Hi all working on Prop 13 proposals. From what I have seen you all are doing a great job! Go West County Watersheds!
I saw the AGVCWC reference to a storm water assessment, which I think is a really great need. There is a new program by the Center for Watershed Protection called the Stormwater Manager's Resource Center, their web site is www.stormwatercenter.net. I have not looked at it yet, but I have bought books from them on stormwater catchment designs.
I spoke a bit with John Garn about stormwater and the fact that Sebastopol has some current regulatory program needs on that subject. A Sebastopol Salmon Safe Stormwater System (SSSSS) is a very exciting idea and the concept of really analyzing all the non-point and point run-off-sources of flow and designing the run-on-sinks as water and pollution sequestration structures for the flows is ideal. These can be catch basins, settling ponds, contour infiltration ditches, etc there are lots of tools in this tool box to be customized for the uniqueness of any situation. The planting of them with wetland species to phyto-remediate the pollution in run-off is critical and will become a major habitat source. This is the kind of whole systems thinking that excites me most.
Another area to articulate the importance of these structures is not only their run-off pollution mitigation capacity, but also their ground-water recharge capacity. There is grant money out there for ground water recharge developments. This has huge potential to positively affect the state of watershed rehydration/recharge to counteract the amount of impervious surfaces and flood related issues due to excessive run-off volumes. Increasing the receptivity of the uplands to optimize infiltration is our responsibility to deal with the consequences of deforestation and development that have had the net impact system dehydration.
I look at this as a kind of Permacultural systems thinking that utilizes the principle of "Stacking Functions". Where you intentionally create an integrated design response that solves a number of problems and is ecologically regenerative and economically affordable. The agencies love this and are always looking for more "Bang for their Buck". For instance the implementation of these kinds of systems in the appropriate locations and at appropriate scales would deal with point and non-point pollution issues, recharge ground water, mitigate flooding and associated downstream issues, create significant wetland habitat, support recovery of listed species like steelhead, coho, red-legged frog, pond turtle and freshwater shrimp, build community and save money.
To pull this off requires our society to "think like a watershed", since these structures work best if they are designed from the top down, ie: Starting on the top of the ridges, uplands and working your way dowm to the creeks. They are also scale appropriate and decentralize the concentration of hydraulic force mimicking the more natural system when it was covered with various vegetation communities, reversing the mantra of deforestation to desertification towards rehydration to restoration.
Instead of killing two birds with one stone these design concepts can save two salmon with one stormwater sink!
Off to Peru, back on Feb. 8th. Good luck getting in those grants by Feb.
1st!!!
Brock Dolman