Redwood Reader

30. Sediment plan workshop set
http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2206850,00.html?search=filter
Friday, June 11, 2004 - The Humboldt Bay Stewards has scheduled a workshop for those interested in the state and federal planning effort to manage sediment along the California coastline. The California Coastal Sediment Management Master Plan looks to splice management of problems like beach erosion and damage to wetlands and increased shipping restrictions due to excess sediment. The plan will put in place regional approaches to managing sediment along the 1,000-mile-long coastline. The workshop is to inform the public and take comments and will be held on June 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the U.C. Agricultural Extension Service Building at 5630 South Broadway in Eureka. For more information on the plan contact plan manager Clif Davenport at 576-2986 or at Clifton_Davenport@fire.ca.gov . For information on the workshop, call Steve Sachs at (619)987-7219 or at sachssd@cox.net .
This is the bitter end of the sediment discussion. Actually off shore canyon loading would probably still be further impacts, but out of sight out of mind. As told, the bays, wetlands, lagoons and harbors are filling with sediment, causing shipping restrictions and probably requiring more dredging. Wetlands and lagoons are vital fisheries nurseries and important wildlife habitat. We know the lagoon at the mouth of the Mattole, critical for fry returning to sea, is becoming shallower and warmer due to sedimentation. For many, this is the heart of the fight to prevent Douglas fir logging by Palco in the Mattole watershed. They act like they have no downstream responsibilities. Rather than get involved in a twenty-year effort to restore sport fishing in a watershed they are a minority owner in, they would trash it all in the name of “we have a right to”. The location, steepness, precipitation, existing roadless character of the area, and species makeup all call for special handling of Palco lands in the Mattole. Of course, this also applies to developers and agricultural interests, but no single entity is in the position to make so much work irrelevant by destroying the estuary. Destruction in this case means only adding a little sediment to an already seriously impacted river and estuary system.
We know many issues get divided along the lines of experts and their fields, and marine sedimentation is looked at by many agencies that have no role in regulating creation or movement of sediment. Nevertheless we need interdisciplinary visioneers who can see problems across landscapes and through time, and the political courage to prevent further degradation. Political courage is needed when it is proposed to do something that reduces a populations’ income. There will always be some opposition but the trick is to minimize it by replacing economic opportunity with equal or better opportunity at less risk to public resources. Public resources should be protected from catastrophic failure in the name of doing business.
In littoral studies sediment is a critical issue in beach making, and is a critical ingredient in delta formation and so forth. Most of these natural events have been exacerbated by huge amounts of sediment cut loose in the forests and rivers over the last hundred years. Many areas need years of natural sediment clearing or some kind of mechanical assistance to restore in stream habitat. Without the assistance the time period of eventually flushing these streams stretches into decades and centuries. This would also ease the rate of replenishment delaying repeated dredging treatments of the Bay that will be necessary over time.
Last but not least, managers need to become aware of the potential threat of tsunamis from offshore canyon loading. This is a result of massive sedimentation buildups in the deep river trenches off the mouth of the Eel River in particular. The tsunamis that washed away villages and people several years ago in Papua-New Guinea were the result of underwater landslides caused by massive deforestation on the island. Water can allow sediment to accumulate in slopes that would fail without the waters assistance. When they do fail, sediment slides down the cliff faces to the sea floor pushing water ahead of it. We have the added likelihood of one of these events being triggered by earthquakes that are common in the very canyons with the highest sediment delivery in the world.
From the top of the remotest mountain to the depths of the sea sediment is a concern for all. Information enough is available to reduce its production by large amounts but its effects have not been completely tallied, or the destruction would balance against the gains and profits disappear. Stewards responsible for failing conditions in the littoral regions should have some input on lessening the sources of those problems, or we are throwing good money away and chasing our own tails.