Santa Cruz, CA
831.421.9291
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 		  Portland, OR
503.227.5979
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Soquel Creek Floodplain Restoration

SoquelPage12 CroppedA watershed assessment prepared for the East Branch of Soquel Creek identified high sediment loads, lack of pools, low summer base flows, and high water temperatures as limiting factors for steelhead and coho production.  In 2013, the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County contracted with Waterways to prepare a feasibility analysis and engineered designs for a biomechanical bank stabilization of a large eroding cutbank and for habitat enhancements along approximately 1,500 feet of channel banks that were covered with unvegetated riprap, resulting in lack of habitat complexity or riparian cover. 

 

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 by providing shade that reduces the thermal loading in the creek. Waterways provided on-sight construction supervision during the summer and fall 2015.

 

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