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The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) is a non-profit organization located near the town of Occidental in the western part of Sonoma County, California. Situated on an 80-acre ecological reserve near the Russian River, OAEC works with communities in the region to restore and build cultural and biological diversity.
The OAEC was initially founded by a group of friends as a non-profit in conjunction with its original company The Sowing Circle (formed in 1994). [1] [2]
OAEC describes itself as an Intentional Community [3]
Resilient community design [4] assists individuals or groups of people to adapt methodologies of permaculture design. [5] OAEC uses this design as a way to teach and guide the surrounding communities to create their own sustainable and resilient system based on what their needs are. The OAEC does this throughout 2-week courses year-round on different permaculture subjects, including Greywater, erosion control and stormwater management.
The WATER Institute [6] is a branch within the OAEC that teaches the importance of watersheds. WATER is an acronym for the components that continue to go into the OAEC institutes core values, Watershed Advocacy, Training, Education & Research. With backgrounds in Biology, Conservation and Ecology working on various projects Co-directors Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist create community-based watershed education empowerment and conservation practices. The OAEC WATER Institute creates publications to serve as guides for communities, individual people, or local agencies to use as they move forward in making water-based decisions.
[7] Created in 2014, formerly known as the Decentralized Water Policy Council, COWA [8] brings together public and private stakeholders interested in water conservation and land-use strategies in a membership setting. They set out to challenge policies associated with centralized water practices by creating goals to educate the public on beneficial localized water practices, apply best-management practices to private sectors, and work to move toward more advanced legislation and policy on sustainable localized water management.
Funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and many other partnerships, the Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership looks to bring and keep water reliability solutions to the Russian River Watershed, solutions that include improving the streamflow and supply of water to help the endangered Coho salmon. Within the rivers 110 miles [9] there are five main tributaries that the partnership has made its priority due to low stream flows and need for urgent recovery paths for the salmon, these include Dutch Bill Creek, Green Valley Creek, Mark West Creek, Mill Creek, and Grape Creek.
California receives a majority of rainfall in the winter and spring months and supplies the streams with enough water, but the challenge lies in the summer and fall months where water is being used for human use. The partnership looks at strategies where water can be stored during the rainy seasons and used for dry months so water is not being pulled during this time to supply human needs. The partnership will work with individuals to look at personal consumption and make conservation strategies that will benefit both people and the fish that rely on this water source. [10]
The North American Beaver is a beneficial keystone species. Beavers create a habitat that benefits surrounding species as well as the environment around them. [11] This ecosystem engineer helps improve habitat for fish, amphibians, mammals, and birds, including endangered species, ultimately increasing species diversity and richness. Their dams can help improve water quantity with increased water storage, and connectivity between water sources, help improve quality by reducing erosion and turbidity, increased nutrient cycling, carbon retention, purify water and retain pollutants. [12]
Bring Back the Beaver Campaign [13] educates communities on these important benefits that the North American Beaver brings to water systems. The campaign also works to blend their knowledge into regulation and policy in California to create a more educated and friendly way in the management of local beavers.
In 2015 Caltrans in the San Luis Obispo area decided to build a new roadway in Prunedale California next to a wetland area where Beaver, Western pond turtles and endangered Red-legged frog lived. The culverts near the newly built road fell victim to damming by the beavers and eventually started to flood causing transportation issues. Instead of Caltrans removing the beavers from the road area, they decided to team up with OAEC WATER Institute to help educate policy makers of San Luis Obispo and come up with a solution that will benefit both parties. The solution they came up with was a flow control device that helped keep the water level low, kept the dam from growing larger and did not affect the surrounding habitat. [14]
Lake Sammamish is a freshwater lake 8 miles (13 km) east of Seattle in King County, Washington, United States. The lake is 7 miles (11 km) long and 1.5 miles (2 km) wide, with a maximum depth of 105 feet (32 m) and a surface area of 8 sq mi (21 km2). It lies east of Lake Washington and west of the Sammamish Plateau, and stretches from Issaquah in the south to Redmond in the north. At Issaquah it is fed by Issaquah Creek, and at Redmond it drains to Lake Washington via the Sammamish River, named after the native people who once lived along its entire length.
