Riparian Restoration
CHAPTER 5: RESTORATION TECHNIQUES (CONTINUED)
Examples of Restored Riparian Recreation Sites (Continued)
Las Huertas Meadow Area on the Cibola National Forest
See figures 85 and 86. This meadow was a maze of paths. The first photo shows the boardwalk immediately after construction. The second photograph was taken 6 years later. Pedestrians use the boardwalk, and the riparian vegetation is coming in on its own. The gravel path in the foreground is on dry land and leads to a parking area.
Figure 85—A newly built boardwalk through a trampled meadow.
Figure 86—Boardwalk and new vegetation.
Devil’s Elbow Picnic Area, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park
See figures 87, 88, and 89. This was a popular picnic area on a meander bend on the Merced River. Until 1984 it was also a concessionaire raft takeout spot. Madej and others (1991) estimated that since 1919 approximately 50 feet of bank retreat had occurred at the site because of human impacts. This study documented the extent of soil compaction, bank erosion, and tree die-off and caused the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, to take action.
Figure 87—Devil’s Elbow Picnic Area, 1993.
Figure 88—Spring flooding in 1996 and winter flooding in 1997
left sediment deposits on the flood plain. There was no erosion.
Figure 89—Signs on this fence along the road explain the project
to visitors and provide directions to river access
Riparian restoration efforts began in 1993. Picnic tables, fire rings, two pit toilets, and an asphalt parking area were removed, and visitors were directed away from the eroding bank. The soil was ripped 6 inches deep using the tines of an excavator, which achieved soil decompaction and aeration. Installing brush layering and vertical cuttings stabilized the banks. This created a subsurface of stems and roots, which increased the tensile strength of the bank. The bank and the terraces were seeded with native seeds. Terraces were planted with cuttings and live posts. Plant choices were based on surrounding plant communities and the site’s soils. Mulch was collected from Yosemite Valley, and plants were irrigated during the first summer.
According to Fritzke (2001), “there was a 90 percent survival rate of cuttings on the bank. Flooding in Spring 1996 and Winter 1997 resulted in deposition of silts along this outer edge of the meander bend due to the effects of the young willow and cottonwood plants slowing the flood waters.” This deposition helped to rebuild the bank.
A zigzag fence was installed to deter trespassers. Informational signs were installed to direct visitors to access points that lead to sandbars upstream and downstream from the site.
In 2001, “the willows and cottonwoods on the bank are nearly 25 feet tall, and the oaks on the terrace are 4 to 5 feet tall. The bank continues to build out into the river at a rate of about 2 to 3 inches per year, slowly recovering some of the area that had undergone such severe retreat since the early topographic maps of 1919” (Fritzke 2001).
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