A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 8, 2007
3. Watersheds
WATERSHED PROJECT:
Tujunga Wash project creates more recreation space while saving water - Los Angeles Times
Forest service works to repair watersheds - Plumas County News
FISH HATCHERY ISSUES:
Column: Flunking the fitness test; Hatchery fish and wild fish are not the same -
WATERSHED PROJECT:
By Franciscco Vara-Orta, staff writer
A $7-million partial revitalization of the Tujunga Wash helps conserve water and provides new recreational space in the San Fernando Valley,
The effort, known as the Tujunga Wash Greenway and Stream Restoration Project, diverts some of the water currently flowing into a flood control channel and sends it to an adjacent 1 1/2 -mile stream that runs alongside the wash in Valley Glen.
The arrangement allows more water to seep into an aquifer called the San Fernando Valley Groundwater Basin, rather than flow to the Los Angeles River and eventually the Pacific Ocean, said Vik Bapna, watershed manager for the county's Department of Public Works.
During a year with average rainfall, as much as 325,000 gallons a day will flow through the wash's new stream, which can mean enough drinking water for 760 families of four during 12 months, Bapna said. Currently, about 85% of the water used by Valley residents is imported, he said.
In addition to the new stream, the project features walking and biking paths -- adorned with native trees and plants -- meandering along the wash that stretches from
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who attended a dedication of the project Wednesday, said it could serve as a model for conserving water and beautifying other flood control channels throughout the county.
"This project is a template for the rest of the
The Tujunga Wash, a nine-mile flood control channel built in the early 1950s, funnels rainwater between Hansen Dam and
Officials said funding for the project, which took a little over a year to complete, included state and county government sources. The finished product will be maintained by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a joint powers authority that includes the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District and the Conejo Recreation and Park District.
The county is studying the possibility of extending the Tujunga Wash project north of
>From the corner of
On the side where the project is completed, doves early Wednesday hopped in the new stream, which percolated soothingly. Bright green fencing lined the flood channel, cyclists rode down a paved path, and sage and cottonwoods dotted the landscape.
Across the street on the unrevamped side, a rusted, bent fence kept people out and the terrain lining the channel was barren dirt.
Edelman said water had run through the new stream for about two weeks while officials prepared to unveil the site. During that period, and even with this year's dry conditions, some portions of the stream measured as deep as 6 inches, he said.
"Some fish and amphibians could live in the stream," Edelman said. "You can already see the life coming back here."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wash8nov08,1,4488591.story?coll=la-headlines-california
By Victoria Metcalf, staff writer
The roads into the Moonlight Fire area are busy with logging trucks as employees with the
September's fire burned nearly 65,000 acres - small compared to the total acres lost in
When the Burn Area Emergency Response team completed its rehab recommendations Sept. 25, the forest geared up to go to work. While the report went to Region 5 for approval, those involved already knew the team was requesting more funding than the region could approve. According to Joe Hoffman, forest hydrologist and BAER implementation leader, the regional office can only approve up to $500,000 for fire rehab projects. The funding request, with the region's stamp of approval was then referred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which manages the Forest Service, for the $2.2 million needed for the project.
By the time the federal government agreed to release special funding, the forest's needs crews and specialists were ready to go to work. As part of Hoffman's team, he had Kirby Cook from the
According to Hoffman these three main people are known as sub-leaders within the process.
The Moonlight Fire burned nearly 65,000 acres of national forest and private land in early September.
More than 24,800 acres or 36 percent of the burn area is classified as severe, and another 23,800 acres sustained modern severity. Hoffman explained that fire severity refers to what's happened to the soil. Fire intensity refers to the amount of vegetation destroyed or impacted.
Without taking the appropriate emergency steps, further damage to the impacted areas, as well as the threat of flooding and erosion, would take place.
And in this situation the term emergency means just what it says; crews needed to get in, work quickly and attempt to reduce or stop further damage.
Rehab work on this burn is all interrelated. If the watershed isn't fixed, the land erodes, roads wash out and the area doesn't stand a chance of recovering quickly, or in some cases the scars remain for generations.
One of the early jobs in the process addresses the 140 miles of fireline. In efforts to contain the fire, dozer lines were etched across the landscape.
Without working these areas where the land was denuded of vegetation, water could easily run through, promoting erosion.
Waterbars were created to help prevent this from happening.
When members of the BAER team did their assessments following the fire, they considered what could be done to prevent threats to life, property and safety issues.
