Looking north from the Redwood Creek Estuary. | Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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After more than ten years of meticulous planning and collaboration among local landowners, government officials, tribes and environmental scientists, the Redwood Creek Esturary Restoration Project is finally gaining momentum.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Humboldt County officials will host a public meeting at the Orick Community Hall at 4 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss next steps for the estuary restoration project, which aims to revitalize critical habitat for threatened and endangered salmonid species in Redwood Creek.
“This week’s community meeting intends to introduce the Redwood Creek Estuary restoration study to members of the public that are not involved in the study through the Redwood Creek Estuary Collaborative,” Joél Flannery, senior project planner for the Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District, wrote in an email to the Outpost. “We also hope to gain valuable insights and engage in conversation about the estuary, drainage impacts and restoration visions.”
The restoration project would undo decades of ecological degradation caused by the earthen levee system that runs through the heart of Orick. Originally designed to control flooding along the lower 3.4 miles of Redwood Creek, the levees have “reduced the size, complexity, and ecological function of the estuary,” according to the project’s description.
Over the years, Redwood Creek has become overgrown with vegetation and impaired by large sediment deposits, dramatically reducing flood capacity.
Looking at an aerial view of the estuary, as seen below, you can see where the levee system cut off a large meander on the south side of Redwood Creek. This not only altered the natural flow of the estuary but also impaired its ecological function.
Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
“The levee impacts to the estuary were identified many decades ago,” Flannery said. “Discussions about how to leverage [the] Corps’ authority to address the levees’ impacts to the estuary have been ongoing since at least the early 2000s.”
When the Redwood Creek Flood Control Project was constructed in the mid-1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t know the channel would rapidly accumulate sediment because the project’s designers didn’t sufficiently evaluate environmental impacts downstream. The levees were built just a few years before the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — the nation’s first major environmental law that required federal agencies to consider the environmental impact of their actions — was enacted in 1970. As such, the project was not subject to the rigorous environmental review required by today’s standards.
The County of Humboldt periodically removes sediment and vegetation from Redwood Creek, but it’s been about a decade since any substantial maintenance occurred.
While restoration would exclude the portion of the levee system that runs through Orick, the project could alleviate flood risk upstream by enhancing floodplain connectivity at the estuary.
At the end of last year, the Army Corps of Engineers and the county, in partnership with the Redwood Creek Estuary Collaborative, initiated a feasibility study for estuary restoration. Once that process is complete in the next two and a half years, the collaborative will finalize the design selected through the NEPA process and apply for the permits needed to move forward with estuary restoration.
“Given the complexity of the study, coupled with planning and design requirements, the earliest we can expect construction would be the summer of 2029,” Flannery said. “The length of construction time is currently unknown.”
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The Redwood Creek Estuary Restoration Project public meeting will take place at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the Orick Community Center — 101 Swan Road in Orick. Check back later this week for coverage of the meeting.
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