Reclaimed Water for the Win?

Looks like a nice little meandering river, no? Nice riparian vegetation- loads of willows, cottonwoods, sycamores- good flow for a southern Californian stream deep into the fall before any rains have commenced. Surely such an inviting scene is miles away from the machinations of modern man. But that little road way may tip you off otherwise...

What you are looking at is a section of Conejo creek downstream from the Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant of Thousand Oaks. Of course I have mentioned this watershed before. Conejo creek has received some press recently due to the revelation that the federally protected southern steelhead has begun to recolonize these waters. The cities of Thousand Oaks and Camarillo both discharge treated wastewater into the creek. And in light of the fish's presence in the creek both municipalities may now be required to sustain these discharges in order to maintain the habitat. And this is much to the ire of at least Camarillo, because that city had begun construction of a pipeline to use their reclaimed water for agriculture (probably sod farms as I don't think reclaimed water can be used for food crops).

And this whole debate is one which we have visited upon before: In a landscape that has historically been robbed of water flow through dams and diversions, is it now our obligation to recoup some of the  losses by taking advantage of outflow from wastewater treatment plants? I know it is not a pleasant thought, concentrating wildlife restoration efforts in essentially treated sewage. But as I said before, in a water parched landscape, beggars can't be choosers. And ultimately, it is not our choice to make- wildlife is already making the choice to live in habitats made possible through reclaimed water discharge- such as the steelhead recolonizing Conejo creek or the waterfowl I photographed in some of the tanks for the treatment facility in the picture below.

And I mean, it really is a nice looking stream when you get over the "treated sewage" aspect of it...

Of course all of this talk of treated effluent begs the question: should we concentrate beaver restoration in these areas in southern California? Well I would say YES! YES!! and more YES!!!

But let me buffer my argument more with this line of reasoning. To reestablish beaver they need to get over the predator hump. MartinezBeavers talked about this issue recently here. While beaver have been extirpated from many parts of their former range, their natural predators-cougars, bobcats, coyotes, bears, wolves- have done quite nicely in the meantime. Jeff Baldwin of Sonoma State addresses this very real issue of the problem of beaver reintroduction in predator saturated lands. It becomes less to do with stream slope gradient/vegetation type and more to do with how will this beaver transplant survive in small streams before it can build dams to survive predation? There is a real potential for loss in restoration efforts especially in arid lands with small streams and abundant predators. So the real question becomes how do we maximize our chances of successfully reintroducing beaver into these lands? Well we need to look at beaver restoration as essentially a war- there will be heavy casualties beavers will absorb, no doubt about it, from people and predators.

Okinawa beachhead. 1945. wiki

But if we utilize the areas of deepest water and highest flow- often man made reservoirs, dams, and water reclamation outflows- we will stand the greatest chance of establishing beachheads. And from these beachheads beaver can then spread across the whole watershed.

N. Matijilla Creek. Los Padres Wilderness

Middle Lions Camp. Sespe Wilderness

Above are two places I would love to see beaver reintroduced. The north fork of Matijilla creek is a tributary of the Ventura river and still has steelhead while Middle Lions camp also has a stream in it with steelhead. In the case of Lions camp I have it on good record that an acquaintance of mine, Tim Peddicord a retired biology teacher, spotted a beaver there in the 1960's. Additionally numerous other anecdotal reports of beaver in the Sespe watershed suggest that this area was a final stronghold for beaver in southern California.

However the Sespe wilds might not be the ideal spot to reintroduce beaver initially, as appealing as it may seem. That name, Lions camp, is no joke- there are lots of cougars out there, and bear, and coyote, and bobcat. The flows might be low or the pools just not deep enough to establish beaver in high enough densities to get over the predator hump out in the Sespe.

But how about a place like this:

Santa Clara River Estuary

Although the lower Santa Clara river runs dry due to the Freeman Diversion the estuary forms a veritable lake due to discharge from the Ventura wastewater treatment plant. Dense beds of tules and acres of willow thickets would be ideal forage. No cougars or bears here. Establishing a viable population would be possible and from here intrepid beavers could spread up into the entire watershed or be transplanted by humans to other areas in the watershed.

