Juliet Grable

The marsh is part of an innovative restoration project at Lakeside Farms. It’s a hopeful demonstration of cooperation in a region that has seen bitter fights between tribes, farmers, and wildlife advocates over who gets scarce water.

The project is being funded in part by a state initiative aimed at helping communities recover from the Labor Day fires of 2020. It’s also an experiment aimed at tackling multiple issues at once: rising material costs, a severe shortage of construction labor, and an urgent need for housing for working families and fire victims.