Russian River Coastal Tributary Improvement Program

Summary
The Sotoyome Resource Conservation District (SRCD) received funding through the Proposition 13 Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program to implement the Russian River Coastal Tributary Improvement Program (CTIP). The CTIP builds upon the Russian River Creek Stewardship Program, which the SRCD, in cooperation with Circuit Rider Productions, Inc. and Laurel Marcus and Associates, has been implementing in selected Russian River tributaries since 1998. Through the CTIP, monitoring and restoration activities were focused on Austin and Fife Creeks and their significant tributaries.

The CTIP encompassed a series of tasks to inventory and assess watershed features and conditions, establish monitoring sites and collect monitoring data, involve community members, agencies and private property owners, and integrate the information from the assessment into an action plan consisting of Best Management Practices (BMPs), revegetation and riparian enhancement projects and recommendations for continued actions to improve water quality and salmonid habitat in the target watersheds.

The monitoring objectives of the CTIP were to inventory baseline water quality in the Austin and Fife Creek watersheds with an emphasis on temperature, sediment and indicator bacteria parameters. The collection of baseline data had two main purposes: 1) to assess the existing conditions in selected tributaries and inform whether present conditions were meeting habitat and water quality objectives and 2) to serve as a reference set for comparison with future data collected, ideally to gauge the improvements associated with watershed restoration efforts.

Documents
The Russian River Coastal Tributary Improvement Program Reports are presented here as Portable Document Format (pdf) files.

• Coastal Tributary Improvement Program Final Monitoring Summary Report
  (12.8 MB pdf)
  This report summarizes the monitoring data that has been collected under the CTIP in 2005, as well as recommendations for projects and actions to improve water quality and enhance riparian and aquatic habitats in the Austin and Fife Creek watersheds.

• Restoration Project Summary   (4.8 MB pdf)
  This report summarizes the watershed restoration projects that have been implemented under funding from the CTIP in 2005-2006, as well as future recommendations for projects and actions to improve water quality and enhance riparian and aquatic habitats in the Austin and Fife Creek watersheds.

Please contact Francesca Innocenti if you have questions regarding this report.