California Coast & Ocean

Steps toward Humboldt County Estuary Restoration
A key piece of a plan to restore wetlands and alleviate flooding in Humboldt County's Salt River-Eel River estuary was put into place in July, when the Western Rivers Conservancy acquired the 444-acre Riverside Ranch on the flood plain near the confluence of the two rivers. Eventually much of the former dairy ranch will be inundated, as tidal flow is restored to hundreds of acres of former saltmarsh. In May, the Conservancy approved $250,000 to the Western Rivers Conservancy toward purchasing the land. The bulk of the $2-million purchase price will be funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Coastal Wetlands Grant Program, and by the Wildlife Conservation Board. The Western Rivers Conservancy will transfer the land to the California Department of Fish and Game to own and manage.

The Salt River-Eel River Delta is the fourth-largest estuary in California, although it has shrunk by about 60 percent since the 19th century, when diking, draining, and filling began. Steamships once plied the Salt River; now one can step across the channel. During the rainy season the river tends to flood, inundating farms and communities as well as 600 to 1,000 acres of pasture, dairy waste systems, and several sections of road. The Ferndale wastewater treatment facility has come close to flooding at times, and during high flows, sewage spills directly into the Salt River--and thus to the Eel estuary--are commonplace. In the 1980s the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District (RCD), with a grant from the Conservancy, explored ways to address the situation. At the time, the proposed approaches were deemed infeasible or too costly.

Revisiting the issue in 2003, the RCD began to develop the Salt River Enhancement Plan, which would restore some of the river's natural hydrologic functions by restoring wetlands, controlling streambank erosion, and related measures. When the owners of Riverside Ranch put it on the market in 2006, the RCD sought to include the property in its enhancement plan.

The ranch is in the flood plain between the Salt and Eel Rivers and can easily be restored to a mix of estuarine habitats. The restored wetlands will mitigate flood hazards and provide habitat for Aleutian cackling geese, migratory songbirds, and salmon and other fish that have historically inhabited the estuary. Areas not prone to flooding will be leased to local ranchers for grazing.

The Salt River originates in the Wildcat Mountains above Ferndale and joins the Eel River about a mile from the ocean. The Eel River estuary is 20 miles south of Eureka.