Santa Ynez and Sisquoc River Volunteer Opportunities!
About Our Mission To Eradicate Tamarisk
Please Read Our Requirements
The trips will take place Thursday morning through Monday evening.
We are requiring that all volunteers who join us commit to the full tripVolunteers will need to bring their own supplies. Food and water
WILL be provided except for the first day for breakfast/lunch.All participants will need to sign-up using the form to the right, that includes any friends or family you wish to have join.
We will be in very remote places far from our trucks for the duration of these trips. Volunteers should have some backpacking experience.
Participants will be limited to 30 pounds each in a single backpack that can be transported via mule train. Day pack not included.
There is a $250 admission fee to cover food/water/transportation.
We will send you a link to pay once your trip is confirmed after sign-up.Upon arrival to the volunteer site, you will be asked to show the following items to the event supervisor.
Valid/active health insurance card
2. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination (either a hard copy or a phone image of the front and back of a CDC card will be accepted) OR proof of a negative COVID-19 test result that was taken no more than 7 days prior to event date.
*Please note, if you do not wish to disclose information regarding your COVID-19 vaccination status or test results, you are not required to; however, you will not be qualified to volunteer at our events.
Cancellation Policy - Due to the complexity of these trips, we are counting on all volunteers to show up at their confirmed time. If you have to cancel with less than one week’s notice for any reason other than COVID, you will be not invited to volunteer on any other backcountry trips.
For More Information Click Below
About Our Trips
List Of Trip Roles
Facts About Tamarisk
About The Backcountry
Channel Islands Restoration is working to eradicate the non-native invasive Tamarisk species in the Santa Ynez and Sisquoc Rivers. The objective of these projects is to restore and maintain habitat for riparian dependent species such as the federally listed arroyo toad, California red-legged frog and steelhead trout. These projects are located within the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County, California.
Fall Trip Overview
We will be conducting four trips into the upper Santa Ynez and Sisquoc watershed between October 2021 and December 2021.
We have the privilege of having the Los Padres Outfitters join us this fall! The Los Padres Outfitters (LPO) will provide support by helping to carry our heavy gear to the campsite by mule train and provide all food and water for the upcoming trips except for day one breakfast/lunch.
Please join the adventures!
To sign up to volunteer on one of these trips, or to volunteer while staying in the comfort of your own home, please sign up using the form to the right. We will send out an email to everyone who signed up with additional details and forms you will need to fill out to confirm your spot.
If you have any questions, contact Morey Spellman at morey@cirweb.org.
Finally, if you can contribute financially (in addition to the admission fee) that would be a big help. You can find a link to our
donation page here. If you want to make sure your donation goes toward this campaign, write "SYRT 2021" in the details line.
River Walkers:
These folks walk up to 5 miles per day carrying just a day pack. The walking is not on a trail. It’s in the riverbed or streambed which has many boulders. The river walkers will walk with the Channel Islands Restoration staff looking for Tamarisk and mapping it. The staff will take care of killing the Tamarisk trees. Sometimes your feet will be wet all day but your eyes and ears will feast on the vitality of the river and streams, and your heart will sing with the expansiveness of the backcountry.
Off-Trail Specialist:
These folks scramble up and down canyons looking for Tamarisk trees with Channel Islands Restoration staff. This job is for particularly rigorous people who love a physical challenge and are in excellent physical condition. Before going on a canyon trip these volunteers must work at least one day as river walkers and be confirmed by canyon leader.
Shuttle Drivers:
Shuttle drivers will be assisting with moving gear and supplies until carpooling becomes available again post covid. Previously, these people picked up and droped off volunteers at the parking sites and brought them to the beginning point of the trip.
Safety & Communications Officer:
This person is on the river with the crew and serves as the backcountry contact for the Front Country Weather Monitor. This person maintains field radios and logs them in and out, keeps batteries fresh, charges the satellite phones, keeps back up field batteries charged by rotating them on and off the solar panels.
