Fall 2010 Winter 2011 Conservation Almanac Newsletter, Trinity County Resource Conservation District
Fall 2010 Winter 2011 Conservation Almanac Newsletter, Trinity County Resource Conservation District
Fall 2010 Winter 2011 Conservation Almanac Newsletter, Trinity County Resource Conservation District
BLM Projects Along Trinity River ..... 1-2 Young Family Ranch Happenings ........ 3 2010 Salmon Festival ...................... 4-5 Enviro. Science Education Camp ...... 6-7 Barker Valley Road Culvert Upgrade ... 8 New AmeriCorps WSP Members ......... 9 2010 TCRCD Staff Faces ................... 10 District Manager's Corner ................. 11
In This Issue:
District crewmembers Mike Gadbury and Arrow Harrington make Boat Launch Improvements at Steel Bridge DayUse Area.
BLM projects to improve recreation access and protect habitat along Trinity River included paving improvements at Bucktail and Bagdad boat launches.
FallWinter 2010
his has been another great year at the Y oung Family Ranch in Weaverville. A lot of fun events were hosted there, and the property itself underwent some major improvements to make it more accessible and usable for community workshops, meetings and special events. Much of the funding for improvements came in grants from two different sources, and a couple of experienced community volunteers who were instrumental to getting the hard work done right. A grant from the McConnell Fund (via Shasta Regional Community Foundation) was coupled with a safety grant from University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension to fund materials for a new concrete handicap parking space and loading space at the front of the Ranch. From there a wide new sidewalk slopes gently up to the classroomworkshop in the lower level of the ranch house. On the north side of the house a new concrete ramp with steel safety rails leads to the upper level, as do new concrete steps. The Ranch house also received new energyefficient windows and a new swamp cooler to make the interior comfortable throughout the year. A new water well was drilled and water storage tanks installed to provide irrigation water during the dry season. The Y oung Family Ranch spans 3.2 acres of vegetable gardens, pasture and lawns along Oregon Street, just a little beyond Joss House State Park. It is a community trust and agricultural property. Brothers Bob and Allen Y oung, before they passed away in 2000 and 2001, made clear their desire that the gardens and fields of their lifelong home be maintained and used for the benefit of the community in ways that tie gardening and agriculture to Weaverville. The Ranch is administered by a volunteer board of five trustees: Brenda Houston, Duane Heryford, Richard Lorenz, Rod Plew and Bob Simmons. They strive to ensure the nonprofit Y oung Family Ranch continues to benefit the community in ways the benefactors wanted. They have engaged TCRCD to coordinate maintenance and uses of the Ranch and to provide programs and funding development. Trustees Plew and Heryford volunteered a good amount of their time, energy and skills to completing several of the Ranchs recent improvements. Among their projects, Heryford oversaw all the concrete work and Plew plumbed the new water well. The Ranch serves a variety of communitybased activities and uses, including Summer Day Camp & Field Trips Program, 4H Y outh Development Program, University of California Cooperative Extension workshops on gardening, nutrition and smallscale agriculture; Community Plant & Seed Exchange; the summer series of evening activities and films for families; Health & Human Services Department staff trainings, and meetings by the likes of gardening clubs, trail committees, Trinity Kids CAN, the Rural Creative ReUse Project, Ascend Wilderness Experience, and similar organizations. This year the Ranch hosted a summer series of evening family events that provided gardening workshops, fun kids activities, plenty of refreshments and movies after sundown on an outdoor screen. The series was sponsored by a grant from the Trinity County Child Abuse Prevention Council with workshops by the University of California Cooperative Extension. oung Family Ranch for an activity that fits into the Ranchs If your organization would like to use the Y mission, please contact Mark Dowdle at the District.
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Learning about healthy forest components and measuring trees with USFS botanist Susan Erwin
NRCS biologist Tim Viel teaching about stream insects and stream health FallWinter 2010
his past summer, at the request of private landowners, Trinity County RCD replaced an existing culvert on a tributary to Barker Creek in Hayfork. The road crossing serves many residents living in the area and had to be closed for most of one day for the project to be completed. A temporary crossing was installed at the request of the Hayfork Volunteer Fire Department to ensure urgent needs could be met in case of an emergency. Coordinator Cynthia Tarwater and her crew obtained landowner permissions, necessary permits from California Department of Fish and Game, and an engineered design for the project. Funding came from the State Water Resources Control Board as a grant to reduce onpoint source sediment delivery into the South Fork of the Trinity River. This stream crossing improvement was designed to prevent approximately 700 cubic yards of erosion. Two smaller older corrugated metal pipes (CMPs) were replaced with a much larger single CMP Four rock checks were established above the inlet to ease the gradient into the new . CMP and riprap was placed at the inlet and outlet of the new culvert installation to prevent erosion.
General overview before and after new culvert installation at the Barker Valley Road stream crossing
Downstream view before culvert upgrade shows severe erosion. If old, undersized culverts failed, upstream stretch would suffer similar erosion.
