Tubbs Setback is a 72-acre parcel acquired by the US Fish and Wildlife
Service as part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge (SPBNWR)
in 1980 from the California State Lands Commission.
The area was diked for reclamation in the early 1900s and farmed until 1983.
In 1985 restoration work was initiated by the USFWS with additional funding
from United Heckathorn Trustee Council, consisting of the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the California
Department of Fish and Game. Ducks Unlimited engineered and completed the
construction and fortified the setback levee with riprap borrowed from the
outer levee. The US Geological Survey led ongoing biophysical monitoring work.
The fortified levee included experimental vegetation plantings on the north
and west levees to study methods of vegetation establishment.
Sediment pins (2 inch diameter PVC pipes) were installed throughout the
project to measure sediment accumulation or loss. In addition, water level
dataloggers were installed to continuously track changes at 15-minute intervals.
Tubbs Setback was breached on the Southeast levee facing San Pablo Bay on March 8, 2002.
