Location: Santa Barbara County
Project Type: Restoration
Status: Current
Cost: $2,750,000
Funding Gap: $2,750,000
Area Affected: 1.03 acres
Project Footprint: 2.1 stream miles
Assembly District: 37
Senate District: 19
Congressional District: 24
Project Lead/Grantee:
Anne Coates, Executive Director, Cachuma Resource Conservation District: (805) 455-2820
For more information, visit scwrp.org
San Jose Creek is the largest sub-watershed within the Goleta Slough watershed, which is designated a Core 1 watershed for Southern California steelhead restoration in the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Plan (NMFS 2012). The creek has perennial flows and high-quality steelhead habitat in the upper watershed, but access to the upper creek is impeded by three fish passage barriers. The Cachuma Resource Conservation District and its partners completed a Feasibility Study in 2015 that assessed improvement of these barriers and has subsequently completed plans for the project.
The project will implement the Feasibility Study by removing an obsolete dam (Barrier #1), an Arizona road crossing (Barrier #2) and a culverted earthen road crossing (Impediment #1) on San Jose Creek. This project will allow steelhead to reach over two miles of currently inaccessible, high quality spawning and rearing habitat. The Cachuma Resource Conservation District is currently working with landowners to move into project implementation.
