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The first, Lake Tijuana, showed what the estuary would look like if stronger storms carried enough sediment to block the river mouth, creating a natural reservoir of sorts. The second — The Sea Around Us, with a blue foreground framed by the coast — pictured what would happen if that river mouth stayed open and the beaches and sand dunes expanded with sediment from the Tijuana River. The third, Salt of the Earth, showed nothing but salt flats — what the estuary could look like if the river mouth were closed and all the water evaporated in the ever-
rising heat.
Marsh Madness, the last painting, showed what things would be like if the restoration succeeds. It looked a lot like the estuary does today: a rich wetland ecosystem comprising a variety of unique habitats — salt marsh, mudflat, brackish pond, riparian — where a great diversity of plants and animals flourish.
The stakes are high; if the sediment isn’t removed, the entire ecosystem will be at risk, as well as the protection it offers to the coastline.
No people appear in the paintings. Yet they are the reason the estuary was spared, the reason its restoration is ongoing. Few visitors are likely to understand how the estuary’s existence helps them, but without people, one of the last salt marshes in Southern California would simply disappear.
Crooks’ office is inside a prefab building on the edge of the estuary. If you look out of one of his windows from just the right angle, you can’t see the parking lot or the U.S. Navy base next door or any of the nearby developments; instead, there’s nothing but a carpet of dark green that extends uninterrupted until it reaches the sea. Crooks is fascinated by slices of nature like this, the landscapes you can find in densely populated areas that depend on people as much as people depend on them.
The Tijuana Estuary re-quires restoration in perpetuity; climate change and urban sprawl guarantee that. “I don’t think we’re ever going to walk away as if it’s restored,” Crooks told me. “But we’re actually making some progress.” It shows in the way the estuary has been able to stave off some invading shellfish and plants, and in the way trails are carefully designed to keep visitors away from the most sensitive areas. Above all, you can see it in how, as the years go by, freshwater keeps flowing in, mixing with seawater and creating the mosaic of conditions the creatures here depend on.
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