Thanks to your support, we have made great progress removing arundo donax along the Russian River. Since August 1st we’ve removed over 36 acres of arundo out of the roughly 65 acres occurring in the 5-mile project area, significantly reducing fire risk!
On August 1st, the project received a significant boost when the Resilience Force work crew added 10-11 members to the 4-5 Riverkeeper staff. This dynamic collaboration dramatically increased the speed of the project as the crew removed re-growth upstream of Badger Park and on the Syar property in Healdsburg. After cutting and treating the re-growth, the crew moved into several very dense stands of arundo nestled in the middle of mostly native vegetation, including poison oak! The crew will be finishing up at Badger Park and the Syar parcels near River’s Bend next week. A total of roughly 8 acres of arundo were removed in the area from Badger Park to the east end of River’s Bend off South Fitch Mountain Road.
At the same time another crew led by Eric Dicke, was conducting initial arundo removal at Rio Lindo Academy on the north end of the project area. In part of this area, we were able to use a tracked excavator with a masticator due to the presence of existing roads and being more than 100 feet from the river. This is the area of greatest concern for fire experts as any wind-driven fire from the Northeast or Northwest where historic fires have traveled. We’re pleased to say this work created a very robust fire break and cut down over 75% of the 40 acres of arundo on this property. The work crews will be moving from Badger Park to Rio Lindo Academy to begin cutting and treating regrowth to kill the roots and ensure no further re-growth occurs.
While we still have a ways to go to completely eradicate arundo in the project area, the last 8 weeks of work will have resulted in a great decrease in fire hazards by removing decades-old stands with more than 50% dead material. The crews will be working at Rio Lindo Academy through October and have 2-3-person crews working on enrolled properties along Rio Lindo Avenue and Bailache Road. By late November, crews will shift back to individual residential properties on Fitch Mountain although will not be working on rainy days to avoid erosion. If you have arundo on your property and would like us to remove it, you can visit our Arundo project page find the Access Agreement link, and sign up. We will contact you to arrange removal with you when your property comes up on the list prior to starting any work.
We are very thankful for your support and the Coastal Conservancy grant that is making this work possible! We also thank all the property owners who have signed up, especially the Syar Family and Rio Lindo Academy.