EcoKai provides upland and stream restoration consulting services for Southern California Edison’s Mission Creek Habitat Restoration Project along Mission Canyon in the Santa Ynez Mountains east of Santa Barbara, California. An extensive deposition of rock and soil (sidecast) was deposited down-slope of a nearly 2-mile mountain access road above Mission Canyon and within Mission Creek during road grading activities conducted by SCE in 2019. EcoKai surveyed the impact to the creek and developed a Technical Implementation Plan (TIP) that outlines a detailed process and procedures for sidecast removal and the restoration and repair of stream features within impacted areas of Mission Creek. In support of the TIP, EcoKai performed multiple in-stream geomorphological surveys to accurately define areas of sidecast deposition and changes in the deposits over time. EcoKai is also the lead environmental monitoring team for sidecast removal within upland areas of Mission Canyon and for all in-stream habitat repair and restoration activities to ensure native material is not removed or impacted and habitat features are repaired to natural conditions.
