August 19, 2009
Comprehensive efforts to restore the Garcia River's once-famous runs of salmon and steelhead continue. Garcia River restoration has benefited greatly by lessons learned on watersheds throughout northern California and by techniques taught at Salmonid Restoration Federation Field Schools and Conferences. The Garcia River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Implementation Plan has assured steady progress on sediment control throughout the watershed.
The Garcia Watershed has also been part of some firsts for watersheds. The Garcia was the first watershed in the area to have a stakeholder-developed watershed restoration plan approved. Funding from the Garcia River was instrumental for the first Salmonid Restoration Field School. The South Fork Garcia River was the site of the pilot project of Trout Unlimited's North Coast Coho Project in partnership with Mendocino Redwood Company. The acquisition of 24,500 acres of the watershed by The Conservation Fund represents the first public/private ownership and management of commercial timberland in northern California. The first sale of carbon credits in Northern California on The Conservation Fund's Garcia River Forest has provided funding for restoration efforts. The Nature Conservancy in partnership with the Regional Water Board staff and EPA is the first to adopt and implement Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) monitoring protocols on a wide scale.
The Lower Watershed
Extensive volunteer tree planting efforts coupled with successful bio-engineering projects have stabilized sediment sources on the lower nine miles of the mainstem. Cattle have been fenced out and instream water diversions have been removed.
The photos above show before and after photos of a bio-engineer project by Evan Engber on the Stornetta Brothers Ranch in the tidewater section of the Garcia River.
Extensive upslope erosion control efforts are allowing pools to become deeper and the spawning substrate coarser, resulting in the reemergence of a lower mainsten spawning population of steelhead and even some Chinook salmon.
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The Upper Watershed
Mendocino Redwood Company in partnership with the Trout Unlimited North Coast Coho Project has addressed over 80% of controllable sediment in the South Fork Garcia. Wild coho have returned to this sub basin after absence for a number of years.
The Conservation Fund, working with Pacific Watershed Associates, has carried out a property assessment with DFG Restoration Grants program funding of high priority projects in Inman Creek, the North Fork, Signal Creek, and the main haul roads.
This effort will be in right order, followed by the installation of instream habitat structures and unanchored large
woody debris.
Monitoring
The Nature Conservancy began a very extensive Aquatics Monitoring Program on the 23,500 acre Garcia River Forest Property. EPA's EMAP protocols are being used. The EPA EMAP design and protocols have been adopted by The Nature Conservancy, and are currently being carried out in numerous projects across the nation.
Temperature monitoring was expanded for 2008 in a cooperative effort among The Conservation Fund, the Nature Conservancy, and local landowners. Sites have been chosen to collect data at previously monitored sites by landowners and Friends of the Garcia.
Both the EMAP and temperature monitoring should provide long-term data demonstrating aquatic response to restoration efforts and conservation land management on the Garcia River Forest property.
Craig will be give a presentation at the Confab Confab. See Confab atricle for more info.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Summer 2009