The Napa River is a river approximately 55 miles (89 km) long in the U.S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region called the Napa Valley, in the mountains north of the San Francisco Bay. Milliken Creek and Mt. Veeder watersheds are a few of its many tributaries. The river mouth is at Vallejo, where the intertidal zone of fresh and salt waters flow into the Carquinez Strait and the San Pablo Bay.
The Necanicum River is a river on the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States, approximately 21 miles (34 km) long. It drains a timber-producing area of the Northern Oregon Coast Range northwest of Portland. It forms the first estuary south of the mouth of the Columbia River along the Oregon Coast, reaching the Pacific Ocean at Seaside in Clatsop County.
The Kickapoo River is a 126-mile-long (203 km) tributary of the Wisconsin River in the state of Wisconsin, United States. It is named for the Kickapoo Indians who occupied Wisconsin before the influx of white settlers in the early 19th century.
Coyote Creek is a river that flows through the Santa Clara Valley in Northern California. Its source is on Mount Sizer, in the mountains east of Morgan Hill. It eventually flows into Anderson Lake in Morgan Hill and then northwards through Coyote Valley to San Jose, where it empties into San Francisco Bay.
The Mattole River is a river on the north coast of California, that flows northerly, then westerly into the Pacific Ocean. The vast majority of its 62 miles (100 km) course is through southern Humboldt County, though a short section of the river flows through northern Mendocino County. Communities, from north to south, closely associated with the Mattole River include: Petrolia, Honeydew, Ettersburg, Thorn Junction, and Whitethorn. The river enters the ocean at the Mattole Estuary about 4 miles (6.4 km) west-southwest of Petrolia and 10 miles (16 km) south of Cape Mendocino.
Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for 45 miles (72 km) from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. Along its course, Alameda Creek provides wildlife habitat, water supply, a conduit for flood waters, opportunities for recreation, and a host of aesthetic and environmental values. The creek and three major reservoirs in the watershed are used as water supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Water District and Zone 7 Water Agency. Within the watershed can be found some of the highest peaks and tallest waterfall in the East Bay, over a dozen regional parks, and notable natural landmarks such as the cascades at Little Yosemite and the wildflower-strewn grasslands and oak savannahs of the Sunol Regional Wilderness. After an absence of half a century, ocean-run steelhead trout are able to return to Alameda Creek to mingle with remnant rainbow trout populations. Completion of a series of dam removal and fish passage projects, along with improved stream flows for cold-water fish and planned habitat restoration, enable steelhead trout and Chinook salmon to access up to 20 miles (32 km) of spawning and rearing habitat in Alameda Creek and its tributaries. The first juvenile trout migrating downstream from the upper watershed through lower Alameda Creek toward San Francisco Bay was detected and documented in April 2023.
The Scott River is a 60-mile-long (97 km) river in Siskiyou County, California, United States. It is a tributary of the Klamath River, one of the largest rivers in California.
The Russian River is a southward-flowing river that drains 1,485 sq mi (3,850 km2) of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately 1,600,000 acre feet (2.0 km3), it is the second-largest river flowing through the nine-county Greater San Francisco Bay Area, with a mainstem 115 mi (185 km) long.
The Sol Duc River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About 78 miles (126 km) long, it flows west through the northwest part of the Olympic Peninsula, from the Olympic Mountains of Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest, then through the broad Sol Duc Valley. Near the Pacific Ocean the Sol Duc River joins the Bogachiel River, forming the Quillayute River, which flows about 4 miles (6.4 km) to the Pacific Ocean at La Push. Although the Quillayute River is short, its large tributary rivers—the Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Calawah, and Dickey Rivers—drain the largest watershed of the northern Olympic Peninsula, 629 square miles (1,630 km2). The Sol Duc's watershed is the largest of the Quillayute's tributaries, at 219 square miles (570 km2).
