Today, Google announced that it is launching a new project in California that will serve to restore wetlands and advance the science on carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
As shared in the announcement, the project is located in California’s Bay Area, right next to Google’s Mountain View campus.
For over a century, this region has been impacted by salt production activity, which has displaced Bay Area tidal marshes with industrial ponds.
As a result, these changes have negatively impacted the water quality in the area, diminishing the biodiversity and ecosystem health in these landscapes.
Through decades of restoration efforts, people and organizations have managed to revive these degraded areas, turning them back into lively ecosystems that deliver benefits for the population living near them and the wildlife native to this geography.
Building on the wetland restoration work already being done in the Bay Area, Google will focus on evolving these operations further.
One of the initiatives active in this region is the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, positioned as the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the West Coast. When complete, this project will restore 15,100 acres of industrial salt ponds to tidal wetlands and other valuable habitats.
Using these efforts as a foundation, Google will work alongside the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project and wetlands and waterfowl conservation leader Ducks Unlimited to restore Pond A1, located near its Mountain View site.
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In partnership with California-based academic researchers, the tech company will also use the Pond A1 project as a living laboratory for exploring and accelerating new pathways that will quantify the positive benefit of wetland restoration on CO2 removal.
Commenting on this new project, Google shared in a blog post:
“This investment reflects our commitment to environmental stewardship — restoring our local ecosystem while sequestering carbon and contributing to the global body of climate research.”
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