Good Roads, Clear Creeks Program Update

Mattole Restoration Council
December 31, 2008


The Mattole Restoration Council's Good Roads, Clear Creeks (GRCC) Program completed another successful work season this year, stabilizing an amazing 106,832 cubic yards of sediment which was threatening to enter the Mattole River and fill in the pools needed for salmon and other aquatic species. GRCC replaced and upgraded 41 old culverts with new, properly-installed culverts, installed 47 armored fords on seasonal access roads that were not maintained regularly, we also decommissioned 23 stream crossings, putting three different road segments to bed. Lastly, GRCC also completed several streambank projects, stabilizing over a thousand feet of streambank with a combination of bioengineering and rock work.

Probably our biggest accomplishment in 2008 was the removal of five fish barriers located on pristine, fish-bearing Mattole tributaries. These barriers were often old culverts that were installed too high in the fillslope for juvenile and adult salmonids to freely swim through them. We removed these old culverts and replaced them with either bridges or pipe arches. These projects opened up six miles of spawning and rearing habitat to access by salmonids.

Before "Good Roads, Clear Creeks": Looking downstream at failing double culverts during an average storm event. This site is located along Chemise Mountain Road within the South Fork of Bear Creek. It's obvious that these culverts are undersized. Tires are flanking the left bank. Photo: courtesy MRC archives

After "Good Roads, Clear Creeks": Standing in the channel, looking downstream at an arch that was installed in place of the double-culvert fish barrier. Now all salmonid species can freely swim through this crossing and up another 1.9 miles to some of the best spawning habitat in the headwaters of the Mattole River watershed. Photo: courtesy MRC archives

The bulk of the work completed this year was within the middle parts of the watershed in Bear, Blue Slide, Grindstone, Mattole Canyon, and McKee Creeks. In past years, we've focused our efforts on the headwaters of the Mattole near Whitethorn. We're working our way down the watershed, treating sediment sources on public and private lands where we have gained access. We've also assessed the lower watershed around Petrolia, and have secured funding to address a significant number of sediment sources in that vicinity. The GRCC Program is about two-thirds done assessing lands within the Mattole for chronic and catastrophic sediment inputs, and we hope to inventory all creeks within the Mattole by 2012. After that we would like to go back through older project areas and try to assess lands that we previously did not have access to. We have found that there are many landowners who didn't initially grant us access, but have since seen what we have done on their neighbors' properties and now would like to participate. We look forward to continuing to work with landowners to restore the Mattole River watershed's sediment regime to levels which will once again be supportive of vigorous native salmon runs.

For more information: www.mattole.org



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Forest & River News is produced by Trees Foundation. For more information contact:
Mattole Restoration Council
P.O. Box 160
Petrolia, CA 95558
Email: mrc@mattole.org
Phone: (707) 629-3514 Fax: (707) 629-3577