Be Our Guest: Sonoma Ecology Center and GIS for fish

Sonoma Creek watershed is home to a cool, green corridor of natural land that links the Sonoma Mountains on the west to the Mayacamas Mountains on the east.  A mosaic of state park, regional park, developmental center, and privately owned natural areas, the Sonoma Valley Habitat Corridor consists of forest, grassland, chaparral, riparian areas, and reservoirs.  Described by the Sonoma Ecology Center’s Christy Vreeland as “the valley’s last dark place at night,” the wildlands of the corridor have been targeted for ongoing protection as habitat for wildlife.  The corridor intersects the Sonoma Valley Landscape Unit identified for the Conservation Lands Network (developed by Bay Area Open Space Council’s Upland Habitat Goals Project) and is essential for the movement of fox, coyote, mountain lion, black bear, bobcat, and other mammals among biodiverse uplands. 

Much has been happening in the corridor lately to keep and increase its value to wildlife and for climate resiliency.  The following is the second of three projects that the Sonoma Ecology Center is sharing here on the Open Space Council blog.  

Combining Science and Geographic Information Systems to Prioritize Restoration Activities

By Deanne DiPietro and Rebecca Lawton

Sonoma Ecology Center's Research Program is working on a strategic approach to reduce the amount of sediment in Sonoma Creek caused by streambed and bank erosion by using Geographic Information Systems to analyze the best scientific information available.

Watershed maps never fail to capture the students’ imaginations in the classroom.

Sonoma Creek has been identified as having unnaturally high levels of sediment, a problem that negatively affects steelhead spawning and rearing habitat and is a sign of a watershed in distress. Creeks that are eroding their channels more rapidly than is natural are doing so in response to land use changes.  Certain changes bring an increase in speed and volume runoff, resulting in less water moving slowly through the system for use by animal and human residents of the valley. Water that remains longer in the system has a chance to seep into the ground, recharging the aquifers that feed our creeks and wells during the summer.

A plan for prioritizing sites for restoration work is under way.  The Center is using Geographic Information Systems to examine the stream network’s characteristics combined with the nature of the underlying soil and stabilizing vegetation to point out problem areas where the creek is under pressure to erode. The effort will enable restoration specialists to work more effectively on improving our watershed’s ability to support native fish and provide us all with surface and groundwater, especially important in a changing climate.

A pilot site-prioritization project funded by the San Francisco Foundation identified several headwaters sites in the Sonoma Valley Habitat Corridor in need of restoration; early grazing, logging, and woodcutting affected these uplands areas, accelerating erosion in channels downstream.  The current project will add to those sites through a watershed-wide look and intensified modeling effort.

The Center’s Research Program is drawing on its long history of studying Sonoma Creek as well as the work of other experts who are advising us as we build the data necessary to help us prioritize restoration sites. Optimizing opportunities for improving habitat is another criterion that will go into planning our strategic approach, making scarce restoration dollars go as far as they can!

 

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One of our strategies is to serve as the voice of our members, a strategy based on the belief that by working together we can achieve more.  We want to raise up the stories of special places and the people who are working tirelessly to keep them special.  To that end, we will share the words of our members with guest bloggers over the next few months.  Our first guest is the Sonoma Ecology Center and we welcome them to this space.