SLOUGH VIEW: Changes in Our California Estuary

I am honored and privileged to serve as president of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation. For many years the Foundation has protected and enhanced the Elkhorn Slough, an amazing place that I first came to know while a graduate student at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory.

Bruce Welden, President, ESF Board of Directors

The Elkhorn Slough we know today was quite different only a few decades ago. Many of our tidal wetlands, including Hester Marsh, had been diked and drained by the late 1800s and in the late 1960s, construction of an oil refinery was approved and slated for development at the slough. That's when concerned residents united and rallied to protect the Elkhorn Slough, eventually leading to its designation as the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in 1979.

Many of these early advocates still visit and volunteer at the slough, and proudly attest to the transformation you have invested in by protecting and restoring one of the last ecological treasures of its kind on the California coast.

Shorebirds take flight at the Moro Cojo Slough

Photo by Paul Zaretsky

As ESF Board president, I love learning about the Foundation’s latest habitat restoration projects and land acquisitions — there is so much going on at Elkhorn Slough, and it's happening thanks to investment from you and our community. By thinking and acting locally, you have a global impact in our collective effort to address habitat and biodiversity loss, fight climate change, and protect our last remaining wild places.

On behalf of the ESF Board, thank you for your impact and support. The best is yet to come!