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The Central Napa River Watershed Project
The streams of the Napa River watershed support a diverse assemblage of aquatic and terrestrial organisms including several rare and threatened species. Among this dubious group are steelhead trout and salmon (collectively called salmonids), which have shown steadily declining populations for several decades, and today their numbers in the Napa River watershed are very low. In an effort to reverse this trend, the RCD is actively involved in focusing conservation efforts to protect remaining critical areas and improve habitat with voluntary landowner support. This summer, we will be conducting extensive field surveys along streams in the central Napa River watershed to assess salmonid habitat and make recommendations for restoration to help bolster habitat quality and quantity for these vanishing fish.
The Central Napa River Watershed Project is the second of a three-phase effort funded by the Department of Fish & Game that systematically covers the entire Napa River basin; the first phase was completed in 2002. Our study area encompasses 18 miles of the Napa River and several tributaries including the Napa River, Bell Creek, Bale Slough, Bear Creek, Canon Creek, Conn Creek, Soda Creek, Montgomery Creek, Segassia Creek, Campbell Creek, Wing Creek, Rector Creek, and York Creek.
To get a better idea of stream conditions throughout the year, we have installed temperature loggers at ten sites to chronicle annual temperature patterns in these streams. Each temperature logger measures and records water temperature continuously every 30 minutes for the entire year. Temperature data will be analyzed with information on water quality and quantity, spawning gravel quality, and sediment levels, which are also being measured in each stream.
The results of our monitoring and surveying efforts will be integrated into a final report that describes habitat conditions in each stream and provides ranked recommendations for future restoration and enhancement projects. The report will be available in early 2005. Volunteer opportunities are also available to citizens who would like to help out with water quality monitoring. Contact the RCD, which will provide training and equipment, if you are interested in participating.
Wetland Health and Function
An overview of the importance of wetlands and how we can monitor their ecological health
What is a wetland? Technically defined, a wetland is an area that has undrained hydric soil that is saturated with water or covered by shallow water at some time during the growing season of every year. Wetlands support plants called hydrophytes, which are adapted to wet soil conditions. Ecologically speaking, wetlands are oases, which provide water and habitat for an incredible diversity of plants and animals, many of which are endemic (found nowhere else).
In Napa, there is a wide spectrum of wetland types from the tidal marshes found in the lower Napa River to the many small, seasonal freshwater wetlands dotting the valley floor and hillsides. Regardless of the type, all wetlands are biologically rich habitats for birds, fish, amphibians, mammals, plants, and invertebrates. Several species that depend on wetlands are threatened or endangered, due mostly to loss of habitat.
Year-round wetland habitats are vital for aquatic organisms such as fish and amphibians that live and breed in water. Seasonal wetlands, which remain flooded for only part of the year, support a myriad of species that have evolved life history strategies to live in these ephemeral habitats. One group of animals that is well adapted to wetland life is the amphibians. For example, the California red-legged frog (state threatened species) can breed in ponds that go completely dry in late summer. Many other frogs and salamanders, such as the California newt, migrate long distances to wetland ponds to breed.
Wetlands also have physical functions that benefit humans and wildlife alike. Wetlands act as natural sinks or sponges, storing water and slowly releasing it. This process slows the water’s momentum and erosive forces, reduces flood heights, and allows for ground water recharge, which contributes to stream flow during dry periods. Although a small wetland might not store much water, a network of many small wetlands can store an enormous amount of water.
After being slowed by a wetland, water moves around plants, allowing the suspended sediment to drop out and settle to the wetland floor. Nutrients from fertilizer application, manure, leaking septic tanks, and municipal sewage that are dissolved in the water are often absorbed by plant roots and microorganisms in the soil. Other pollutants stick to soil particles. In many cases, this filtration process removes much of the water’s nutrient and pollutant load by the time it leaves a wetland.
