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CALIFORNIA
California's agenda includes protecting and restoring designated uses of
waters through strong leadership for its nonpoint source program and by helping
local governments overcome barriers to successfully implement nonpoint source
measures. California encourages support and cooperation among agencies to
develop and implement best management practices and watershed restoration
activities to reduce the discharge of nonpoint source pollutants to surface and
groundwaters.
Restoration in Tomki Creek Watershed--A Local Cooperative Venture
Imagine a full city block covered with sediment 14 feet deep. That's how
watershed planners in 1983 described the 21,000 cubic yards of sediment finding
its way into Tomki Creek each year.
The 40,000-acre Tomki Creek watershed is primarily privately owned upland
forest and rangeland. Heavy loadings of sediment, called "fines," have severely
impaired the beneficial uses of the cold-water salmon fishery. First, chinook
salmon spawning habitat has been seriously reduced by fines, which smother the
spawning areas. Second, steelhead rearing habitat has been severely limited as
pools have become sediment filled. Shallow pools hamper fish survival during
critical low flow periods. Highly turbid water reduces feeding activity of
steelhead, reducing their growth and value to downstream sport fishing. These
losses have had serious economic impacts throughout the north coast.
In 1983, the Tomki Creek Watershed Pilot Project Plan was developed and
funded with section 208 grants--the predecessor to section 319. The plan called
for treating sources of watershed instability and water quality problems caused
by sediment from historic logging, grazing, and road building practices, and
for stabilizing these problems within the riverine system.
The watershed plan introduced a system to rank and prioritize the 20
sub-basins for funding when it became available. Ranking is based on location,
severity of sediment loading, and landowner cooperation. Since then, this
system has become a model throughout California. Since 1983 when the pilot plan
was developed, the Mendocino Resource Conservation District (RCD) has received
over $650,000 in grants from the California Department of Fish and Game's
Salmon and Steelhead - Restoration Funds to implement erosion control
practices. In addition, cost-share programs such as the Agricultural
Conservation Program and the California Forest Improvement Program and funds
from private landowners and road associations<1> have secured between
$100,000 and $150,000 in private funds to treat several priority
sub-basins.
In FY 1990, Mendocino RCD received a section 319 grant for $100,000 to
implement best management practices in the String and Tarter Creek sub-basins.
Streambank, gully, and road sites--identified in the 1983 plan--are being
treated using a variety of best management practices. They include rock riprap,
wing deflectors, brush mats, bank shaping to stabilize configurations,
exclusionary fencing, seed and mulch, culverts and outlet dissipaters, and
revegetation with willow, poplar, and alder. Now, more than a decade later, the
goals of the Tomki Creek Watershed Project remain the same: basic watershed
restoration. But involvement and participation under local initiative and
leadership have broadened, and - cooperative relationships have formed between
landowners and government agencies. In addition, landowners strongly support
the project and have supplemented section 319 money.
The Mendocino RCD was awarded two additional section 319 grants in FY 1991.
A $30,000 grant has provided funds to treat the next highest priority
sub-basins, using a bioengineering approach<2> in a variety of best
management practices.
Because technology transfer has been an important feature of the Tomki
Creek Watershed Project, an $18,000 section 319 grant will fund a 20-minute
public education and information video about the project. Produced by the
Mendocino RCD, "Watershed Restoration: How to Heal the Land" will feature the
basics of watershed planning, typical problems, and types of best management
practices used to treat coastal range watersheds. Institutional arrangements
and funding considerations will also be covered in the video, intended for the
general public, and high school and college audiences.
Water quality improvements in the Tomki Creek Watershed have been difficult
to measure because of California's seven-year drought. However, other
indicators, such as the restored physical integrity of the watershed and
further habitat improvements, suggest that the steelhead fisheries will return
once California is back to a normal weather pattern.
- Road associations are road maintenance groups of local private
landowners who pool together funds to maintain roads with common areas.
- This practice incorporates and integrates rock and wood structures
with living plants and root systems.
While revegetation is a cost-effective, long-term sediment control
treatment, some stream locations require structures to reduce velocities to
levels in which plants can grow.
Wolf Creek Restoration--A Model of Cooperation and Achievement
Wolf Creek, a tributary of the Feather River in the lower reaches of the
Sierra-Nevada Mountains, was a "sadly rutted stream nearly barren of fish and
plant life," according to a report in the Sacramento Bee. Nearly a century of
upstream mining, cattle grazing, logging, and road building has caused severe
erosion, "sharpening the creek's knifelike force and cutting deeper into its
banks. Efforts to slow the erosion by straightening the channel and riprapping
the banks only increased the erosion downstream," reported the newspaper.
But today, a state-of-the-art project is combining community grassroots
activity with innovative small - technology to repair the results of past
uncontrolled NPS runoff through renovation and rebuilding. The goal on Wolf
Creek is to lengthen the channel by building back its natural bends. Boulders
and root masses from felled trees strategically placed across the channel are
designed to dissipate the creek's erosive energy and roll the current from bank
to bank. Built-in floodplains give the water a place to go during high flows.
The - undertaking is designed to re-establish the creek's natural channel and
restore it to permanent good health.
The $400,000 watershed undertaking is being funded and assisted by a
variety of public and private entities. The State Water Resources Control Board
provided a $91,000 grant through section 205(j)(5) monies and a $100,000 grant
through section 319. The California Department of Water Resources provided an
additional grant of nearly $100,000 to the Greenville Community Services
District. Pacific Gas and Electric Company donated $80,000 for design,
construction, and administration costs. Other funding sources include USDA
Plumas National Forest and SCS.
The Wolf Creek improvements have also attracted community support. The
Sacramento Bee reports that loggers donated their time to fell trees that were
donated by the U.S. Forest Service and miners donated rocks transported by the
local Army National Guard. In addition, high school students reseeded the creek
banks and will conduct pool riffle surveys and measure channel widths in a
10-year monitoring program.
In pooling its money and energy, the community has banded together to solve
a common problem. By undoing years of hydrological modifications that have
upset nature's ecological balance, the community is restoring important
habitats, including mountain wetlands. This combination of elements will likely
be a national model of watershed restoration based on mutual cooperation.
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