The Future of Cache Creek Gravel Mining Restoration – A New Pathway Forward
(From press release) What-When-Where – The Sierra Club Yolano Group and Tuleyome are sponsoring an in-person potluck dinner and conversation on Wednesday, July 22 from 7 to 9 pm in the Blanchard Room at the Yolo County Library, 314 E. 14th Street in Davis. (Doors open at 6:45 pm). Unfortunately, a Zoom option will not be available.
Background – Yolo County will shortly start reviewing its 30-year old Cache Creek Area Plan, which governs deep, open pit off-channel gravel mining and reclamation along a 14-mile stretch of Cache Creek between Capay and Yolo. Join us for a discussion on creating a restored floodplain and vibrant, wetland-based wildlife and ecological corridor on former mined lands.
Who are the Presenters – For the evening’s presentation, we are pleased to welcome two knowledgeable and informed speakers who will discuss Lower Cache Creek’s historical ecology based on indigenous stewardship, its recent past and current issues, and a new vision for the future.
6:45 PM – Doors Open
7:00 PM – Introductions and Potluck Dinner Begins
7:15 PM – Alan Pryor (Sierra Club Yolano Group Management Committee) – The Geographical Boundaries of the Cache Creek Watershed and the Mined Areas in the Cache Creek Area Plan, How Gravel is Mined, and the Adverse Environmental Impacts of Off-Channel Mining.
7:35 PM – Dr Geoff Attardo (Associate Professor, Dept of Plant Pathology and Nematolgy) – A New Vision to Use Natural Processes to Restore Former Mining Sites to Wetlands and Riparian Floodplain Habitat
8:15 PM – Q&A
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Please join us for an evening of great food, good fellowship, and very interesting, informative, and inspiring presentations. If convenient, please bring your favorite dish to share but feel free to attend even if you don’t plan to eat or can’t bring a dish as there is always plenty to share.
To help make this a “zero-waste” event, also please bring your own plates, cups, and utensils. However, the Yolano Group will provide plenty of reusable tableware and linen napkins for those who need it in addition to providing beverages for the evening.
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Background on Cache Creek and Scope of the Presentation – Cache Creek is a central lifeblood of Yolo County. Rising from springs high in the inner coast range, it flows into Clear Lake, through Capay Valley, and eastward on into the Yolo Bypass. For millennia, Patwin people have lived along the banks of Cache Creek tending the land and utilizing its abundant natural resources.
Before the first white settlers arrived several hundred years ago, the Cache Creek watershed looked very different than it does today. The riparian forest and wetlands extended upwards of a mile in each direction from the meandering Creek. This floodplain was nourished by annual high-water events over-flowing the banks of the creek carrying sediment and nutrients onto the riparian forest and wetlands. This produced an amazing diversity and abundance of plants and animals in this complex ecosystem.
However, settlers began mining the sand and gravel from the Creek bed which gradually deepened the Creek channel. By the 1980s, the bottom of the channel was as much as 30 feet lower in some areas. This deeper, incised channel conveyed the annual floodwaters directly down to the Yolo Bypass impeding the natural flooding onto the adjacent riparian forest that occurred for thousands of years.
In 1996, further in-channel mining on Cache Creek was prohibited by Yolo County and new mining was relegated to off-channel agricultural sites immediately adjacent to the Creek according to the provisions of the Cache Creek Area Plan – now up for its 30-year review.
In these off-channel mined areas, the uppermost 15-20 feet of topsoil is typically removed and stockpiled on site while mining of the underlying sand and gravel proceeds down to depths in excess of 100 ft depending on the underlying materials. County ordinances then require the mining companies to “restore” the land to either i) viable agricultural land of the same quality and productive standard as existed before mining, ii) natural habitat, or iii) deep impoundment pits which are filled by groundwater flow.
Unfortunately, these reclamation processes have produced their own set of problems including i) reclaimed agricultural lands that are less fertile and productive than the original farmland, ii) stunted habitat restoration, and ii) formation and bioaccumulation of toxic methyl mercury in fish in the wet impoundment pits.
In this seminar, possible new restoration visions will be discussed that could return these former mined lands to functional riparian floodplains and/or wetlands using natural fluvial processes..
For more information, contact Alan Pryor at alanpryor21@gmail.com or 916-996-4811.
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Disclaimer Required by Yolo County Library – “This event is not sponsored by Yolo County Library and the presence of this group in the meeting room does not constitute Yolo County Library’s endorsement of the policies or beliefs of this group.”
Also note that all personal opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of the organization named in identifying the speaker.
Davisite 
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