| Area | Ukiah |
| Topic | Tour: Dooley Creek Restoration Project at Fetzer Vineyard |
This photo shows the Fetzer Creek Winery (white buildings at right) and the meandering channel of Dooley Creek. The poorly defined channel not only is poor aquatic habitat but also poses a substantial risk of soil and property loss to the riparian land owner. The downstream end of the project is at Highway 175. Photo courtesy of Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
This photo was taken looking upstream before the project. The eroding bank at right is about to be recontoured by the backhoe at left at this site just above Highway 175 on Dooley Creek. Picture taken looking upstream. Photo by Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
A closeup of the bank of Dooley Creek shows car bodies embedded in the gravel bank. This old fashioned method of bank stabilization not only polluted streams but also was ineffective. The combined use of living tree starts like willow and rock rip rap provides much more lasting benefits. Photo by Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
This photo shows the raw banks at the middle of the Fetzer property looking southeast across the Dooley Creek channel with vineyards in fall colors and the Mayacamas Mountains in the background. Note the eroding bank. Photo by Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
This photo shows the bottom of the project on Dooley Creek with Highway 175 in the background. The backhoe is digging a toe trench which will be filled with willow branches, known as a willow mattress. The angle of the slope of the trench is important to project success. Photo by Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
This photo shows flows the first flows in Dooley Creek after project completion. The rip rap boulders are used to restore sinuosity to the channel but the stakes behind them indicate massive willow planting. The stakes will each sprout as trees but the branches in the mattress will also sprout and root, helping to hold soil against the tremendous forces of the creek at high flow. This project section is about 350 feet. Highway 175 crosses Dooley Creek at the white bridge. See Photo by Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
This photo was taken at the top of the project looking downstream with willow sprouting. This was the first spring after this project and willows have sprouted. Signs of excavation in the channel were not related to the bioengineering project but were rather attempts by the right bank owner to stabilize his property by deflecting the current with bed excavations. See Picture #8 for a later sequence at the same site. Photo by Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
This photo looking downstream (west) toward Highway 175 shows was taken about a year after Picture #7. The willow mattress has begun its rapid phase of growth and channel definition is improving. See the next photo series for more before and after pictures at this site. Photo by Evan Engber, Bioengineering Associates.
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