The San Pedro River is a northward-flowing stream originating about 10 miles (16 km) south of the international border south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, in Cananea Municipality, Sonora, Mexico. The river starts at the confluence of other streams just east of Sauceda, Cananea. Within Arizona, the river flows 140 miles (230 km) north through Cochise County, Pima County, Graham County, and Pinal County to its confluence with the Gila River, at Winkelman, Arizona. It is the last major, undammed desert river in the American Southwest, and it is of major ecological importance as it hosts two-thirds of the avian diversity in the United States, including 100 species of breeding birds and almost 300 species of migrating birds.
Pescadero Creek is a major stream in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties in California, United States. At 26.6 miles (42.8 km), it is the longest stream in San Mateo County and flows all year from springs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Its source is at 1,880 feet (570 m) above sea level on the western edge of Castle Rock State Park, with additional headwaters in Portola Redwoods State Park, and its course traverses Pescadero Creek County Park and San Mateo County Memorial Park before entering Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve at Pescadero State Beach and thence to the Pacific Ocean 14.4 miles (23 km) south of Half Moon Bay.
Salmon Creek is an 18.3-mile-long (29.5 km) stream in western Sonoma County, California that springs from coastal hills west of the town of Occidental and empties into the Pacific Ocean north of Bodega Head.
Dutch Bill Creek is a 6.5-mile-long (10.5 km) north-flowing stream in the hills of western Sonoma County, California, which empties into the Russian River at Monte Rio about 7 miles (11 km) from the Pacific Ocean.
SPAWN, the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, is a project of the Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental organization.
Boise Creek is a stream in Humboldt County, California, United States. From its origin on Orleans Mountain it flows 8.5 miles to join the Klamath River about 2.25 miles southeast of Orleans, California. The creek lies within the Six Rivers National Forest and is part of the Lower Klamath River Watershed.
The East Arm Little Calumet River, also known as the Little Calumet River East Branch, is a 22.1-mile-long (35.6 km) portion of the Little Calumet River that begins just east of Holmesville, Indiana in New Durham Township in LaPorte County and flows west to Porter County and the Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway.
Salt Creek is a 24.0-mile-long (38.6 km) tributary of the East Arm Little Calumet River that begins south of Valparaiso in Porter County, Indiana and flows north until it joins the East Arm Little Calumet River just before it exits to Lake Michigan via the Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway.
The North Creek Forest is located in Bothell, Washington and surrounds a section of the 12.6-mile (20.3 km) North Creek and encompasses 64 acres of mature second growth mixed coniferous/hardwood forest with 7 streams and 9 wetlands. The forest forms a one mile long and up to 1/3- mile wide habitat corridor extending from Canyon Park Junior High School in the north almost to the North Creek wetlands near the University of Washington Bothell Campus, and eventually links to the Sammamish River in the south. The North Creek Forest is one of the last remaining mature coniferous forests in the Bothell area. The forest here filters and cools water in streams, wetlands and countless small springs and seeps, along an entire mile of watershed. The cooling of this water is crucial for 5 species of anadromous fish that spawn in North Creek including chum, coho, sockeye, chinook and steelhead. Many other ecosystem services are provided by this forest including carbon sequestration, reduction of surface runoff and cooling of ambient temperatures in surrounding neighborhood.
The beaver is a keystone species, increasing biodiversity in its territory through creation of ponds and wetlands. As wetlands are formed and riparian habitats enlarged, aquatic plants colonize newly available watery habitat. Insect, invertebrate, fish, mammal, and bird diversities are also expanded. Effects of beaver recolonization on native and non-native species in streams where they have been historically absent, particularly dryland streams, is not well-researched.