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Salt Marsh: Good for the Harvest Mouse, Good for You!
Harvest Mouse. Illustration by Susan J. Wilson- Among threatened and endangered species, the salt marsh harvest mouse has received more scorn than praise, but protecting even the smallest creature may save Bay Area residents from a series of perils we have only recently come to understand.
- “This tiny mouse is beautiful, endangered and lives only in the marshes of San Francisco Bay,” explains Howard Shellhammer, professor emeritus of biology at San Jose State University, who has studied the mouse for 35 years. “The problem is that much of the mouse’s habitat has disappeared in the last 150 years due to manmade alterations to the shores of the bay.”
- The mouse, which prefers salt water to fresh, depends on finding food and cover in the tangle of vegetation just above the waterline. The diminutive creature can stay dry by climbing plant stems that stick out of the water. Not only have marshes been reduced from a band of roughly a mile wide to a remnant fewer than nine feet from the water, but what was formerly continuous marsh is now highly fragmented. Marshes have been diked, filled and impaired by land subsidence and sewage effluent in order to make way for salt ponds, subdivisions, airports and industrial parks.
- POST has played a key role in protecting and restoring marshes in the South Bay since 1980. POST’s major acquisitions include 54-acre Crittenden Marsh, added to Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study Area; 98-acre New Chicago Marsh, added to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge; and 1,600-acre Bair Island, added to the refuge in 1997. With each of these projects, life conditions for the salt marsh harvest mouse have improved.
- Ironically, while much attention has been paid to the need to protect wildlife—harvest mouse, clapper rail, brown pelican and others—protecting the marsh may bring the greatest benefits to humans. Healthy salt marshes build up sediment and establish vegetation in response to rising sea levels. They also filter pollutants from the water and help protect Bay Area residents from storm surge, high tides and flooding. At the same time, marshland contributes to the multibillion-dollar fishing industry and provides people with recreational opportunities.
- What’s good for the mouse is even better for people!
POST Saves Marshland