Service Description: The 100,541-acre Bear Creek Watershed, including Ash Creek, is an eastside tributary of the Sacramento River in Shasta County. In 2002 a group of landowners and residents formed the Bear Creek Watershed Group (BCWG) with technical assistance from state and federal agency liaisons and watershed coordination from the Western Shasta Resource Conservation District. The group’s mission is to “seek to promote a sustainable community, both human and biological, within the Bear Creek and Ash Creek watersheds.” The purpose of the BCWG is to: Promote a healthy, diverse resource–based local economy; Educate the community about the value of wise watershed management; Promote a safer watershed; Maintain and enhance the water quality, fisheries, wildlife and wildlife habitat of the watershed; Promote the removal of invasive exotic vegetation; and Preserve the rural characteristic of the watershed. The Bear Creek Watershed Assessment and Bear Creek Watershed Management Strategy were completed in 2006 with funds from a CALFED grant. Bear Creek is a perennial stream that supports fall-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), steelhead trout (O. mykiss) and rainbow trout (O. mykiss). Steelhead trout are listed as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Central Valley fall-run Chinook are a candidate for Federal listing. Bear Creek is tributary to the Sacramento River which supports several threatened and endangered runs of salmon including winter-run Chinook and spring-run Chinook in addition to those found in Bear Creek. On or about August 6, 2003, a penstock broke at the South Fork Bear Creek hydroelectric plant. The penstock break caused a landslide about 500 meters upstream from the power plant. The landslide discharged an unknown amount of sediment into Bear Creek. However an aerial survey conducted on August 8, 2003, showed that the water in Bear Creek was turbid all the way to the Sacramento River. This was a distance of 33,085 meters of measurable deleterious impacts for a period of several days. In 2007 the BCWG was notified that as a result of the settlement approximately $7,300 could be used for a restoration project in the Bear Creek Watershed. The BCWG was advised that there were no restrictions in the settlement agreement that limited the type of restoration, but since instream resources such as salmonid rearing habitat were affected, the restoration project should benefit resources of the same type and in the same general location if possible. The purpose of this proposal is to outline a riparian restoration project wholly designed and implemented by the BCWG that the review committee will determine is a suitable use of these funds.

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• Bear Creek Riparian Restoration [ds2816] (0)

Description: Every year since 2002, members of the BCWG have participated in the international education and outreach program, World Water Monitoring Day, by collecting basic water quality measurements at eleven locations along Bear, Ash and Lack creeks within the Bear Creek Watershed. During this once-per-year monitoring event, BCWG members observed areas with little riparian cover and high water temperatures. These high water temperatures adversely affect the aquatic ecosystems and fishery of Bear Creek. Additionally, this lack of riparian vegetation makes stream banks more susceptible to erosion and ultimately leads to increased sediment delivery to the river.Building on the existing conditions documented in the Bear Creek Watershed Assessment, and the restoration goals and objectives identified in the Management Strategy, the BCWG proposes to purchase equipment to record diurnal stream temperatures, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity and electrical conductivity throughout the anadromous reaches of Bear Creek. The BCWG will use this temperature and water quality data to guide riparian revegetation efforts in developing a shading riparian canopy that will protect and enhance cold water resources within the range of anadromy.Implementing stream monitoring and riparian planting at this time meets several objectives outlined in the Bear Creek Watershed Management Strategy including:Implement temperature monitoring aimed at defining the existing temperature regime both seasonally and spatially;Collect baseline data and monitor temperature and flow as they relate to fish abundance;Rehabilitate habitat with projects that are adaptively integrated with other goals of the Management Strategy;Develop public outreach programs to educate Bear Creek Watershed residents and government agencies and officials about the efforts of the BCWG to maintain and improve watershed health.Implementing a restoration project of this type would also help identify areas in the watershed that are consistently in poorer condition to enable the development of restoration prescriptions (stream/ riparian/ sediment source reductions) that can improve those conditions.

Copyright Text: Eda Eggeman; ; California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW); ; 2440 Athens Avenue; (530) 225-2753; ; ; eda.eggeman@wildlife.ca.gov;

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