Thirty years ago I embarked on my journey with the Surfrider Foundation. I am so honored to be recognized as a "Keeper of the Coast," joining the ranks of those who have truly made a difference in protecting and restoring our ocean, waves, and beaches. Sincere thanks to Chad Nelson and Surfrider for supporting my life's work.
One of the biggest changes to the Ventura River ecosystem came with the influx of settlers in the 1800s. Some say the oak woodland that filled the valley was so dense that a squirrel could travel in the canopy from Ojai to the beach in Ventura without touching the ground. But as people moved in, land was cleared to make room for agriculture with the wood exported to the growing city of Los Angeles, much of it to be burned as firewood.
As the oak woodland was replaced with irrigated agriculture the water balance shifted from abundance to deficit. Rather than capturing and infiltrating rainfall, the land now required that water be pumped from the aquifers to sustain crops and orchards. By 1890, over 4,000 acres had already been deforested. Today there is approximately 6,000 acres of irrigated land in the Ojai Valley.
Recognizing the importance of maintaining and restoring the remaining oak woodlands, the County of Ventura and other jurisdictions throughout California have ordinances protecting oak trees. Many organizations work to educate residents and coordinate volunteer efforts. In the Ojai Valley this includes;
Once upon a Watershed celebrates OAKTOBER, Oak Awareness Month.
Join OUW and other organizations and individuals across the state and country as we recognize the importance of oaks and oak ecosystems. Every individual, organization, and community can play an important role in celebrating oaks and oak ecosystems throughout the month of October—OAKtober!
Ojai Trees is an Ojai Valley community forestry group that welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds who want to do something tangible to help the environment.
The following are excerpts from publications documenting the history of oaks in California:
Meiners Oaks
http://ojaihistory.com/he-got-meiners-o-for-unpaid-debt/
John Meiners, native of Germany, had come to the United States about 1848 and had established a successful brewery business in Milwaukee. He acquired this Ojai ranch in the seventies, sight unseen, as a result of an unpaid debt. When he heard that his friend, Edward D. Holton, a Milwaukee banker, was going to California for a brief trip, Meiners asked him to see the property he had acquired. Mr. Holton’s evaluation was perhaps it was the largest oak grove on level land in Southern California, much of it so dense that the ground was in continuous shade. Furthermore, to his surprise, Meiners discovered that the climate of the valley was good for his asthma.
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| The barn and livestock area on the Meiners Ranch. A fence surrounds the main oak grove seen in the distance. Ojai Valley Museum |
Oaks of Southern California
https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-oak-trees-of-southern-california-a-brief-history
When Europeans arrived, they noticed the beauty of the oaks and used them as a way to make sense of their novel surroundings. Upon summiting the Sepulveda Pass and looking out over the San Fernando Valley in 1770, a Spanish expedition called the expansive plain Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos. ("Encino" is Spanish for live oak.) In central California, a later expedition named a oak-shrouded pass El Paso de Robles. ("Robles" referred to the area's valley oaks.) Later, as highly visible landmarks, some trees served as boundary markers between ranchos, appearing on diseños that recorded Spanish- and Mexican-era land grants.
But almost as soon as the Spanish enshrined the oaks in the region's place names, the more intensive uses of they land they introduced began to threaten the trees' survival. Farming, annual husbandry, and the arrival of non-native annual grasses stymied oak reproduction. Mature oaks were cut for lumber or fuel.
American land use practices only intensified the destructive processes. Like their Spanish predecessors, Americans would name their communities and streets after the trees (Thousand Oaks, Fair Oaks Boulevard, etc.) and then proceed to hasten their downfall. Because of the irregular shape of their trunks, oak trees were rarely felled for lumber, but oakwood came to be prized as fuel. The dense wood and lack of resin meant that the wood and resulting coals burned long and slowly.
Just as they had sustained Southern California's indigenous peoples, oak trees nourished residents of the booming city of Los Angeles, albeit in an indirect and unsustainable way. Demand in Los Angeles for hardwood drew loggers into the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, and San Gabriel valleys. As the loggers clear-cut thousands of acres of oak woodlands and savannas and delivered the firewood to Los Angeles, bakers tossed the wood into their ovens, feeding a city while denuding the countryside.
Oaks also fell to the axe as Southern Californians envisioned more profitable uses for oak-dominated landscapes. In the nineteenth century, citrus growers cleared oaks savannas to make way for orchards. Other oak habitats declined as groundwater pumping lowered the water table. Later, real-estate developers uprooted trees to build new houses and commercial properties for the expanding metropolis.

