Removing Matilija Dam:
- Why Remove Matilija Dam?
- Objectives
- Benefits from Removal
- Impacts: Habitat
- Impacts: Sediment
- Matilija Dam spilling
Final Design:
- Project Description
- Sediment Management
- Slurry Disposal
- Levees
- Bridges
- Robles Diversion modifications
- Arundo (giant reed) management
- Our Comments
Feasibility Study:
Early Progress:
Background Information:
About the Matilija Coalition:
Habitat:
Dams kill rivers: by preventing the passage of ocean-going fish,
dams cut off the only known mechanism for renourishing nutrient poor coastal
watersheds from the oceans.
The decline of the Southern Steelhead within the Ventura River watershed indicate the decline of an ecosystem that reaches from the wilderness areas of the coast mountain range to the Pacific Ocean. Scientists have shown that salmon in the Pacific Northwest play a key role in watershed health, including the food chain of more than 137 separate species. Salmon declines, according to the research, trigger cascading declines of many of the ecosystems major food chains.
In a similar manner, the Ventura River ecosystem once supported 23 species of special concern, 9 of which are endangered, 2 are threatened, and 2 are under full protection. In addition to the steelhead, these species include the California condor, California red-legged frog, Brown pelican, and the ringtail. Removal of Matilija Dam will provide fish passage to historic breeding waters in the upper watershed, and greatly enhance the opportunities for restored habitat for the other species of concern.
California's steelhead restoration plan indicates that historically the Ventura River probably had one of the largest runs of steelhead in southern California-and that restoring the Ventura runs will be critical for steelhead recovery in the region. Scientists consider the southern steelhead a genetically distinct fish species, the parent of all steelhead on the Pacific Coast.
Southern Steelhead Trout:
- 1940 population estimated
at over 5,000
- 1997: southern steelhead
were declared Endangered Species, August 1997
- 2000 population less than
200
- 50% of the Ventura River's
historic anadromous steelhead habitat is obstructed by Matilija Dam
- 85% of existing habitat
lie behind Matilija Dam (due to degradation of the lower reaches of
the Ventura River)
Historic Salmonid habitat on the Ventura River System:
