Restoration
Restoration means the re-creation of something lost. The rich ecological abundance and diversity of the Yuba River watershed has been partially lost to a variety of anthropogenic (human-caused) impacts. Hydraulic mining and dams have been the largest impact, but dispersed mining and other land uses have contributed a variety of impacts including pollution, invasive species, ecological disruption and habitat loss. While actual restoration is not always achievable, remediation or rehabilitation can restore critical components of lost ecological function and thus serve to enhance habitat conditions from their current baseline.
With the assistance or leadership of volunteers, SYRCL is actively engaged in erosion control, exotic weed removal and planting of riparian plants. We also work with land management agencies in planning more challenging restoration projects, such as road decommissioning, mine land remediation, and dam removal. FERC relicensing provides a complex set of opportunities, not necessarily limited to restoring flows in diverted streams and rivers. SYRCL has provided leadership in the assessment and restoration of meadows and authored the following handbook: Sharing Stewardship – A Guide to Involving Volunteers in the Assessment, Monitoring and Restoration of Meadows in the Sierra Nevada
This visualization of a restored backwater habitat below Parks Bar represents one of many potential project concepts developed through the Lower Yuba Rehabilitation Program
The Rehabilitation Program on the Lower Yuba River works toward the goal of improving habitat conditions for salmon, steelhead and native wildlife through restoration of as much ecological function and structure as possible to a river dramatically impacted by hydraulic mining debris, dams, dredging, levees and flow alteration. The program involves developing specific project concepts and designs following a variety of assessments (geomorphic, hydraulic, riparian, etc) to inform project selection and funding. In 2011, SYRCL began implementing a pilot project for riparian enhancement at Hammon Bar. This is the first habitat restoration project to ever occur on the lower Yuba River, and our work seeks to develop many more projects built on a foundation of science and collaboration. For more information, see:
Fact Sheet for the Hammon Bar Pilot Project (2011)
Rehabilitation Concepts for the Parks Bar to Hammon Bar Reach of the Lower Yuba River (8.5 MB, November 2010)
