Mill Creek Archives - Sempervirens Fund

A Stewardship Story: Return to Nature

WEBDOGS — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 13:00:17 +0000

A Stewardship Story:

Return to Nature

Surviving since nearly the age of the dinosaurs, redwoods are resilient—resisting bugs, fungus, rot, floods, and even fire. But only 5% of them have survived the last century and a half. Human impacts like clear cut logging, development, and the increasingly extreme weather events of our changing climate have left redwood forests struggling to recover.

Together, we are carefully caring for the redwood forests you protect, resetting their natural systems, and helping them return to nature.

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Caring for our Lands

photo by Orenda Randuch

Resetting Redwoods

A century and a half ago, as California’s economy expanded, settlers and industrialists began moving into the Santa Cruz Mountains and deciding what the redwood forests were for. Imagine seeing for the first time the dense understory of sky-scraping titans shading young redwoods in a diverse community that nourished wildlife and cooled creeks teeming with Coho-salmon. Navigating the untouched forest proved difficult and dangerous, but within the forests’ intricate ecosystem these newcomers also saw the potential to use the forest to grow cities like San Francisco and to establish new businesses, institutions, and more.

In an act of hubris, they forcibly carved roads into hillsides that gave their equipment access to each tree and stream, disrupting what had been thriving for thousands of millennia. Today, giant stumps, evenly-aged forests, and Coho-less creeks are the familiar scars of the once decimated forests. These crossings and structures continue to redirect water and sediment today; a large reason why in many places, protection alone cannot undo that damage. Restoring impacted forests begins by removing infrastructure designed for short-term extraction in mind.

Thanks to you, we steward more than 12,000 acres of protected land that we work to restore to nature for all of us.

Take a peek behind the trees at how you have helped the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains–some of the most biodiverse and threatened on Earth–return to nature this year.

A Fainter Footprint in the Forest

In 2023, you protected more than 50 acres of redwood forest bordering Castle Rock State Park. This land had long been caught between commercial timber zoning and the steady expansion of a public park. As one of the last undeveloped inholdings within the park boundary, Castle Rock Hollow plays a quiet but important role in reconnecting forest and trail across the landscape, and can help realign the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail.

But tucked amongst its groves were several dilapidated buildings, unsafe for people and wildlife, and silently seeping chemicals and toxins into the soil and water. Thanks to you, these structures and materials were removed in the summer of 2024, ahead of winter rains and winds that could increase their threat to the forest and all who rely on it.

Watch as photographer Ian Bornarth documents the removal of these structures at Castle Rock Hollow and the space is returned to the forest.

Removing Roads Less Traveled

While not all of the forests we protect have unsafe buildings and materials on them, nearly all of them have roads. Many were designed for short-term industrial uses rather than long-term stability on steep terrain. Some continue to provide necessary access to the forest for stewardship, wildlife monitoring, and emergency crews like firefighters. But unmaintained roads can add to the erosion of mountainsides, fragile after the CZU Fire and the extreme winter storms that followed.

With fewer plants to help hold soil in place, dirt roads can wash out, taking away the soil the recovering forest needs, and muddying critical water sources we and wildlife need. With your support, we were able to “rock” crucial access roads—establishing beds of crushed gravel—and decommission unnecessary roads to reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, and give the space back to the forest.

See Orenda Randuch’s photos before and after the removal of an unused road at the Lompico Headwaters you protected in 2006.

Undamming Water and Wildlife

Unmaintained roads are not the only structures that disrupt forest systems. Dams can alter watersheds more completely and for far longer. A defunct dam on San Vicente Redwoods’ Mill Creek trapped sediment behind it for 100 years—creating poor water quality upstream and poor habitat quality downstream. Endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout return from the sea to the forest to spawn the next generation among the pools created by redwood roots.

They depend on loose gravel and cobble to form stable beds for their eggs and to shape pools and riffles that shelter young fish. For nearly a century, that material was trapped behind the Mill Creek dam. Thanks to you, the dam was removed in 2021, and now sediment is able to move downstream again. Within a year, endangered coho salmon fry were documented in the watershed for the first time on record. These young fish will spend several years at sea before returning as adults. We continue to monitor the creek’s recovery through wildlife monitoring and an ongoing environmental DNA sampling project with UCLA and Amah Mutsun Land Trust. In the future, we hope to see the fry observed in Mill Creek complete that cycle and return to spawn, marking the first confirmed generation to do so in more than a century.

Watch as our Stewardship Team return fry to the creek after being counted.

Rooting Out Invasive Species

Infrastructure isn’t the only thing humans brought into the redwoods. As people across the country and globe came to the Santa Cruz mountains, plants and creatures came with them. Invasive plants like French, Scotch, and Italian broom took root in places without pests and pathogens equipped to naturally keep them in check. A single plant, such as old man’s beard (Clematis vitalba), can quickly cover ground in the forest and strangle redwood trees. Invasive plants can be a double-edged sword to the heart of the forest as they go up the canopy. Not only can they grow quickly without natural checks—crowding out the native plants the redwood forest and its creatures rely upon—they are also less fire-resilient—making their big growth a big pile of fuel for a wildfire.

A seemingly harmless sounding species, periwinkle (Vinca major), is particularly difficult to remove because any root left in the soil will regenerate into new plants. Thanks to you, invasive periwinkle and French broom removal projects began in the summer of 2024 in the redwood forest you protected at Lompico Headwaters. In 2025 and beyond, the work has continued as a returning project so native plants can re-establish themselves on the forest floor. Your support allows us to remove invasive plants, their deep roots and copious seeds, so these invaded patches do not become a persistent source of dry, flashy fuel in the hotter, drier years predicted to come.

See our Stewardship Team's photos before and after work to remove a patch of periwinkle from the forest by hand.

Returning Redwoods to Nature and Resilience

The truth is: redwood forests still bear the scars of a history marked by profoundly destructive human intervention. They have endured axes and bulldozers, but also lingering barriers like dams, buildings, and invasive species. What has changed is how we act now. Stewardship, for us, is the ongoing work of carefully and humbly understanding how to support forests toward what they once were, and what they still have the potential to become.

Protecting our last remaining redwood forests from further development is a crucial first step. By reducing human impacts left on the land, natural systems regain the capacity to respond, adapt, and recover. Together, we will continue to anchor broader efforts to renew watersheds, support resilient forests, and accelerate the collective well-being of ecosystems that redwoods are capable of achieving. With your help, our forests will be resilient and strong, able to support wildlife, clean water, fresh air, cooler temperatures, and healthy communities for generations to come.

More to Explore

See San Vicente Redwoods’ fire recovery and resilience in the photo essay Fuel for Fire
Read more about Monitoring Wildlife
Learn more about Caring for Our Lands

The post A Stewardship Story: Return to Nature appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

The Seedling Saga

WEBDOGS — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 02:56:05 +0000

The Seedling Saga

A Surprisingly Epic Journey from Roots to Restoration

Plant a native plant and habitat is restored! Right? The saga of these seedlings, five years in the making, offers a look at the deceptively difficult process and planning that come before planting and the seemingly endless problems that stand between their roots and restoring native habitat.

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Caring For Our Lands

photo by Orenda Randuch.

Natives and Invasives

Native plants–evolved specifically to survive with the soil, weather, plants, animals, insects, and fungi around them–help provide food, habitat, soil nutrients, and clean water in their local ecosystem. But native plants have been drastically reduced over the last two centuries as people brought crops, grasses, trees, decorative plants, and possibly some accidental stowaways with them from their homelands as they colonized, settled, and immigrated to the United States.

