A River Is Reborn : Songbird Returns to Ventura Banks, Bringing Hope for Recovery

It had been nearly 85 years since a tiny songbird known as the least Bell’s vireo sang from the thickets of the Ventura River’s banks.

But last spring, after a sand and gravel quarry in the riverbed fell silent for the first time in decades, at least one and possibly two pairs of the endangered birds returned to nest along the river.

The nest at the edge of the mining site, along with a restoration project to replant the quarry with native trees and plants, encourages biologists that wildlife will return as soon as human disruptions begin to recede from the riverbed.

“California has already lost 95% of its wetlands habitat,” said Cathy R. Brown, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist. “In order for a species to recover, we have to make sure they have habitat.”

Brown credited both Southern Pacific Milling Co., which mined the river for 25 years, and environmentalists at Friends of the Ventura River for creating a successful plan to restore a small portion of the river to a productive and natural area.

“Just closing down the operation and removing the equipment and reducing noise and dust and human activity has made the site much more attractive to wildlife,” said Mark Capelli, a biologist with Friends of the Ventura River.

The Ventura River, whose tributary headwaters are high in the backcountry of Los Padres National Forest, has long received pollution from farm runoff, storm drain discharge, treated sewage, encampments of homeless people and even an RV park situated along its path.

The planned restoration of the sand and gravel quarry is an important step in what biologists hope will lead to the regeneration of the river.

The 150-acre mining site along a two-mile stretch of the Ventura River north of the Main Street bridge was cleared for farming around the turn of the century, biologists said.

Vireos, once common in the area, were last seen nesting near the Ventura River in 1909.

Since then, the river and its grassy banks and seasonally dry bottom were kept clear of native brush. SP Milling took over the site from farmers in the early 1960s.

During peak production years of the 1960s, SP Milling used heavy machinery to scoop about 100 tons of rock and sand from the river bottom each year, said Bill Berger, the firm’s vice president and general manager.

At one time, the company also operated an asphalt plant at the site, combining crushed rock with heavy oil to produce blacktop for streets. The intense noise along with the dust from trucks and other equipment drove wildlife away.

But in 1990, SP Milling decided not to renew its permit for its riverbed operation because of the poor economy, a diminishing amount of rock and the prospect of getting bogged down with expensive environmental studies.

According to the conditions of its original permit issued in the early 1960s, SP Milling was required only to “fill up the gross holes and remove the equipment,” Ventura County planner Judith Ward said.

But SP Milling proved receptive to requests from the Friends of the Ventura River to do more to restore the riverbed site, Ward said. It took years to work out a consensus among several government agencies and environmentalists before a restoration plan was finally approved in June.

“It’s the first time something like this has been created in our area that everyone is happy with,” Ward said.

SP Milling’s Berger said company officials believe that they have a responsibility to leave a mined area as close as possible to its natural state.

“It’s really important that we view our impacts and the results of our business on the environment and the whole community,” Berger said.

The $150,000 restoration plan calls for replanting the two-mile stretch of riverbank with oaks, sycamores and cottonwoods, and placing native willows and other shrubs in the river bottom.

The non-native bamboo that clogs the river flow will be removed. The company will also partly restore the natural contour of the river bottom, which had been dramatically altered by the mining operation. Last year’s heavy storms gave the plan a boost by depositing tons of sediment in the river bottom.

Although the county of Ventura will monitor the site at least once a year during the six-year restoration project, Capelli said Friends of the Ventura River will continue its vigil as well.

The restoration of the area will also benefit other area wildlife, including the endangered tidewater goby, which thrives in the Ventura River estuary, Capelli said.

“The restoration plan will substantially improve water quality in the estuary by reducing erosion and siltation,” he said. “The Ventura River is one of only 10 sites left in Southern California that supports the tidewater goby.”

But wildlife biologists are particularly excited about reopening a habitat for the least Bell’s vireo.

The vireo is very rare; only 20 pairs have been found in sites along the Santa Clara River in Ventura County. Once numbering in the thousands in California, the vireo has been driven to near extinction by loss of its habitat and by a parasitic bird that lays its eggs in the vireo nests, biologists said.

Capelli said the restoration effort will help provide at least a small area of habitat for the birds, which like to nest just above marshy ground in thickets alongside a river, and for other wildlife.

Despite the restoration project, nature will have the final say in whether the project is a success, Capelli said.

“If it doesn’t rain for three years, that could have a major effect,” he said. “Every restoration effort is in a sense an experiment.”