A Brief History and Guide to California's Native Oaks
http://www.ourcityforest.org/blog/2020/7/a-brief-history-and-guide-to-californias-native-oaks
The native oaks of California once dominated the landscape. Accounts of Spanish explorers mention their awe at the sight of the abundance of oaks around them. However, those with the strongest connection to the oaks of California were and are indigenous people.
Unfortunately, the arrival of the Spanish did not bode well for the native people nor the oaks of California. The Spanish introduced grazing animals and felled oak forests to make room for their agricultural enterprises. They also saw value in the lumber of oak trees, leading to even more deforestation. Before the native people could do anything to prevent them, the Spanish had dramatically damaged the relationship between the people and the oaks.
The people native to Santa Clara Valley are known as the Ohlone, which is a name that encompasses 50 separate tribes ranging from the South Bay all the way down to Monterey. Native oaks of California are ingrained in their society as a resource both physically and spiritually. Acorns were the primary food source for the Ohlone prior to the arrival of the Spanish and were held in high regard amongst the native people. Anthropologists estimate 75% of native Californians relied on acorns in their daily diet. Their new year, a joyous occasion, was marked by the acorn harvest. The Ohlone people would dance amongst the oak groves each year to promote a good harvest. During the acorn harvest, entire families would go out and collect the acorns of a large tree, which took about a day. The women would then prepare the acorns by shelling them and using a mortar and pestle, grinding the acorns into a fine powder. After being ground, the acorn flour would undergo the lengthy process of leaching the bitter tannins from the acorns which made them unpalatable. After the tannins were leached, the acorn flour was much sweeter and easier to eat and could be used to make soups, mush, and even bread (I myself love acorn bread). Excess unground, shelled acorns could be stored up to 10 years. The preparation of acorns was not just fulfilling a necessity. It was also a time for social connection during which the women could talk amongst themselves and share stories of their lives and even gossip.
The Powerful Survival Story of California’s Oaks
https://marinmagazine.com/feature-story/oak-stories/
The story that oaks tell about the impact of humans in California is mostly a sad one. Natural landscapes dominated by oak trees once covered more than a third of the state. Starting around 1850, clearing trees for agriculture and grazing decimated vast oak lands, and a century later the subdivision boom inflamed a trend that has never really ceased. Biologists now estimate that more than a third of California’s original 10 to 12 million acres of oak woodlands have been lost since settlement, and only about 4 percent of the remaining woodlands are protected. When oaks are lost, so are many of the wild creatures and other plant life that are part of the oak’s rich natural web — among the most biodiverse of the state’s ecosystems.
ACORNS: TRADITIONAL FOOD STAPLE
http://www.danielnpaul.com/CaliforniaNativeAmericans-Acorns.html
As late as 1844, when explorer John C. Fremont led an expedition to the Sacramento Valley, he described the north state foothills as "smooth and grassy; [the woodlands] had no undergrowth; and in the open valleys of riverlets, or around spring heads, the low groves of oak give the appearance of orchards in an old cultivated country." Similarly, a nineteenth-century visitor to the middle fork of the Tuolumne River near Yosemite Valley found it "like an English park-a lovely valley, wide and grassy, broken with clumps of oak and cedar."
Fires were used to insure good growth and healthy orchards:
Natives may have been setting fires for 5,000 years speculates Kat Anderson (an ethnobotanist with the Amerindian Studies Centre at UCLA), judging by how long fire-loving giant sequoias have been expanding their range.
The History of Oak Woodlands in California, Part II: The Native American and Historic Period
https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/sn00b2449
The open oak woodlands described in the accounts of Spanish explorers were in large part created by land use practices of the California Indians, particularly burning. Extensive ethnographic evidence documents widespread use of fire by indigenous people to manipulate plants utilized for food, basketry, tools, clothing, and other uses. Fire helped maintain oak woodlands and reduce expansion of conifers where these forest types overlapped.
The aerial photos shown in January 2023 Flood Overview illustrate how the flood of January 9, 2023 ripped out large areas of vegetation and "re-set" the floodplain. In response to this 50 year flood, in many places the primary flow of the river shifted into historic channels within the wide floodplain.
This was the first major flood since the Thomas Fire of December, 2017. As is typical for this watershed, erosion of thousands of acres of steep mountains following the fire introduced large amounts of sediment into the headwaters of the Ventura River. This is documented in Post fire storm event, Jan 9 2018, Retrospective on the Thomas Fire, Ventura River post-fire sedimentation 2019, and Matilija canyon sedimentation.
