riparian vegetation – Enviro Updates

Final phase of Colgan Creek restoration project complete

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

15 acres of habitat, recreations space added in south Santa Rosa

More than a dozen volunteers fanned out across a sparse expanse in southwest Santa Rosa in early December with gloves, shovels and wagons holding potted trees, shrubs, and brush ready to be planted.

The new vegetation will help support various pollinators and other wildlife as well as provide shade along a newly restored stretch of Colgan Creek.

The work represents the culmination of an effort more than two decades in the making aimed at breathing life back into the urban creek.

Colgan Creek was straightened and channelized in the 1940s for agricultural purposes. Santa Rosa officials sought to restore a 1.3-mile section downstream between Elsie Allen High School and Victoria Drive to a more natural state.

The widened streambed is expected to address water quality issues, reduce flood risk in the adjacent neighborhood and enhance recreation opportunities.

Sonoma County vintner, his business and DA’s Office reach $925,000 environmental damage settlement

July 31, 2022

Alana Minkler, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A Sonoma County wine executive and his business have reached a $925,000 settlement with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office following an environmental complaint that accused them of causing significant damage to streams and wetlands while constructing a vineyard in 2018 near Cloverdale, county District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced Friday.

Deeply ripping apart the terrain, tearing down trees and pushing them down streams without permits under the county’s Vineyard & Orchard Site Development Ordinance, and lacking permits for grading roads and installing culverts were among acts that Hugh Reimers and Krasilsa Pacific Farms, LLC were accused of in August 2019.

Uprooting oak woodlands and discharging sediment into Russian River tributaries caused major environmental damage, which violated the California Water Code and the federal Clean Water Act, according to a 2019 investigation by the Regional Water Control Board.

The business also did not comply with the terms of a 2019 cleanup and abatement order, which required the full restoration of the 2,278-acre property to its previous condition.

A statement in May said the impact of these actions are still evident, as they threaten the migration, spawning, reproduction and early development of cold-water fish in the Little Sulphur, Big Sulphur and Crocker creeks.

Land Use, Waterconversion to vineyard, endangered species, environmental crimes, erosion, oak woodlands, riparian vegetation, sediment