Prepared for the Urban Creeks Council
By Kier Associates, Fisheries and Watershed Professionals, 207 Second Street, Ste. B, Sausalito, CA 94965
November, 2003
Full Report (2.1 MB PDF) 
Excerpts:
[iii]
Executive Summary
An assessment of Codornices Creek, Alameda County, California, was conducted between fall, 2001 and summer, 2003 to establish the presence of steelhead ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) in the stream; to evaluate the amount and quality of Codornices Creek's salmonid stream habitat in order to determine if the existing habitat could support a self-sustaining steelhead population; and to identify those actions which, if undertaken, could improve and expand Codornices Creek's stream habitat for steelhead.
The assessment determined that there are steelhead/rainbow trout in Codornices Creek, and that although they are using less than two miles of the potential 3.2 miles of suitable stream habitat, steelhead did spawn and produce young-of-the-year fish in each of the two study years. The project documented the presence of older salmonids in the stream, as well. The stream habitat, although not good for salmonids by wildland standards, has survived more than 100 years of intense urbanization in the watershed surprisingly well. Several migration barriers below Albina Street appear to hinder adult steelhead upstream migration and the culvert under Albina Street [approximately the head of study reach 3, Figure 2] appears to stop steelhead altogether. There are a few apparent barriers to steelhead migration above Albina Street, as well.
An active watershed protection and restoration public outreach and education effort by the project has created awareness of the opportunities, and has generated community support for steelhead restoration within key elements of the community, including City of Berkeley officials and Codornices Creek property owners.
Recommendations are made for modifying the lowermost of the fish barriers, for stabilizing major sources of stream sediment, and for other fish-friendly actions to improve Codornices Creek stream habitat so that it can support a sustainable steelhead population.
[p. 1]
Dr. Thomas Dudley, formerly of the University of California's Department of Integrative Biology, currently at the University of Nevada, electro-fished Codornices Creek near the BART right-of-way, just above Masonic Avenue, on March 19, 2000 and recovered several juvenile salmonids up to, but no greater than, four inches in length.
...A. A. Rich and Associates surveyed Codornices Creek's stream habitat from Fifth Street up to Codornices Park east of Euclid Avenue in the winter of 1989 (A.A. Rich, 1990). The Rich study reported the presence of stickleback between Fifth and Sixth streets and noted that there were a few unidentified fish between Bonita and Milvia streets, as well.
[p. 2]
According to his memorandum report [2001], Dr. [Mark] Jennings observed juvenile steelhead in the project area (San Pablo Boulevard down to the Union Pacific tracks) and noted that steelhead "seemed to be doing well" despite the obvious impacts of urbanization on the stream, crediting this to the " ... presence of shading vegetation cover over most of the stream (thus keeping water temperatures below 70 degrees F.), the presence of deep (>3 feet) pools in many sections of the stream - especially near concrete culverts, the presence of cobble-sized rock for spawning habitat, the presence of restored lagoon habitat at the mouth of the creek, and the lack of many introduced fishes and aquatic predators in the entire stream system."
[p. 4]
Reach 1 skirts the Golden Gate Fields racetrack property from the mouth of the creek up to Freeway 80. This reach is entirely under tidal influence. Reach 2 runs from the east side of Freeway 80 up to San Pablo Avenue. The lower half of this reach is in an industrial area and includes the extensive Union Pacific tracks. The upper half of the reach, where the project's problematic fish trap was operated, is the subject of a California Department of Water Resources Urban Streams Restoration Program project to restore natural streambanks, a stream meander, riparian habitat, and to eliminate two fish migration barriers.
Reach 3, which extends from San Pablo Avenue to Albina Avenue, forms the boundary between the cities of Berkeley and Albany. This reach, running through a neighborhood of single-family homes, was the last section in which the project's habitat surveyors observed any salmonids. Reach 4 runs from Albina Avenue up to Shattuck Avenue in North Berkeley and reach 5 stretches from Shattuck Avenue to the bottom end of the culvert beneath the Berkeley Rose Garden. This last reach includes Live Oak Park, which contains good quality stream habitat. The steep pitch of the Rose Garden culvert is generally regarded to be a permanent fish barrier.
