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Considerations for Management of the Mouth State of California’s Bar-built Estuaries

Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project | January 10th, 2019

Summary

Bar-built estuaries are the dominant estuary type in California, and many of these small estuaries are subject to closure with a sand barrier separating a lagoon

Bar-built estuaries are the dominant estuary type in California, and many of these small estuaries are subject to closure with a sand barrier separating a lagoon estuary from the ocean for days, months or even years. In the lagoon impounded behind the sand barrier, water levels may rise or fall depending on net water budget and water quality extremes may develop. These conditions and the obstruction of fish passage motivate managed breaching of the sand barrier in many systems statewide – an intervention that alleviates or preempts environmental problems, but which also can result in undesirable secondary impacts due to the acute effect of a single breach or the chronic effect of repeated breaching over years. Management decisions are based on an implicit trade-off between anticipated benefits and costs that depend on the values and priorities of stakeholders. This report was written to provide an overview of considerations for managed breaching in California. It presents a synthesis of processes and phenomena related to mouth closure and breaching in general and uses this to identify potential impacts of breaching, without intending any judgment of which impacts are more or less desirable. Three specific systems are reviewed in detail: Los Peñasquitos Lagoon in San Diego County, Scott Creek Estuary in San Mateo County and Russian River Estuary in Sonoma County. While there are fundamental similarities in the closure and breaching cycle across all bar-built estuaries statewide, there is also an immense diversity between these systems due to differences in size, in hydrology (wet north to dry south), and in development (rural, urban, agricultural, road/rail). The local community is likely to develop the best management strategy where there is significant effort and experience in local monitoring, science, and stakeholder consultation. However, where there is limited monitoring, science or consultation, the considerations outlined in this report provide preliminary guidance – and comparison with one of the study systems can provide more specific insight to the potential impacts of breaching management decisions. We synthesize current understanding related to how mouth state influences estuary functions and conditions, which in turn affect ecological services. While both natural and managed breaching affect many processes and phenomena in the estuary, breaching events and managed breaching regimes do not occur in isolation and many other factors affect the estuary functions and conditions, including freshwater inputs, the adjacent landscape, and stressors in the watershed. However, managed breaching is one of very few short-term management options and therefore a valuable adaptive management tool, specifically in systems that are already perturbed or impacted by human encroachment. Although emergency breaches may be required in rare occasions, our recommendation is to develop a breaching strategy for specific systems in which breaching has been used or in which it is likely to be used as a management tool. In this context, we recommend ways in which science can provide improved support for management decisions and identify a few systems in California in which there is already a well-developed, science-based management plan. Associated document: "Wetlands on the Edge: The Future of Southern California's Wetlands - Regional Strategy 2018"

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Considering Water Use Efficiency for the Environmental Sector

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | April 29th, 2010

Summary

The goal of this report is to provide a starting point from which the water planning community can move toward improving the allocation of water within the environmental

The goal of this report is to provide a starting point from which the water planning community can move toward improving the allocation of water within the environmental sector. To facilitate that process, this report presents: 1. A discussion that highlights the water community’s points of agreement on the concept of analyzing the application of water to the environment 2. A term, Managed Environmental Water Use Efficiency (MEWUE), to reflect that concept, and a definition of that term 3. A survey of existing methods that could be used to develop MEWUE 4. Suggestions about how to proceed with implementing MEWUE Based on our analysis, we found that there was genuine interest in understanding and improving how water is allocated to the environment. The idea of maximizing environmental benefits for a given amount of allocated water is a unifying thread among stakeholder interests. We focus on this idea throughout the report as the central concept that MEWUE is intended to achieve. We propose a new term to reflect the stated concerns of stakeholders that other terms, Environmental Water Use Efficiency and Ecosystem Restoration Water Use Efficiency, did not fully address. We propose Managed to indicate that MEWUE does not evaluate the environment’s use of water per se but rather the effectiveness of water in controlled systems. We propose Environmental to reflect the range of “uses” of water in the ecosystem, including ecosystem maintenance, restoration, and water quality. Lastly, we support the use of the word Efficiency because efficiency communicates the intent of maximizing benefit for a given amount of water, providing a basis for comparison of the benefits obtainable from different uses of that water. MEWUE: a mechanism to analyze alternative uses of managed environmental water to determine which allocation of a given amount of water will maximize environmental benefits, and a means to improve decision-making over time. We address the issue of why having an explicit decision-making mechanism is essential. It is hard to allay the fears that some have of incorrectly measuring environmental benefits. However, it is even more difficult to claim that decisions based on implicit measures and beliefs are better for the environment than those based on some imperfect but explicit consideration of environmental benefits.

