The staff of the Natural Resource Services Division at Redwood Community Action Agency is proud to announce Susannah Ferson as the new NRS Division Director. Susannah is a remarkable critical thinker, community advocate, and dynamic leader who will forge new paths for our division.
She holds twenty years of experience working within the natural world ranging from aquatic to terrestrial biology in Humboldt County, Ca. Her project experience includes endangered species research and monitoring, habitat conservation, and invasive species research and removal. Susannah has spent the last twenty years establishing strong working relationships with federal, state, tribal, and county officials within our community.
Susannah earned both her B.S in Wildlife Biology and M.S in Natural Resource Management at Cal Poly Humboldt. More recently, Susannah has worked with NRS-RCAA for the last four years as a Projects Coordinator where she managed multiple watershed restoration projects, as well as the Restoration Field Crew. NRS-RCAA is confident in Susannah’s extensive experience, and the benefits it will bring to our organization’s development. Susannah can be contacted via email at sferson@rcaa.org!
“We are blessed to have such a talented and dynamic team of professionals in the Natural Resource Services division and look forward to expanding our capacity to effect positive change in our local environment through community-driven projects.” - Susannah
Sincerely,
The NRS Team
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Martin Slough Construction Complete
NRS-RCAA is pleased to announce the completion of the Martin Slough Enhancement Project this past winter, 2021! After nearly twenty years of planning and implementation, this incredibly complex and important project has been successfully constructed on the Northcoast Regional Land Trust (NRLT) and City of Eureka properties in the southern portion of Eureka. Martin Slough is a tributary to the Elk River, which drains into Humboldt Bay and is designated as critical habitat for the federally listed southern Oregon/northern California coho salmon and tidewater goby, as well as other marine fish species. The primary goals of the project are to restore and enhance estuarine function, improve water quality, improve fish access and habitat, reduce flooding, and increase riparian and wetland habitat diversity.
The enhancements were conducted in four phases, starting in 2014 with the replacement of the tide gates at the mouth of Martin Slough and then continuing between 2018 to 2021 with channel widening and realignment, off-channel pond expansion (3 ponds) and creation (3 ponds), bridge replacement, as well as installation of many woody instream habitat structures and revegetation with native riparian and wetland plants. Approximately 7,500 feet of channel, 15.5 acres of brackish marsh, 2.5 acres of freshwater marsh, and 9 acres of riparian habitat was enhanced or created through this project.
NRS-RCAA and project partners, Michael Love & Associates, GHD, Inc., and Ross Taylor & Associates will continue post-construction monitoring for fish, vegetation, topography, hydrology, and water quality, with a goal of five years of post-construction monitoring per phase.
We would like to thank the many funding agencies, landowners, golf course staff, local contractors, consultants, and community volunteers who have partnered on this project – it has truly been a community effort!
Grant funding has been provided by the following organizations: CA State Coastal Conservancy, CA Department of Water Resources, CA Department of Fish and Wildlife, CA Natural Resources Agency Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program, NOAA Restoration Center, Ocean Protection Council, State Water Resources Control Board, and US Fish and Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program.
Next steps in the Martin Slough watershed include project partners NRS-RCAA, GHD, Inc., Michael Love & Associates, and the City of Eureka collaborating on a Wildlife Conservation Board-funded streamflow enhancement planning project. More information to come in future newsletters!
For more information contact project manager, Morguine Sefcik, at msefcik@rcaa.org or visit RCAA’s website at http://www.naturalresourcesservices.org/projects/martin-slough-enhancement-project.
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McKinleyville Multimodal Connections Project
NRS-RCAA has been working with Caltrans, the County of Humboldt, and Mark Thomas and Associates for the past year on the McKinleyville Multimodal Connections Project. The County of Humboldt received funding through a Caltrans sustainable transportation planning grant for the McKinleyville Multimodal Connections Project to engage community members including local businesses, McKinleyville residents, youth, seniors, non-English speakers, veterans, and those with limited mobility to create a plan with concept designs for safe walking and bicycling connectivity between McKinleyville and community destinations to the south around Humboldt Bay.
NRS-RCAA has helped lead the outreach efforts for this project. The first round of outreach efforts included a community survey, walking tours, photo submissions, a community meeting, project task force meetings, and more! NRS-RCAA is getting ready to begin the second round of outreach which will include a Pop-Up Demonstration and a Virtual Community Meeting. Initial feedback from the community was used to create concept designs for transportation improvements in the project area and these concept designs will be shared at the upcoming outreach events.
NRS-RCAA and project partners will host a Pop-Up Demonstration to share what concept designs could look like along Hiller Rd and Pickett Rd in McKinleyville on April 1st from 3:30 - 6:30 pm and April 2nd from 9:30 - 12:30 pm. NRS-RCAA will also help lead the second Virtual Community Meeting to share project updates and concept designs on April 28th from 6 - 7:30 pm. NRS-RCAA looks forward to continuing to work with the McKinleyville community and stakeholders to improve transportation connections within and to McKinleyville.
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Ruth Lake
Summer of 2021 was an exciting time for the Natural Resource Services division of Redwood Community Action Agency! NRS-RCAA has a long-standing partnership with the U.S Forest Service (USFS) sharing a mutual desire for restoring our local national forests and grasslands to mitigate the presence of invasive species. More recently, both agencies have been interested in finding out how wildfires impact the vegetation composition and recovery of recently burned areas.
The August Fire Complex was a massive wildfire caused by lighting that burned through multiple counties throughout Northern California. One of the largest and most significant fires from this complex was known as the Doe Fire. The Doe Fire was recorded as the single largest wildfire in California history. By the time the entire August Complex was extinguished in November 2020, the fire had burned through 1,032,648 acres or 1,614 square miles.
As a means of mitigating the spread of the fire, the USFS used fire suppression techniques to create miles of dozer lines, establishing fuel breaks to prevent the further spread of the flames. Although essential for fire mitigation, the dozer lines left open space for invasive plants to colonize. Invasive plants outcompete native species and cause them to be displaced, leaving the habitats vulnerable to dangerous conditions that encourage wildfires and erosion. Native species displacement can also throw off forest productivity by altering soil moisture patterns, decreasing species range, and affecting wildlife food chains.
Using Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) funding, the NRS-RCAA Restoration Field Crew patrolled seventy-two miles of dozer lines to implement the early detection and rapid response (EDRR) method to map, treat, and record data that could support the eradication of the introduced invasive species. This work was critical to understanding the post-fire conditions around Ruth Lake and mitigating the further spread of species that could plague the sensitive ecosystem.
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
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