The Salmon Protection and Watershed Network is moving forward with a project to restore floodplain and riparian habitat along one mile of Lagunitas Creek—which hosts one of the largest populations of endangered coho salmon in the state—where the communities of Jewell and Tocaloma once stood. Late last month, the National Park Service, the landowner and lead agency for the project’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, released a joint environmental assessment and mitigated negative declaration. The public can comment on the document until Feb. 28. Preston Brown, who directs SPAWN’s watershed conservation program, said the group will incorporate public comments after the 30-day window, make any necessary changes and submit a final document for approval by the park service and the Coastal Conservancy, which is contributing funds along with the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife and Water Resources Control Board. SPAWN will then put the project out to bid, though its own field team will do some of the erosion control and revegetation work. Scheduled to take place this summer and fall, the $1.8 million project will address three sites east of Olema on land purchased by the park service in the ‘70s. At the time, homeowners were given reservations of use and occupancy, but those agreements expired roughly a decade ago, and in 2016 the park demolished over a dozen structures dating to the 1930s. SPAWN now plans to remove retaining walls and fill, then create side channels and install woody debris to create fish habitat. Coho and steelhead trout spend their first year in the creek and return to lay their eggs there; the creek also supports some of the densest concentrations of endangered freshwater shrimp in the region, according to the environmental assessment. The same stretch of creek has also been identified by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board as a high-priority area for reducing sediment. (Two other habitat enhancement projects planned in the watershed, including two floodplain enhancement projects downstream from Tocaloma, are sponsored by the Marin Municipal Water District.) The project includes a number of mitigation measures, including minimizing the time that the stream’s flow is diverted during debris removal, avoiding spotted owl nesting and aquatic species reproduction, temporarily relocating coho and steelhead during construction as needed, placing buffers around special-status plant species and replanting after the project’s completion. Mr. Brown said SPAWN is in the process of securing permits from other agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Regional Water Control Board and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The mitigated negative declaration can be downloaded at http://scc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/notices/Lagunitas_Creek_EA-Initial_Study_CD.pdf and hardcopies are available for review at the Point Reyes Station and Civic Center branches of the Marin County Free Library. Comments can be submitted to Joel Gerwein, State Coastal Conservancy, 1515 Clay St, 10th floor, Oakland, CA 94612 or [email protected] through Feb. 28, 2018.