Its marshes drained and diked, its rivers dredged and diverted, today’s Delta has been called a “brittle skeleton” of what it was 200 years ago. In fact, scientists concluded in 2014 that the Delta is hardly a river delta at all, anymore. But in a follow-up report published today, those same experts with the San Francisco Estuary Institute say there is still hope of bringing back at least a portion of the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas. Their broad plan calls for fundamental changes to the mostly agricultural landscape that exists today.

The San Francisco Bay Estuary and the rivers that feed it face an existential crisis. The signs of impending collapse include six endangered native fish species, shrinking wetlands and beaches, and more frequent cyanobacteria blooms that generate neurotoxins powerful enough to kill pets and sicken people. Just outside the Golden Gate, Orca whales feeding on Chinook salmon go hungry, while commercial fishermen cope with another shortened fishing season.

Cloud seeding has resumed over the Sierra Nevada in hopes of increasing the winter snowpact, but La Nina might have other plans for the central California rainfall season. The Northern California Power Agency, which has conducted cloud seeding every year since 2006, has begun seeding a 74-square-mile watershed above New Spicer Reservoir in Tuolumne County above 6,500 feet, according Randy Bowersox, hydroelectric facilities manager for the power agency. The cloud seeding project, which commenced on Nov. 1, hopes to augment the winter snowpack runoff by at least 2 percent.

California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a productive agricultural area and a vital linchpin in the state’s complex water supply system. It’s also a highly unique ecosystem, which was a hotbed for endemic species, many of which are now under stress and some facing extinction. As various agencies and other stakeholders work on ways to balance the economic and environmental demands on the Delta, a new report released today attempts to build a framework to help locally driven restoration efforts.