A bill to clean out the Bouquet Canyon creek in Santa Clarita to bring water flow back to the creek passed out of the Senate.
Assembly Bill 353, authored by Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, amends the Fish and Game Code to allow the implementation and maintenance of Los Angeles County’s Bouquet Canyon Habitat Restoration Project, according to the news release.
What Bouquet Creek is supposed to look like.
“The county has worked closely with permitting agencies to develop a riparian habitat restoration project despite existing state codes protecting endangered species — which actually prevent us from implementing a project designed to save them,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich in a news release
The Bouquet Canyons Habitat Restoration Project, by Bob Blount, district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service Santa Clara/Mojave Rivers Ranger District, would restore the habitat and biological function of the creek, including the unarmored threespine stickleback, according to a news release. The project would also allow the water let-out to resume to “historic flows” and would minimize roadway flooding and erosion to improve safety.
A refurbishment and repurposing of the Zuni Campground as an “environmental education site” and “restoration ecology staging area” is also in the proposed plan.
Lackey’s bill amends the Fully Protected Species Act by authorizing “the take of unarmored threespine stickleback,” according to the bill.
The term “take” in this case means “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct. Through regulations, the term ‘harm’ is defined as “an act which actually kills or injures wildlife. Such an act may include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering,” according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website.
Assemblyman Tom Lackey
“I am proud to work with Mayor Antonovich on a solution for the long running problems with Bouquet Canyon creek,” Lackey said in a news release. “Until Los Angeles County is able to complete its habitat restoration project, wildlife will continue to suffer and water problems in the area will continue. I am looking forward to Assembly Bill 353 clearing the way for this vital project.”
Floods came through Bouquet Canyon in 2005 and the sediment buildup cause the ecosystem to deteriorate, according to the news release.
Because of the sediment build up, water from the Bouquet Reservoir that flowed through the creek would flood the roadway.
Gates were installed in 2014 to close the road for when water was released from the reservoir to fill the wells of residents who live in the canyon.
But many of those residents have reported running out of water.
LARC Ranch, a community for developmentally disabled adults, resorted to trucking in 11,000 gallons of water daily, said Kathleen Sturkey, executive director of LARC Ranch, in a previous interview — a move that cost the nonprofit about $150,000 annually.
County officials let out water from the reservoir to fill up the resident’s and business’s wells, but it isn’t enough.
Most of the corn at Lombardi Ranch didn’t make it last year, said Levi Lombardi, who oversees the Lombardi Ranch, in a previous interview.
Neither the state of California nor the Santa Clarita Valley have had three straight years of this level of drought in more than 100 years of recorded history, according to water officials.
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30 Comments
Better work fast before El Nino hits.
It’s already begun but it’s barely started
Happy to see this!
This storm says yes to making bouquet creek flow lol
Trout pond.
We used to go up there for Easter when we were kids. I was really little, but I think I remember fishing there too. This is good. ?
Rich Inga
Yay, good news!
Now Let Lombardi Have some to Grow pumpkins
That was my first thought too. Next year hopefully it will be back and glorious.
Why they have not done it sooner, blows me away
Crystal Lake? Nixon G. Orellana Juan Flores Reyes Medrano
Penny Mortimer…did you see this!
Yes we thought they where doing it earlier, they have done it before.
YES!!!!!
Bout time
About time. <3 <3 Mel
Woohoo!
Your’e mom was very young, but our mom and dad would take us there at LEAST 2 times a month
Lance Lindsay this is what you were telling me about the other day, right?
Omg! My husband & I were reminiscing, just tonight, about how he fished for trout up Bouquet…yrs ago…too funny! Glad this is happening…gonna take our boys there to fish LOL! ??
My only question is “where is the water going to come from”?
This is great I can’t wait that’s so cool!!!! Hopefully they put up some trash cans and people use them
Victor H. Ojeda
Cool now if we could only get that nude beach approved! Jk!!!
Missing Lombardi for Halloween already.
Praise God they realized and agreed how important this decision is! Praying they get started tomorrow and I am serious!
Just be careful when you fish up there , keep your eyes open and watch the cliff above you , there are Mountain lions in that area , and they will track you . I used to live in the cabins up there , and have been tracked by them several times . Just remember where you are , or you may not come out of there , and that goes for your small dogs too . Coyote , Bob Cats , and other animals call that area home .
Horrible news
Wow! Great news…
Hats off to California Fish and Game…
Now it will be stocked with browns and rainbows…
Fun for the fly fishing guys..and the kids…