The Napa County RCD has a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin a volunteer-based wetland monitoring program. This program, which is due to get underway in early 2004, will use an integrated monitoring approach to assess wetland health and function at several sites throughout the county. Monitoring activities will include bird surveys, fish collection, vegetation surveys, and water quality sampling. If you would like more information on this project or would be interested in volunteering, contact Jonathan Koehler: jonathan@naparcd.org or 707-252-4188.
To learn more about wetlands visit the EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands
A Primer on Wetland Birds
As part of a rich regional ecosystem, Napa County offers a great variety of wetland habitats to resident and migratory bird species. In fact, over 100 species of wetland-adapted birds spend all or part of their life cycle on the waters or in the wetlands of San Francisco Bay. They include loons, pelicans, cormorants, mergansers and terns that dive through the water to capture fish. Other birds, including most diving ducks and shorebirds feed on the countless invertebrates found in the mud. Marsh-dwelling birds such as the Song Sparrow and Salt Marsh Yellowthroat search for terrestrial and flying insects. Herons and Egrets have a varied diet including fish, crabs, small mammals and occasionally other birds.
Some bird species including Song Sparrows and Marsh Wrens are year round residents of Napa wetlands. While a few species of shorebirds and waterfowl also nest Song Sparrow locally, many others are winter residents, arriving in late summer or fall and remaining through the winter before migrating northward or eastward to nesting areas in spring. A few species, such as Wilson’s Phalarope, occur strictly as migrants, stopping in the Bay for short periods in spring and fall before resuming their migration to breeding and wintering areas.
Herons and Egrets
Herons and egrets are easily recognized by observers as some of the largest and most physically distinct group of wetland birds. As top carnivores, they are also important biological indicators of environmental changes occurring at lower trophic levels. In spring, they can be observed in communal nesting sites in a variety of habitats. Species in Napa include Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Great Egret, and Snowy Egret.
Marsh-nesting Passerines
Several distinct subspecies of the Song Sparrow and Common Yellowthroat are associated with tidal salt marshes of the San Francisco Bay region. These resident subspecies are entirely or mainly restricted to tidal marsh habitat. The Song Sparrow subspecies include Samuel’s Song Sparrow found in San Pablo Bay, and the Suisun Song Sparrow of Suisun Bay. The subspecies of Common Yellowthroat, found throughout the San Francisco Bay region, is the Salt Marsh Common Yellowthroat. These three subspecies are considered State of California Species of Special Concern. Other wetland passerines found in Napa’s freshwater and brackish marshes include Marsh Wren, Red-winged Blackbird, and Says Phoebe.
Gulls and Terns
California Gulls, Forster’s Terns, Caspian Terns and Least Terns nest in the salt ponds and other man-made habitats around the bay area. Terns are fish-eating birds that forage in ponds and other shallow waters. Gulls are scavengers feeding on a wide variety of items including refuse from landfills.
Shorebirds
At least 34 species of shorebirds, comprised of plovers, oystercatchers, stilts, avocets, sandpipers and phalaropes, occur regularly in the San Francisco Bay estuary, Black-bellied Plover mostly as migrants or winter residents. The San Francisco Bay estuary holds one of the largest concentrations of migrating and wintering shorebirds on the west coast of the United States.
Numbers approach a million birds during the peak of spring migration. Shorebirds eat a wide variety of invertebrates on tidal mudflats, salt ponds, marshes, rocky shores and American Avocet occasionally agricultural fields. The Napa-Sonoma Marsh complex along the lower Napa River is an excellent area to view shorebirds during the fall, winter, and early spring.
Rails
In Napa, several rail species occur in freshwater, brackish and tidal marshes. These include Clapper Rails, Black Rails, Virginia Rails, Sora Rails, American Coots, and Common Moorhens. Clapper Rails and Black Rails are both listed species because of historic loss and degradation of habitat. Each is also highly sensitive to variation in environmental conditions including changing salinity values, water levels, predation pressure, and human impacts to adjacent habitats. The presence and/or absence of these species provide indicators of marsh function.