Today, we have a better understanding of the impacts introducing new species can have on an ecosystem not equipped through coevolution to keep them in check and the local web of life balanced. Removing invasive species like Clematis vitalba and French broom (Genista monspessulana) that can quickly overtake the landscape and its native inhabitants is a critical ongoing struggle as we care for protected lands and restore native plants to the habitat for insects, wildlife, and the plant community. But major disasters aside, the process of planting native plants may not be as simple and straightforward as one thinks.

Beatrix and UCSC intern Mariana Macomber, who also cared for the seedlings at the greenhouse, remove invasive plants at San Vicente Redwoods, by Ian Bornarth.

It Starts With Seed

California blackberry, by zias.

To restore native plants for the myriad of benefits they perform, we start by collecting seeds from existing plants on a property. In 2017, Ian Rowbotham, Sempervirens Fund’s Senior Land Stewardship Manager, and interns from University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) gathered seeds and berries at San Vicente Redwoods from California blackberries (Rubus ursinus), western thimbleberries (Rubus parviflorus), monkeyflower (Diplacus aurantiacus), and elk clovers (Aralia californica). They delivered the botanical bounty to the UCSC Greenhouse, where Greenhouse Director Sylvie Childress and her team mimic the natural process of seed dispersal.

In the case of berries, that means imitating digestion–which, hang on, isn’t as bad as it sounds. Sylvie explains the berries are squished on paper to retrieve the seeds for washing in a sieve. But even once clean, the seeds aren’t ready to sprout. “They have germination inhibitors, so they are sown in a flat of soil and cold stratified in a refrigerator for about two to three months until they sprout,” Sylvie says. The seeds are checked frequently by Sylvie and her team because once they start to germinate, they need the sun. The little sprouting seeds are ready to pot.

The Phytosanitary Process

The potting process Sylvie and her team use for restoration plants like the seedlings isn’t so dissimilar to a medical team preparing for a procedure and that’s because the goal is to prevent the spread of disease. Pathogens like Sudden Oak Death can spread quickly through the forest and can be introduced into the wild from commercial potted plants, Sylvie says. So, when seeking to restore a habitat, it's critical the planting effort doesn’t do more harm to the forest than good.

The seedlings’ pots and tools are washed and sanitized before potting, only brand-new soil is used, and the newly potted plants are grown up off the ground so they aren’t splashed with water that can also carry Sudden Oak Death. “Phytosanitary processes are more costly but necessary,” Sylvie explains. And its helpful training for the students who frequently enter the restoration field after their time at UCSC.

Sylvie Childress, UCSC Greenhouse Director, by Orenda Randuch.

From Stubby Pots to Setbacks

California blackberry seedlings in D-pots, by Orenda Randuch.

Each sprouting seed gets a “stubby” pot to call its own. Stubby pots are frequently used for restoration plants, Sylvie says, because they take up much less space. “You can get almost 100 per rack.” Space that becomes rather more crucial as time goes on. Now potted, the seedlings would grow in the sun for another few months to round out their typical 6-month stay at the rooftop garden of the main campus’ instructional facility.

Typically, this is perfect timing to be planted late in the fall to soak up the winter rains. And a few plants were able to do just that–”outplanted” by interns at San Vicente Redwoods. But before all of the seedlings could be planted, the first disaster struck and COVID-19 rocked the world putting in-person programs like plantings–that would often necessitate riding in the same vehicle capable of navigating the rural dirt roads crisscrossing the property–on hiatus.

Lightning Strikes

Normally, these seedlings would have been planted in the forest as soon as they started to sprout. But care for the plants went on at the greenhouse, with nearly 300 remaining sprouts forced to wait out the pandemic in what might be likened to a seedling spa. While the pandemic was in full swing, lightning literally struck, igniting the CZU Fire which burned through 86,000 acres in the Santa Cruz mountains region including the seedlings home–San Vicente Redwoods–delaying their planting by another couple winters as the forest stabilized and began to recover.

All the while, the seedlings are growing and the stubby pots, ideal for plants making a quick transition out into the field, are much too small. “After their first year in those small pots, we needed to upsize them to the larger ‘D Pots’, which fit 20 per rack, in order to hold them for the time it took until they were planted out,” Sylvie explains. After a professional re-potting, the seedlings were better prepared for the long haul.

Elks clover roots, by Orenda Randuch.

“They’ve been in these pots for many years,” Sylvie says, “but the roots are staying healthy.” Their good condition is likely because of their good fortune of being at the greenhouse where they have been patiently cared for by about 50 student employees and intern experts over the years–fertilizing and pruning at “just the right time”.

Each seedling is pruned two to three times a year when it looks “crammed or less healthy” and fertilizers are diversified including liquid fertilizers as often as monthly and granular slower-release fertilizers every few months. All the while they’re being plant-pampered, our Field Operations Manager Melisa Cambron Perez points out their root systems have been able to grow and the seedlings have been able to mature through several seasons before facing the challenges that lie ahead in nature.

By The Numbers

285 Plants

240 Planted

140+ Species Associated

60 People

50 Seedlings Remaining

6 Months - Typical Timeline

5 Years - Current Timeline

3 Disasters

25% Guesstimated Survival Rate

How Many Will Survive?

Great Survival Rate

Sylvie with California blackberries, by Orenda Randuch.

For seedlings in pots, Sylvie says they’ve had a great survival rate, especially for plants that have stayed at the greenhouse much longer than other guests in her experience. In fact, these seedlings have been at the greenhouse nearly as long as Sylvie has.

Typically, when propagating plants for restoration projects, she would grow about 10% more plants than are needed to ensure enough survive for the project. However, she is less familiar with the plant’s survival rates once they leave her care. For that, we turn to our Natural Resource Manager Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley. “Plant survivorship varies greatly, and is more unpredictable during today’s climate which has shown to swing from heat waves like we saw in Winter 2022 to bomb cyclones like we’re seeing in Winter 2023,” she says. “Because of this, my guesstimate is 25% of these will survive.”

Plant Problems

While being in pots for so long has been one of the primary challenges during their time at the greenhouse, Sylvie, like Beatrix, notes that unpredictable weather will be one of the largest challenges ahead for seedlings in nature. And for 240 seedlings, this winter was when they were finally reintroduced to nature and the problems it can pose for a plant.

Twenty California blackberries and 40 western thimbleberries were planted at the new entrance to San Vicente Redwoods to help with regeneration and stabilization after construction, 50 elk clovers were planted along newly repaired crossings at Little Creek to help regeneration, and 50 elk clovers were planted alongside a stream that feeds into Mill Creek to help shade and cool it's crucial recovering endangered coho salmon spawning habitat. But the very things they were tasked to help remedy may have become the most imminent threat to the seedlings’ survival.

Elks clover at San Vicente Redwoods, by Melisa Cambron Perez.

The seedlings at the parking lot looked good, Beatrix said. But that was before the January storms–the deluge of atmospheric rivers, flooding, and bomb cyclones that hit the coast beginning on New Years 2023. Melisa notes the elk clovers planted near the waterways could be washed out from heavy storms–which isn’t difficult to imagine after seeing coverage of entire sections of road being washed away, despite the advantage of getting to develop their root system at the greenhouse for years.

Planting at San Vicente Redwoods, by Melisa Cambron Perez.

Beatrix agrees, “the elks clover planted along tributaries can be washed out from huge rains and high stream flows.” And the berries may be at risk too she points out, “the California blackberries and western thimbleberries at the parking lot were planted on slopes to help with stabilization, however, with the unexpected dump of rain, they may not have developed an extensive root system yet and are vulnerable to erosion,” Beatrix explains.

