By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

In California, 95 percent of all saltwater marshes have been given over to development, according to this Associated Press report. But on Thursday, as bulldozers removed the last of an earthen dam and ocean water flowed into an historic wetland turned oil field for the first time in more than a century, 387 acres of the Bolsa Chica area was given back to nature. The two-year, $100 million project is being hailed as largest and most ambitious restoration of coastal wetlands in the state’s history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/us/25wetlands.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin