An aerial image of salt pond E6C by Cris Benton, annotated with information about the South Bay Salt Ponds, their brilliant colors, and their restoration.
Salt pond photo by Cris Benton. Inset photo credits from top: Ingrid V. Taylar via Flickr, CC BY 2.0;
Terry J. McGenity et al via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that not all 11 ponds addressed in the next phase of the project will be restored to tidal marsh; some will be managed as other habitats.

Guananí Gómez–Van Cortright is a writer and science educator and was Bay Nature’s first editorial fellow from 2022 to 2023. She graduated from the UC Santa Cruz science communication master’s program and currently performs puppet shows about singing arthropods, among other things, at the California Academy of Sciences. She enjoys foggy walks, sculpting ceramic skulls, and romping around at the tidepools.