Walbridge Watershed Repair About to Begin
In the past few weeks, an emergency Cal Fire team has been at work in the Walbridge fire zone, assessing and mapping environmental and safety impacts of the weeks-long fire that scorched around 60 thousand acres of west Sonoma County woodlands and destroyed dozens of homes.
The assessment by the so-called Watershed Emergency Response Team will be used to guide actual work on ground in the coming weeks and months, with a goal of heading off the worst damage that may occur when winter rains begin and wash fire debris off of unprotected slopes in the most heavily damaged parts of the fire zone.
Besides the Cal Fire team, a county-organized Watershed Task Force has also been assembled and will be ramping up their efforts in the weeks ahead. This group is composed of engineers, environmental experts and ecologists drawn from Sonoma County as well as a coalition of local agencies, all with a goal of mitigating impacts on public safety and health.
The group will be looking at the threat of debris flows on things like roads and homes, as well as the impact of fire toxins on water quality. The Walbridge Fire burned over a significant part of the Russian River watershed, and the full impacts of the blaze on long-term water quality and safety is not fully known. In the months ahead, data being gathered now will be used to guide actual on the ground work like placing erosion control barriers, repairing and treating fire scars, and protecting important infrastructure.
Other areas of study and on the ground work will focus on environmental threats to sensitive habitat along Mill Creek, Dry Creek and other important spawning grounds for the Coho Salmon.
Author: newsofthenorthbay
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