These storms aren’t just a threat to the planted seedlings either. They are also the third disaster delaying the remaining 50 seedlings from being planted at San Vicente Redwoods. The severe storms have oversaturated roads which not only prevents our team from checking on the planted seedlings it also prevents the final plantings, Melisa explains. “If the roads are too wet, then driving on them can cause damage which would in turn lead to more repairs in the future,” she said.

But the storm has also created major safety concerns, made exponentially greater because of the 2020 CZU Fire. “Given the high fire severity San Vicente Redwoods faced, a lot of trees don't have strong root systems to hold them steady in oversaturated soil and high winds, and trees have started falling–blocking roads.” Melisa continued, “ live trees have also had their tops blown off due to heavy winds–making a potential planting area too dangerous to access.”

Many parks in the Santa Cruz mountains are facing similar challenges as the storm compounds fire recovery conditions adding extra erosion, mudslides and falling trees to the mix, and temporarily closing many parks including San Vicente Redwoods while safety is assessed. With any luck, blackberries and thimbleberries will greet visitors when the gate reopens.

San Vicente Redwoods' fire recovery, by Teddy Miller.

Berry Beneficial

Golden-crowned sparrow with a blackberry smeared bill, by Becky Matsubara.

California blackberry, western thimbleberry, and elk clovers all produce edible berries that creatures can forage, Beatrix says. Their flowers can support more than one hundred different species of pollinators like moths and butterflies. They provide shade and shelter for native species. “The California blackberry can form thickets that offer protective cover to small mammals like brush rabbits and offer good nesting sites for small birds,” Beatrix explains.

California blackberries have very gentle prickles, Sylvie demonstrates by running her hand gently along them, compared to the invasive Himalayan blackberries’ giant prickles. But the Himalayan variety can be found all over the Santa Cruz mountains in part because it also has larger berries which attract birds and people alike.

California vs. Himalayan Blackberry

California blackberry flower

by Mathesont

Himalayan blackberry flower

by ldjaffe

California blackberry thorns

by Jerry Kirkhart

Himalayan blckberry thorns

by Don Loarie

While all plants compete for light and nutrients,”the biggest competitors are non-native plants,” Beatrix says. Invasive plants like the Himalayan blackberry pose the biggest challenge to the seedlings’ survival. Without an ecosystem coevolved to balance it, such as animals and insects that want to eat it, little to nothing stands in the invasive plant’s way. Hopefully, the extra growth the seedlings got during their years of favorable conditions at the greenhouse will help them withstand the non-native competition because when coupled with exposure to the elements, their growth will likely be slower in the forest, Beatrix states.

Growing the Forest

Native plantings like these help support the forest understory by supporting abiotic factors of the ecosystem–like sunlight, minerals, water, and soil–and biotic-living factors in the ecosystem. “The plants themselves, such as the elk clovers and western thimbleberry, have large leaflets which can provide shade and cooling for the soil and water on the forest floor,” Beatrix illustrates. Even underground the seedlings’ roots can provide structural support for the soil–decreasing erosion–and their root decomposition sequesters carbon. “They provide food, shelter, and habitat for resident species,” Beatrix says.

Once the roads are safe and the weather calm, Beatrix and Melisa will check on the planted seedlings and resume plans to plant the remaining 50 western thimbleberries at the UCSC greenhouse so they can help the land recover from fire, restore native habitat, and help brace the soil for the droughts, floods and fires to come.

For now the seedlings sit in pots outside a greenhouse of young redwoods, where a graduate student is working to better understand how redwoods cope with drought–information that will be invaluable for helping redwoods survive the climate changes ahead.

Mature elks clover shades a creek, by Ken Koll.

Stay tuned for an update on the Saga of the Seedlings. You can also make an impact for forest resiliency with a gift to Grow the Forest.

Grow the Forest

You can honor someone and help regrow and restore redwood forests

Donate

More to Explore

Read about redwood seedlings restoring habitat at San Vicente Redwoods
Learn more about San Vicente Redwoods
Read more about the redwood fire recovery timeline in Nature Needs Time to Heal

The post The Seedling Saga appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

Monitoring Wildlife for Healthy Forests

WEBDOGS — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 08:05:39 +0000

Monitoring Wildlife for Healthy Forests

On the Land, Water, and Air

Protecting and restoring the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains is no small task. Especially after all they have endured–clear-cut logging and fire suppression–and what we hope they can continue to endure: climate change. And as our Land Team can tell you, it's not always straightforward. While the size and majesty of a coast redwood often dominates the landscape, like all ecosystems, there is so much more than meets the eye–a complex, delicate, and intricate web of life comprised of the reciprocity of thousands of life forms from the microorganisms in the soil, fungi and insects, to the plants, trees, and wildlife. A bit like taking a temperature, monitoring wildlife can give us an indication of the health of the land and help to inform stewardship needed to restore its vitality.

What can monitoring wildlife on the land, water, and air tell us about recovery and recreation in the forest? Read on to learn more.

Donate Now

photo by Pathways for Wildlife

Why Wildlife?

Unlike statuesque and stationary redwoods, the wildlife they help provide habitat for can be rather difficult to see–whether they’re well-camouflaged, super speedy, ranging across huge habitats, seasonal, or prefer to move under the cover of darkness. Monitoring wildlife can help to assess overall ecosystem health and give us a sense of what species are using different parts of the property, so we can plan projects as needed, coordinate with researchers, and assess areas and seasons to reduce use. Although wildlife often shy away from people, science has developed many ways to uncover the presence of wildlife on the land, in the water, and in the air.

End of the Range

The Santa Cruz mountains are close to the end of the range for redwoods, endangered coho salmon, and endangered marbled murrelets. This southernmost habitat marks the edge of favorable conditions like temperature and precipitation that these species need. And of course, climate change is pushing those temperatures higher and pushing the water cycle further into extreme undulations between drought and deluge. Monitoring these species here in the Santa Cruz mountains can not only give us invaluable data for the species as a whole but also inform adaptive management stewardship strategies.

Multifaceted partnerships with experts help to gather and analyze data to guide whether action is needed to better restore the natural processes altered by recent human impacts such as clear-cut logging, damming, and the introduction of invasive species.

“Protecting wildlife that are there is a part of our goal. Understanding where they are, what they are doing, and when helps us to manage the land holistically,” our Natural Resource Manager Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley explains. We monitor wildlife across our protected lands but San Vicente Redwoods has been a research hotspot–a living laboratory for field studies–for over a decade and with the upcoming opening of its new trails, we’re poised to learn even more.

illustration by Ink Dwell.

San Vicente Redwoods

San Vicente Redwoods was protected in 2011 as a dynamic partnership with Peninsula Open Space Trust, Save the Redwoods League, and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. Since then, San Vicente Redwoods’ nearly 9,000 acres including old-growth redwoods, oak woodlands, grasslands, and eight creeks have hosted a plethora of research from geomorphology studies on its unique karst systems underground to the many species that soar, roost, or nest in the redwood crowns and cliffs above. Countless things make San Vicente Redwoods extraordinary but with the partnerships’ plans to open San Vicente Redwoods for public recreation, being able to monitor wildlife before and after it opens is extremely valuable data.

Through various research approaches to wildlife monitoring, we are able to get a glimpse behind the curtain at the creatures in the land, water, and air.

photo by Ian Bornarth.

Land

photo by Ian Rowbotham.

Click a topic below to learn more about monitoring wildlife on the land:

Peregrine Falcons

photo by Roy W. Lowe, UFWS

In 1970, just two productive peregrine falcon nests could be found in all of California. Today, at least three peregrine falcon nests are known within a 15-mile radius of Santa Cruz alone–one of which is at San Vicente Redwoods. The nest, perched in rocky outcroppings, as peregrine falcons traditionally do, has been monitored by Predatory Bird Research Group at University California Santa Cruz for several years. Peregrine falcons remain fully protected in California, and successful hatchlings are banded to continue gathering information on the species.

