This Little-Known Island in San Francisco Bay Is Being Returned to Nature

A little-known island tucked into the northeastern edge of San Francisco Bay is about to be transformed after decades of controversy and environmental damage.

Point Buckler Island, a 50-acre, boat-only island in Suisun Bay, has been purchased by the John Muir Land Trust, which plans to restore the island to its original tidal marshland. The acquisition follows years of legal disputes tied to unauthorized development that altered the island’s natural flows.

Located just east of the Carquinez Strait in Solano County, Point Buckler sits at a critical transition zone where saltwater from San Francisco Bay meets freshwater from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. This brackish habitat plays an outsized role in supporting migrating waterfowl along the Pacific Flyway and helps young salmon and steelhead adjust as they move from river to ocean.

Over the past century, levees built for hunting and pasture left much of the island unnaturally dry, stranding juvenile fish and degrading wetlands. More recently, the island operated as a private kiteboarding club, with regulators alleging that rebuilt levees further disrupted tidal flows.

After Solano County placed a lien on the property, the land was auctioned earlier this year, with the John Muir Land Trust purchasing it for $3.8 million.

The trust plans to remove docks, helicopter pads, fencing, and debris before restoring tidal channels and replanting native salt marsh vegetation. The full restoration is expected to cost about $3.5 million and take three to five years—returning one small but vital piece of the Bay back to nature.