As appeared in the July 6th edition of the Independent Coast Observer and written by Peter Baye and Jeanne Jackson. All photos by Peter Baye except where noted.
Friends don’t let friends drive in the Gualala
River.
The Gualala River, now closed to the Pacific Ocean
by a huge sandbar, is a coastal treasure. Creatures big and small make it their
home. Care must be taken to protect them and this beautiful wild river that is
a part of our lives.
The week before Memorial Day weekend, the beds of
the Gualala River’s upstream reaches were pristine gravel bars with stream-side
shrubs and wetland vegetation, and flowing channels with water up to several
feet deep. The week after Memorial Day, the river bed became a gravel road bed,
with scores of tire track ruts crossing every bar, and channels two feet deep.
This is an annual unauthorized event, with peak off-road vehicle use on holiday
weekends – especially Independence Day weekend.
What does the river look like from the windshield of
a truck? Perhaps it looks like an inviting partly-flooded gravel highway
perfect for off-road vehicles (ORVs). But if you’d just leave your vehicle
behind and see the river up close, you’d find the river bed, and even the
deceptively barren-looking gravel bars, are teeming with fish and wildlife that
survive by hiding or making themselves as inconspicuous as possible. They do
this to avoid natural predators. But there is no protection from being crushed
by vehicle tires.
Mendonoma Sightings of wildlife on the river bed are
possible only when curious and observant eyes are prepared to see them, and that’s
usually not possible through the windshield of a truck. For a closer look at
who’s who on the riverbed, and possibly underneath those tires, here is an
introduction to some common and uncommon residents of the riverbed in summer.
Western Pond Turtle
Western pond turtles
are uncommon, but can be found around pools and channels near logs and rocks
that provide sun-bathing spots with quick-dive escape access to deep pools.
They are a dull, dark-brown/olive color, and are hard to see until they dive.
Turtles are easily alarmed, and escape by diving to the bottom of the river bed
or pool….right in harm’s way of vehicles crossing channels or pools. When
Supervisor Efren Carrillo visited the Gualala River last year, he spotted a
western pond turtle hunkered down in the channel bed next to the track of a
truck that had just passed and missed by a shell’s width. Did the driver of
that vehicle see the turtle? Probably not.
Foothill yellow-legged frog
This is our
native stream frog, laying its eggs masses directly on gravel in flowing water
in late spring. Adults often bask along the water’s edge, and also rapidly dive
to the bottom of the channel or pool when alarmed…safe from predators, but not
from ORV tires.
Western toad tadpoles
The
blackish tadpoles of western toads and Pacific treefrogs swarm by hundreds
along the shallow edges of warm pools and channels of the river in spring and
early summer, grazing on algae growing on pebbles and rocks. In mid to late
summer, thousands of newly metamorphosed frogs and toads spread over the moist
gravel flats within yards of the water’s edge. The size of a small bee and in
swarms almost as large, they are hard to avoid even on foot. One pass of a
vehicle is likely to crush hundreds on each bar.
Garter snakes - Western Aquatic Garter Snake
Red-sided terrestrial garter snakes and
aquatic garter snakes feed on tadpoles and frogs along the channel edge. Like
the turtles and frogs, Aquatic garter snakes dive to the bottom of the channel
or pool when alarmed. Red-sided garter snakes like to bask on warm gravels to
warm themselves. Both snakes are prone to becoming road kill on the river bed.
Spotted sandpiper and killdeer - Killdeer eggs, photo by Rae Radtkey
Two shorebirds nest directly on dry gravel
bars, using the natural camouflage of pebbles to mask their eggs: the spotted
sandpiper and killdeer. Nests are certain to be nearby when the adults feign
injury to distract and mislead predators. It’s difficult to spot their eggs on
foot; in a truck it would be nearly impossible.
Gualala roach and stickleback
The most abundant
warm-water native fish of the river are the endemic Gualala roach (a type of
minnow found only in the Gualala River), and the threespine stickleback. The
larvae of roach can be seen emerging from shallow submerged sand and gravel in
late spring. The adults dart or hide among pebbles when disturbed – not a
secure shelter from truck tires.
Steelhead juveniles
Steelhead juveniles are about
the same size as Gualala roach, and most years they are abundant in pools with
cool seeps or springs and some shelter. They often forage in riffles – the
shallow flowing channels which ORVs use avoid deeper water. Their strategy of
darting rapidly or hiding under pebbles is no protection against tires. Adult
steelhead deposit eggs in redds – circular depressions they excavate in channel
gravels. Steelhead are a threatened species that many of us and government
agencies are struggling to help recover for their survival, and for return of a
vibrant recreational fishery.
All of these wild riverbed residents are part of the
beauty of our river, and a part that is not only overlooked from ORVs, but
harmed by them. The oil and brake pad metal contaminants from the undersides of
trucks are also potentially harmful to aquatic species, too.
It’s time to start a new holiday tradition. Enjoying
the wildlife wealth of the Gualala River means leaving your vehicles on the
road, getting your feet on the ground, and your eyes on the riverbed. You will
be amazed at the wildlife hidden in plain sight.
To learn more about this fascinating wild river, here is the website for Friends of the Gualala River:
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