Pescadero State Beach is one of the most popular beaches on the Coastside and for good reason. At the crossroads of Highway 1 and Pescadero Creek Road, this pristine beach is perfect for picnics, tide pool exploring, fishing, long beach walks (especially at low tide) and occasionally provides a good wave for experienced surfers.
But many beachgoers miss an equally beautiful part of the park just across the highway. The 500-acre Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, fed by both Pescadero and Butano Creeks, is a haven for wildlife such as blue herons, kites, deer, foxes, and racoons. There are several trails to access the preserve including the North Pond Trail, the Sequoia Audubon Trail and the Butano Trail, and it’s more than likely that you will have the trails to yourself.
However, if you have driven past the preserve recently, you have may noticed trucks and cranes on the landscape and seen that part of the marsh is temporarily closed to visitors. What’s going on?
The Pescadero Marsh Habitat Restoration and Resiliency Project
Since May of 2025, the part of the marsh has been closed for the first phase of a project to restore how water and sediment move between the creek, the estuary and the ocean to ensure a healthier ecosystem. For such a peaceful area, the dynamics between the creeks, ocean and wildlife are incredibly complex and unfortunately efforts in the last many decades to try control the systems for farming and hunting have caused considerable harm to the natural balance of the area.
The restoration project, according to Ryan Diller of California State Parks, aims to return the area closer to how nature intended and allow the marsh to heal itself. The goal is to improve water quality and allow the native fish, snakes, birds and frogs, which have suffered from previous construction, to thrive once again. Hikers will be happy to learn that it will also reconnect the Sequoia Audubon Trail, parts of which are inaccessible due to erosion. Work is currently focused on the North Pond and North Marsh Complex area.
Here are the specific activities being done:
1. Remove culverts in eight locations, six of which are defunct.
2. Excavate and lower some levees in key locations.
3. Fill channel and ditch with excavated material.
4. Install thirty-eight natural features (wood structures) on the surface of the marsh, in Pescadero Creek, and embedded in the filled channels and ditches.
5. Remove some invasive eucalyptus and iceplant.
6. Revegetate some disturbed areas with native plants.
7. Restore the Sequoia-Audubon Trail as a lower levee trail.
Can I still hike in the area?
Yes. The North Pond Trail and Butano Trail (accessible from Pescadero Creek Road) will remain open during the project. The Sequoia Audubon Trail will closed for the duration.
When will work be completed?
Construction should be completed in October 2025. At that time, monitoring of the system will begin to assess the efficacy of the work.
Does CSPA have a role in the project?
This project is a joint effort from State Parks and the San Mateo Resource Conservation District (SMRCD) and partially funded by NOAA Restoration Center. CSPA has communicated to State Parks that it is willing to provide funding for visitor serving improvements such as interpretive signage, benches or other improvements that State Parks will not have funding for. Our goal is to help the staff at State Parks create and maintain the most beautiful parks that they can, for all to enjoy!
For more information on the project please visit https://www.sanmateorcd.org/project/pescadero-marsh-habitat-restoration-and-resiliency-project/
– Bill Murray, Coastside State Parks Association Board Member