March 2006 Greenspace Insider, Cambria Land Trust

8/3/2019 March 2006 Greenspace Insider, Cambria Land Trust

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Volume 5, Number 8

The Insider

March 2006

Santa Rosa Creek Restoration Projects to Enhance Fisheries, Habitat and Water Quality

Greenspace has completed two major Santa Rosa Creek Res-

toration Projects. The first is a fish barrier removal project at the

Burton Bridge and the second is a creek bank stabilization project

near Coast Union High School on land managed by Larry Fiscalini

and owned by his family. Both projects were designed to improve

steelhead trout migration and improve fish habitat. The creek bank 

stabilization project includes the benefit of stopping erosion of prime

agriculture soils. These eroded soils are deposited in the lower

reach of Santa Rosa Creek and the lagoon at the creeks mouth. The

soils foul the gravel beds and the aquifer with fine sediments. The

sediment layer restricts the water recharge of the lower basin thereby

affecting water quality and quantity and degrades habitat of migrat-

ing steelhead trout, and habitat for other fishes, reptiles, and am-

phibians.

Creek Bank Stabilization Project

The creek bank project was a partnership between the California

Department of Fish and Game, the California Coastal Conservancy,

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Greenspace, the San

Luis Obispo Department of Building and Planning, and Mr. Fiscalini.

All partners provided funds and/or services to the project. The

project is the first major restoration project on Santa Rosa Creek and

demonstrates that agencies, non-profits, and private land owners

can work successfully to-gether to improve fisheries

and, by extension, water

quality and habitat.

Greenspace was

awarded a competitive

grant through the Salmonid

Restoration Grant Program

to design, coordinate, and

implement all stages of this project. We worked with the California

Coastal Conservancy regarding project engineering; contracted with

the California Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide restoration ex-

pertise and hand labor; Winsor Construction provided expert heavy

equipment operators, machinery, rock and appropriate fill soil; Zo-

ologist, Galen Rathbun, provide

in-kind services with surveying

for California Red-legged frog.

There were literally dozens of 

people and companies involved

with the success of this project

and coordinating the sequence

of work was made much easier

with the remarkable cooperation

by the participants.

The project was approximately

380 feet in length and covered about

2 acres. As you can see from the

‘before’ pictures, the creek changed

course and was undercutting a thirty

foot vertical bank and rapidly eating

away prime ag land and sending tons

of material downstream clogging the

creek and lagoon with sediments. The creek was realigned to an exis

ing overflow channel thereby removing the channel from the toe of th

vertical bank. A new flood terrace was built adjacent to the new cree

channel and the existing flood terrace and to the right of the new

channel was lowered. Thirty foot long root wads were placed at th

upstream reach of the project and placed at a sixty-degree angle to th

newly created creek channel. The root wads intercept the velocity

the creek during high flows and direct slower moving water to th

lowered floodplain. The project site was planted with hundreds

native plants and will repopulate the disturbed site with riparian plan

that will shade the new creek channel. The ‘after’ picture shows ho

the creek looks after the construction and the last picture shows th

creek during the 2006 New Year Storm.

Burton Bridge Project

This project removed an exist-ing low flow fish barrier (See Bur-

ton before photo). The barrier con-

sisted of an old concrete apron was

part of the previous bridge that

spanned Santa Rosa Creek. Con-

crete aprons were a common engineering practice in days pas

Greenspace was awarded a grant from the Pacific States Marine Fish

eries Commission and administrated through the California Depar

ment of Fish and Game. Again, we partnered with the California Con

servation Corps who did the bulk of the highly labor intensive projec

and the San Luis Obispo Public Works Department who were all to

happy to see the barrier removed. Briefly, the concrete apron was jac

hammered out. Two pneumatic air-compressed jack hammers and ongas driven hammer were used t

break the concrete into pieces tha

were then loaded into five-gallo

buckets (See Burton demolitio

photo). Each bucket was hand-ca

ried out of the creek and deposite

in a huge pile on the Greenspac

Creekside Reserve. The concret

was then mechanically loaded into dump trucks and recycled int

road base. The result is a free-flowing creek that lets fish and othe

aquatic species move freely up and down the creek.

Creek Bank Project - Before 

Creek Bank Project - After 

2006 New Year Storm 

Burton Bridge - Before 

Burton Bridge - Demolition 

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Post Office Box 1505

Cambria, California 93428

(805) 927-2866 - Phone(805) 927-5220 - Fax

e-mail: rick@GreenspaceCambria.orgwww.GreenspaceCambria.org

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Cambria, CA 934

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