Vern-Freeman Diversion Part 2

Above is a picture of water in southern California. Look closely because it is going away... Now what you are looking at is one of the main channels leading to the dozens of acres of man made ponds that recharge the aquifer on the Oxnard plain. The water is diverted from the Santa Clara River at this specific spot because of the congruence of the river leaving a wide valley and maximum percolation utility for the aquifer. Why is recharging the aquifer so important? Because growing strawberries in a semidesert. And because agriculture is taking out more than is being put back naturally. And because strawberries do not grow on salt water. And salt water intrusion occurs in places like Oxnard when freshwater groundwater reserves are tapped so long and hard that salt water creeps in. And it takes about 40 gallons of freshwater to combat 1 gallon of saltwater. Despite all these measures, it is quite possible that the water situation in Ventura county will be handed over to the feds through a process known as adjudication. Because we could not handle our resources responsibly the adults will have to step in.

What should be immediately apparent to you is that the Saticoy settling ponds as they are affectionately known are mainly dry. These ponds should be full this time of year doing their job recharging the aquifer. But nothing.

Depressed yet? I do not want to get you on a complete downer but it gets worse. Although the pools create habitat for numerous birds and there are some fish (non native for the most part), reptiles, and amphibians that use the ponds - what you should notice is that all emergent vegetation is completely scoured away. No willows, tules, cattails - all plants that would thrive in such an environment and provide crucial habitat - are scoured away to prevent clogging of the gravity fed system of pipes, berms, and levees.

Now the word mitigation gets used a lot when discussing the complex matter of nature being steamrolled by human wants and interests. It usually goes something like this (to paraphrase) "We are going to do so much damage to the system, I mean just completely disrupt things that for a little pity party we will do this little token of appreciation over here for you (insert park, nature center etc etc)." 

Well how about this for mitigation? Let the settling ponds re-vegetate and naturalize a bit, providing habitat for wildlife. It might take a little bit of extra work keeping the culvert clear, minimizing disruption and what not. But why can't it be done? Perhaps these extra costs could themselves be mitigated by allowing fishermen and bird watchers onto the property for a nominal fee? Kayaking anybody?

My point is this: the Vern-Freeman diversion though it provides a necessary service to the agricultural economy of this region can not escape the burden of proof that it, like all man-made water diversions/dams, has imposed a huge burden on the evolutionary, geological, and ecological processes of the Santa Clara river watershed. Is United Water doing all that it can in its power to mitigate these damages?

Well as I pointed out above I do not think so, but in all fairness as my last post addressed they are doing much more than they have in the past by taking a pro-active approach to fish passage, designing a new fish ladder, getting a cool fish camera etc etc.

And finally, this being a beaver blog after all, what is the connection to beaver? You should know that the Sespe River is the primary tributary of the Santa Clara River- providing about 40% of the flow into the river. And if you are up to date on your beaver studies in socal you should also know that a primary piece of data used in the Lanman et al paper on historic range of beaver in California was a beaver collected in 1906 on the Sespe prior to statewide translocations of beaver. Beaver are native to this watershed. While some parts of the Santa Clara do become dry sandy washes unsuitable for beaver other parts such as the diversion and upriver in Santa Paula contains some flows year round. Beaver could live here. Take a look at the video below on how the channel is maintained to see the habitat here for them.

And take a look slightly upriver in the city of Santa Paula. You will notice good flow, abundant riparian vegetation, and where some diversions have created some faux beaver ponds already.

And check out the habitat on the Santa Paula Creek, a tributary nearby:

Santa Paula Creek

Now if you think like me you have already made the connection. Humans divert river water into man made ponds to allow water to slowly percolate back into and recharge over drafted aquifer. What furry, buck toothed critter do we all know that does that already? And does it for free while at the same time providing abundant habitat for other critters? Hmmmm.... United Water engaged in multiple law suits with  environmental groups, fish groups, municipalities over water rates, looming adjudication. Beaver involved in 0.0 lawsuits. Charge nothing for their water. Allow fish passage. Allow percolation.

One specific issue at the diversion was the issue of high sediment load in the water. Before going into the Saticoy ponds the water is shunted through a series of settling ponds where the sediment is allowed to drop out of the water so as not to gunk up the pipes.

One word of encouragement. According to Steve Howard, senior fisheries biologist at Freeman, they decided not to trap out the badgers who have begun colonizing the dry settling ponds. Even though their aggressive digging could destabilize earthen berms they opted to utilize the mustelids as rodent control for a booming ground squirrel population. Maybe if United Water decides to take a "let nature do the job" attitude towards badgers there is hope for beavers and United Water collaborating in the future? Perhaps as a collaborative partner in groundwater recharge?

