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| A worker removes arundo |
A waterway
clogged with the wrong type of non-native vegetation is a recipe for flooding,
elevated risk for wildfire and diminished habitat value for wildlife.
That’s why
the San Diego River Conservancy is spending $208,000 over the next few months
to remove invasive plants from Sycamore Creek in the city of Santee.
The project,
which started this week, requires heavy labor to remove the unwanted vegetation
from several hundred feet of the creek bordering the Santee Lakes Recreation
Preserve.
“One of the
main reasons we’re doing it is for flood alleviation,” said Conservancy
Executive Officer Kevin McKernan.
Flooding
triggered by record rainfall in the winter of 2010-11 overwhelmed a sewage
station next to the creek, resulting in a spill of contaminated water into the
San Diego River, he noted.
This April,
a wildfire that began in the riverbed at Mast Park West was fueled in part by
dense stands of non-native plants, including a bamboo-like plant called arundo
donax, also known as giant reed.
This week, a
small army of workers has been using chain saws and hand tools to remove the
unwanted vegetation, including arundo, castor bean plants, pepper trees, and
more than 90 mature non-native palm trees.
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| Oceanside-based ACS Habitat is doing the work |
“We’ve
notified homeowners whose back yards border Sycamore Creek of our activities,
and so far we’ve had positive responses from many,” McKernan reported.
A second
phase of the project to clear a portion of the creek north of Mast Boulevard is
planned for the future.
The project
calls for follow-up abatement actions over the next two to three years
involving cutting and spraying the previously cut sites to ensure the invasive
plants don’t return.
