California: Santa Cruz County’s public planning for Large Woody Debris (LWD) in streams
Santa Cruz County has had a policy of removing large wood from its
streams and rivers for years. Most has been cut up in response to
streamside neighbors’ fear of flooding. In actuality, large wood can
help reduce flood impacts by slowing stream velocity thus reducing the
undercutting of banks, metering out sediment preventing large amounts
from settling in low gradient reaches where flooding is most likely to
occur, and helping to hold smaller logs and chunks of wood preventing
them fr om hanging up in culverts and against bridge footings.
About two years ago, a confluence of events began to shift how the County
thinks about large instream wood. A small group of concerned citizens
including members of the San Lorenzo Valley Women’s Club Environmental
Committee and the Lompico Watershed Conservancy wrote to Supervisor
Mark Stone and John Ricker (Environmental Health) asking that the
County reconsider removal of large instream wood.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and others also let the County know that their large wood removal program was problematic, even possibly constituting a ‘take’ of endangered coho salmon by adversely impacting their habitat. In 2008, the county did not remove any large woody material from
streams. After many months, John Ricker has come up with a proposed
policy change, which will most likely go before the Board of
Supervisors on March 3.
The draft proposal says the county will not remove or modify large woody material unless it is determined to “pose a threat to life, public safety, public infrastructure or aquatic habitat.” Non-emergency modification will be directed by the Water Resources Division Director after consultation with DFG, NMFS, a fishery biologist and/or geomorpholog ist. Under an emergency, the wood will be removed or modified at the direction of Public Works or Environmental Health management.
Requests from the public will be evaluated by Environmental Health. The county will disseminate information to the public regarding the value of large woody ma terial and the terms of the revised county policy. Some folks are still concerned (yours truly included) that the latest draft proposal
doesn’t go far enough. Plan to attend on March 3 if you’d like to
encourage the county to leave large wood in our streams to provide
essential fish habitat for our dwindling steelhead and coho
populations.
Jodi Frediani, Director – Central Coast Forest Watch – JodiFredi@aol.com
By Kurtis Alexander – Santa Cruz Sentinel staff writer
Posted: 03/03/2009 12:26:26 PM PST
Santa Cruz County today did away with its longtime program of actively removing fallen trees and limbs from local waterways.
The consensus among local and federal regulators is that log removal is harmful to coho salmon and steelhead trout. The protected fish rely on downed wood in rivers and creeks to create pools for resting and breeding, the evidence showed.
The Board of Supervisors, acknowledging the benefits of fallen trees, voted unanimously to drop its $60,000 annual log-removal effort.
The move was praised by several environmental groups that attended today’s supervisors meeting.
“Rivers are more than just water,” said Dennis Davey, with the Sierra Club. There is a “biological component,” he said, that needs to be cared for.
County crews will continue to remove trees that pose an immediate threat to life or property. Protecting creekside residents from flooding or tree damage was the ori ginal intent of the program, which began decades ago.
One resident, Malcolm Kirby, expressed concern that ending the program could jeopardize the safety of locals living along rivers.
“This is a bit more controversial that has been represented,” he said.