Novato Creek Watershed Upper Watershed Restoration Opportunities

Anatomy of a Watershed

Headwaters Riparian Forest Valley Floor Estuary Bay

Largest watershed in eastern Marin

Major Novato Creek tributaries

• • • • • • • • Novato Creek Bowman Canyon Vineyard-Warner Wilson Arroyo Avichi Cheda Creek Arroyo San Jose Pacheco Creek

Upper watershed land use is primarily agriculture and open space Bowman Canyon

Valley floor land use is primarily residential with scattered park lands

Beneficial Uses • • • • • • Water Quality Water Supply Wetlands Wildlife Protection Recreation Agriculture

Restoration underway along the Bay!

Hamilton and BMK 5 Restoration

Total Project Conceptual • Scan pdf 2600 Acres

Flood History

• Significant flooding in 1955,1982, 1983 1986, 1995, 1998, 2005-06

Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Zone 1

Deer Island Wetlands An integrated watershed management project

Novato Creek-late 1880’s

• • • Novato Creek has been navigable since the mid 1870’s when 23 ton schooners made weekly trips to San Francisco “California Tidal influence extended through and upstream of Nave Shopping Center In 1880 the creek was dredged to keep the wharf open “Solferno”

Novato Creek-1895

Today Dredging Conducted for Flood Control

Tidal marshlands and sloughs were diked and drained for agriculture around the 1860's

The Creek bed is down cutting

Unstable Bank Slopes

Geomorphic Channel Restoration Design Considerations • • • • • • • Maintain Active Channel Width Consider Both Banks Consider Upstream & Downstream Effects Retain Native Vegetation Moderate to Gradual Bank Slope Incorporate Native Vegetation into Design Invasive Species Have Poor Rooting Strength Replace with Native Plants

Anatomy of a Floodplain

Biotechnical Bank Stabilization Incorporating Native Plants into the design process

Wildlife Protection

Creek Wildlife

• Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse • • • • • • River Otter Muskrat Blue Heron Clapper Rail Jack Rabbit Songbirds

Steelhead trout • • • Novato Creek Vineyard Creek Bowman Canyon

Steelhead Distribution CEMAR concludes “The Novato Watershed has not been sampled adequately… it appears to offer spawning and rearing habitat despite being the driest of the MC drainages”.

CEMAR

Best Potential for Steelhead Habitat Restoration • Novato Creek • Vineyard Creek • Bowman Canyon Creek Steelhead young of the year-Vineyard Creek

Chinook salmon

• • Novato Creek (tidewater areas) likely hatchery strays

Novato Creek as a Water Supply • NMWD / Stafford Lake Reservoir

Friends Of Novato Creek Introduction

Background, Challenges and Opportunities

Friends of Novato Creek Watershed • • • Founded as a 501c3 Non Profit Corporation in 2001 – Received ruling 2006 Members of the local communities, FNC members are teachers, engineers, contractors, students, lawyers, biologists, business owners .

Monthly meetings, semi annual trainings and events, including storm drain painting , creek cleanups, invasive species removals, water monitoring and creek walks.

FNC Mission

• • Organized for the protection, restoration, and improvement of the Novato Creek Watershed.

To build community awareness through programs in partnership with the local community

FNC Programs:

• Public Outreach & Education Signage Creek Cleanups Citizen Water Monitoring Educational Programs Research Projects Riparian Restoration

Signage

FNC Creek Cleanups

Water Quality

• • • Historic Monitoring & Data Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Concerns- pesticides, sediment, pathogens

Novato Creek Invasive weeds

• • • • Himalayan Blackberry Giant Reed Ivy (German, English, Cape) Pepper weed

Citizen Monitoring – Benthic Macroinvertebrates • • • FNC has trained 15 volunteers / Conducted 2 trainings 2006 - conducted monitoring of 5 sites including water quality, BMI collection, and physical habitat Data pending

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring

Data Collection

FNC and MCSTOPPP Sampling Stations

FNC and MCSTOPPP Sampling Stations

FNC-Next Steps

• • • • Increase efforts to build awareness of the watershed (literature / sign projects Presentations in local schools and work with local youth organizations Work with Marin County & City of Novato Continue to develop water monitoring program

Novato Creek Challenges

• • • • • • • • • Flooding Water Quality Channel management Habitat, sensitive species, and fisheries Bank erosion and stream stability Illegal camp sites Groundwater Invasive weeds Invasive species-partnered w/ Romberg Tiburon Ctr to monitor Harris Mud Crab

Novato Watershed Planning Documents • • • • • • • City of Novato General Plan Draft Marin Countywide Plan & Watershed Management Plan NBWA Watershed Stewardship Plan and IRWMP Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District-Technical Studies San Francisco Bay Watershed Plan State of CA Basin Plan-TMDLs & 303d listings Phase II NPDES Storm Water Permit and MCSTOPPP stormwater management plan

For more information about Marin County Creeks and the Novato Watershed go to www.mcstoppp.org

and www.krisweb.com