Planning for the removal of Matilija dam has been underway since 1999, with the primary concern being predicting the fate of both the 9+ million cubic yards of sediment trapped upstream of the dam as well as the renewed sediment supply from Matilija Canyon once the dam is gone. Planners and engineers have been relying on a variety of computer models to estimate changes in the riverbed with increased sediment supplies. Until now there has not been any real world data to groundtruth these predictions.
A July 2024 report Post-Flooding Numerical Model Update and Review - Technical Memorandum generated for the Upper Ventura River Groundwater Sustainability Agency (UVRGSA) provides a hindsight analysis of channel changes following the 2023 flood based on LIDAR and satellite imagery. The concern of the GSA was whether the changes in the riverbed would affect their groundwater computer model. Although the focus of this work was on calibration of the UVRGSA groundwater-surface water model, the document includes an interesting review of the changes in channel alignment and bed elevation summarized below.
"The changes in the channel characteristics generally depended on the location within the basin. The upstream areas were found to more likely increase in streambed elevations in response to sediment deposition and the downstream areas were more likely to observe decreases in streambed elevation in response to scour."
In the Kennedy hydrogeologic area, there was minimal change in the lateral position of the updated channel network’s position in comparison to the original channel network. However, the streambed elevation increased by approximately four feet on average (Figure 2.2a), indicating significant sediment deposition in this area. The accretion within the channel network increases moving downstream, with a maximum elevation difference of over eight feet occurring at the most-downstream reach.
In the Robles North hydrogeologic area, the lateral position of the channel was minimally changed in comparison to the original channel in the northern half of this area. A new braid was formed in the southern half of this area (Figure 2.2b). Similar to the Kennedy zone, the overall channel within the Robles N zone increased in elevation by up to approximately three to five feet in some areas.
Within the Robles South hydrogeologic area, the lateral position of the updated channel network is generally in the same location as the original channel network (Figure 2.2c). However, the updated channel network is less tortuous than the original channel network. There is a small vertical change in the streambed elevation. On average, the updated channel network is approximately one foot lower than the original channel network. This zone represents a transition between sediment accretion in the upper portion of the basin and erosion in the lower portion of the basin.
Live Oak Levee;
In the Santa Ana North hydrogeologic area, the updated channel shifted both westward and eastward in different reaches of the stream in addition to the formation of new braids (Figure 2.2d). The stream location begins westward of the original channel in the upstream areas and then crosses over eastward of the original channel until roughly rejoining the original channel. The updated channel network is consistently around two feet lower than the original channel network in this area, indicating the overall erosion of the streambed.
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| Former primary channel, Ventura River above Baldwin Rd, March 2024 |
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| Ventura River Flood flows, 2024 |
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| Matilija reservoir 4-01-2024 |
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| Matilija reservoir 4-25-2024 |
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| drone image showing the outlet of Matilija Dam, 4-25-2024 (Smitty West on Facebook) |
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| drone image showing reservoir sediment behind Matilija Dam, 5-28-2024 (Smitty West on Facebook) |
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| Matilija-NF Confluence 4-25-2024 |
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| Matilija Road upstream of the dam 4-1-2024 |
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| Matilija Road upstream of the dam 4-1-2024 |
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| Matilija Road upstream of the dam 4-1-2024 |
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| Damage along Matilija Canyon Rd, 4-1-2024 |
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| Damage along Matilija Canyon Rd, 4-1-2024 |
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| Overview of Matilija Creek above Matilija Dam (Google Maps May 7, 2024) |
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| Overview of Matilija Creek/Rattlesnake Canyon confluence area of Matilija Reservoir (now forested) above Matilija Dam (Google Maps May 7, 2024) |
For the first time since 1998 Lake Casitas has filled to 100% of capacity. Capacity was recently re-evaluated and current estimates are 238,000 acre feet. The artificial reservoir created by the dam on Coyote Creek originally held 256,000 acre feet, which is estimated to provide a "safe yield" of 20 years for communities in the Ojai Valley, parts of the city of Ventura, and coastal areas along the Rincon parkway. In many areas the reservoir serves as backup to primarily groundwater supplies. The back to back wet winters have also saturated the groundwater basins.
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| Ojai Valley News, April 23, 2024 |
Diversions from the Ventura River were stopped on April 23 at the Robles Diversion, which supplies approximately one third of the inputs to the lake.
