Project Duration
2018-present
Location
Ventura County, California
Background
Removing the Matilija Dam will be no easy feat. Standing at a
height of roughly 168-feet, or about 15 stories tall, this
73-year-old concrete structure blocks the flow of Matilija Creek,
a major tributary of the Ventura River in Southern California.
Heavy sedimentation in the reservoir above the dam has
effectively eliminated its capacity to provide the water storage
and flood control services for which it was originally built.
Some have even described its design as “flawed
from the outset.” Removing the dam has the potential to
revitalize sediment transport patterns and other ecosystem
processes that increase groundwater storage, restore downstream
beaches, and provide critical habitat to species like the
endangered
Southern California steelhead trout. Fundraising for the
removal is well underway, with local groups leading the charge to
come up with the $180 million necessary for the many project
components.
With support from the Open
Rivers Fund, our team at the Center for Community and Citizen
Science has been working with various partners in Southern
California to build capacity for community-based monitoring. In
addition to providing data on the watershed to inform dam removal
efforts, community-based monitoring can also create opportunities
for learning, community engagement, and stewardship. Beginning
that work now can help to build a baseline of understanding, in
advance of significant change in the watershed. It can also
develop important experiential and practical knowledge that can
plug into a formal program once the dam removal is closer at
hand.
There are already some
community-based monitoring efforts underway in the watershed, and
any new capacity-building effort should take these into account.
Dam removal efforts at this scale are enormously complex, and not
just from an engineering standpoint.
The Ventura River watershed is home
to a large number of schools and non-profits with an active
interest in environmental education. We met with educators,
including faculty from the Green Schools Coalition, a network of
seven different high schools who participate in environmental
advocacy initiatives in and around the Ojai Valley. We also met
with Once Upon a
Watershed, a project sponsored by the Ventura Land Trust that
provides watershed-focused educational programming to younger
students in the region. Our Center’s research has demonstrated the meaningful
science learning opportunities that can arise from youth
participation in community and citizen science.
These site visits and meetings
provided a foundation for our multiple upcoming collaborations
with community organizations in the watershed. In the upper
watershed, we partnered with the Green Schools Coalition to
support students in designing youth-led monitoring projects that
are responsive to both community and scientific priorities. We
also partnered with the MERITO Foundation in the
lower watershed to develop a field-trip based model in which
middle and high school students and teachers in Ventura collect
and analyze data related to the dam removal effort as part of a
place-based science curriculum. Working with stakeholders like
the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper,
Ventura Land Trust, and Watershed Progressive
as part of these efforts linked monitoring with watershed
stewardship restoration.
Funders
Resources Legacy Fund
Partners
MERITO Foundation, CREW, Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Santa
Barbara Channelkeeper