Field Tour Coordinators: Sara Gault (Restoration Hydrologist) and Aleksandra Wydzga (Science Director), Creek Lands Conservation 

 

This full-day field tour follows Arroyo Grande Creek from its regulated headwaters to its mouth at Pismo State Beach, tracing the challenges and opportunities facing South-Central Coast steelhead in a heavily managed coastal watershed. The tour begins at Lopez Lake Dam, where participants will learn about the history and current status of water rights litigation on the creek and the ongoing efforts to balance municipal water supply, agricultural diversion, and instream flows needed to support migrating and rearing steelhead below the dam. From there, the tour moves downstream to a reach where Creek Lands Conservation recently modified a fish passage barrier, which now allows steelhead to move more freely through a stretch of creek that had long fragmented habitat connectivity. Participants will see the completed project firsthand and discuss the design, permitting, and monitoring process behind it. The tour concludes at the flood control channel, Arroyo Grande Creek Estuary, and  Meadow Creek Lagoon, where freshwater and tidal influence mix before the creek breaches out to the Pacific Ocean at Pismo State Beach, offering a chance to discuss estuarine rearing habitat, lagoon breaching dynamics, and the cumulative effect of local sediment management, local groundwater withdrawals, and upstream dam operations on this critical downstream nursery habitat. Development of restoration plans pursuant to a NMFS Biological Jeopardy Opinion, as well as voluntary restoration efforts will also be discussed.