Impacts of Early Land-Use on Streams of the Santa Cruz Mountains: Implications for Coho Salmon Recovery

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Impacts of early land-use on streams of the Santa Cruz
Mountains: implications for coho salmon recovery

San Lorenzo Valley Museum collection

Talk Outline

• Role of San Lorenzo River in coho salmon recovery • History of 19^thcentury land-use practices • How these disturbances impacted (and still impact) ecosystem function and salmon habitat

Central California Coast ESU

Coho salmon Diversity Strata

Lost Coast – Navarro Pt.
Navarro Pt. – Gualala Pt.
Coastal
San Francisco Bay

Santa Cruz Mountains

Watersheds with historical records of Coho Salmon

Dependent populations

Tunitas

Independent populations

San Gregorio Pescadero

Gazos
Waddell
Scott San Vicente
Laguna
Soquel
San Lorenzo
Aptos

Land-use activities: 1800-1905

Logging: the early years

• Pit and whipsaw era (pre-1842)

– spatially limited, low demand

– impacts relatively minor

• Water-powered mills (1842-1875)

– Demand fueled by Gold Rush

– Mills cut ~5,000 board ft per day = 10 whip sawyers – Annual cut 1860 = ~10 million board ft

• Steam-powered mills (1876-1905)

– Circular saws doubled rate to ~10,000 board ft/day x 3-10 saws – Year-round operation (not dependent on water) – Annual cut 1884 = ~34 million board ft – Exhausted timber supply

Oxen team skidding log on corduroy road (Mendocino Co. ca 1851)

Krisweb.com

Oxen team hauling lumber at Oil Creek Mill

San Lorenzo Valley Museum collection

oldoregonphotos.com

San Vicente Lumber Company (ca 1908): steam donkey & rail line

Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

Loma Prieta Mill, Mill Pond, and Rail Line (ca 1888)

Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

The Saw-Dust Nuisance

“We have always maintained that lumberman dumping their

refuse timber and saw-dust into the San Lorenzo River and its tributaries were committing a nuisance. They are destroying the

fish and poisoning the water for human use. A dumb brute has

too much sense to drink from the water fresh and inky black

from a saw-dust pile…. Poisoned water is slow poison to the drinker thereof….”

Santa Cruz Sentinel - 3 November 1877

Known sawmill & shingle mill sites in Santa Cruz Mountains:

1840-1905

San Gregorio

Pescadero
Gazos
Waddell
Scott

Soquel
San Lorenzo
Aptos

Corralitos

Based on Rood (1975)

Other Early Human Disturbances

California Powder Works

CPW Dam

CPW Flume
CPW Tunnel

California Powder Works Dam

http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/513/

San Lorenzo Paper Mill

http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/545/

Tanneries Lime Kilns

Influence of large wood on channel form

Ephemeral secondary channel
Low-gradient riffle

High-flow bank

Lateral scour pool

Plunge pool
Flow

High-gradient riffle
Backwater pools

Dam pool

6 ft

Influence of large wood on channel form

Ephemeral secondary channel
Low-gradient riffle

High-flow bank

Lateral scour pool

Plunge pool
Flow

High-gradient riffle
Backwater pools

Dam pool

Influence of large wood on channel form

Ephemeral secondary channel
Low-gradient riffle

High-flow bank

Lateral scour pool

Plunge pool
Flow

High-gradient riffle
Backwater pools

Dam pool

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