We just have to get over the "icky" reaction to treated wastewater- the wildlife already has.

Conejo Creek

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Beggars Can't Be Choosers: Every Drop of Water Counts

In the perpetual conflict between human water use and allowing natural watersheds to function we face a dilemma. Some of the best, and most consistent areas for year round water flow in riparian habits are inherently human modified systems.

Calleugas Creek. Camarillo CA

Above is a pic of Calleugas Creek taking by yours truly in late August. As you can see there is abundant riparian vegetation, including known beaver fodder such as willow and various reeds, and year round flow. Much of the year round flow in the Calleugas watershed is due to human discharge from agriculture, waste water discharge, water reclamation, and urban runoff. All of these contributing factors makes Calleugas one of the more notoriously polluted systems in California- but all of the fertilizer runoff stimulates a riot of plant growth (native and non-native btw). Despite the less than ideal water quality a mature steelhead female was recently found in the Conejo Creek tributary not too far from where this pic was taken. Being a federally endangered species this deceased fish is causing all kinds of havoc with local housing/construction projects. Make sure to read the link I provided above but the crux of the controversy is this; Conejo creek, which would naturally run dry, is fed by discharge through several municipal water treatment discharge facilities. In effect this discharge is creating a water flow regime that, some argue, would not normally even exist there. Steelhead, noted for their maverick tendencies to explore and colonize non-natal streams, may be coming up this watershed due explicitly to the anthropogenic year round flows. Should the municipalities/construction firms/treatment plants be obligated to maintain these flows for the fish in light of this?

Well, you can probably guess where my bias lies, but let me just suggest that given the amount of water  hijacked from the land over the years through human use- we do owe it to the land to optimize the feasibility of even heavily human modified water inputs for wildlife use. In arid lands, every bit of water, even potentially polluted/modified systems can provide habitat as the shown above by the steelhead in Conejo Creek.

It should be noted here that beaver with their ability to dam and slow down the flow of water, could significantly 'cleanse' such systems and optimize them for rehab. The large pools they create further enhance the area for vegetation to get a foothold and then the vegetation filters the water of pollutants. Polluted sediment also settles in these pools for bacterial cleansing.

Let's look at some of the other anthropogenic spots for riparian rehab I have came across.

Ventura Wastewater Settling Pools

Above are some pics of Ventura City wastewater settling pools, which slowly discharge into the Santa Clara River estuary. They are famous for bird-watching, attracting numerous waterfowl and even occasionally swans. The public is allowed to explore these ponds and as you can see there is abundant willow thickets. I've often thought that these ponds would be an ideal spot to place beaver. In these ponds they would not form dams, but it is an enclosed area with abundant beaver food where you could  raise beaver and then place into other watershed from here. Some of the waterfowl found here below.

Another hot spot for riparian rehabitation in human modified habitats is under freeway overpasses. In the Conejo steelhead story I mentioned earlier you will notice that the fish was found under the famed 101 freeway. Now, freeway overpasses don't immediately spring to mind when you think about potential spots for riparian wildlife refugia but they do provide some benefit in my experience. The shade they create cools the water down, a noted benefit for steelhead and other fish. And this shade, coupled with freeway pilings often allows water to linger longer though out the year in this microhabits.  In short there is a strong argument to be made that freeway overpasses may actually serve as important refugia for aquatic species through the dry periods. Below are some pics I took back in April in the Santa Clara river underneath the 101 freeway. It should be noted that we had a really bad year for rain and the main body of the river was unusually dry by April in this stretch of the Santa Clara.

In water strapped socal, beggars can't be choosers when it comes to water availability and riparian habitat. A creative use of human modified systems, coupled with beaver reintroduction in a pragmatic and realistic method, offers our best bet for enhancing the riparian habitats we have left.

And here is one of the best videos I have seen yet on beaver reintroduction into an arid river systems, the San Pedro of southeastern Arizona. Go read the blog post form Earth's Internet where I first found the video, a friend of this blog, where there is an interesting post up about beavers, Colorado River, and the unique and almost extinct native fish fauna of the Colorado River basin:

How Human Dams Destabilize River Food Webs and Beaver Dams Stabilize Them 

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