1.   Bair Island is a collection of tidal marshes, wetland and waterways that actually make up three islands sometimes called South Shores.

2.   But in San Diego, the land is marked by scrub-filled canyons, tidal marshes and other natural barriers.

3.   Currently, it is a salt marsh on the edges but not a tidal marsh.

4.   Fine sediments wash in to build up the tidal marsh.

5.   That disappoints some resource managers, who want the greater range of habitat offered by the tidal marsh.

6.   The environmentalists hoped that one day, when salt was no longer a lucrative business, these ponds would return to tidal marshes and old sloughs.

7.   The ghost forest of Copalis still stands in a tidal marsh -- gray spires testifying to the quake that dropped them into the saltwater.