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Contaminant Concentrations in Eggs of Double-crested Cormorants and Forster's Terns from San Francisco Bay: 2002-2012

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | May 2nd, 2016

Summary

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) conducted an Exposure and Effects Pilot Study (EEPS) to monitor contaminant exposure and ef

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Costs of Ecosystem Management Actions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | April 22nd, 2013

Summary

California is at a critical juncture on policy for the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. This report summarizes the results of a wide-ranging study of cost-effective wa

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CVFPP Conservation Strategy Appendix G. Identification of Target Species and Focused Conservation Plans

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | July 14th, 2016

Summary

The purpose of the Conservation Strategy of the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP) is to provide direction for the California Department of Water Resources’

The purpose of the Conservation Strategy of the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP) is to provide direction for the California Department of Water Resources’ (DWR’s) environmental stewardship activities related to integrated flood management in the Central Valley, and to provide a framework and support for programmatic permitting of flood management activities. One goal of the Conservation Strategy is to contribute to the recovery and stability of native species populations and overall biotic community diversity. A set of potential target species was identified to support measurable objectives for this goal. For those target species with the greatest need for recovery of their populations, focused conservation planning was conducted. This appendix documents the process used for selecting the target species of the Conservation Strategy, including 17 target species for which focused conservation planning was conducted. The results of this focused planning are also provided in this appendix, in the form of focused conservation plans. This document is scheduled to be updated every 5 years. Because the conservation needs of species change, in the future, additional species may become suitable targets for the Conservation Strategy. Therefore, during preparation of the 5-year updates to the CVFPP, the preliminary list of species in this appendix will be reevaluated using the same criteria described below. Species meeting these criteria will be added, and focused conservation plans will be developed for them and included in subsequent updates of the Conservation Strategy. During the public comment period, new information regarding the status of the delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) and its habitat use in the Systemwide Planning Area (SPA) was made available, and a recovery plan for the species is expected to be released in 2016; therefore, this species will be considered for inclusion in the 2022 CVFPP and Conservation Strategy. Other species that were considered during the initial screening could be reconsidered, and targeted conservation plans may be developed. These species include the western pond turtle (Actinemys marmorata), tricolored blackbird (Agelaius tricolor), western red bat (Lasiurus blossevillii), and western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea).

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CVPIA 10 Years of Progress

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | June 27th, 2015

Summary

In 1992, Congress passed the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (Act, or CVPIA), which amended previous authorizations of the California Central Valley Project (CVP)

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Dam effects on bedload transport on the upper Santa Ana River, California, and implications for native fish habitat

River Research and Applications (Wiley) | May 23rd, 2019

Summary

Dams disrupt the flow of water and sediment and thus have the potential to affect the downstream geomorphic characteristics of a river. Though there are some well‐known

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DDT Residues in Pacific Sea Birds: a Persistent Insecticide in Marine Food Chains

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | November 1st, 1967

Summary

THE accumulation and biological concentration of DDT and its metabolites*within food chains of terrestrial, freshwater and estuarine ecosystems have been well doc

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Decline of the world's saline lakes

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | October 23rd, 2017

Summary

Many of the world's saline lakes are shrinking at alarming rates, reducing waterbird habitat and economic benefits while threatening human health. Saline lakes are long-t

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Delta Adapts: Creating a Climate Resilient Future

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | June 25th, 2021

Summary

The time to act is now. Climate change is already altering the physical environment of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh (Delta), and we will continue t

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Considerations for Management of the Mouth State of California’s Bar-built Estuaries

Considering Water Use Efficiency for the Environmental Sector

Contaminant Concentrations in Eggs of Double-crested Cormorants and Forster's Terns from San Francisco Bay: 2002-2012

Costs of Ecosystem Management Actions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

CVFPP Conservation Strategy Appendix G. Identification of Target Species and Focused Conservation Plans

CVPIA 10 Years of Progress

Dam effects on bedload transport on the upper Santa Ana River, California, and implications for native fish habitat

DDT Residues in Pacific Sea Birds: a Persistent Insecticide in Marine Food Chains

Decline of the world's saline lakes

Delta Adapts: Creating a Climate Resilient Future

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