Why is steam-flow monitoring important?
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| Pepperwood Steward Dennis Fujita, pictured above, has been instrumental in the installation and development of protocols for our steam-flow monitoring project |
Water is the blood of life. Monitoring watersheds is extremely important because shifts in water availability and flow patterns can have drastic effects on our ability to produce food, support residential water usage and maintain fisheries. Some native species like the Coho Salmon are anadromous, meaning they dwell as adults in the ocean then ascend upstream into fresh water to lay eggs.
Our seasonal streams serve as vital habitat for these and other threatened aquatic and riparian species.
Pepperwood is an excellent location for stream-flow research
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| Staff gauges being installed using a laser level earlier this year. During the last storm event (early December), the water reached up to the bottom of the gauge on the left, about one meter above the bottom of the stream bed |
Pepperwood’s undeveloped and protected 3,200 acres of
wildlands represent a pristine slice of Bay Area ecosystem. The preserve is the
headwaters of 3 different watersheds of the lower Russian River (Mark West
Creek, Brooks Creek, and Franz Creek). This provides the ideal setting for a
wide range of ecological research projects, including the investigation of natural
water flow over and through different types of terrain. Rain falls on our
section of the Mayacamas mountain range, refreshing springs and feeding our
seasonal creeks before continuing down into the greater Laguna de Santa Rosa
watershed, then on to the Pacific Ocean itself.
We monitor this water flow as it moves across the preserve
to determine how water interacts with a natural, unaltered landscape. Our
findings can help government and conservation organizations compare a pristine
watershed with those under the influence of human imposed land alterations such
as agricultural or residential development. Pepperwood’s Executive Director
Lisa Micheli emphasizes that “by monitoring stream flow, we are taking the
pulse of the watershed. The data we gather supports community water security
efforts like the local Basin Advisory Panel." With this data providing a
baseline, the impact of current and future development can be measured and
weighed against the environmental costs.
Stream-flow
monitoring methods at Pepperwood
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| Pressure transducer being placed in the stream bed |
Pepperwood Steward Dennis Fujita spearheaded our monitoring
project at Roger’s Creek, down in a canyon on the west side of the preserve.
Equipment installed there includes a “pressure transducer”, which is placed at
the bottom of the stream bed and measures pressure in pounds per square inch (this
indicates water depth) and temperature. As the level of water increases in the
stream, the pressure read by the transducer increases accordingly. Readings of
stream depth are also taken manually from installed “staff gauges which are
located at two different points in the stream. These are fixed measuring sticks
that provide staff and volunteers a quick and accurate way to record variations
in stream depth and cross-reference with readings from the pressure transducer.
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| This pygmy flow meter is lowered into the stream at different depths to measure water velocity |
The third piece of equipment used is a “pygmy flow meter” on
loan to Pepperwood from the Sonoma County Water Agency. This device is attached
to a pole and lowered to different depths at chosen points across the stream.
It has a component much like a water wheel that spins horizontally in the
moving current and measures water velocity. Combined, the pressure transducer
and pygmy flow meter produce enough data for us to determine the volume of
water, or “discharge” passing through the Roger’s Creek stream during different
seasonal events.
What is a watershed?
When rain falls on terrain, gravity dictates the path water
takes from high points down to lower elevations. As it descends, it concentrates
to form streams which in turn feed larger bodies of water. The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) defines a watershed as “the
area that drains to a common waterway, such as a stream, lake, estuary,
wetland, aquifer, or even the ocean.” Watersheds can be defined in any range of
scale, from a few acres of hills draining into a single creek to miles of
landscape that supports water flow into a particular bay or ocean.
Pepperwood comprises the
headwaters (the highest elevation lands in the watershed) of the Lower Russian
River.