The BAER assessment team included all of the necessary groups: hydrology, forestry, fisheries, soils, wildlife, geology, botany, range, engineering, archaeology and GIS. Todd Ellsworth, a soils specialist from the
As Ellsworth and others prepared the analysis and made recommendations for the forest to implement, he understood that Phase I involved emergency measures. Although Phase II considerations were available, those are determined after this winter, Hoffman explained.
In other words, they're playing a wait-and-see game with the non-emergency rehab work. If things still need to be fixed, the forest can look for additional funds to do that at a later time.
The $2.2 million approved by the federal government is only for Phase I projects.
Additional agencies such as the National Resource Conservation Service and the Plumas County Road Department were also involved in the study.
The road department experienced damage to a section of roadway in the Lights Creek area. This was repaired using its own equipment, personnel and rock.
Heli-mulching was one of the projects Hoffman was anxious to see completed. Double-chopped rice straw was dropped by helicopter onto 1,300 acres of steeply sloped mountainsides above Lights Creek. (See related story.)
In evaluating threats to life, property and safety, BAER team members spent several days determining risks to homes and the infrastructure in the area. They studied homes along the east side of
The team also took into consideration what's happened in that area prior to the fire. They checked debris flows within the main channels and determined the risk if additional debris flows should reach the homes closest to the fire. Considering the home closest to potential hazards, the team determined that the risk was low that the home would be impacted.
With the Upper and Middle Lights Creek areas showing 41 percent and 37 percent burn severity, the team said that sediment and ash would be generated. Streambed rock movement could happen from an accumulation of debris. These could also shift the channel during heavy runoff periods.
The team did stipulate that one home in the Fred's Creek drainage was at increased risk of flooding.
This home along with a list of others that were at some risk was given to NCRS in
The team did determine that homeowners could experience increased nuisance ash and sediment around their homes when it storms. Both would wash down to some degree.
There is an increased risk of homes and buildings flooding and damage to the infrastructure in the
While concentrating on watershed areas, the BAER team also analyzed threats to water quality.
Woody debris picked up along the burned area and burned litter in stream channels such as Indian Creek, could be carried into
When it rains or there's runoff in the area, this will impact the stored sediment and debris and adversely affect water quality and aquatic resources.
In addition, the recreational opportunities at Antelope would be affected and potential users could decide not to visit the lake.
Fishing along Indian Creek is also popular and this too could be impacted if the channel is impacted from debris and sediment that's come from the fire area.
If the upper edges of the fire area aren't treated, what takes place in the watershed and down stream is impacted. That's why projects like heli-mulching, which is designed to help keep water on the soil and prevent rapid runoff and therefore erosion, are vital to the process.
Hoffman said that large portions of land could be lost to erosion. This could happen on the mountainsides that typically rely on vegetation, including trees, to hold soil in place. Rocks help, but that's not enough across the acreage.
Another ground treatment cover involved mastication. Hoffman said that Oliver and his crew operated a large machine that could crew up and spit out shredded vegetation from an area.
This is particularly effective in plantation areas where there are the remains of even-age, single-species trees planted at some point in the past. The masticator takes in burned trees and brush, covers the ground with it and then moves on.
Hoffman said that there's no funding for plantation work and these areas aren't likely to reseed because a good seed tree often isn't available in the unit.
Nature also provides its own mechanism for adding ground cover, said Lee Ann Schramel Taylor, public affairs officer on the Plumas. In many areas where the trees have been burned, they've been killed off, yet pine needles still cling to the braches. As these fall they blanket the forest floor, providing a source of valuable cover and a source of nutrients for the soil.
If left untreated, the upper reaches could see soil transferred to lower areas. If water is left unchecked as it runs downhill it can wash off roadways that aren't treated for the possibility.
BAER members evaluated the major roads within the fire both on the ground and by maps. They covered 39 miles by group, making recommendations, and 90 miles by map to form their proposals.
Three bridges within the area, two on Indian Creek and one on Lights Creek were inspected and were found intact. The team recommended that regular inspections occur to determine continued safety and to catch and signs of erosion.
Hoffman said that in one area a very large culvert had been installed in the past on concrete footings. There was some concern that runoff would go under the culvert instead of through it, eroding away the earth. This too will be inspected to determine if any problems arise.
Lazarino's road teams immediately went to work clearing ditches along roadways, unplugging culverts, armoring some areas near culverts to keep runoff from going down the roads and other diversions.