Arguably the fastest animal on earth, with diving speeds estimated to reach over 200 miles per hour, monitoring peregrine falcons at nesting sites is far more conducive than trying to monitor them out and about. Unlike another protected species capable of impressive speeds.

Pumas

photo by Sebastian Kennerknecht

The largest creature currently roaming San Vicente Redwoods is the puma, which requires an understandably sizable habitat to sustain itself. Their extensive ranges are likely one reason only 40 known pumas are active in the Santa Cruz mountains. With habitat frequently interrupted by communities and development, it is difficult for pumas to access habitat and other puma populations they need to thrive.

Once thought to be solitary creatures, the Santa Cruz Mountains Puma Project’s research has uncovered invaluable insights about the mysterious and often misunderstood “ghost cats”. The team is monitoring pumas throughout the region and on San Vicente Redwoods employing an array of monitoring equipment including radio collars to track their behavior. Data from the Puma Project and wildlife monitoring cameras at San Vicente Redwoods helped to shed light on puma activity on the land. It also informed where to build the new hiking trails at San Vicente Redwoods to minimize disruption to wildlife pathways and avoid puma dens.

As our communities grow and habitat becomes less and less available, ensuring our time in nature has as little impact as possible on wildlife is paramount. Monitoring wildlife on our properties can help us adapt management plans based on the actual behaviors and needs of wildlife.

Wildlife Photo Index

In 2019, wildlife monitoring equipment was strategically deployed across San Vicente Redwoods to gather baseline data on how wildlife actually use the land. Motion sensor cameras positioned in key areas to capture wildlife presence and behavior have returned a treasure trove of data–as well as pretty fantastic wildlife selfies. Here are our Top 12 shots of wildlife at San Vicente Redwoods so far:

Wildlife monitoring photos with our San Vicente Redwoods partners Peninsula Open Space Trust, Save the Redwoods League, and Land Trust of Santa Cruz County by Pathways for Wildlife.

Click below to learn more about the next steps in monitoring wildlife on the land:

Next Steps

With several years of wildlife camera data, we can compare when, where, and how wildlife use the forest before and after public access. This will help us to understand the direct impacts of the trails on wildlife when San Vicente Redwoods’ trails open to the public on December 3, 2022. How much will wildlife behavior change after the presence of people?

We and our research partners will continue to monitor wildlife populations to inform if any changes to the adaptive management plan are needed, helping to ensure ecosystem health over time so these magnificent creatures can continue to thrive at San Vicente Redwoods alongside human populations.

The trails will just be the latest addition of what makes managing San Vicente Redwoods unique. Its vast size encompassing diverse habitats supports many types of plants and wildlife including rare, threatened, and endangered species which are helpful to monitor to ensure they are supported. These species are often sensitive to changes in the habitat so if they thrive in this ecosystem many more plants and wildlife will also benefit.

Motion sensor cameras have truly increased our ability to detect wildlife on the land we would rarely see otherwise. But what about wildlife in the water or air? Especially for species that are already rare to begin with?

Water

photo by Ian Bornarth.

Click a topic below to learn more about monitoring wildlife in the water:

Coho Salmon

photo by Bureau Of Land Management

At the southern end of their range, already endangered coho salmon have been an even rarer sight in the Santa Cruz mountains for the last several decades. Living their lives at sea and following streams into the mountains to spawn in forest-shaded fresh waters, as generations before them have done, coho rely on two different types of habitat, effectively doubling the effects of climate change.

For more than a century a defunct dam in Mill Creek at San Vicente Redwoods blocked coho from moving upstream, and blocked cobble from moving downstream to create crucial spawning beds. With plans to remove the dam and restore the critical habitat for endangered coho and the entire watershed, researchers from University of California Los Angeles and Amah Mutsun Land Trust conducted eDNA surveys along Mill Creek–collecting water samples to find environmental DNA in the water–evidence of its fish populations while the dam was still in place.

Before the dam could be removed, lightning ignited the CZU wildfire in 2020 which burned nearly all of San Vicente Redwoods. A small silver-lining to the devastating fire was that while it damaged crucial water infrastructure for the town of Davenport, its subsequent repair and replacement made removing the dam possible. So, after a century of damming and a decade of planning its removal, the dam face itself came down in about a day. Soon after, an epic storm helpfully washed critical cobble downstream to help establish suitable spawning grounds around Large Woody Debris structures.

Before, during, and after the dam’s removal, aquatic biologists monitored the creek habitat and its inhabitants helping to guide the project with the health of both top of mind. A particularly phenomenal monitoring visit occurred less than a year after the dam had been removed. The team, equipped with nets, buckets, and an electronic fishing pack, carefully inspected Mill Creek for fish–and the very first fish they found that day was an endangered coho salmon–the first sighting ever recorded in the creek. The fish were quickly and carefully measured, counted, logged and returned to the water. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife was able to take fin clippings from the coho salmon for DNA and genetic testing that can determine down to a family level where the coho came from–providing a better understanding of this species’ migration and this exciting sighting.

Next Steps

Beatrix assessing Mill Creek's flows for Large Woody Debris installations, by Ian Bornarth

While we await the results of these substantive first steps into the past and present of Mill Creek’s fish populations, research continues to inform our next steps. University of California Los Angeles and Amah Mutsun Land Trust researchers plan to obtain new eDNA samples from Mill Creek to see if there is any evidence of early changes in the fish community since the dam’s removal.

Large Woody Debris installations recreate natural conditions in the creek that catch cobble and sediment to form gravel beds suitable for spawning and provide shelter and creek crossings. Based on the initial progress of Large Woody Debris installations, our Senior Land Stewardship Manager Ian Rowbotham says more structures will be designed and permitted over the next year and a half to capture more sediment as it continues to shift and move down the creek over time.

And ongoing surveys with our Land Team members and aquatic biologists will monitor both the fish and the creek as cobble and sediment continue to move downstream to form potential spawning beds to see if any further action is needed.

“If endangered coho salmon successfully spawn in Mill Creek, it will point towards the benefits of restoration,” Ian says.

Ian and Beatrix explain monitoring is the key to adaptive management. “We monitor to see if anything is needed, and if so, we take strategic actions to restore natural processes to play out as they would have without human impacts,” Ian says.

“We try to restore ecosystem services so it can be self-sufficient and native species can return,” Beatrix agreed. But what she noted further complicates matters: not everything is the same as it was before those human impacts–bears and regular cultural burning are no longer present in the Santa Cruz mountains but climate change and invasive species are.

Invasive species present an ongoing stewardship struggle as without natural local predators to keep them in check they can quickly outcompete native species and disrupt natural processes. Invasive plants like Clematis vitalba had to be removed from choking Mill Creek and much of the forest, and non-native wildlife like bullfrogs can take over ponds and take out native species like the endangered California red-legged frog.

Stay Tuned for Amphibians

A slender salamander in a spiral, by Ian Bornarth

Researchers with University of California Santa Cruz have conducted amphibian surveys at San Vicente Redwoods to get a better understanding of what native and invasive species are currently present. They are compiling data and creating an amphibian field guide that should be available in 2023. In the winter, when it's wetter, they hope to do additional salamander surveys with in-person methods.

These varied approaches to monitoring aquatic wildlife help to provide a picture of all the species currently present–those we can see and even those we can’t through evidence left in the water. In a similar regard, monitoring wildlife in the air, particularly notoriously mysterious species, can be accomplished through evidence in the air.

Air

photo by Canopy Dynamics.

