The big mystery about the exciting new Russian River riparian setback rules is whether anyone really has a clue how they’ll work.
For some of us just the term “riparian setback” is kind of daunting. It sounds like something to do with the stock market or high finance, complicated and impenetrable, like a credit default swap or a derivative option.
“Yes, he’s hedging his derivative swaps in order to avoid another riparian setback.”
In this case the setback has to do with the banks of the Russian River, not Wall Street’s banks, but in both cases the setback seems to need a government bailout that no one fully understands.
Riparian corridor refers to the lush strip of vegetation that tends to thrive alongside rivers and streams, nurturing wildlife and making us feel good about ourselves.
Unfortunately on many rivers and streams flowing near modern civilization it’s often more accurate to say the riparian corridor is “formerly lush.”
In Santa Rosa they ran a whole section of Santa Rosa creek through a pipe under City Hall. There’s a lush corridor for you. In Guerneville some riverfront property owners gleefully whack all their riverfront property’s riparian vegetation to improve the view and plant a nice suburban lawn.
That’s perfectly legal now, but it may not be when (and if) the county’s new riparian corridor protection ordinance is adopted.
This is where it gets kind of whacky. We want people to preserve and respect the natural riparian landscape by leaving it alone, sort of, but does that mean they can’t even trim a tree without an arborist’s report and a county permit?
“Vegetation removal” is listed as one activity that would be prohibited within 50 feet of the Russian River in Guerneville without an approved conservation plan and a county permit. On the other hand “streamside maintenance” of the corridor is encouraged.
How can you do one without doing the other? asks Russian River resident Dave Hardy, a Monte Rio resident who’s also a planner at the county Permit and Resource Management Department, so he’s got a unique perspective as both a county guy and a river rat.
“I support the effort to get a grip on the chainsaw massacre of riparian habitat,” said Hardy, at a public hearing last week on the proposed new riparian rules. But as a riverfront gardener Hardy knows how lush riparian vegetation can get, how it’s constantly changing and it’s often choked with aggressive non-natives like ivy and blackberry vines.
Is removing those invasives “vegetation removal” (bad) or “stream restoration (good)?
“You snap a twig on a willow, that’s vegetation removal,” said Hardy. “A cottonwood falls over, displacing soil and blocking one’s path to the water. So you cut out the blocking section. That’s vegetation ‘removal’ even if one just left everything in place on the bank,” said Hardy. “The river is dynamic. Banks move. Willows and cottonwoods move. Property owners have to adjust.”
Hardy and many others weighing in on the riparian rules say they would like to see a little clarity.
“As someone who has planted many willow sprouts, put in over 10 pounds of native, deep-rooted grass seed, four big leaf maples and a couple of oak trees, as well as pulling out Algerian ivy and non-native blackberries in order to allow the native blackberries and grasses to grow, I think that qualifies as “restoration,” said Hardy in comments to the Sonoma County Planning Commission last week.
The county’s General Plan, where the needed riparian protections are defined, says streamside maintenance and restoration is allowed, but “How does one actually do that without doing ‘vegetation removal,’” asks Hardy. “You can’t.”
As things stand, Hardy told the commissioners “You are about to criminalize gardening on the river bank.”
Criminal gardening? I think I see a bumper sticker. “When gardening is outlawed, only outlaws will be gardening.”
Frank Robertson is a staff writer for Sonoma West Publishers.