"The arrogance of man is in thinking he is in control of nature and not the other way around."
                                                                                                                                         Godzilla 2014

Dinosaur trap at Vern-Freeman (cowbird trap-nest parasite)

Southland Beaver Visits the Vern-Freeman Diversion Dam Part 1

Among the river systems of southern California it is the Santa Clara River that offers perhaps the most promising hope for restorations. Unlike the Santa Ynez river it is not dammed. Unlike the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and Santa Ana rivers it is not channelized. As the largest river system in southern California that is not dammed and not channelized the Santa Clara has garnered much attention from groups such as the Nature Conservancy who are working to protect large chunks of this watershed. Many unique and imperiled species utilize the Santa Clara River as habitat. Riparian species of concern include western pond turtle, unarmored three spine stickleback, tidewater goby, southern steelhead, pacific lamprey, Santa Ana sucker, arroyo toad, southwestern willow flycatcher, least bell's vireo, western yellow-billed cuckoo, and red-legged frogs- among others. Additionally the Santa Clara River maintains connectivity with many of its tributaries the larger including Sespe Creek, Santa Paula Creek, Piru Creek, and Castaic Creek. Several of these creeks, most notably the Sespe, are undammed and offer miles of prime steelhead habitat and produce ocean bound smolts annually. Regular readers should recognize Sespe Creek as the source creek from which a beaver specimen was captured in 1906 by Dr. John Hornung and was a foundational piece in the recently published paper by Lanman et al proving the historical presence of beaver in coastal southern Californian streams. But more on the prospects of beaver reintroduction into this watershed later.

Despite the rosy picture I paint the Santa Clara has some definite issues. Chief among these are invasive    plants and animals (especially the giant reed Arundo donax), agricultural and urban runoff, groundwater pumping, agricultural diversions, and last, but not least, the Vern-Freeman diversion installed in 1991. For a brief history of the dam check this out. This diversion was built to direct flows from the river to recharge the Oxnard aquifer and protect against salt-water intrusion. The Oxnard plain is an agricultural hub. Chances are if you eat a lot of strawberries you have probably ate an Oxnard strawberry, which was watered by water provided by the Vern-Freeman diversion, which was water taken from the Santa Clara River. While at first the diversion was hailed as a major success - increased reliance on high water crops, miscalculations on the amount of water that can be withdrawn, the recognition of southern steelhead as federally endangered species in 1997, and several drought episodes including the current one - have all compiled to put the diversion and the agency that runs it, United Water, through some very pressing times. United Water has went through and is currently engaged with several lawsuits ranging from municipality water rates to securing better flows and passage for fish movement.

It is in this context that southland beaver was permitted to view and be granted access to the diversion by the senior fisheries biologist employed at United Water's Vern-Freeman diversion dam, Steve Howard. For reference sake the diversion is located about 1/2 between Santa Paula and the ocean on the map above.

Senior Fisheries Biologist Steve Howard explains Vern-Freeman Diversion Santa Clara River

Now, here I want to thank Steve again for spending two hours of his time taking me around and answering all of my questions. I was pleased to find out he is a true fish guy and this was good news because I had long held negative connotations for United Water with regards to their fish work. But Steve seems like the right guy for the job and as we talked I could see he really was making some strident efforts for steelhead and lamprey (don't forget the lamprey!!) in this river. I learned that because of downstream down cutting of the river due to quarry work, the diversion was actually offering some benefit by preventing the down cutting to continue upstream.

So what kind of fish passage does the Vern-Freeman have? Well watch the video below as Steve explains the Denil fish way they use, why it is not the best system for the river, and how they are going to improve it. World exclusive on southland beaver!!

Denil Fishway on Vern-Freeman and New Passageway Coming!!

Did you catch all that? The problem with this particular fish passageway on this particular river is that when the Santa Clara rages, it really rages. Steve told me he has seen the river in such flow that as it crossed the diversion wall, it scarcely dropped in height at all. Now for a steelhead trying to find its way upstream in such a torrent, in flows that come and go quickly, it may miss it's opportunity to pass by keying in on the area of highest flows (the diversion wall itself) and missing the passageway. Let us look a bit at the Denial fish passageway.

Denil Fish Passageway

Now if a steelhead makes it up through the ladder, how would Steve know that it made it through? Well it turns out that the steelhead on this particular passageway are some of the most highly scrutinized fish in the world. Steelhead have to pass through a point where they are on motion detection camera from two angles as well as infrared detection. Pretty sweet...

So despite all the difficulties with steelhead on this river going through this particular diversion- have any made it through? Turns out yes, in 2012 two mature ocean-grown steelhead made it back up and through the diversion. Steve has the video to prove it which I will show below.

Well need less to say Steve said he was jumping through the roof when those two steelies made it through in 2012.

Some may wonder- why are all these resources and water being given to a fish?

Now for me southern steelhead are some of the coolest fish around. I mean big fish like those two make it up through largely intermittent to totally dry rivers during brief high flow events in a mad dash to their spawning grounds in perennial, spring and snowmelt fed streams. For any readers here from more wetter parts of the world the picture below shows how much of the lower Santa Clara looks the vast majority of the year, if not a sandy wash.

Until it looks like this:

And even with all the crap we throw at them they still make a go at it.  People can learn a lot from this fish in my estimation. That fish to me is very inspiring, more so than most humans at least.

More to come including how channel maintenance is achieved, fish traps, settling ponds, percolation, bird life at the diversion, problems with badgers and I ask the question: 
Is the Vern-Freeman diversion doing what beaver would do naturally? (and for free)

Support me on Patreon.

Like antediluvian salad on facebook.

Watch me on Deviantart @NashD1.Subscribe to my youtube channel Duane Nash.

My other blog antediluviansalad.blogspot

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 

Support me on Patreon.

Like antediluvian salad on facebook.

Watch me on Deviantart @NashD1.Subscribe to my youtube channel Duane Nash.

My other blog antediluviansalad.blogspot