Click below to learn more about the next steps in monitoring wildlife in the air:

Marbled Murrelets

by G. Bartley

When the CZU wildfire burned 86,500 acres, including the first ever recorded location of a marbled murrelet’s nest–in Big Basin Redwoods State Park–it was feared it could be a major if not final blow to the already endangered seabird’s presence in the Santa Cruz mountains. Yet just one year later, another incredible first occurred in Big Basin, a marbled murrelet was filmed fledging its nest. This was a great sign of hope for the resilience of the redwood forest, the Santa Cruz mountains, and for this struggling species in the most southern stronghold of its range.

Marbled murrelets, described as a flying potato, spend much of their life on the ocean but like the coho salmon make their way inland to the forests to lay their eggs. Nesting atop old-growth trees like the redwoods and Douglas-firs in the Santa Cruz mountains, Ornithologist Steve Singer had estimated about 50% of their suitable habitat had been lost in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. While nearly all of the redwoods are expected to recover in time, their canopies were still impacted and a much heavier toll was taken on their less fire resistant Douglas-fir neighbors which are unable to recover through epicormic sprouting as redwoods can. Needless to say, the CZU wildfire left the fate of the seabird looking bleak until a nest was discovered in Big Basin again in 2021.

Adapted to return to the forest for nesting, adult marbled murrelets turn a mottled brown during breeding season, making them more difficult to spot in the canopy. Despite being described as potatoes, they are deceptively fast. Their stubby wings–suited for flying underwater–are also well-adapted for the forest. Beatrix says they can fly up to 100 miles per hour–to help them evade predators in the forest. Their comparatively small wing size means they have to beat their wings constantly and rapidly to stay aloft.

Perhaps more potato-like, is their maneuverability. Although they have fast wing beats, they can’t hover like hummingbirds nor can they make any sudden turns. A hummingbird beats its wings between 10 and 80 times per second. Having been trained to conduct inland field surveys for marbled murrelets the last two years, Beatrix can attest to hearing their fast wing beats–which she says sound like a boomerang– and their calls–referred to as “keers”– across the sky far more often than she could track them flying under the cover of darkness.

Marbled murrelet calling bout spectogram, by Conservation Metrics

While most of our properties burned in the CZU wildfire’s considerable footprint, remarkably marbled murrelets have been detected at 3 out of 5 monitoring locations. So how do we monitor for these rare, elusive birds unlikely to be seen in-person or to conveniently land in front of a monitoring camera? Through the air. Acoustic Recording Units set to record at marbled murrelets’ most active times in the forest–around sunrise and sunset–were set at 5 different locations by staff. The hundreds of hours of field recordings were then processed with a pattern recognition software to specifically detect the “keer” calls of marbled murrelets allowing the researchers to hone their manual review in on high probability calls and check for the sound of wing beats before and after which could indicate proximity to a nesting site.

Next Steps

Steller's jay at San Vicente Redwoods by Pathways For Wildlife

The Audio Recording Units were able to record detections of marbled murrelets, but the recording can’t tell us if the marbled murrelets are nesting or whether any marbled murrelets hatched–although wing beats would have been an indication. For that, Beatrix says the first step would be in-person surveys to confirm if they’re occupying the tree stands. To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of in-person surveys, Beatrix will meet with other land managers and experts in the Zone 6 area–U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s official name for this section of marbled murrelet habitat–to coordinate collective efforts to monitor marbled murrelets with Acoustic Recording Units and in-person surveys. In the long term, potential nesting habitat at San Vicente Redwoods is being restored to enhance conditions for the forest and for marbled murrelets. For now, the marbled murrelets are out to sea.

While we await their return, we can all play an important part in helping to prepare for potential nesting by keeping our parks and lands “Crumb Clean”. Marbled murrelet eggs can fall prey to corvids including jays, ravens, and crows, which tend to follow human presence in hopes of crumbs. As the trails at San Vicente Redwoods open, we’ll continue to monitor for corvids to see if human presence leads to an increase in these opportunistic birds and identify whether any changes in use are needed to help protect marbled murrelets.

You can read about a rare marbled murrelet fledgling encounter and our regional in-depth monitoring to support this endangered species.

Stay Tuned for Bats

by USFWS

Important nocturnal pollinators and natural insect control, bats are an important part of the ecosystem and have been known to roost in the hollows of redwoods among other places–including a pond at San Vicente Redwoods where a bat detector was installed this fall. Once the acoustic sensor has been analyzed to determine which species have been detected, Dr. Winifred Frick with Bat Conservation International hopes to be able to monitor bats on the property more extensively when they are more active in the late spring and summer months. In the meantime, you can read about bats documented at San Vicente Redwoods during previous surveys.

Sensitive Species, Significant Signs

The presence of marbled murrelets and coho salmon–two sensitive species–after the CZU wildfire are encouraging signs for the continued recovery of the forest, although populations fluctuate naturally and many other factors can come into play that can affect wildlife species. For marbled murrelets and coho salmon in particular, these endangered species rely on two different habitats which doubles the potential impacts from human activity such as oil spills and dams as well as greater shifts from climate change. Monitoring and collaborating with experts and landowners across the region helps to provide the bigger picture of the species as a whole and the potential for coordinating adaptive management across a greater swath of the range, hopefully benefitting more coho, marbled murrelets, and many more species in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

photo by Teddy Miller.

Monitoring and Management

During the next few years of monitoring, we will gain a better understanding of the wildlife that inhabit San Vicente Redwoods and will be able to see if the presence of people significantly impacts wildlife’s behavior or movement in the forest and how we can minimize the effects. With adaptive land management and data on what species use areas at different times, projects can be scheduled when they will affect less wildlife and can be added opportunistically to support specific wildlife like Large Woody Debris installations for coho salmon. Wildlife monitoring has ever-growing potential to help balance needs in the San Vicente Redwoods through adaptive land management. Thanks to our partners, The Arthur L. and Elaine V. Johnson Foundation, The William H. and Mattie Wattis Harris Foundation, Resource Legacy Fund, and supporters like you, these invaluable projects can inform future trails, land management, and a deeper regional understanding of how land can be shared by people and wildlife for generations to come.

Join Us

You can help us monitor and support more wildlife, and protect and restore more habitats like these.

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More to Explore

Learn more about Redwoods, Pumas, and People
Read more about restoring Mill Creek for coho salmon
Watch The Marvels and Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet with Portia Halbert

The post Monitoring Wildlife for Healthy Forests appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

Coho, Cobble, and Creek Beds: A Year After the Mill Creek Dam Was Removed

WEBDOGS — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 18:33:54 +0000

Coho, Cobble, and Creek Beds

A Year After the Mill Creek Dam Was Removed

On October 4th 2021, the Mill Creek Dam was removed. Suddenly, the water was free to flow through the watershed, join with San Vicente Creek, and improve crucial habitat for the redwood forest’s aquatic inhabitants and visitors again. A decade of restoration efforts went into preparing for the dam’s removal, but taking the dam itself down and reshaping the creek happened in nearly the blink of an eye compared to the 100 years the purposeless dam blocked the movement of water and aquatic life alike. And the exciting results of the dam’s removal are proving to be equally paced with nature on our side. Within a year of Mill Creek Dam’s removal, habitat is being restored and wildlife–including coho salmon–are returning.

Read on to learn more about coho, cobble, and creek beds, and what’s next.

Donate Now

video by Ian Rowbotham.

The Dam’s Damage

Mill Creek dam was on just one of eight streams crossing San Vicente Redwoods’ 8,532-acres, a conservation property owned by Sempervirens Fund and Peninsula Open Space Trust, and managed in partnership with Save the Redwoods League and Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. But amidst the vast partners' visionary conservation and restoration plans, removing the defunct, never-operational dam and restoring the San Vicente watershed have been high priority projects for a decade.

