Deer Creek Floodplain Restoration Project Update

July 8, 2010 | Floods & Floodplains, Restoring Rivers, Small Streams & Wetlands

Here's a great blog entry sent in from Andrew Pellkofer, an AmeriCorp volunteer working with us as the River Restoration Associate in California:

Field season is now in full swing in California and here at the Nevada City office we’ve kicked things off with a week-long invasive vegetation removal effort at the Deer Creek Floodplain restoration site, known locally as Stocking Flat. 

With the help of 17 California Conservation Corps crew members, 2/3 of an acre of dense, thicketed Himalayan Blackberry and close to 40 Black Locust trees were successfully removed from riparian and floodplain areas at Stocking Flat (to quickly visualize this, an acre is approximately the size of a football field from goal line to goal line, imagine 2/3 covered in blackberry from 6-12 ft high; that’s a lot of blackberry).

This vegetation was then transported off site via several open top bins, which were generously donated by the local McCourtney Waste Management Transfer Station and Recycling Center, to be composted.  The Black Locust, which is known for its density and resistance to rot, has been set aside for the local Native American tribe, the Tsi-Akim Maidu, for use in bow making. 

With this phase of the project now complete, we will be focused on planning for the recontouring and revegetation phases, which are scheduled to be completed this fall.  During that time the floodplain will be graded to a lower elevation and then planted with a select palette of local riparian and upland vegetation.

Check back in the fall for a host of pre- and post-project photos and a detailed description of our work.

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