Waterfowl
As part of the San Francisco Estuary, Napa is one of the most important staging and wintering areas for migratory waterfowl populations in the Pacific Flyway. Although most species only spend the winter here, a small number of Mallards, Gadwalls, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Cinnamon Teals, and Ruddy Ducks breed in local marshes and wetlands. Waterfowl can be divided into dabbling ducks, diving ducks, mergansers, geese, and swans. Aside from the mergansers, which are primarily fish eaters, waterfowl are plant and invertebrate feeders. The Napa River as well as seasonal ponds and wetlands throughout the county are good places to find waterfowl in fall and winter.
Raptors and Owls
Birds of prey including hawks, kites, falcons, and owls are commonly found near wetlands, where they hunt for small mammals and other birds. Peregrine Falcons and Merlins ambush shorebirds and waterfowl in flight with extreme speed during aerial pursuits. Hawks including Red-tail Hawks and Northern Harriers (formerly known as the Marsh Hawk) forage on small wetland rodents, amphibians, and reptiles. Owls are not commonly seen, as they are most active at night. However, the occasional Short-eared Owl can be seen most often in tidal marshes flying gracefully in the early morning or evening.
Further reading & resources
www.audubon.org/
www.prbo.org/
www.americanbirding.org/
- Breeding Birds of Napa County California Napa-Solano Audubon Society (707)253-1007
- The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America-David Allen Sibley, Chanticleer Press
- National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America 4th Edition-National Geographic Press
The Foundations of a Functional Watershed Stewardship Group
A watershed stewardship approach to natural resource planning and protection has been gaining popularity and acceptance. Stewardship groups have proven to be an effective and meaningful way to address watershed wide resource issues in a cooperative and empowering manner. This management trend marks a fundamental shift from the traditional top down, agency driven and mandated land use directives. Although this top down approach has shown to be effective in certain instances, this type of resource management approach tends to become overspecialized by addressing only one specific component within a watershed. Simply put, this ‘top down’ mandated approach to land use is quite often unsuccessful because it has not addressed the other significant constituents within the watershed; people, businesses, biological and ecological communities etc. Watersheds, of course, have an infinite number of interrelated connections coexisting at the same time. Stewardship is a process by which these connections cooperate, interact and flourish.
Although each group is unique, the characteristics of a functional and effective stewardship group all share many of the same qualities. Cooperation, interaction, openness, participation, and flexibility are all essential for a stewardship group to achieve its goals and become successful. Despite the increasing number of stewardship groups throughout California and the United States, there is no magical formula that can be relied upon to develop a stewardship group.
To begin, stewardship groups form for a variety of different reasons. For example, some groups develop because neighbors are concerned about declining property values, others about water quality or endangered species, or fear of government regulation of a shared resource. Whatever the case may be, there are some steps that each functioning group has made which allows them to grow and develop into a functional stewardship group.
First, and most importantly, is to identify the stakeholders within the watershed. Anyone who has a stake within the watershed is a stakeholder. If a person or group believes that they are a stakeholder, then they are, and should be included in the process. Commonly, stakeholders are property owners, business owners, resource agency personnel, schools, churches etc. No one should be excluded from this stage because the more participants who are actively involved in the process, the more likely it is that the group will develop creative solutions to shared resource concerns. It may be necessary to conduct some local research in order to complete a list of stakeholders in a given watershed. Lots of information about who the stakeholders are can be gathered at local planning departments and Resource Conservation Districts, from elected officials, the county assessors office, or from certain types of interest groups.
Once all the stakeholders have been identified, the next step is to contact them and begin to assess what people’s interests are. At this stage of stewardship development, it is important to only focus on interests, and not problems. There are many ways to solve the same problem. Now is not the time focus on problems, but rather on what people’s interests are. This is a crucial step, and one that can be achieved in many different ways. One effective way to learn people’s interests is to set up several small group meetings between neighbors. Meeting ground rules must be established and followed (only one person speaks at a time, no confrontations, accusations or threats etc.). In this environment, people will likely feel more comfortable and willing to discuss their interests. Although this option works well, it requires a substantial amount of time. At this stage, it is important to only generate a list of interests, not problems, or even solutions. The list of people’s interests should be recorded and hung on a wall for everyone to see. As time goes on and participants begin to develop trust, other small groups can be integrated to form a larger group.
