Putah Creek funds flowing

Woodland Daily Democrat - June 01, 2005
By David Henson

After securing a $345,000 state grant last week, local agencies are eager to wade in, financially and otherwise, to one of the largest restoration projects undertaken within the Putah Creek watershed.

The massive earth-moving project will take place just south of Winters at the confluence of the Dry and Putah creeks and benefit transportation, habitat conservation and other areas.

Under the Solano County Water Agency's lead, the project will redirect the two streams away from precariously eroding banks and restore Putah Creek to its original course.

"We're kind of turning back the clock to pre-1997," said Rich Marovich of the Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee, the project's proponents.
"And we're hoping to get this going this year, because every year, the damage gets worse."

In 1997, high water and dense, non-native vegetation diverted Putah Creek closer to the steep banks along Putah Creek Road, washing away at least 30 feet of bank in subsequent years.

Left unchecked, the erosion caused by the creek's current course would eat its way farther toward the east-west roadway, eventually forcing its closure and a spate of emergency repairs, Marovich said.

Similarly, work on Dry Creek will steer erosion away from unstable, nearly vertical banks near homes on Russell Boulevard.

The first step toward improving the creeks was to clear the non-native vegetation. With that accomplished, restoring the confluence of Putah and Dry creeks can succeed, officials said, providing for two important latent effects.

Restoration of the creeks will allow for increased gravel beds ideal for spawning Chinook salmon. In addition, the completed project will improve avian habitats for the 100-plus species of birds that depend upon the watershed, officials said.

Because of far-reaching benefits, funding from all around has washed up on the banks of the project.

The Solano Transportation Authority kicked in $48,000, and the Wildlife Conservation Board offered another $100,000 because of the rich habitat the watershed offers.

The water agency is also donating 40,000 cubic yards of earth to rebuild banks as well as administrative support.

But the majority of funding will flow from the $345,000 grant, which was awarded Friday to the county water agency and the Putah Creek Council by the state's Urban Streams Restoration Program.

Receiving the $345,000 - one of 17 proposals selected from a field of 90 - demonstrates the "unique value of the confluence Putah and Dry creeks," Marovich said.

A timetable for the project has yet to be established, and neither has it been bid to contractors.

The grant and future prospect of the project are positive developments for advocates of Putah Creek, who have been faced with a flood of bad news since the invasive New Zealand Mud Snail was discovered more than a year ago.

Since that time, the asexual snail has spread, most recently into the Putah South Canal - a water source for Solano and Yolo counties.

But the project will provide the snail's disadvantaged competitors in the food chain with a little help. The gravel beds where salmon spawn double as a prime habitat for native insects, while the snails tend to avoid those areas.

"It won't do anything for the mud snail, but it will help offset the damage of the snail," Marovich said.

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