A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 31, 2007
3. Watersheds
DELTA RESTORATIN PROJECT
Restoring Liberty Island: Company proposes conservation bank - David Enterprise
Wildfire run-off impacts Lake Tahoe clarity - Nevada Appeal
SALMON HABITAT IMPROVEMENTS:
Deal could improve salmon habitat - Grass Valley Union
BEAVER DAMS:
Leave it to the beavers: There's water in Lindo Channel now - Chico Enterprise Record
DELTA RESTORATIN PROJECT
Restoring Liberty Island: Company proposes conservation bank
David Enterprise – 10/30/07
RIO VISTA -
“It's been purely under the hand of God, if you will,” said Erik Vink of The Trust for Public Land, the nonprofit group that owns most of the 5,200-acre island in eastern Yolo and Solano counties.
Now the invisible hand of capitalism may take a shot at habitat restoration there, albeit with plenty of government supervision.
The theory is that nature needs some help in an area so altered by humans over the past 80 years. Much of the island has subsided soils and flooded after the 1998 levee failures. The dry land that remains hardly looks like the delta of yore, before the levees were built.
“It's mostly star thistle fields and non-native plants,” said Tom Cannon of Rocklin-based Wildlands Inc.
Wildlands Inc. wants to restore 20 percent of
The company proposes creating a 1,000-acre conservation bank. It would sell credits to developers who build elsewhere and must preserve wetlands and delta smelt habitat to comply with environmental laws.
Running conservation banks is nothing new for Wildlands. It has 25 banks for various types of habitats, including a vernal pool bank and a burrowing owl bank in
And the company has already established a delta smelt habitat bank at
Now the company will try to break the
The Trust for Public Lands bought most of
Eight years later, The Trust for
“That's the hope,” said Vink, a
Restored tidal wetlands as proposed by Wildlands would fit right in with the plan.
But Solano County Water Agency officials keep an eye on restoration projects in the area. The North Bay Aqueduct pumps are in nearby Barker Slough, bringing water to
This past summer, the state shut down its massive pumps near
“We have not taken a position of opposing every one of these mitigation banks,” SCWA General Manger David Okita said. “But every opportunity, we raise concerns.”
The Liberty Island bank isn't the only proposal. State officials have talked about a series of habitat restoration projects in eastern
“What's scary for us is it's appearing in several different forums,” Okita said. “At some point, there's going to be thresholds. We don't know if we've reached that yet.”
There's time to work things out. The Liberty Island bank must get various permits from government agencies, even though it us a habitat restoration project. Cannon estimated this could be done in two years.
For now, people can go out and enjoy
“We encourage people to use the island,” Vink said. “We encourage hunting, fishing and hiking.”
http://www.davisenterprise.com/articles/2007/10/30/news/062new1.txt
Wildfire run-off impacts
By Kyle Magin, staff writer
Wildfires may have a direct correlation with
This and other fire-related issues were discussed during Fire Science, a lecture hosted by
Miller unveiled the results of a UNR study showing that wildfires release nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur into the soil.
"We don't know for sure if these nutrients make their way into the lake, but we do know soil sediment only travels with water in the form of runoff, so rain could release these into the lake," Miller said.
He said that both nitrogen and phosphorous negatively affect lake clarity levels by enhancing algae.
"The more biomass you have in the lake, the less visibility you get," Miller said.
Miller also stated that following wildfires, large amounts of sulfur were found in the soil under a charred area. He was unsure what impacts sulfur has on lake clarity levels.
"We need to take a look at the sulfur levels simply because of the magnitude of sulfur we found after fires took place. It could be something, it could be nothing," Miller said.
He said the best way to reduce the amount of nutrients in soil runoff that could potentially reach the lake was to implement a series of mechanical thinning operations around the basin. He recommended the forests be treated for fuels reduction and then subjected to controlled burns. He said that while this combination doesn't necessarily reduce the amount of nutrients in the soil, it reduces the likelihood the nutrients will runoff with rain water. Miller explained this is because the nutrients concentrate within the soil heavily after a wildfire, whereas with a small, controlled burn the nutrients are more evenly dispersed.
Jeff Brown presented information he has collected while working at the Sagehen Creek field station. There, scientists have explored SPLATs (strategically placed land area treatments). A SPLAT is fuels reduction treatment in strategic areas of a forest, meant to slow a wildfire's advance. It involves thinning a forest's fuels in staggered strips of the forest.
In Sagehen, Jeff Brown's team of scientists created computerized SPLATs across the forest and saw two things. One is that the SPLAT-protected zones were very effective in slowing fires, and the other is that fuels reduction is most effective when 20 percent of the forest is thinned.
A complete thinning of fuels, Jeff Brown said, is not cost effective and doesn't slow a fire's advance by much.
"The first 20 percent of the thinning process produces the most bang for your buck. More than that doesn't do too much to interrupt a fire," Jeff Brown said.
Chief Mike Brown said that his hand crews have been busy thinning the forest around
"Our halo creates a quarter-mile buffer zone between ourselves and other fire districts, so we can slow a fire coming from out of the area or one that originates in Incline from jumping to another district," Mike Brown said.
The NLTFPD is working toward creating good defensible space around Incline by encouraging everyone to take responsibility for defensible space on private property, Mike Brown said.
"There are three conditions that affects fire behavior, fuel, weather and topography. Fuel is the only one you can control and our goal is to keep these fires on the ground at a low intensity," Mike Brown said.
The next fire lecture, Fire Behavior, is scheduled for Nov. 13 at the
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/TB/20071031/News/110310013
SALMON HABITAT IMPROVEMENTS:
Deal could improve salmon habitat
Grass Valley
By Laura Brown, staff writer
An agreement between a water agency in Yuba County and a conservation group in Nevada County could settle years of pending litigation and bring more water to fish and farmers.
The Yuba County Water Agency approved the Lower Yuba River Accord, which would help to protect and improve 24 miles of chinook salmon and steelhead habitat in the lower
"Implementation of the final agreement does mark an important milestone in the protection of the
When SYRCL and other groups announced the preliminary agreement two years ago that led to the accord, group leaders then said the "proposed approach is innovative."
The plan includes a fisheries agreement requiring the water agency to maintain instream flows for fish habitat in the
In addition, the plan would protect surface and ground water in
The plan took SYRCL and 16 other groups five years to hammer out, according to a statement from the Yuba County Water Agency. Year-long pilot projects in 2005 and 2006 implemented the plan on a trial basis before it was approved last week. #
BEAVER DAMS:
Leave it to the beavers: There's water in Lindo Channel now
Those living near Lindo Channel have been puzzling lately about the water flowing down that stream bed, which is normally dry this time of year.
Meanwhile, those along Big Chico Creek have been wondering why there's so much less water than normal in that waterway.
The answer apparently is furry: beavers.
One or more of the critters has set up shop in
The beaver dam is doing about the same thing the Five-Mile Dam does: diverting Big Chico Creek flows into the Lindo Channel.
The channel is a natural overflow of Big Chico Creek, separating from the main stream at Five-Mile and reconnecting with it west of town.
A project done by the Corps of Engineers in the '60s fine-tuned the streams so no more water can pass through the Five-Mile Dam than Big Chico Creek's banks can handle.
A similar structure limits the flows down Lindo Channel. A diversion ditch carries any excess water out to Sycamore Creek, on the north edge of town.
The Enterprise-Record was unable to learn Tuesday if the city has plans to deal with the beaver dam or will leave it be. #
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_7325770
####
No comments:
Post a Comment