Hoffman explained that if some of the culverts weren't prepared to handle additional water or if they became blocked, the water would eventually run down the roads. The desired plan is that excess water run across it, not down it. The scheme is to keep erosion to a minimum.
In some situations, Lazarino had her teams create low spots in the roadways to encourage runoff to flow over the roads, not down them.
The BAER team addressed erosion rates throughout the fire area and determined that if it wasn't contained an estimated 46 tons per acre, which is far above normal erosion impacts, could occur.
Under the category of road treatments, Lazarino's crews also installed new signs - some were damaged or destroyed by fire - removed hazard trees from along the roadsides and installed riprap in some areas.
The BAER team also addressed concerns for endangered species, archeological sites and other issues.
Leaving the burn area,
Indicating an older burn, she explained how the black oaks grew tall quickly under the sun, but then when conifers became established they grew up above the oaks and are starting to block them out.
After looking at last year's Boulder Fire and others around
Of the total number of acres burned during the Moonlight Fire, more than 18,000 acres were on private land. Sierra Pacific Industries and Beaty and Associates own the largest chucks of land in that area.
The many trucks found on area highways and roads are coming down from the private property loaded with logs, most blackened from the fire.
http://www.plumasnews.com/news_story.edi?sid=5646
FISH HATCHERY ISSUES:
Column: Flunking the fitness test; Hatchery fish and wild fish are not the same
By John Krist, columnist
Earthmovers dumped the last load of dirt on Oroville Dam in 1967, completing the backbone of the State Water Project.
That same year, the fish hatchery about five miles downstream welcomed its first bewildered run of salmon.
Like their ancestors, the fish sought the upper reaches of the
Forty years later, this process continues at Oroville, as it does at hundreds of other sites throughout the West. Artificial reproduction may lack the dignity, mystery and drama of its natural analog, but it is efficient: Hatcheries, constructed mainly to offset the fish-killing propensity of modern dams, release a collective 5 billion juvenile Pacific salmon and steelhead annually.
The one at Oroville, about 60 miles north of
The hatchery system is based on the utilitarian premise that a fish is a fish: As long as there are enough to be caught for fun or profit, the process and the habitat that produced them are irrelevant.
New research, however, confirms what critics of the hatchery system have long argued: The process matters. Hatchery fish are not the same as wild fish, and the difference is not solely spiritual or aesthetic. Breeding fish in captivity, besides eliminating their awe-inspiring reproductive journey, reduces their fitness to survive in the wild.
The limitations of fish hatcheries, particularly those constructed as compensation for giant dams built in the middle decades of the 20th century, have been apparent for many years. Despite construction of a vast network of these fish factories — there are about 100 hatcheries in the Columbia River basin alone — every major western watershed has seen its salmonid populations dwindle, some to the point of extinction.
Those fighting to restore imperiled salmon and steelhead populations have long argued that hatchery fish are more prone to disease and less fit to survive than wild fish. In their view, hatcheries make things worse, not better, diluting the gene pool and rendering the species increasingly dependent on artificial breeding to maintain the fiction of a viable population.
Those who benefit from the water, energy and transportation services provided by dams argue that hatchery fish are
indistinguishable from wild fish and should be counted when regulators try to determine whether a species is imperiled.
Federal courts have ruled both ways, one judge declaring that hatchery fish should be counted, another one saying they should not.
Last month, however, the journal Science published a study by researchers at
The research, involving steelhead on
The conclusions should not surprise anyone familiar with the concept of natural selection. The spawning journey of wild salmon and steelhead — an arduous, dangerous trip past predators, waterfalls and other obstacles — is not merely poetic in its rigor. It is a ruthlessly effective test of ecological fitness. Those that survive it produce offspring that must endure their own peril-filled journey back downstream. Only the strongest and wariest survive both ends of this migratory journey to pass along their DNA.
Hatchery fish, on the other hand, pay no price for being weak and slow-witted; food pellets fall from the sky on the robust and the wimpy alike. If held in captivity and allowed to breed, they are all equally likely to produce offspring, regardless of how well adapted they might be to life in the outside world.
Dumping the offspring of such fish into the hostile natural environment is like tossing handfuls of sardines into the seal tank at the zoo. It is no wonder that of the billions of hatchery fish released into western rivers each year, only a relative handful ever return and attempt to spawn. #
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/nov/08/flunking-the-fitness-test/
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