5C Program News - Volume 6, July 2011
(Download this news report as a pdf with additional stories, charts and illustrations) The 5C Enews is funded through the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program through the CA Department of Fish and Game

2011 Roads Workshop: The 8th "Roads Workshop" training was held at the Trinity Lakes Resort at Cedar Stock in May 2011. Approximately 66 attendees represented road departments from all 5 counties along with tribal, state and federal agencies, private sector businesses, fisheries biologists, & local government. Specialists in the restoration field presented topics and led panel discussions and field demonstrations. Workshop sessions included policy, permitting, BMPs, and innovative restoration techniques.

The workshop agenda included an overview of the Roads Manual and Best Management Practices (BMP), as well as sessions on the “State of the Fish & Watersheds,” programmatic workloads, county successes and program goals. Several field tours were conducted to discuss past project construction and future project design issues. Restoration specialists joined us in the field and attendees had the opportunity to discuss project design features and techniques.

Caspar Creek Design Recognized: The design team for the Caspar Creek Barrier Removal Project led by Winzler-Kelly Consulting, received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Statewide (Region 9) Outstanding Environmental Project Award in March 2011. The 5C Program, via a California Coastal Conservancy grant, funded design of the project and provided project, team and timeline management. Another Conservancy grant funded portions of project construction (refer to Enews Four & Five for more on the project). Congratulations to project partners- California Coastal Conservancy, Winzler & Kelly, California Department of Fish and Game, National Marine Fisheries Service, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) & US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station-Redwood Sciences Laboratory.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents 130,000 members of the civil engineering profession worldwide, and is America's oldest national engineering society. The Caspar Creek project is located in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, Mendocino County.

Recent & Upcoming Migration Barrier Projects:Featured fish passage enhancement projects by 5C member Counties collectively averaged 5.1 barrier removal projects per year with annual spending of approximately $1.5 million for construction, supplies and materials, which supports local economies. View our PDF version for more details, photos & information on these projects, click links to view additional information/photos

• Indian Creek FPIP in Humboldt County completed. The 10-ft wide x 10-ft high concrete box culvert with 1-2 ft vertical drop at the outlet was replaced with a new bridge installed in fall of 2010.
• Ryan Creek FPIP in Mendocino County in progress. Ryan Creek, a tributary to Outlet Creek, which is a tributary to the Eel River, is one of the longest migratory journeys made by coho salmon in California. This project removes a concrete box culvert with an outlet jump that prevents upstream migration, replacing it with a larger “stream simulation” arch structure.
• Connor Creek #1 in Trinity County completed. An existing box culvert with a jump at the outlet and high velocity flows was replaced with a bridge to accommodate 100-year flows and fish migration. The upper 41% of the watershed burned in a 2008 fire. An upstream partial barrier will be removed in 2012.
• Cave Creek-Tomki Road Low Water Crossing in Mendocino County completed, view in project gallery. This low water crossing was replaced with an arch culvert that can be safely overtopped in large floods. There are 8 more crossings that need to be addressed on this road.

2010/2011 Road Drainage and Sediment Reduction Projects

• China Gulch Phase IIA, Trinity Countycompleted. Ten road erosion sites within a 1-mile stretch of China Gulch Road in Trinity County were addressed during 2010
• Rube Creek/Cappel Road, Humboldt County completed. In July 2009, a sedimentation situation was discovered on Cappell Road, crossing Rube Creek (Klamath River). Investigation of road failures revealed that an eight-foot-diameter, 220-foot-long, steel multi-plate culvert had partially collapsed under 60 feet of road prism. It is likely that a tree entering the culvert tore a portion of the middle of the culvert away and saturated fill material washed out. Rather than a temporary repair that would necessitate future ground disturbance, the decision was made for a permanent replacement using County road funds.
• Usal Road Sediment Reduction, Mendocino County started September 2011. The Usal Road project represents a unique opportunity to experiment with geo-textile fabric and varying depths of base rock in combination with road drainage and woody material treatments. The cost and effectiveness of various treatments will be studied and results presented in a paper. If proven effective, additional Road BMP’s may be developed
• Trinity River/Dutch Creek Road Sediment Reduction Phase II, Trinity County starts 2012. Two proposed treatment sites on Dutch Creek are related to fill failures and slides. This project will include upgrading existing culverts and installing additional ones to dewater ditch segments at the base of active slides. Upslope of portions of the project area were burned in the 2008 fires, creating additional challenges.
• Frances Creek/Port Kenyan Road, Humboldt County in progress. While the culvert at this crossing site seems adequate at first glance, it will require replacement. Due to an extreme amount of sediment in the culvert, backlogging and overflowing are common occurrences.

