The Back Bay is the colloquial term for the inland

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

. It connects the

Upper Newport Bay The Upper Newport Bay (known locally as "The Back Bay") is a large coastal wetland (an estuary) in Newport Beach, Southern California and a major stopover for birds on the Pacific Flyway. Dozens of species, including endangered ones, can be ob ...

with the Newport Harbor. It is a nature reserve home to several species of birds with hiking and biking trails. The bay is recognized for protection by the

California Bays and Estuaries Policy The Water Quality Control Policy for the Enclosed Bays and Estuaries of California is published by the California State Water Resources Control Board as guidelines to prevent water quality degradation. The policy is revised as needed.State Water R ...

.State Water Resources Control Board ''Water Quality Control Policy for the Enclosed Bays and Estuaries of California'' (1974) State of California It is a heavily residential area being in the wealthiest portion of both

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

as well as the city of

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

History

Sculpted by the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, before cutting through ...

and carved during the

Pleistocene Epoch The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

, and

giant sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Carib ...

fossils have been discovered in sedimentary deposits of an older marine terrace. Until 1862, the Newport Bay flowed directly into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The earliest human inhabitants lived in the bay some 9,000 years ago. The Bay was home to the

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...

and

Acjachemen The Acjachemen (, alternate spelling: Acagchemem) are an Indigenous people of California. They historically lived south of what is known as Aliso Creek and north of the Las Pulgas Canyon in what are now the southern areas of Orange County and t ...

for thousands of years, who lived in nearby villages and mainly lived off fish, shellfish, and plants inhabiting the area. In the California mission period. The multiethnic village of Genga held influence over the Bay area prior to the arrival of Europeans in the area. In the California mission period, these villages declined from displacement and the area above the bay was used for grazing by cattle and sheep by the missionaries. In 1870, the steamwheel steamer "

Vaquero The ''vaquero'' (; pt, vaqueiro, , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became t ...

" gave

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

its namesake after delivering loads of lumber in a "new port." Acquired by the Irvine Company in 1864, the bay was used as a salt works from the 1930s up until 1969, when the land used for the salt works was destroyed by flooding. It was not until the 1960s that preservation of the Newport Back Bay began. The area included a section that began near where the Back Bay Science Center is currently located, where small boats were allowed to speed up to 35 miles per hour in a circular course of approximately 1/4 mile in length. After another 1/4 mile further, past Big Canyon, water skiing was permitted in a circular course; due to ten years of constant lawsuits, enacted by concerned citizens, the State of California Department of Fish and Game designated the undeveloped portions of the Upper Newport Bay as an ecological reserve. In the mid 1980s, Orange County incorporated the bluffs surrounding the bay to the ecological reserve. In 1989, Orange County accepted the 140-acre Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve.

Recreation

Activities that are open to the public include kayaking, canoeing, picnicking, horseback riding, biking, hiking and bird watching. The trails tend to be crowded with people on the weekends. Newport Back Bay is open from 7:00 a.m. to sunset, and the Ecological Information center is open 7:00 am to 4:00 pm every day of the week except Monday.

Wildlife

The Back Bay has a wide range of plants, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and marine life. Many of the animals that inhabit the Back Bay are listed on the state and federal endangered species list.

Mammals

The mammals found in Newport Back Bay include rodents, bobcats, coyotes, and raccoons.

Marine life

The Upper Newport Back Bay boasts one of the few remaining natural

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

in Southern California. Living in the waters of the Upper Newport Back Bay, are several diverse species of

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

and

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

. These plankton and algae act as a food source for the eighty or so species of fish that live in the estuary. The

topsmelt The topsmelt silverside (''Atherinops affinis''), also known as the topsmelt, is a species of Neotropical silverside native to the eastern Pacific Ocean. Description The topsmelt silverside is a small, slim fish with a dorsally flattened body w ...

, anchovy, and mullet are especially common in the area, feeding on the abundant population of plankton and

detritus In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...

. Along with a multitude of fish, plankton, and algae, a number of

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

occupy the marine zone of the Upper Newport Back Bay. The most common invertebrates that can be found in the Upper Newport Back Bay are

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

s, molluscs, and

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

. Molluscs found in the bay are likely to harbor hurtful micro-organisms and bacteria, therefore human consumption of mussels, clams, and snails found in the bay is forbidden. Some of the molluscs that can be found in the Upper Newport Back Bay are California jackknife clam, the bent-nosed clam, the ribbed horse mussel,

lined shore crab Lining may refer to: * Lining (sewing), the process of inserting an inner layer of fabric, fur, or other material * Lining of paintings, the process of restoration paintings by attaching a new canvas to the back of the existing one * Brake linin ...

fiddler crab The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexual dimorphism, sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than th ...

mud crabs Mud crab may refer to any crab that lives in or near mud, such as: *''Scylla serrata'' *''Scylla tranquebarica'' *''Scylla paramamosain'' *''Scylla olivacea'' *Members of the family Panopeidae, such as ''Panopeus herbstii'' *Members of the family ...

, swimming crabs,

skeleton shrimp Caprellidae is a family of amphipods commonly known as skeleton shrimps. Their common name denotes the threadlike slender body which allows them to virtually disappear among the fine filaments of seaweed, hydroids and bryozoans. They are sometim ...

, ghost shrimp, and the California horn snail.

Plants

An abundance of plants have taken root in Newport Bay. Each of the plants has adapted to the saltwater-marsh habitat, known as a saltmarsh. These plants are known as halophytes, and have adapted to grow submerged in saltwater. Common halophytes found in the Back Bay include: saltmarsh bird's beak (''Cordylanthus maritimus''), fleshy jaumea, sea lavender, brewer's salt brush, sea blite, and alkali heath. There are also coastal plant communities scattered throughout the land surrounding the Back Bay. This includes grassland and

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is w ...

