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Home My WebLink AboutBuck Gully Project 310 Erosion Control & Restoration PlanBuck Gully Reserve Unauthorized Trail Mitigation, Project 310 (144 Isabella Terrace) Erosion Control, Human Access Monitoring, Restoration Implementation & Monitoring , and BMP’s. Prepared by: Irvine Ranch Conservancy 4727 Portola Parkway Irvine, CA 92620 Project Summary: This restoration plan summarizes suggested restoration activities associated with a .5-acre illegal trail cut within the Buck Gully Reserve area. The project is suggested to take place over a five-year timeline, with a potential start date of November 2019 and project completion date of June 2023. Suggested restoration goals for this project include a) establishing native cover within the impacted area as quickly as possible to minimize the potential for non-native weed invasion and erosion. b) installing annual native forb species to replenish the potentially disturbed seed bank c) establishing percent native cover that reflects intact adjacent coastal sage scrub vegetation. Restoration activities will include planting native species via container plants, seeding annual forbs via direct seeding, watering container plants as needed, and maintaining the site free of weeds. Project Schedule Access Management & Erosion Control: Temporary fencing, signage, and camera installation for human access management and time-lapse restoration/recovery documentation could begin as early as June/July 2019 upon agency approvals. Temporary fencing (60” in height) to include four 6” peeler poles in natural soil (no-concrete foundations), with five strands of barbless wire. Fence to be installed parallel to the Buck Gully Trail, sufficient in length to deter unauthorized access around the fence. Fence to incorporate a lockable gate, to allow access for restoration and monitoring activities. Erosion control measures to consist of surface soil work to return the non-authorized trail as close as possible to the pre-condition natural topography. This work to be performed only within the existing disturbed tread, with no impact to adjacent vegetation. Natural surface drains and straw wattles to be incorporated where appropriate, to eliminate channelization of water. Jute mesh with soil staples to be incorporated at the large down-slope areas that were denuded of vegetation through the unauthorized removals. Project Schedule Restoration: Native container plant establishment could begin as soon as December 2019. Remedial planting would take place December of 2020 (as needed). Direct seeding of annual forbs into interstitial space between container plantings would take place in December 2020. Maintenance will include watering of container plants (as needed) in project years 1&2 and weed control in years 1-5. Maintenance activities are expected to be moderate to high during the first two years of the project cycle and decrease over the last 3 years. Plant establishment and weed presence will be assessed qualitatively over the five-year period and management activities will be adapted when necessary based on observations. The Conservancy will be prepared to conduct quantitative monitoring if requested to by the City. Cost estimates for all activities are included in Table 3. A complete restoration plan and budget would be prepared and submitted at the City’s request once the restoration goals for this project have been finalized. Table 1 – Project Schedule Restoration Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 (2019/20) (2020/21) (2021/22) (2022/23) (2023/24) Planting X (X) remedial Seeding X Maintenance X X X X X Vegetation Monitoring (Qualitative) X X X X X Plant Establishment Period and Maintenance: Installation of Container Plants: Container plants and plant protectors will be installed throughout the polygon to vegetate these areas quickly and reduce the potential for weed invasion and erosion. These will be plant species that were removed during the illegal activity and will be representative of the adjacent vegetation. A projected plant palette of container plants is provided in table 2. Table 2: Container planting palette – note that species list is subject to change once a more comprehensive assessment of adjacent vegetation is complete. Habitat Type Acres Type Species # plants Container size CSS 0.5 Perennial Artemisia californica 