Mill Creek is part of an exceptional regional creek system with drought-resistant, cool, heavy flows directly into the Pacific ocean that are accessible for anadromous fish like endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout that travel from the ocean to freshwater inland to spawn. However, for more than 100 years, Mill Creek dam blocked both fish from traveling upstream and the cobble they require for their spawning habitat from traveling downstream.

With no benefit to the dam’s existence and great impact upon the watershed and its inhabitants, it was clear the dam should be removed. But navigating the approval process necessary to do so was not as cut and dry. So, while awaiting the approval process to remove the dam, Sempervirens Fund’s Land Team and partners began to prepare for the dam’s eventual extraction.

Preparation and Restoration

Over a decade, culverts and roads were improved to reduce erosion downstream, the stranglehold of invasive plants like Clematis vitalba were removed from alongside–and even underneath–the creek, the creek’s natural floodplains were replanted with native plants, and large woody debris have been placed in the creek to mimic natural conditions like those needed to trap sediment for steelhead trout and coho salmon spawning grounds. The impacts of these restoration activities on the watershed’s health and salmonid habitat were monitored utilizing techniques like environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling which also helped to provide a snapshot of the existing fish communities above and below the dam before it was removed. Watch the video to learn more about eDNA sampling.

Down Comes the Dam

Finally, after a century of standing in the way and a decade of planning, restoration projects, and monitoring, the dam’s removal was officially approved.

Watch as ecologists unlock the granite and cobble from behind the dam and reshape the creek bed just weeks before multiple storms flush the cobble downstream and crucial sandbar habitat begins to form at the confluence of Mill Creek and San Vicente Creek. Then, scroll down for the big reveal: exciting findings and what’s next.

Releasing Mill Creek in Timelapse

Creek Beds and Spawning Beds

After the winter storms in 2021 began to move the recently freed granite, cobble, sand, and sediment downstream along the creek bed, sandbars–ideal for salmonids like steelhead and coho to lay their eggs– began to form. By March 2022, Senior Land Stewardship Manager Ian Rowbotham was out with aquatic ecologists assessing the spawning bed downstream from the former dam site who saw all the great signs of “quality gravel beds”. “Sediment has accumulated in key places and formed into potential spawning beds that might be used this winter,” Rowbotham said. Just a few months later, there were even more exciting signs.

Finding Fish

In September, Rowbotham and Field Operations Manager Melisa Cambron Perez headed back to Mill Creek in hopes of finding fish. They were joined by Aquatic Ecologist Mike Podlech, Ecologist Jim Robins, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife Biologist Sean Cochran–who attended on the slight chance a federally endangered coho salmon was found. “We didn’t expect to see any coho in Mill Creek,” Rowbotham said. “They had never been documented there before.”

https://sempervirens.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Mill-Creek-Dam-Anniversary-Fish-Survey-Coho-Salmon-and-Steelhead-Trout-by-Melisa-Camborn-Perez_2.mp4

Coho in the Creek

Podlech donned a Ghostbustersesque e-fishing backpack calibrated to Mill Creek’s current conditions to painlessly stun the fish for quick, careful species identification and measurement recording before they are promptly returned to the creek. Thankfully Cochran was in attendance, because the very first fish found was a federally endangered coho salmon. To the knowledge of all scientists present, this was the first ever record of a coho salmon in Mill Creek.

Without a representative from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, handling a federally endangered species like a coho salmon would not have been allowed. Since our California Department of Fish and Wildlife Biologist was present, it was possible to take coho fin clip samples for DNA and genetic testing that can determine down to a family level where the coho came from–providing a better understanding of this species’ migration and this exciting sighting.

Across three sampling sites on Mill Creek, 15 juvenile coho salmon were recorded downstream from the former dam location. Podlech pointed out that although we do not have evidence that the coho are present in Mill Creek as a direct result of the dam removal, coho salmon are a relatively reliable indicator of good stream conditions. “It is reassuring to know that the dam removal project has opened access to additional habitat should the species expand its range upstream in Mill Creek in the future,” Podlech said.

photo by Ian Rownotham

Steelhead Up The Stream

While the coho salmon were all spotted downstream, steelhead trout had already made their way upstream from the dam site for the first time in 100 years. Twelve juvenile steelhead trout were found across the three sampling sites on Mill Creek. Although it was unexpected to have found any coho salmon in Mill Creek at all, it was especially surprising that fewer steelhead trout, a threatened species, had been found compared to coho salmon, an endangered species. Podlech explained how the timing of the rains over the last year may have made access to and availability of spawning grounds more advantageous to coho salmon and less water more challenging for steelhead trout:

“The October 2021 storms occurred roughly at the onset of the typical adult coho salmon migration and spawning season, whereas the region received very little precipitation during the typical peak adult steelhead season of January and February. Coincidentally, the lack of significant winter rain may have also benefited coho salmon by minimizing high streamflows that have the potential to scour eggs and flush newly hatched coho salmon fry.”

- Mike Podlech, Aquatic Ecologist

photo by Ian Rowbotham.

Storms, Steelhead, and Other Signs of Success

The hope had certainly been, if we unbuilt it, they would come, but it was anticipated it could take years for the conditions and salmonids to return after the dam’s removal. In less than a year, potential spawning habitat has formed, steelhead trout have been witnessed above the former dam site, and the first documentation of endangered coho salmon–the very species we hoped most to support with the dam’s removal–in Mill Creek has occurred. While there was much research, planning, and work on our end, and an Amah Mutsun Tribal Band ceremony to “welcome back” the salmon, nature came through in a big way too. So, to what do Rowbotham and Perez attribute this early success?

1. The Amount of Sediment Movement

Earlier projects to restore natural conditions to Mill Creek downstream from the dam were instrumental in preparing the creek bed for the cobble and sediment to come. Large Woody Debris (LWD)—trees and branches that fall into the water—are common in forested waterways but over the last 150 years people saw them as obstructions to moving logged trees out of the forest, moving boats and logs down the water, to their views, and as the causes of potential floods, and removed them.

Interestingly, one of the LWD sites that was specifically installed to restore the creek’s natural floodplain was instrumental in recreating prospective salmonid spawning habitat, because today we know how crucial LWD is for many of the forest’s inhabitants. The LWD was placed to shift Mill Creek back across its former flood plain, where water can typically spread wider and shallower, giving the fish access to more food and spawning beds.

But the LWD was like a great catcher receiving a stellar pitch. The historic storm just two weeks after the dam was removed increased Mill Creek’s flows enough to move the granite, cobble, and sediment built up over 100 years down the stream to collect around the LWD much faster than the several years that had been expected. Although monitoring will continue, conditions indicate the potential for spawning beds will continue to improve without further intervention.

photo by Melisa Cambron Perez.

2. No More Barriers

The dam on Mill Creek at 12 feet high and 25 feet wide was a large and obvious obstruction for water, cobble, sediment, and fish alike. Its removal added another half mile of free flow to Mill Creek. But after it joins with San Vicente Creek it continues its journey all the way out to the Pacific ocean, and even though its lack of estuary makes being stopped by a sandbar less likely, other barriers for fish passage could occur along the way. However, the first documented appearance of coho salmon downstream in Mill Creek and steelhead trout upstream from the former dam site for the first time in 100 years indicate the waterway for their migration is passable for the time being.

