PCI congratulates Lauren Hammack on winning Restorationist of the Year at the 40th Annual Salmonid Restoration Federation (SRF) Conference! SRF first presented the award in 1992 to Bill Eastwood, co-director of the Eel River Salmon Restoration Project, to honor grassroots salmonid habitat restorationists. Since 1998 SRF has honored a restorationist each year with a roast, a toast and a brass sculpture created by sculptor Dick Crane. The title reflects Lauren’s tireless work dedicated to the recovery of salmonid habitat, specifically her geomorphology design and construction work along the Ten Mile River and throughout the Garcia River estuary in recent years. Way to go Lauren! (Scroll to see more photos of Lauren’s award and other PCI shenanigans at the 2023 SRF conference. Note: All PCI-purchased swim noodles used for the skit pictured in the last photo were donated to the Sebastopol Ives Swim Pool Summer Learn-to-Swim program).
Before/After is a series where we highlight the long-lasting impact of our restoration work.
Instream elements that PCI installed with Proven Management shortly after construction.
Vigorous willow growth and a notable uptick in wildlife recently covered by the Napa Valley Register are two indicators that Napa Creek – a project PCI worked on in 2013 – is becoming the revitalized, healthy waterway that project engineers envisioned two decades ago.
PCI was hired to work with Proven Management to assist with instream elements of the project, under Proven Management’s contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. PCI worked with Proven Management to install rock rootwad revetment structures, bank log pockets, log barbs and rock V-weirs throughout the creek in downtown Napa.
Construction underway after dewatering.
Logs being prepared for use.
The rock rootwad revetment structures.
The City of Napa has historically been prone to destructive and deadly flooding events. According to FEMA, a total of 19 floods caused more than $542 million in residential property damage between 1961 and 1997; that total doesn’t include economic losses in the tourism industry, environmental damage, or loss of life. The Napa River/Napa Creek Flood Protection Project was voted into reality by the passage of Napa County Measure A in 1998. The half-cent local sales tax levy provided a funding mechanism for the local share of the project cost and funded flood protection, drainage improvements, dam safety, and watershed management projects, and helped to strengthen a partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Project engineers envisioned a healthy waterway as the centerpiece of Napa; PCI’s work in 2013 helped to make that vision a reality.
Fast-forward ten years, and the project area is thriving. PCI Principal Engineer Lucas Walton recently visited the site and observed that while the weirs haven’t changed, the rootwad revetment is no longer visible because the willows have grown so vigorously
“It is pretty amazing to see how the site has changed and how the local ecology is thriving as a result of the project,” he says.
See the before/after images, below.
A view of the rock weir, rootwad revetment structure and willow plantings shortly after construction, then in 2022.
Another view of the rootwad revetment structure, then the same spot blanketed by willows in 2022.
Welcome to Before/After, a series where we showcase the long-lasting impact of our restoration work.
In 2017, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (Ag + Open Space) proposed a riparian restoration project on its 76-acre Oken property. The property is located on Petaluma Hill Road, along the northeastern edge of Rohnert Park in Sonoma County. The grassland supports grazing and acts as a bowl for several drainages running down from the surrounding hills. Erosion wasn’t historically a problem, but housing development, the routing of a small stream through roadway culverts and open grazing of the tributaries in recent years had combined to channelize the waterways that cut across the property, creating several steep head cuts.
Before, with active headcuts and erosion
PCI’s biology, design, engineering and planning teams worked together to prepare a plan that would restore the waterways. Their collective vision involved bioengineered repairs, rock grade control, an arch culvert livestock crossing, wildlife firefly fencing and an abundance of willows.
Before urbanization, intermittent tributaries like the ones at Oken would have formed a series of distributary channels that would fan out as they exited the foothills, storing sediment and recharging groundwater. Despite the erosion, an alluvial fan still existed on the property, but it was incised with particularly prominent headcuts. Designers envisioned a willow “sausal” transition for this area (sausal means willow in Spanish, and refers to a thick willow grove). The eroding bank would be re-contoured with soil fill and the disturbed area would be covered with coir blanket and coir mat over native grass seed. A willow thicket would stabilize the slope and allow flows to continue fanning out through use of a bioengineering technique using living willow brush sills and wattles before draining into the main channel. Willow poles would be planted to create the thicket above the sills. At the toe of the slope, along the main channel, two brush sills would be placed with willow wattle anchors.
Willow sausal after construction
PCI’s design plans also called for the construction of three rock stabilization structures. A drop inlet at the downstream end of the swale in the southwestern corner of the property would be protected with a rock basin. Headcuts in the southern end of the property and in main channel toward the center of the property would be repaired. An incised channel segment upstream in the main drainage would be restored with soil fill to create a stable channel bed.
Willow sausal in May 2022
As part of the design process, PCI looked at potential opportunities for additional habitat enhancement, and provided recommendations for wildlife-friendly grazing infrastructure and management of invasive plant infestations.
Construction was completed in 2021; Hanford ARC was the contractor, and PCI’s planning team secured all necessary permits. About 1,000 plugs of native rush and sedge were planted along the newly fenced out creeks by Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW), a program of Point Blue Conservation Science that brings ecological education and opportunities to participate in restoration to local schools.
Willows planted as part of the sausal restoration will be assessed each year for five years after planting. In summer, survivorship and growth of willow plantings will be recorded and general observations of plant health noted. In May of 2022, the sausal area appeared lush and green, and the stabilized waterway showed no signs of erosion.
PCI’s construction crew continues to care for the property by removing invasive thistle, mowing firebreaks, and weedeating around the plantings. When crew members arrived on-site in May of this year, the property’s inhabitants — and original weedeaters — insisted on checking out their equipment.
Join our amazing team of designers, scientists and restoration technicians to take an active role in restoring our natural world. PCI is seeking applicants for several positions, follow the link below for more information.
