However, in 1997, the Money family (who still owned the island) sold it to the California State Lands Commission, who turned it into a wildlife habitat; today it is administered as part of the Fagan Marsh Ecological Reserve, and hosts animals of numerous endangered species.

[3][4][5] The island, with its "spongy mud banks thick with pickleweed, worm holes and bright red ants",[6] provides "a buffer for flood runoff while also acting as a sponge for filtering potential pollutants".

[4]: 175 Some plants that grow on Bull Island include perennial pepperweed,[4]: 94  soft bird's beak,[4]: 126  delta tule pea,[4]: 126  Marin knotweed,[4]: 128  pickleweed,[4]: 128  and Suisun marsh aster.

[4]: 128  Animals that live on Bull Island include the California clapper rail,[4]: 137  Samuel's song sparrow,[4]: 138  and salt marsh harvest mouse.

Money was farming Pontiac potatoes on Bull Island; the California Agriculture Department gave him a "perfect score" for his disease-free crop.

and May Norman, owners of a fishing resort on the adjacent Cutting's Wharf, of tapping a well bore sideways underneath Bull Island.

[22] Later that month, the county filed an answer to the injunction action, saying that the well drilled by Norman had only sunk 87 ft (27 m) to gravel, and at no point entered the groundwater of Bull Island.

[25] In the process of restoring vegetation, the department said that "the population of the curlew, sandpiper, and other nesting waterfowl in Bull Island marshlands must be protected" by the planting of rush after the construction of a new levee.

[25] By May 1974, work was expected to begin on the Napa River flood control project the next spring, potentially including the construction of a wildlife refuge on Bull Island.

[26] However, by September, it became clear that the project would be delayed "for the umpteenth time", due to conflicts between Army Corps of Engineers and local flood control district managers.

[27] A "marshland buffer strip" planned for river banks near Bull Island, specifically, was expected to "hang the project up for some time in negotiations".

[30] This $120,000 ($227,761 in 2023) transaction eventually took place in April 1997,[8][31] at which point the California State Lands Commission purchased the island from the Money family (who had owned it since 1884).