April 5, 2006
Springtime is soon upon us with new steelhead hatching and tree buds bursting. The Eel River Salmon Restoration Project (ERSRP) has been busily planting trees, in anticipation of the increased daylight hours. Erosion control projects are the areas now being prioritized for planted. After this year's scouring stream flows and landslides, our group will be assessing future projects and the effects of this season's storms on previously completed projects.
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The CDFG Grant Program, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provided funding for our erosion control work, focused on watersheds disrupted by unraveling road networks. In many cases storm runoff along road alignments has been directed into ditches that carry water around ridges into other sub-basins not naturally evolved to carry the added ditch-water runoff. This has resulted in active chronic erosion as stream channels readjust to increased flows by down-cutting, undermining adjacent slopes. Meanwhile, over-saturated soils move downhill as landslides. In some cases ditches turn into gullies as they run down abandoned roads and into loose fill pushed over banks to widen road beds and create log loading areas. Most of these messes were established to log our forests with no regard given to the future impacts of poorly designed and soon-to-be-abandoned roads. ERSRP has attempted to address some of these disrupted landscapes by moving the fills to more stable locations and repairing drainage networks in an effort to reduce the volume of chronically eroding soils reaching creeks, choking spawning gravels with mud, and filling rearing pools with muck. Heavy equipment is required for the magnitude of soil that needs to be moved in these projects.
Once the big machines move out, we follow up with tree planting to help re-establish vegetative cover and accelerate development of functioning forest soils that promote good rainfall infiltration and establish biological processes that purify water and recycle nutrients. It is also hoped that new forests established by tree planting will help sequester carbon, reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and provide clean oxygenated air for all of us to breathe. Ideally these and other tree planting activities can collectively help reduce global warming while at the same time creating the visual beauty that promotes a higher quality of life for watershed residents.
Again this year we would like to extend our thanks to the Working Assets phone service provider for supporting our efforts through their gracious contribution of funding for tree planting. With their support this year we will be able to plant about 15,000 trees.
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Eel River Salmon Restoration Project
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2006