3. Nothing Went Wrong with Downstream Infrastructure

While the Mill Creek dam that was removed was defunct, Mill Creek still provides a secondary source of water to the nearby town of Davenport. The water lines that used to run across the top of the defunct dam were damaged in the 2020 CZU Fire but new water lines were re-routed and installed. Fortunately, since the dam’s removal and the historic storm that quickly followed, important infrastructure on Mill Creek, like Davenport’s waterline, has continued to function properly so the creek’s improved flow and water quality benefit people and fish alike.

photo by Ian Bornarth.

Around the Bend

In the creek itself, Rowbotham and Perez say adding more LWD to strategic locations will create more shelter, pools, spawning grounds, winter refuge, and food sources for fish.

Perhaps most importantly, with so many potential factors in the ecosystem that can cause the fish populations to change in Mill Creek, like the amount and timing of rain as Podlech mentioned, continuing to collaborate on surveys with our partners like the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, University of California Los Angeles, and San Jose State University is crucial to ensuring Mill Creek endangered species like coho salmon are supported with a healthy habitat.

Ideally, the first documentation of coho salmon in Mill Creek will generate more interest and funding to continue geomorphic and eDNA research in addition to new regular fish surveys to monitor Mill Creek’s fish community to ensure this newly restored habitat for a federally endangered species can continue to improve and thrive. However, if Mill Creek can sustain an endangered species–which are often sensitive to change–like a coho salmon, it is likely a healthy habitat from which many other plant and wildlife species in the redwood forest and beyond will benefit from as well.

We hope this is the beginning of many more exciting signs of health and healing thanks to the support of more than a decade of conservation and restoration efforts in San Vicente Redwoods.

photo by Ian Bornarth.

Two Year Update: Steelhead Sightings in Mill Creek

In September 2023, less than two year's after the removal of the defunct dam on Mill Creek in San Vicente Redwoods, more threatened steelhead trout fry were spotted in Mill Creek during ongoing salmonid surveys. Among them was a larger steelhead trout juvenile thought to be a second year juvenile—or smolt—that may have lived in Mill Creek since the dam's removal. Jim, an ecologist with Resource Conservation District, noted the variety in size of the steelhead in the system may be the result of a longer spawning season. You can watch the steelhead's release back into Mill Creek after they were carefully recorded by our team of aquatic biologists and researchers.

video by Christopher Lopez

You can read the full story behind this great work that you've made possible – including the first ever recording of an endangered coho salmon in Mill Creek – above. We’ll be sure to share more exciting findings from our ongoing salmonid surveys and the eDNA research of our partners at UCLA and Amah Mutsun Land Trust.

More to Explore

Read more about the Mill Creek Dam and San Vicente Watershed
Read more about removing the Mill Creek Dam with San Vicente Creek: Restoring a Stronghold
To learn more about what the dam’s removal means for the watershed and coho salmon, watch Restoration of Mill Creek

The post Coho, Cobble, and Creek Beds: A Year After the Mill Creek Dam Was Removed appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

NEWS: Mill Creek Dam Removed in Santa Cruz Mountains

Matt Shaffer — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 17:30:25 +0000

Sempervirens Fund completes post-fire dam removal to restore creek and improve Coho salmon habitat, part of long-term restoration of previously logged redwood forest

Contact: Matthew Shaffer, Sempervirens Fund, 415.609.2750, mshaffer@sempervirens.org
Download a PDF of this press release.

Los Altos, Calif. (October 4, 2021) — Sempervirens Fund announced today that they have removed a dam on Mill Creek in the San Vicente watershed.

Timelapse of the removal of the Mill Creek dam in the San Vicente watershed. Credit: Ian Bornarth

“For more than a century Mill Creek dam impeded Coho salmon from reaching desperately needed spawning habitat,” said Sara Barth, Sempervirens Fund’s executive director. “Removing the dam has been a missing piece in restoring creek flow and improving sediment conditions critical for spawning. A restored creek is also essential to the health and resilience of the surrounding redwoods and other nearby and downstream habitats at San Vicente.”

The Mill Creek section of the San Vicente watershed is prized for its heavy summer flow of cold water—even in current drought conditions—largely due to a substantial limestone karst system underground. Highly durable granite cobble, trapped behind the dam for a century, can now make its way downstream and into the watershed system, improving miles of potential salmonid spawning habitat, especially for endangered Coho salmon, at the southern end of their range.

“Habitat for salmon is scarce and impediments like dams diminish their access to critical waters and the gravelly sediment that makes for ideal spawning grounds,” added Ian Rowbotham, Sempervirens Fund’s Land Stewardship Manager.

San Vicente Redwoods is an 8,852-acre stretch of forest that is currently owned and managed by four conservation organizations: Sempervirens Fund, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Save the Redwoods League, and Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. Near Davenport, it is the largest privately held redwood forest in the Santa Cruz mountains. The CZU Lightning Complex wildfires in August and September 2020 scorched more than 86,000 acres, including all of San Vicente Redwoods lands. Water lines for Davenport, which ran across the top of the dam, were destroyed. CEMEX funded the re-routing and replacement of their water lines earlier this year and agreed to remove the dam. In late March Sempervirens Fund received a $550,000 grant made through the Open Rivers Fund, a program of Resources Legacy Fund supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The grant has been further leveraged by support from individual donors for the ongoing restoration work at San Vicente. Funding for the project also came from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

Since 2011, the organizations have partnered to steward the property’s old-growth redwoods and eight creeks, home to many regionally important species of wildlife and plants, including the endangered Coho salmon. While rare in the Santa Cruz mountains, dams like the one on Mill Creek were built early last century to support redwood logging. Their utility has long since expired, and removal is the best option for repairing the ecosystem. San Vicente’s partners also collaborate with regional conservation teams, such as Resources Conservation District Santa Cruz County, to implement large-scale restoration efforts.

“The RCDSCC is proud to partner with Sempervirens Fund and other local north coast partners to advance the removal of the lower Mill Creek dam,” said Lisa Lurie, Executive Director, Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County. “This project, identified as a priority action for recovery of salmonids in the San Vicente Watershed, is an important step forward in helping threatened and endangered Steelhead and Coho salmon along the Central Coast of California.”

Sempervirens Fund and its partners have also initiated research projects with the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, San Jose State University, and UCLA to monitor and survey fish populations in Mill Creek and in the greater San Vicente watershed, including Coho salmon, steelhead trout, and lamprey eels, including the use of environmental DNA techniques. Past restoration projects along Mill Creek, including the introduction of large woody debris, have already reinvigorated steelhead populations, which have been present this year.

The post NEWS: Mill Creek Dam Removed in Santa Cruz Mountains appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

Mill Creek Dam and the San Vicente Watershed

WEBDOGS — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:30:04 +0000

Protecting Water

Mill Creek Dam and the San Vicente Watershed

The coastal watersheds of the Santa Cruz mountains connect inland redwood forests to the sea, feeding diverse landscapes and habitats, and supporting all manner of wildlife and fish species. At Sempervirens Fund, our care for redwood forests is deeply connected with watershed protection and restoration.

In 2021, we capped a decade of restoration efforts in the San Vicente watershed with the removal of a defunct, century-old dam on Mill Creek, nestled in the forests of San Vicente Redwoods.

Read on to learn more about the watershed, the dam removal, and the future of critical species, including Coho salmon.

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Learn About Redwoods

photo by Ian Bornarth.

What are Watersheds?

Watersheds are land! Watersheds drain creeks and rainfall to an outlet, such as the ocean. Creeks accumulate water from multiple sources – underground aquifers and springs, rain, and upstream deposits of rainfall, and in the case of the Central Coast of California: fog. Floodplains along creeks can also saturate nearby habitats with rich sources of water and nutrients. And confluences—where waterways like rivers and oceans meet—connect habitats, sometimes over thousands of miles. This is why it is critical to protect and restore watersheds and the habitats that they support.

