Completed designs include a secondary channel to reduce erosive forces on the cutbank, large wood structures and rock barbs to protect eroding banks, inset floodplain benches, and enhancements to existing rock slope protection. The log structures and rock barbs will induce scour to improve migratory conditions for adults and provide over-summering habitat for juvenile salmonids. The secondary channel and floodplain benches will provide high flow refugia for salmonids, while the newly vegetated rock slope protection will enhance the riparian corridor and provide shade to thermal loading in the creek. The work was constructed (summer and fall of 2015) with Waterways providing on-sight supervision.
Soquel Creek Floodplain Restoration
Client: RCD of Santa Cruz
A watershed assessment prepared for the East Branch of Soquel Creek identified limiting factors for steelhead and coho production which included high sediment loads, lack of pools, low summer base flows, and high water temperatures. In 2013, the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County contracted with Waterways to prepare a feasibility analysis and engineered designs for biomechanical bank stabilization of a large eroding cutbank and the creation of habitat enhancements along approximately 1,500 feet channel banks that were covered with unvegetated riprap, resulting in lack of habitat complexity or riparian cover.
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