Fisheries Monitoring and Project Design

• Sidney Gulch Monitoring, Trinity County in progress. A habitat improvement project for Sidney Gulch (Trinity County) is in the planning stages. Sidney Gulch, a tributary to Weaver Creek, is identified as a priority watershed for coho recovery under the CA Coho Recovery Strategy because of year-over-year Coho populations. There is potential to increase channel and habitat complexity to support larger populations of Coho, steelhead, and other aquatic species as well as increasing the stream’s carrying capacity.
• Telegraph Creek Dam Removal & Culvert Removal Design, Humboldt County completed. A concrete dam located approximately 1.1 miles upstream from the Pacific Ocean represents a partial barrier during winter flows and a total barrier during the dry season. The dam has been in place for over 40 years and is used as part of a water intake that provides Shelter Cove with 99% of it potable water. The project goal is removal of the dam (contingent upon the District securing an alternative water supply) and triple culvert on Telegraph Creek to re-establish fish passage and open an additional 4,900 feet of stream habitat for adult and juvenile salmonids.
• Sidney Gulch at Weaver Bally Loop Road Migration Barrier Removal Design, Trinity County in progress. The existing structure is a circular corrugated metal pipe 7-foot diameter and 60-feet long set at 4.91%. The culvert is undersized for 100-year flows and estimated to overtop during a 20-year storm flow. When first installed, engineers evaluated the stream and determined that the culvert did not have to be embedded, assuming that it would embed itself naturally. This determination proved wrong and the outlet of the culvert remains above grade and has downcut significantly. This new project would improve fish passage and reduce sediment by replacing one undersized culvert structure with a larger box culvert.

Download this news report as pdf with additional images, charts and illustrations

Download past issues of 5C News:

• Volume 6, July 2011
• Volume 5, June 2010
• Volume 4, September 2009
• Volume 3, October 2008
• Volume 2, February 2007
• Volume 1, August 2006

5C in the News:

• 1/19/12, Siskiyou Daily News - Siskiyou County Supervisors hear report by 5C Program staff
• 1/16/12, Siskiyou Daily News - Siskiyou County Supervisors to hear from 5C Program staff.
• 11/16/11, Trinity Journal - Spans installed at Conner Creek Fish Passage Improvment Project
• 9/21/11, Trinity Journal - Work begins on Conner Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project.
• 5/4/11, Trinity Journal- 5C completes water resources study, shares findings with Trinity County Board of Supervisors.
• 1/5/11, Trinity Journal- AmeriCorps clean garbage from creek as part of 5C sediment reduction project.
• 12/8/10, Trinity Journal- Coho Rising: features 5C Program Director Mark Lancaster on "fish patrol". Page also features video of a Coho Salmon attempting to migrate through the concrete channel.
• 6/23/10, Trinity Journal - photo feature of efforts to control invasive plant species at the Weaverville Basin Wetlands.
• 6/9/10, Trinity Journal - 5C Program Director Mark Lancaster helps coordinate composting project to reduce air pollution from burning.
• Vol 25, No. 2, 2009 Coast And Oceans Magazine features the Northern California counties fish passage and habitat restoration efforts, including the cover photograph of Morrison Gulch in Humboldt County
• 9/13/08, Eureka Times-Standard - 5C transfers from Trinity County to Non-Profit
• 7/26/07, Eureka Times-Standard - National Marine Fisheries Service approves 5C Road Manual for use by county road departments/CalTrans

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The 5C Enews is funded through the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program through the CA Department of Fish and Game

Image of Chinook Fry at top of page courtesy of USFWS & Dan Cox