted Reception at Red Barn

5:15 pm–7:30 pm: Staged Reading of The Wetlands by AriDy Nox (Mesa Refuge 2023 Resident), followed by a full moon walk at the wetlands. (Registration required.) Register through Eventbrite.

For more information on the event, visit https://go.nps.gov/t7yjgs.

www.nps.gov

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 425 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.