FallWinter 2010
oslyn Lack and Donna Rupp are the two new members of AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project (WSP) assigned to the District from October 2010 through August 2011. During their term they will be visiting classrooms throughout Trinity County to teach about the water cycle, the salmon life cycle, and ways that students and their families can help protect and conserve their local watersheds. They will also be involved in conducting the 2011 Summer Day Camp and Field Trips program in Weaverville, plus assisting the District and other agencies with a broad range of natural resource conservation projects in the county. Donna graduated from Portland State University (Oregon) in March 2010 with a Masters degree in Environmental Management. Her studies included wetland and riparian ecology. She is excited about sharing her newly gained knowledge with the children of Trinity County and eager to apply her newly gained knowledge doing field work. After a career in corporate marketing communications, Donna decided to change direction and focus on her love of the land. As a child, she spent days catching tadpoles and salamanders in the San Gabriel River in southern California. Ive always loved being in and around the water, even when I was a tadpole myself, she recounted. AmeriCorps, in general, and Watershed Stewards Project specifically, are providing me with unique opportunities to explore the natural resources field. I feel privileged to be working with Trinity County Resource Conservation District and to be part of the Weaverville community. Donna looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm about water and natural resources with the community at large and working to improve watershed health in Trinity County. In her spare time Donna enjoys gardening, hiking, rafting, cooking and reading everything from classic literature to mysteries and cookbooks. Roslyn obtained her Associate degree in Natural Science in 2007 from Lee College in Texas with plans to ultimately become a science teacher. She worked as a substitute teacher and assisted in academic administration before heading west with her husband and dog in 2009, taking in the splendid scenery of the southwest as they traveled. The couple soon discovered the splendor of the pristine wilderness of the Trinity Alps and found jobs with the US Forest Service in summer 2010 as wilderness patrol staff. That work involved trekking hundreds of miles on foot, providing guidance to and helping backcountry hikers, checking wilderness permits and laboring to restore campsites and reporting on trail conditions. All the while they took considerable pleasure at being in the midst of natures spectacle, Roslyn explains, and on several occasions she was moved to exclaim her awe in hushed tones when coming upon a truly marvelous scene in the wilderness. As a result, she explained, her interest in her natural surroundings has grown substantially, prompting her to volunteer with AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project as a way to increase her knowledge of nature while helping to engage others in caring for the environment. Roslyn plans to return to college and complete a Bachelors degree in Environmental Management once her term with WSP is completed. The AmeriCorps program provides tuition offsets for volunteers who complete their service. Roslyn explained she constantly gleans new knowledge about natural resources conservation from books, through training provided by WSP and from her handson work for the District. She is excited about her opportunity to get back into the classroom and continuing the WSP Real Science program for students here in Trinity County, with its goal of increasing awareness about the importance of healthy watersheds to the survival of salmon and other wildlife. The mission of the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project is to conserve, restore, and enhance anadromous watersheds for future generations by linking education with highquality scientific practices. The District welcomes Roslyn and Donna and supports their work towards this goal.
FallWinter 2010
Here are (most of) the District faces behind the many projects we worked on in 2010. Personnel missing from our family photo include Cynthia Tarwater, Zack Blanchard, Erik Flickwir and Mark Dowdle all hard at work that day.
Celebrating the graduation of our Green Crew is Angela Lehfeldt of the SMART Business Center in Weaverville. Back row, (lr) are District Manager Pat Frost, Green Crew members Jeffrey McGrew, Duke Klang, Mike McNeil, Assistant D.M. Alex Cousins, and Crew Supervisor Will Welsch.
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Pat Frost
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Trinity County Resource Conservation District P.O. Box 1450 Weaverville, CA 96093
Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE PAI D Permit No. 1 Palo Cedro, CA 96073
POSTAL PATRON
Established 1956
District Board Meetings Third Wednesday 5:30 PM Open to the Public TCRCD Office Number One Horseshoe Lane PO Box 1450 Weaverville, CA 96093 Telephone (530) 623-6004 FAX 623-6006
The Trinity County Resource Conservation District (TCRCD) is a non-regulatory special district set up under state law to carry out conservation work and education. It is a not-for-profit, self-governing district whose board of directors volunteer their time.
TCRCD envisions a balance between utilization and conservation of our natural resources. Through economic diversity and ecosystem management our communities will achieve and sustain a quality environment and healthy economy. To assist people in protecting, managing, conserving and restoring the natural resources of Trinity County through information, education, technical assistance and project implementation programs.
TCRCD Board of Directors are Mike Rourke, Rose Owens, Patrick Truman, Colleen O'Sullivan, and Greg Lowden. The RCD is landowners assisting landowners with conservation work. The RCD can guide the private landowner in dealings with state and federal agencies. The RCD provides information on the following topics: Forest Land Productivity Erosion/Sediment Control Watershed Improvement Wildlife Habitat Water Supply and Storage Soil and Plant Types Educational Programs Fuels Reduction This issue of the Conservation Almanac is funded in part by grants from the U.S. Forest Service, Trinity River Restoration Program, State Water Resources Control Board, California Department of Fish and Game, Young Family Ranch Trust, California Fire Safe Council, Bureau of Land Management, and the Trinity County Title III Fund.