Now that the group of stakeholders has created a thorough list of interests, the next step is to set those interests into action by developing goals, or a Mission Statement. This Mission Statement must be crafted carefully and should promote the interests of all the stakeholders in a positive, flexible manner. This step is significant because it binds the group together through a statement that everyone can support, or at least live with knowing that their interests were heard and understood by everyone else.
Because the stewardship group now has a Goal that everyone helped create, the next logical step is to work together to make that Goal a reality. Often times the group will establish subcommittees to address or research specific objectives to attain the overall Goal. It is important to keep everyone on track by assigning certain tasks for individuals or subcommittees to achieve. These should be specific objectives, the who, what, when, where, how and why. Who will set the agenda at the next meeting? How will we expand our group to include more stakeholders? What is a good project that people can get involved with to help achieve our Goal? The more ownership the group members feel, the more likely they will work to make things happen. (No one ever washed a rental car!)
Being part of a stewardship group can be a rewarding and empowering experience, but successful groups don’t just happen…they take work. In stewardship development, as in life, you only get what you give. The most important part of a stewardship group is the active participation and involvement of all individuals working cooperatively with each other to achieve a common goal.
The Napa County Resource Conservation District has for many years believed in the power of cooperation and stewardship development. The RCD has trained stewardship and meeting facilitators to help fledgling groups develop into a functional group. Currently in Napa County, there are many active stewardship groups that the RCD is actively involved with. To find out how you can also get involved, please call the Napa RCD at 707-252-4188. Stewardship groups are an excellent way to “Get the government off your back by shouldering some of the responsibility.” We’re all in this together, so the more we can work together to achieve common goals, the better it is for all of us.
Based on:
“Land Stewardship Watershed Plan Development” 1996 Napa County Resource Conservation District
“Stewardship Planning Workshop: Goal Development” 1994 Napa County Resource Conservation District
“Land Stewardship Formation” 1992 Napa County Resource Conservation District
Wildlife Habitat Just Got Better!
Since 1999, the Massa Ranch south of Yountville is slowly seeing a change in wildlife especially along Hopper Creek, and the Napa River. Populations of songbirds, field mice, snakes, egrets, ducks, jackrabbits and quail were always present. But the difference is their population levels have a chance to increase because shelter, food and habitat have increased. Near the property entrance is Hopper Creek. This portion of the creek looks like a man-made channel but it still has value as a riparian corridor. Along with its current annual grasses, young trees and shrubs have been planted too.
The late Frank Massa and his’ grandson, Michael Clark and ranch foreman, Patrick Ridder expressed a desire to increase wildlife habitat by planting native trees, shrubs, and grasses. They found that cost share funds and free technical services were available through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
A conservation plan and the allowable cost share amounts were developed from that years cost share list. During summer of 1999 the Massa Ranch was awarded EQIP funding to plant native vegetation throughout the lower bank and flood plain terrace of Hopper Creek. There are now over 1100 plants that include cottonwoods, walnut, box elder, Ca. valley oak, coast live oak, big leaf maple, sycamores and low growing shrubs have successfully taken root with the addition of plant nutrients and irrigation water.
In February 2001, a wildlife corridor was proposed from the Napa River to Hopper Creek, and a planting of low growing insectory plants as a hedgerow. Not until summer of 2001 did Massa Ranch receive a second cost share/grant through the WHIP program. The ranch currently has over 3,300 plants or 7.4 acres of wildlife habitat improvement.
Both the EQIP and WHIP program target the improvement of endangered animal species and declining wildlife habitat while benefiting water quality and reducing soil erosion. Only proposals that show the greatest environmental benefit are awarded. EQIP grants are ranked locally but WHIP proposals are ranked regionally from the central coast to the north coast.
The folks at the Massa Ranch realized a healthier environment makes good farming, community and business sense. Look for a springtime ranch photo in the next newsletter.
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