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| Stream gage hydrographs for Matilija Creek and Foster Park, April 16-23, 2024, USGS |
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| Ventura River above Hwy 150, April 23, 2024 |
In the news:
Diversions stop, lake 100% full, Ojai Valley News, Apr 23, 2024
'Our insurance policy:' Water spills from Lake Casitas for first time since 1998, Ventura County Star, April 27, 2024
On Earth Day the Surfrider Foundation announced the Climate Action Program that aims to track and highlight on the great work of local Surfrider chapters around the country who have been working to restore their local beaches
The Ventura County Chapter has been a leader in coastal ecosystem management, and the Surfers' Point Managed Shoreline Retreat is a featured project in the new program. Although it took 15 years for the first phase of the project to be constructed, in 2011 the Chapter "adopted" the dune restoration portion of the project. Hundreds of volunteer hours were dedicated to planting and maintaining the native dune habitat that is crucial to stabilizing wind-blown sand to naturally maintain the dunes. We are hopeful that with the increased attention of the Climate Action Program that other chapters can use Surfers' Point as a model for restoring resilient shorelines around the country.
Surfers' Point Managed Shoreline retreat project Phase 2:
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| Erosion at Surfers' Point continues requiring relocation of the bike path into the parking lot Feb 8, 2024 |
Get Involved:
With construction still on track for Fall 2024, the City of Ventura is seeking public input on the public art component of the project:
A community workshop for the Surfers Point Managed Retreat Project will be held on Thursday, May 2, at 5:30 p.m. at Santa Rosa Hall, located at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Spanish interpretation will be available.
"We are thrilled to involve our community in this pivotal stage of the Surfers Point Managed Retreat Project," said Mayor Joe Schroeder. "After receiving over $16 million from the State of California’s Coastal Conservancy to fund this project, community input and collaboration are crucial in creating a space that reflects the needs and aspirations of our residents and visitors for this iconic location."
This workshop presents a valuable opportunity for community members to engage in interactive discussions, activities, and collaborative sessions that will shape the amenities and potential public art themes at the Surfers Point site, among other aspects.
More on this blog:
Surfers' Point Nature Based Solutions video
The 2023-2024 winter season has had similar coastal impacts as the 2016 El Niño event. Higher sea levels and a signature strong Pacific storm track has focused wave energy and impacted beaches and infrastructure up and down the California coast. In Ventura County, the beaches were stripped of sand exposing those areas most vulnerable to future sea level rise.
On December 28, 2023, the leading edge of a building pacific swell sent a storm surge over protective walls in the Pierpont neighborhood.
A video of people and cars being flushed up the street went viral and made national news. Ocean water and debris flooded the lanes in the Pierpont neighborhood, and there was some damage to docks at a marina in the Ventura Harbor.
In response to this event, the City of Ventura and County firefighting units built three miles of sand berms the length of the developed beaches in Ventura and Oxnard. These berms were removed during the week of March 4 with authorization from the California Coastal Commission and Army Corps of Engineers.
A pierpont resident was quoted in the news saying, "We did have a breach, as the surge came over into my backyard in December. Then the next day, they put the berm up, and I had no worries after that. It totally disrupted my view, but that's a small price for the protection having all of your stuff ruined." This echos the sentiment of beachfront residents who have resisted efforts to build permanent protective dunes and prevailed in a lawsuit requiring the City of Ventura to remove windblown sand accumulating in front of their properties.
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| Ventura County Fire Dept removing sand berm Oxnard Shores, 3-5-2024 |
Commentary:
This event was predictable using the advanced weather and wave models currently available. Surfers regularly use these models to know when the best conditions will occur. In this case the swell had been monitored and tracked as it developed off the coast of Japan and built all the way across the Pacific Ocean. The leading edge of these swells typically have a very long period indicative of the huge amount of energy from the extended "fetch" of high winds transferred to the sea surface. The irony was the "too little too late" emergency response from local government. Better awareness of ocean conditions and long term planning is clearly needed as climate change fuels ever bigger storm systems and rising sea levels. Local tide gages were registering around one foot above the predicted astronomical tide, primarily a result of thermal expansion from the warm water throughout the Pacific Ocean fueled by El Niño. These events are already happening before significant sea level rise. According to the California Coastal Commission we can expect "as much as a 66-inch increase in sea level along segments of California's coast by the year 2100." Under that scenario the Pierpont community will be under water much of the year.
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| Stormsurf wave prediction for 12-28-2023 |
Reference:
watch the Stormsurf videos to learn more about El Niño and ocean wave generation.
Sea Level Rise - California Coastal Commission
In the News:
Rogue wave injures eight, damages coastal motel in Ventura, KCLU | By Lance Orozco, Published December 28, 2023
Temporary sand berms intended to prevent coastal flooding are being removed in Ventura County, KCLU | By Lance Orozco, Published March 5, 2024
See damage from heavy surf in Ventura's Pierpont neighborhood, VC Star, Dec 29, 2023
On this blog:
Surfers Point - first real test
