Area	Anderson Creek
Topic	Tour: Restoration Tebbutt's Early Years 1984-1995

 

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Chris Tebbutt is shown here on the flood plain of Anderson Creek in 1984 deep planting cottonwood and black willow trees, such as the fence post-sized specimens at left. Deep planting allows the roots of the trees to be at or below the water table for most of the year and gives very high growth rates. Photo by Stephanie Tebbutt.


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This shows Chris Tebbutt attempting to re-establish vegetation on an outside curve in Anderson Creek with no bank armoring, which made these plantings vulnerable to blow out. The bar of Anderson Creek in 1985 was still 325 feet wide here on the lower part of his property. Photo by Stephanie Tebbutt.


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Early planting efforts lead to some success as cottonwoods and willows were able to survive the high flows of February 1986, but this subsequent spring time photo shows the active channel is flowing around the trees. Photo taken looking upstream from the bottom of the Tebbutt property. Photo by Chris Tebbutt.


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Early cottonwood starts are shown here after a winter storm in 1987. Although the channel is braiding, sediment has also built up on the terrace behind the trees. Flows from 1986 to 1992 were moderate, however, a larger challenge lay ahead in the high flows of January 1995 (see Picture #6). Photo by Chris Tebbutt.


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After having experienced the forces of the February 1986 storm, the Tebbutts applied for and won a stream restoration to build this boulder wing deflector through the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District. While the wing deflector was sturdy, much of the area where Stephanie Tebbutt was standing was washed away in 1995 (see Picture #6). Despite the failure of the end of this rip rap jetty, a huge amount of soil was trapped behind it that later served as a foundation for a rebuilt riparian zone. Photo by Chris Tebbutt.


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This photo shows Anderson Creek looking downstream off what is left of a boulder deflector in January 1995. Flows reached almost this level in March 1995 as well. This flood was precipitated by 20 inches of rain in the week prior and six inches over night locally in the upper watershed. As Chris Tebbutt observed Anderson Creek at work in high flows, he got a better idea of the forces he was up against but also how to counter them. Photo by Chris Tebbutt.


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The high water cut a swath through the trees planted on the gravel terraces but did not cause the bank to retreat to anywhere near 1983 erosion locales. This photo was taken looking downstream on Anderson Creek. Chris Tebbutt also found that cottonwoods uprooted by storms could be very successfully transplanted. Photo by Chris Tebbutt.


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Stephanie Tebbutt is shown here on the flood terrace of Anderson Creek with downed cottonwoods toppled by flood waters behind her. Notice also that there is a deposit of over two to three feet of topsoil that settled in the slow currents around the planted riparian thicket during high flows. Photo by Chris Tebbutt. 1995.

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