The Jacoby Creek Land Trust, in partnership with Humboldt County and the City of Arcata, and with funding provided by the State Coastal Conservancy will be leading a study through 2023 to assess options that alleviate flood impacts and improve fish and wildlife habitat in the lower Jacoby Creek watershed. The purpose of this first of three public meetings is to provide  information about the goals and desired outcomes of the project and provide an opportunity for community members and stakeholders to ask questions and provide input.

 

Summer 2022 Update:​   As of July 1, 2022, our team has completed the following:

 

• Conducted approximately 10 onsite property owner meetings

• Hosted Community Meeting #1 on November 4, 2021

• Received over 60 responses to the property owner survey

• Collected and processed baseline data which is summarized below

 

Our Teaming partners Michael Love & Associates (MLA) and Thomas Gast & Associates Environmental Consultants (TGAEC) have been busy processing data collected this past winter/spring. Below is a brief summary of the collected data which is on the JCLT website, link below. The numbered descriptions correspond with the file numbering in the folder accessible here:  Maps, data and memos.  Files include:

 

1. Base Maps – The base maps show elevation, channel station, pebble count (PC) locations, water surface elevation (JC) monitoring locations and ownership. The last page shows a detrended relative elevation map depicting the extensive alluvial fan ridge along the creek corridor with higher elevations relative to adjacent valley and coastal plain elevations. 

 

2. Longitudinal Profile – MLA completed the longitudinal thalweg survey which also depicts the locations of the pebble counts and water level monitoring stations along with the elevation of the top of banks and the adjacent valley bottom.

 

3. Pebble Count and Water Surface Elevation Data – The first page shows particle size distributions from pebble counts (PC) conducted at 10 locations (bulk samples are currently being processed at the lab). We were expecting a general trend of the bed particle size reducing in downstream direction, but that is not the case so we’ll be discussing our interpretation of this at the next TWG meeting. The second page shows continuous water level monitoring (JC) at nine locations. Note the water level peaks are flat-topped at JC3 and JC4, downstream of Old Arcata Road, due to upstream out-of-bank flow losses.

 

4. Discharges and Turbidity at Brookwood Dr Bridge -  Randy Klein and TGAEC continued monitoring discharge and turbidity at the Brookwood Dr bridge gage as shown on the first page. The second page shows the bedload sampling completed for previous WYs, including recently processed samples collected by Wes Smith in 2019.

 

5. Habitat Assessment Report – TGAEC completed this technical memo which summarizes the aquatic habitat assessment following Habitat Inventory protocol described by Flosi et al. (2010). In addition to characterizing aquatic habitat, TGAEC staff also collected general information on large woody debris, small woody debris jams, salmonid redds, carcasses, and freshwater mussel presence. Analysis of habitat features and characteristics were divided into two stream reaches: downstream of Old Arcata Road (OAR) and upstream of OAR. Overall, Jacoby Creek below OAR was dominated by flat-water habitats, sandy substrates, small woody debris jams, and had the greatest abundance of freshwater mussels. Above OAR, the stream was dominated by gravel and cobble occurrence increased with distance upstream. There were also greater number of redds observed upstream of OAR than downstream. This report will provide the basis for developing the Stream Corridor Management Plan.

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6. Fisheries Sampling Field Notes – TGAEC conducted fisheries sampling in over-bank flood prone areas between December 27-30 and the memo summarizes the observations.  

 

7. Drone Flood Photos – MLA conducted a drone flight during the December 27, 2021 flood and captured photos of the study area.

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The presentation slides  from the December 2021 Community Meeting can be found here.

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Complete the Jacoby Creek Water Sustainability and Anadromous Fish Habitat Study Survey here through December 1, 2021.

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