Education Specialist:
This person collects educational materials that pertain to the watershed including history, culture, endangered species biology, geology, hydrology, and presents them each evening in order to increase awareness of everyone on the trips. This person takes care of and manages all of the reference books that we take with us and is able to find answers quickly to questions that come up. May also invite other knowledgeable people to present during the span of the trip.
Front Country Weather Monitor and Safety Contact:
This person stays in their own home and does not go on the trip. He or she monitors the weather and fire conditions and makes daily calls to the Safety and Communications person who is on the crew on the river. This person will be required to know a week in advance the possibility of weather issues and understand weather patterns. In the event of an emergency, this person may help coordinate evacuation and rescue. He or she will need to understand maps well enough to chart the progress of the crew, especially when there is no phone service.
Videographer/Photographer:
This person takes photos and videos that document our work.
This person will work with our website master to get them onto our website as needed.
Supplies Manager:
This person works from home and shops for trip supplies in town. He or she shops for supplies using lists and sources that are identified by CIR. This person gets what the back country needs and makes sure they have it when needed. This person can also come on trips if desired.
Data Recording Specialist:
Recording Specialist will help us log and track the Tamarisk treatments, individual trees and populations. As many of you may know, the root systems of Tamarisk trees are often much larger than the actual trees themseleves, so they require proper recording of their status and treatments.
Facts About Tamarisk
Tamarisk (also known as salt cedar) is a deciduous shrub or small tree from Eurasia; thus it loses its leaves each year, making it difficult to observe during the period when it has no leaves. Tamarisk has a deep, extensive root system.
During successive seasonal rain events mature Tam can be pushed down and buried by new deposits, this allows new plants to regrow along the entire buried plant stem. We have seen them do this through 6’ of newly deposited sand and gravel and over 50’ of river length .
Flowering branches are mostly primary or secondary branches. Each plant can produce as many as 500,000 seeds annually, and can produce seeds throughout the growing season. High stress induced by fire, drought, herbicides, or cutting can increase flowering and seed production.
The seeds are dispersed by wind and water. Seeds are small with a tuft of hair attached to one end enabling them to float long distances by wind and water. Seeds are short-lived and do not form a persistent seed bank.
However, they can germinate within 24 hours of dispersal, sometimes while still floating on water. Seeds produced during the summer remain viable for 24 to 45 days. Winter longevity is approximately 130 days.
Seed mortality is generally due to desiccation. If seeds are not germinated during the summer that they are dispersed, almost none germinate the following spring.
Tamarisk trees on floodplains can be difficult to kill, requiring several treatments.
A single adult Tamarisk can drink up and flash off over 200 gallons of water a day through evapotranspiration. When multiplied by the millions of tamarisk in the South Western United States it is easy to see how some of our water challenges might be relieved by removing these invasive plants.
The root systems of trees on floodplains are more extensively developed near the ground surface, due to repeated scouring and removal of limbs by floods, and can send up shoots where none existed at the time of initial treatment.
Because difficulty in accessing and the rugged terrain, some of these areas are rarely visited. In the more popular and drainages with trails we may be the one of a handful of groups to enter all year. In the more rugged drainages we may be the only group to enter in a century.
Santa Ynez River
Our Tamarisk eradication project in the Santa Ynez River is intended to restore 170 miles of riparian habitat in the upper reaches of the watershed above Gibraltar Dam. Working in the headwaters of the river also benefits downstream riparian habitats outside of the Forest. Channel Islands Restoration will hike 170 miles of the upper Santa Ynez River and fourteen tributary streams and canyons upstream of Gibraltar Dam. The streams that we will survey include some of the most beautiful and vibrant streams in Santa Barbara County including Indian Creek, Mono Creek, Pie Canyon, Alamar Canyon, Roblar Canyon, Agua Caliente Creek, Horse Canyon, Rose Canyon, Diablo Canyon, North Fork of Juncal Creek, Juncal Canyon, Alder Creek, Fox Creek, and Blue Canyon.
