Restoration from Headwaters to Mouth: a Tour of Cooperative Approaches to Restoration in the Austin Creek Watershed
Thursday, March 8

Field Tour Leaders: John Green, Pacific Watershed Associates, Sierra Cantor, Sotoyome RCD, Bob Coey, California Department of Fish and Game

Located in the lower Russian River watershed, Austin Creek is home to a number of federally listed threatened and endangered species, including coho salmon, steelhead trout and freshwater shrimp. The Austin Creek watershed has undergone extensive land disturbance due to logging and rural residential development, and is considered impaired due to excessive fine sediment.

Upslope erosion can severely impair downstream aquatic habitat. Fine sediment delivered to even the smallest class 3 tributary streams is transported to class 1 habitat streams, increasing water turbidity and filling pools and gravel interstices. The Sotoyome Resource Conservation District (SRCD) and Pacific Watershed Associates, Inc. (PWA) have partnered for over a decade to identify and repair upslope sediment sources.

Roads as they have traditionally been constructed are significant contributors of fine sediment to stream systems. To address existing and potential future road-related sediment delivery to streams, PWA performs assessments of rural road systems to produce erosion control plans for upgrading and decommissioning rural roads in a variety of ownerships and settings.

The first half of the field tour will highlight a road-related erosion control and prevention project completed by PWA in 2005 in the Ward Creek sub-watershed of Austin Creek. In this watershed, PWA has upgraded or decommissioned over 50 miles of rural access roads under the California Department of Fish and Game Fisheries Restoration Grants Program. The tour will highlight road upgrade sites, with emphasis on project goals and the erosion control methods employed in road upgrading and decommissioning.

The second portion of the field tour will examine a localized erosion control and riparian enhancement project to revegetate the banks of two headwaters creeks in the upper Ward Creek watershed. Following PWA’s road improvement work, SRCD partnered with Circuit Rider Productions, Inc., to plant 982 linear feet of stream bank and 32,800 square feet of streamside area. Sources of ongoing and potential future sediment delivery had been stabilized using heavy equipment during the road improvement project. After the December 2005 storm events, localized erosion control measures were installed by hand to reduce the erosion as the native plants become established. This project illustrates the use of native plant material to control sediment by stabilizing the banks and creating a riparian sediment filter for runoff as well as establishing canopy cover.

The tour will then move downstream to highlight the Lower Austin Creek Migration Improvement Project (LACMIP). This project is a unique partnership between Bohan and Canelis, a family-owned gravel mining company that has been working in the watershed for nearly four decades, the Department of Fish and Game, NOAA Fisheries, Sonoma County Water Agency, Trout Unlimited and the California Conservation Corps. The LACMIP was implemented to address the aggradation of the lower main stem of Austin Creek by improving 4,000 feet of juvenile and adult steelhead and coho salmon habitat. A series of in-stream structures were installed to recruit and sort spawning gravel and provide pool habitat.