The State Coastal Conservancy Board of Directors voted recently to provide a $989,000 grant to Riverkeeper’s Arundo removal project! This grant will cover 70% of the project costs over the next 4 years to reduce fire danger and water loss from invasive Arundo donax.
This grant is a big boost to increasing the pace of the project with additional workers. The grant requires that we raise 30% of costs from local donors so we’ll be seeking donations to provide those local matching funds. For every dollar local donors provide the grant will add three to fully fund the project to remove Arundo on 5 miles of the Russian River, so your donations are magnified by state funds.
Click here to donate today or you can mail checks to Russian Riverkeeper P.O. Box 1335 Healdsburg, CA 95448.
The Arundo removal project is part of the Healdsburg and surrounding Area Fuel Reduction Project led by the Healdsburg Fire Department to reduce fire danger. Two projects are conducting forest thinning on Fitch Mountain and Healdsburg Ridge and the third is removing arundo from the river corridor. Riverkeeper is managing the arundo removal part of the project, leveraging our decades of experience with invasive plant removal projects. Although this project is occurring in Healdsburg, it will benefit the ecology of the entire river by reducing water losses and the fire potential, which both affect the entire river system’s health.
Arundo on fire along the river.
Since Arundo is growing throughout the watershed, arundo removal by Mendocino RCD and Sonoma RCD in upstream parts of the river help reduce the propagation of new plants downstream. The Fitch Mountain and Healdsburg areas of the river were identified as the highest potential fire hazard along the river due to wind patterns and the high density of Arundo coupled with narrow roads and difficult evacuation routes.
For those new to Arundo donax, it is a non-native invasive plant imported by Spaniards in the 1800s. It looks like bamboo and is also called Giant Reed or Spanish Grass and is actually a member of the grass family of plants. It grows up to 30 feet tall in dense clumps with lots of dead and dry canes. Arundo is one of the most flammable plants in California that is built to burn with a vertical structure and hollow stems that allow a plentiful oxygen supply to feed a fire. Arundo ignites quickly and burns very hot, hot enough to melt the boots of firefighters that are heat resistant! Arundo is also a water hog capable of taking up to seven million gallons of water per acre every year. That is far more water than water-dependent willows and harms our river in dry years.
Arundo also displaces native plants that provide homes and food to native wildlife and birds. Arundo often surrounds and kills the tall trees along the river such as cottonwoods or walnut trees that birds need for roosting. In Southern California where arundo dominates many streams, there are few trees along streams so fewer birds and other wildlife. In the areas we have found arundo in the last year, we do not find any signs of wildlife from spiders to birds to mammals. Arundo does not offer any of the food sources that birds can’t use since it has no branches to roost in or build a nest upon.
As we continue to work on the Arundo Removal project stay tuned for future newsletter updates and Thank you to our donors who make this work possible!