750 1 gallon CSS 0.5 Perennial Baccharis pilularis 150 1 gallon CSS 0.5 Perennial Heteromeles arbutifolia 25 1 gallon CSS 0.5 Perennial Rhus integrifolia 50 1 gallon CSS 0.5 Perennial Salvia mellifera 175 1 gallon CSS 0.5 Perennial Sambucus nigra 25 1 gallon Total ~1175 Remedial Planting Establishment in year one of planting will depend on several external factors, most notably of which are temperature, rainfall, and the volume of weed seed recruiting from the disturbed soil. The Conservancy will be prepared to re-plant up to 30% of the area the following year in the event of failure in year one. Seeding: In order to replenish the disturbed seed bank, the Conservancy will be prepared to broadcast annual forb seed into established shrub areas in year 2. This will increase the overall diversity of the restored community. Seeding palette: TBD – will consist of a relatively diverse and site-specific seed mix with a total seeding rate of no more than 10 pure live seed lbs. per acre. Maintenance: Active maintenance of the restoration project site will begin during the first year of planting and will continue for a total of five years. Maintenance methods and timing will be adaptive. Early-season herbicide applications will be used in the first two years when possible, followed with additional weeding by hand. Maintenance techniques will be dictated by field conditions on an ongoing basis. Container plants will be watered by hand. The Conservancy will require access to a City water supply (i.e.: hydrant or otherwise) or parking location for specialized water trailer. Plants will be watered approximately every 4 weeks unless significant soil moisture is present in the root zone. Supplemental watering will continue until the first significant rains of the following season or until plants are sufficiently established. Measures to Minimize Impacts to Nesting Birds Proposed project activities will occur outside of the avian breeding season as much as possible in order to avoid disturbance to breeding birds or destruction of the nest or eggs. The nesting season is February 15 – July 15 for upland habitat as per the NCCP. When avoidance of the avian breeding season is not feasible, Conservancy staff will conduct pre-work surveys and will only engage in activities which are have a low potential for disturbance (etc. hand weeding, spot spraying, etc.). The Conservancy currently oversees avian surveys for sensitive species through its Management Agreement with the City of Newport Beach. This data will be used to inform management activities. Monitoring: The Conservancy will conduct qualitative surveys of native and non-native cover on a quarterly basis and be prepared to conduct annual quantitative surveys at the City’s request. A more detailed monitoring approach will be forthcoming, once project goals have been formalized by the City. Monitoring will include bi-weekly camera data collection for human access management. Time-Lapse camera documentation will be implemented to document the project over the five-year restoration & monitoring period. Irvine Ranch Conservancy Buck Gully - Project 310 Estimate (144 Isabella Terrace, CDM) Fencing and Signage (year 1)Total Peeler Poles 163.25 T-Posts 96.90 Smooth Wire 141.00 Lock & Chain 23.31 Signage 110.60 Labor 1,275.60 FENCING & SIGNAGE TOTAL 1,810.66 Erosion & Sediment Control (year 1)Total Straw Wattles & Nails 300.50 Jute Mesh 137.69 Excavation & Erosion Control Labor 3,311.20 EROSION & SEDIMENT CONTROL TOTAL 3,749.39 Access Camera Monitoring (year 1 - 5)Total Labor-Collection & Data Retention 11,178.00 ACCESS CAMERA MONITORING TOTAL 11,178.00 Restoration & Maintenance (year 1 - 5)Total Plants - 1175 1-gallon - 10 lbs seed (year 1 & 2)10,125.00 Labor - Planting & Seeding (year 1 & 2)12,600.00 Labor - Maintenance (Year 1 - 5)30,275.00 Labor - Restoration Monitoring (year 1 - 5)6,562.50 RESTORATION & MAINTENANCE TOTAL 59,562.50 Project Management & Reporting (year 1 - 5)Total Meetings, Data Review, Agency Reports - Year 1 12,417.00 Meetings, Data Review, Agency Reports - Year 2 9,778.00 Meetings, Data Review, Agency Reports - Year 3 5,639.00 Meetings, Data Review, Agency Reports - Year 4 3,604.25 Meetings, Data Review, Agency Reports - Year 5 2,569.50 PROJECT MANAGEMENT & REPORTING TOTAL 34,007.75 (TOTAL PROJECT - EROSION MGT, RESTORATION,110,308.30 MAINTENANCE, MONITORING, & REPORTING)