• DOI:10.3368/er.22.4.262
• Corpus ID: 84968414

Restoring Slough and River Banks with Biotechnical Methods in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

@article{Hart2004RestoringSA,
  title={Restoring Slough and River Banks with Biotechnical Methods in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta},
  author={Jeffrey Hart and John Hunter},
  journal={Ecological Restoration},
  year={2004},
  volume={22},
  pages={262 - 268}
}

• J. Hart, J. Hunter
• Published 1 December 2004
• Environmental Science
• Ecological Restoration

located in west-central California, immediately east of San Francisco Bay. Lying at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, it is the largest inland delta and the largest estuary on the west coast of North America. It consists of 700 miles (1,127 km) of waterways, 11,000 miles (17,710 km) of inland coast, and 350,000 acres (140,000 ha) of former marshland now converted to agriculture. Historically, the Delta was a vast expanse of freshwater and brackish tidal sloughs and marshes. The banks of rivers and sloughs were lined with low, natural levees covered in woody vegetation, while most of the islands were covered in “tule” marshes dominated by hardstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus) (Jepson 1893). Today, this extensive landscape is greatly altered by human activities, particularly regional water supply and flood control projects, levee construction, land reclamation, and development. During the last 150 years, more than 95 percent of the Delta’s tidal wetlands, up to 85 percent of its riparian habitats, and presumably the majority of associated slough habitats have been lost, primarily to agricultural land uses (Jones & Stokes 2002). Overall, the land-water interface has been reduced 25-45 percent during the twentieth century (CALFED 2000). Along most of the remaining sloughs, habitat has been lost or degraded through the construction and maintenance of levees. Most channel banks have been stabilized with rock revetment (riprap) and trees have been removed for flood control. As a result, shade and input of woody debris are reduced. In addition, altered flow and sediment regimes together with boat traffic appear to have increased shoreline erosion and consequently led to the loss of tidal zone and riparian vegetation along many sloughs (Limerinos and Smith 1975, Foda 1995, Foda and others 1999, CALFED 2000, Ellis and others 2002). The resulting steep banks and erosion at the channel’s edge reduce and degrade habitat for plant and fish species. Though generally in a degraded state, the remaining sloughs provide habitat for a number of special-status animals and plants (that is, species that are state or federally listed as threatened or endangered). Sloughs provide spawning habitat for Delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) and splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), and rearing habitat for juvenile chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), steelhead (O. mykiss), Delta smelt, and splittail