Ventura River Watershed News: December 21, 2012

Cheese! Algae! Notch It!

Ventura River Watershed Council members, December 13, 2012
Photo: Lisa Brenneis

Jan. 15, 2013 Climate Change Subcommittee Meeting Planned
At the December 13, 2012 Council meeting, the group thought that the effort to characterize our watershed’s vulnerability to climate change needed more attention, so a climate change subcommittee meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 15, 2013, from 10:00 am to noon at the EP Foster Library Topping Room, 651 E. Main St., Ventura. The characterization will be used in our watershed management plan and for the update to the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan.If you are interested in participating in this meeting, please let me know as we’re creating a distribution list for this group. We will be sending out more materials in advance of the meeting.

What Climate Changes Have You Noticed in the Watershed?
I’ve heard that the coastal fog is being pulled further inland, and that the Pixies are being harvested about a month later than in the recent past. True? Has the spring weather actually been cooler inland? Is flowering happening later? We’re interested in your real-world observations, data and stories about how the changing climate is actually showing itself in our watershed. Of course, we can’t be sure what trends are attributed to climate change versus normal fluctuations, nonetheless, in characterizing weather trends we don’t want to rely only on state-level data. We’ll use your information in the characterization of climate change, and our vulnerabilities to it, in the watershed management plan. So please, send in your observations.

‘Tis the Season to be Planting
Volunteers Restore Habitat in the Watershed from Top to Bottom in December
By Ann Rosecrance
The soil is moist and pliable, the temperatures are cool, and more rain is coming (hopefully) – these are the conditions habitat restoration planners wait for. And they, and their many volunteers, have been busy at it in the last few weeks.

Libbey Park West Barranca Restoration Project, Dec. 8: Volunteers, students and members of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and the C.R.E.W. (Concerned Resource and Environmental Workers) showed up in the morning on Saturday, December 8 to work on restoration of the lower West Barranca, a tributary to Ojai Creek behind Libbey Park in downtown Ojai.

C.R.E.W. at Libbey Park, West Barranca restoration

Biologist Brian Holly, with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, helps oversee planting.

Stabilizing the slope, sheet mulching and planting native plants was the focus of this workday, just one of many over the last couple of years. The planting is the easy part. Work on this ongoing restoration project began by removing a massive amount (52, two-ton truckloads!) of invasive plants, mostly periwinkle and prickly Himalayan blackberry, that formed a thick tangled mass that hid the creek. Wally McCall, director of the C.R.E.W., said this is the first time in about half a century that the creek has seen the light of day.

To get involved: call (805) 669-8445 or david@ojaivalleygreencoalition.com

Old Baldwin Road Trailhead Restoration Project, Dec. 15: Thirteen volunteers of all ages joined the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy’s nursery team to help plant 250 native plants at the Ventura River Preserve’s Old Baldwin Road trailhead last Saturday.

Volunteers at Old Baldwin Trailhead restoration
Photo: Brian Stark

This was a beautification project for the trailhead, an extra special trailhead because it starts with a quarter mile of wheelchair accessible pathway. Native plants were seeded with a mix of native grasses and wildflowers. All of the plants were homegrown stock from the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy’s own nursery.

To get involved: 805/649-6852 or info@ovlc.org

Ventura River Bottom Cleanup, Dec. 15: The Ventura Hillsides Conservancy, Friends of the Ventura River, and a team of volunteers continued work to cleanup a 9-acre piece of the Ventura River bottom last Saturday.

This property, a recent acquisition of the Ventura Hillside Conservancy’s, is located between the Main Street bridge and the 101 freeway, and had been heavily infested with trash, camps and invasive Giant Reed (Arundo donax). This was the fifth monthly cleanup event since August, with the goal of removing as much trash as possible before the winter rains flush the debris out to the ocean and onto our beaches, and great strides have been made. Over 10 tons of trash have been removed since August! The next cleanup event is scheduled for Monday, January 21, 2013 in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

To get involved: 805/643-8044 or volunteer@venturahillsides.org

Surfers’ Point Dune Restoration Project, Dec. 8: Over 70 volunteers of all ages, plus a dozen organizers, spent the morning working to help restore the dune area at Surfers’ Point. The dune restoration project is part of the larger Surfer’s Point Managed Shoreline Retreat Project, a multi-part project that provides a comprehensive response to the beach erosion problem at Surfer’s Point.

The large crew made quick work of cleaning the four acre area, spreading native seeds and planting and watering native plants.

The workday, coordinated by the city of Ventura in partnership with the Ventura County Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, attracted Surfrider members and families from the community. Some of the work began a few months ago when volunteers with Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Gardens program began raising native plants. These plants were distributed among the dunes and the bioswale, a plant-lined drainage basin for infiltrating and treating stormwater runoff prior to reaching the river estuary or beach. Look for new plants on the dunes in the spring!

To get involved: 805/667-2222 or sfvccvolunteer@gmail.com

One of the things that makes our watershed so special is the number of people who truly care about it. A special thank you to all the project organizers and dedicated volunteers working to restore our watershed’s habitats.