This is the story of one such watershed, its rare and special features, and the work over many years to restore it to its fullest potential.

The San Vicente Watershed

The San Vicente Creek watershed, just north of Davenport, California, is prized for its high-quality and regionally unique features. San Vicente, combined with its primary tributary, Mill Creek, is an exceptional regional creek system. Its underground karst system of limestone drainage, sinkholes, and caves feeds the creek a steady flow of water, giving the creek one of the heaviest flows in the region, even in years of drought.

And the confluence of San Vicente with the Pacific Ocean has no lagoon, making its upper reaches accessible all year around—a rare and desirable trait for fish species, such as endangered Coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout.

Over the past ten years—since Sempervirens Fund and Peninsula Open Space Trust purchased San Vicente Redwoods for permanent conservation protection, in partnership with Save the Redwoods League, and Land Trust of Santa Cruz County—restoration of this watershed has been a high priority and has been essential to restoring coast redwood, coastal prairie, and other watershed habitats.

A Dam is Born

In the early 1900s, Mill Creek was dammed to support a small mining camp nestled in the Santa Cruz mountains. Poorly sited, it never worked as intended, so a new dam was installed a quarter-mile upstream, which now serves as the backup water supply for the town of Davenport.

Unfortunately, the Mill Creek dam also trapped the cobble and pebbles that feed sediment beds critical for spawning Coho salmon. Located at the Southern end of their expansive, but imperiled habitat range, Mill Creek became an ineffective spawning location and has stayed that way for more than a century.

A Silver Lining from Catastrophic Fire

San Vicente Redwoods is an 8,532-acre stretch of the largest privately held redwood forest in the Santa Cruz mountains. The CZU Lightning Complex wildfires in August and September 2020 scorched more than 86,500 acres, including all of San Vicente Redwoods’ lands. Water lines for Davenport, which ran across the top of Mill Creek dam, were destroyed. CEMEX, the former owner of the property, funded the re-routing and replacement of their water lines in early 2021 and agreed to let Sempervirens Fund remove the old, defunct dam.

In late March 2021, Sempervirens Fund received a $550,000 grant made through the Open Rivers Fund, a program of Resources Legacy Fund supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The grant will be further leveraged by support from individual donors for the ongoing restoration work at San Vicente Redwoods.

By October 2021, the dam was removed, and water and sediment flow were restored.

Removing a Dam and Restoring a Watershed

Among many important outcomes, removing the dam releases the trapped sediment that will improve the spawning conditions not just in Mill Creek, but throughout the creek system.

Thirteen large wood structures, known as “large woody debris,” installed in and among the creek beds at key locations will generate sandbars with the released cobble, giving salmonids ample spawning habitat for the first time in a century. The watershed includes floodplains which have been carefully rid of invasive clematis—a plant that can quickly choke redwoods and streams.

Together, the ecosystem will thrive, benefiting from the increased flow of creek water from above (and below), improving watershed health.

Understanding Habitat Health

Working with San Jose State, UCLA, the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, and other researchers and partners, we are monitoring the impacts of restoration activities—including the removal of the dam—on watershed health and salmonid habitat.

From topographical surveys of the creek channel, to environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring, to cultural and archaeological exploration throughout the San Vicente watershed, these research efforts will help ensure that restoration efforts have the desired outcomes and inform us about adjustments needed to advance the health of the ecosystem.

Removing the Mill Creek Dam, and restoring this watershed, will have benefits that will outlast us all, and bring ecological prosperity to future generations of species and the habitats they call home.

News: Mill Creek Dam

CEMEX Agrees to Removal of Dam at Mill Creek in Santa Cruz Mountains

Read about the plans and funding.

Read

A Dam Removed: Restoring Watershed Habitat at San Vicente

Look back at the dam removal and learn what's next.

Watch

Restoring San Vicente Creek to Save Endangered Salmon

Read more about restoration projects and how they will help fish.

Read

The post Mill Creek Dam and the San Vicente Watershed appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

NEWS: CEMEX Agrees to Removal of Dam at Mill Creek in Santa Cruz Mountains

Matt Shaffer — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 07:01:56 +0000

Sempervirens Fund secures post-fire funds to restore creek and improve Coho salmon habitat, part of long-term restoration of previously logged redwood forest

Contact: Matthew Shaffer, Sempervirens Fund, 415.609.2750, mshaffer@sempervirens.org
Download a PDF of this press release.

The CEMEX dam obstructs Mill Creek in San Vicente Redwoods, preventing ideal conditions for endangered Coho salmon habitat. Photo: Ian Bornarth

Los Altos, Calif. (April 28, 2021) — Sempervirens Fund announced today that they have secured approvals and critical post-fire funding to remove a dam from Mill Creek. CEMEX, the former owner of what is now San Vicente Redwoods, retains water and infrastructure rights on the property, and approved the dam removal. Deconstruction will begin later this summer.

“The dam has impeded Coho salmon from reaching desperately needed spawning habitat for decades,” said Sara Barth, Sempervirens Fund’s executive director. “Removing the dam will restore not only the creek flow, but improve sediment conditions critical for spawning. A restored creek is also essential to the health and resilience of the surrounding redwoods and other nearby and downstream habitats at San Vicente.”

San Vicente Redwoods is an 8,532-acre stretch of forest that is currently owned and managed by four conservation organizations: Sempervirens Fund, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Save the Redwoods League, and Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. Near Davenport, it is the largest privately held redwood forest in the Santa Cruz mountains. The CZU Lightning Complex wildfires in August and September 2020 scorched more than 86,000 acres, including all of San Vicente Redwoods lands. Water lines for Davenport, which ran across the top of the dam, were destroyed. CEMEX funded the re-routing and replacement of their water lines earlier this year and agreed to remove the dam. In late March Sempervirens Fund received a $550,000 grant made through the Open Rivers Fund, a program of Resources Legacy Fund supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The grant will be further leveraged by support from individual donors for the ongoing restoration work at San Vicente. Funding for the project also came from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

"We’re thrilled to see such great teamwork,” said Julie Turrini of Resources Legacy Fund. "Sempervirens Fund efficiently coordinated the work of several government agencies, multiple conservation groups, and a partnering Tribal land trust to get this done quite rapidly—all in the wake of a devastating fire that laid bare the urgency of this project."

Since 2011, the organizations have partnered to steward the property’s old-growth redwoods and eight creeks, home to many regionally important species of wildlife and plants, including the endangered Coho salmon. Habitat for salmon is scarce and impediments like dams diminish their access to critical waters and the gravelly sediment that makes for ideal spawning grounds. While rare in the Santa Cruz mountains, dams like the one on Mill Creek were built early last century to support redwood logging. Their utility has long since expired, and removal is the best option for repairing the ecosystem. San Vicente’s partners also collaborate with regional conservation teams, such as Resources Conservation District Santa Cruz County, to implement large-scale restoration efforts.

Sempervirens Fund and its partners are pursuing research projects to monitor and survey fish populations in Mill Creek and in the greater San Vicente watershed, including Coho salmon, steelhead trout, and lamprey eels, including the use of environmental DNA techniques. Past restoration projects along Mill Creek, including the introduction of large woody debris, have already reinvigorated steelhead populations, which are present this season.

Re-routing the waterlines to Davenport earlier this year and the removal of the CEMEX dam are important to regional waterway vitality and water quality.

“Mill Creek is part of a critical watershed on the North Coast which provides drinking water for the town of Davenport and habitat for Coho,” said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty. “The Mill Creek dam removal project is truly a win-win project as it will improve water quality both for the residents and the Coho.

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