. Native sage scrub varieties include California sagebrush and buckwheat. However, recently the Back Bay has been known to be home to various invasive plant species. These non-native species include wild mustards and pampas grass.

Birds

Newport Bay is one of the top birding sites in the United States, as there are over 200 bird species that have made their homes here. Visiting the Back Bay will showcase the immense diversity of the bird inhabitants. The Back Bay is a vital area in the migration process; it serves as a sort of rest stop for birds migrating from Alaska or Canada. Some examples of birds that can be seen in the Back Bay are the light-footed clapper rail (''Rallus longirostris levipes''), the

California least tern The California least tern, ''Sternula antillarum browni'', is a subspecies of least tern that breeds primarily in bays of the Pacific Ocean within a very limited range of Southern California, in San Francisco Bay and in northern regions of Mexico ...

(''Sterna antillarum browni''), the Belding's Savannah sparrow (''Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi''), and the

least Bell's vireo Bell's vireo (''Vireo bellii'') is a songbird that migrates between a breeding range in Western North America and a winter range in Central America. It is dull olive-gray above and whitish below. It has a faint white eye ring and faint wing bar ...

(''Vireo bellii pusillus''). All of these birds are considered endangered, on both the federal and the state levels. The bluffs surrounding the bay are also home to three sensitive species, the California gnatcatcher, the San Diego cactus wren, and the burrowing owl.

Watershed

Newport Bay’s

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

encompasses 154 square miles of the Orange County area. This watershed is divided into two key sub-watersheds, the

San Diego Creek San Diego Creek is a urban waterway flowing into Upper Newport Bay in Orange County, California in the United States. Its watershed covers in parts of eight cities, including Irvine, Tustin, and Costa Mesa. From its headwaters in Laguna Woods ...

and the Dehli Canal. The San Diego Canal services the younger cities, while the Dehli canal services older cities, such as Santa Ana. This watershed is not connected to the

Watershed, as it is hydraulically distinct; although these two watersheds share an aquifer in northern Orange County. The

Orange County Water District The Orange County Water District is a special district that manages the groundwater basin beneath central and northern Orange County, California. The groundwater basin provides a water supply to 19 municipal water agencies and special districts t ...

(OCWD) manages extraction and replenishment of the aquifer. Because the Newport Back Bay watershed is such a dry area, the water demand is high and supply upkeep is of utmost importance. To decrease the reliance on the Colorado River and Sacramento Delta, steps are being taken to educate people on how to conserve water. This educational process is fronted by the Newport Back Bay Science Center.

Upper Newport Bay

The

is one of the last remaining natural

in Southern California; that is, it is a very lush area of land that is home to fish, birds, and other animals. This land is important to migrating birds; it is used as just rest stop or a permanent winter dwelling for birds coming from Alaska or Canada and the spring it is a habitat for birds from the south. The upper bay serves as a barrier for industry of the lower bay and beaches in Newport. The beaches serve as playing group for families and the harbor serves as a docking site for boats.

Newport Back Bay Science Center

The Newport Back Bay Science Center is located in Newport Beach, California on Shellmaker Island. This center’s main focus is to supply information on estuarine and marine biology through activities and lectures in a year-round program. This science center is connected to the watershed, which is home to around 175 thousand people in urban cities. The Newport Back Bay Science Center’s goal is to educate the citizens on how they can aid in keeping the Back Bay area clean, and how they affect the watershed.

Back Bay Loop Trail

The Back Bay Loop Trail is a popular 10.5 mile trail that winds around Upper Newport Bay as well as the Back Bay. The trail stops at scenic locations, such as Upper Castaways Park, the County of Orange's Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center, the Back Bay Science Center (see section below), and Big Canyon. The loop runs through many different types of terrain, but is open to people of every ability. It is a common place to walk, jog, bike, or even cruise around in the car. The majority of the loop is paved, although there is a small section of earth that many joggers and hikers choose to walk upon. There are many stops along the loop, where visitors can look out at the bay, and even learn some interesting history about the various species they may see. Many entrance (as well as exit) points exist.

Conservation

The Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve, which spans 752 acres, is one of the largest natural estuaries remaining in California. According to Brian Shelton, of the California Department of Fish and Game, less than five percent of California's original coastal estuaries exist today.

Education

Educating the youth is one of the most important ways to the preservation of nature, and here at Newport Back Bay, there are many organizations and groups that seek to educate members of our society about the importance of nature preserves. Newport Bay Conservancy, in cooperation with OC Parks, California Department of Fish and Game, the City of Newport Beach, the Newport Aquatic Center, the California Coastal Commission, along with several other organizations, aims to reach out to the public regarding their goal. Their goal is “to increase environmental awareness and promote environmental stewardship at the Bay, in the watershed and beyond so as to protect and preserve not just Upper Newport Bay, but the planet.”

Controversy

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has posted signs telling users of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve that they may be subject to a fee. The signs indicate that users must have a Lands Pass — which costs $4.32 for a day at the reserve or $22.68 for the year and is required for people who want to hike, bike, bird watch or do anything but hunt in any of seven Fish and Wildlife-managed areas, including the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve. The requirements have been in effect for several years yet the fee is not enforced. The Newport Beach City Council has submitted a letter to the department asking that the reserve be free.

References

External links

{{coord, 33.6201, -117.8936
Newport Bay Conservancy
Newport Beach, California Nature reserves in California Important Bird Areas of California