Willow poles will be planted along the stream banks to prevent erosion. The half-mile long stream has a mile of banks and that means we need a lot of willow cuttings. Willows grow literally like weeds and need to be removed from waterways that serve as flood control channels. Mike Bubalo Construction has another project constructing spreading basins for the Santa Ana River, and the site is thick with willows. So they are removing willows from there and bringing them to the Nature Center to use in our bioengineering treatments. It's really a win-win situation.
Looking at the pond built to hold the willows last week, we wondered how we would keep it from drying out.
Dry willows turned out to be the least of our concerns this week as torrential rains drenched Southern California. The lakes in El Dorado Regional Park are connected, with overflow from the first lake south of Carson flowing to the lake north of Wardlow, then under Wardlow to the lake south of Wardlow, then to Horseshoe Lake, finally flowing into the north lake at the Nature Center. The photo above shows the overflowing Horseshoe Lake just north of Spring Street in the Regional Park. The photo below shows the overflow draining towards the culvert under Spring Street, on its way to the Nature Center.
The north lake quickly overtopped the dam above the weir and water flowed into the streambed. The dam at the south lake was intentionally breached to allow storm water to drain from the stream and into the south lake. Overflow from the south lake drains into Coyote Creek and then into the San Gabriel River and on to the Pacific Ocean.
While the rains will delay the project a little bit, they also give us the opportunity to check where bank erosion is the most severe. Next week we'll be making sure that our bank treatments are focused on the places that most need protection.
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