SCOTTS VALLEY — The Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club will hold the first meeting for its 2018-2019 year on Tuesday, September 18. Dr. Harry Lyons will be the featured speaker, presenting “The Cultivation of a 1,600 Acre Garden,” which Lyons said will draw out the similarities between home gardening and large-scale ecological endeavors like the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project. Lyons is Secretary of the Middle Creek Restoration Coalition, a volunteer group founded in 2016 to support the follow-through of the various organizations involved in the Middle Creek project.
Lyons is Emeritus Professor of Biology/Ecology at Yuba College and is the president of the Lake County Resource Conservation District, in addition to his role with the Middle Creek Restoration Coalition. Lyons will outline how the Middle Creek Project will expand recreational opportunity; preserve an endangered species; act as a sediment trap to reduce nutrient enrichment of Clear Lake; and expand critical habitat.
According to a 2012 project overview, the Middle Creek project if constructed would be undertaken in part by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and would turn approximately 1,650 acres of agricultural land into a “functional wetland,” creating “a significant affect [sic] on the watershed health and the water quality of Clear Lake.” The project area is bounded by Highway 20 and the Rodman Slough at the north end of Clear Lake.
Lyons described the functionality of the wetlands to be restored in that area as dual: high levels of sediment would be caught by a topographically restored landscape, and the nutrients contained in that sediment (many of which contribute to the poor water quality of Clear Lake) would be used by plants growing in the new landscape. The project is essentially a filter for over-rich creek water inflowing to Clear Lake.
In February of this year, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry secured $15 million in funding for the project through California Propositions 84 and 1E. According to Lyons on September 12, this funding is going toward the acquisition phase of the project. According to the 2012 report, “Fourteen hundred acres of ‘reclaimed’ wetlands are located in the Project area.” Acquisition will restore those acres yet again into wetlands.
Although acquisition is funded, the steps following acquisition—infrastructure changes, construction, etc.—are still in need. In his talk at the Trowel & Trellis meeting on Tuesday and in others like it, Lyons plans to articulate the question: “what else needs to be done” in order to keep the project moving? Lyons noted that after land for the project has been acquired, costly infrastructure changes including building a new bridge, raising a section of Highway 20, and moving a high-voltage PG&E line will be the next financial challenge for proponents of the project.
At the Trowel & Trellis meeting, Lyons noted an opportunity to garner additional support for the project by talking to members of the Lake County community who are already interested in gardening, and so are likely to be receptive to the Middle Creek project’s goal.
The garden club will meet beginning at noon at the Scotts Valley Club House at 22908 Hendricks Road, Lakeport. A light lunch will be served. The club is open to new members and information can be found by visiting www.clttgc.org or calling Kathleen Steinberg at (707) 500-5009. The club is a member of the MendoLake District of California Garden Club, Inc. Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs, Inc.
