Once plentiful on California beaches, western snowy plovers now face extinction because coastal development and beach recreation have destroyed habitat. Dry salt ponds provide these sparrow-sized shorebirds an alternative place to nest, raise young, and forage away from human disturbance, and the former salt evaporation pond here is managed to create optimum conditions for nesting success. Hawks and other avian predators take a heavy toll on plover chicks, so researchers have scattered oyster shells across the salt flats to test whether added camouflage and cover increase chick survival. The pond also preserves historic remnants of wind-powered Archimedes screw pumps built by the Oliver Salt Company in the late 1800s to move salt water between evaporation ponds. As water in salt ponds evaporates and salinity rises, different microorganisms thrive and change the water's color from blue-green at low salinity to green, yellow, and red at higher salt levels. When pond water reaches three times the salinity of baywater, brine shrimp and other invertebrates become abundant, creating prey that feeds thousands of shorebirds, gulls, and other waterbirds, and managing pond salinity at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve helps make these important foods more available.