[p. 5]
...the stream surveyors saw no salmonids upstream of Albina Avenue, the end of study reach 3. The survey identified 13 potential barriers in reaches 2 and 3, all the apparent result of channel down-cutting at the downstream end of street culverts. The survey team gathered data at these potential barrier sites, including culvert dimensions, invert slopes, GPS locations, and water surface elevations. These data were then provided to the project engineers, FarWest Restoration Engineering, who used the Fish-Xingmodel to determine the severity of each potential barrier and to formulate preliminary fish passage solutions for each site.
[p. 6]
Figure 5. Number of juvenile salmonids trapped, by week, during 2002
[p. 8]
Most of the salmonids recovered from the trap were less than 75 millimeters fork length, indicative of young-of-the-year fish. The largest salmonid trapped in either year was 200 mm, most likely a 3-year old fish. The prevalence of these young-of-the year salmonids moving downstream so soon after emergence from the gravel most likely indicates that rearing habitat may be limited in Codornices Creek.
The salmonid habitat survey team's most notable finding was that while juvenile salmonids were common all along Codornices Creek up to Albina Avenue, no salmonids whatsoever were observed in the stream above that point. The down-cut channel at the downstream end of the Albina Avenue bridge, together with the shallow depth of the scour pool and the upstream concrete channel, appear to effectively stop the upstream migration of adult steelhead at that point. Steelhead barriers noted during survey are discussed in some detail in the next section and in Appendix A.
[pp. 9-10]
There are 159 pools in reaches 4 and 5, that is, above Albina Avenue. These pools have a combined volume of 14,500 cubic feet. In these two reaches alone there is 17,000 square feet of good quality spawning gravel, enough to support over 90 steelhead redds (spawning "nests"). This quantity of potential steelhead spawning and rearing habitat is theoretically capable of producing 4,000 juvenile steelhead out-migrants and a sustainable spawning run of up to 400 adult steelhead - which would place Codornices Creek among the largest steelhead producing streams in the San Francisco Bay area.
[p. 15]
With the help of the Berkeley Public Works Department's property-owner database, the project team prepared and mailed project information to each Codornices Creek property owner of record, together with an invitation to join the project team at a neighborhood briefing on the project. The meeting, held on the evening of January 23, 2003 at St. Mary's High School, was well attended. Almost without exception, the property owners at the meeting expressed enthusiasm for restoring steelhead to the creek.
[p. 16]
... those steps necessary to eliminate barriers to the upstream migration of adult steelhead in winter, particularly that which now exists at the Albina Avenue culvert and the stabilization of streambank erosion sites, particularly those near Albina Avenue, are absolutely the highest Codornices Creek restoration actions recommended ....
[Appendix A]
Preliminary Fish Passage Culvert Assessment
Codornices Creek
Berkeley/Albany, California
September 2, 2003
Prepared by FarWest Restoration Engineering, 538 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda, California 94501
Contents
1.0 Introduction ... 1
1.1 OVERVIEW ... 1
1.2 SCOPE OF WORK ... 1
2.0 Project Work Activities ... 3
2.1 FIELD SURVEYS ... 3
2.2 HYDROLOGY AND FLOW ESTIMATES ... 3
3.0 Fish Passage Culvert Assessment ... 5
3.1 GENERAL ... 5
3.2 8TH STREET CULVERT ... 7
3.3 SAN PABLO AVENUE CULVERT... 8
3.4 KAINS STREET CULVERT... 9
3.5 STANNAGE STREET CULVERT ... 9
3.6 CORNELL STREET CULVERT ... 10
3.7 TALBOT STREET CULVERT ... 11
3.8 EVELYN STREET CULVERT... 11
3.9 MASONIC STREET CULVERT... 12
3.10 SANTA FE STREET CULVERT... 13
3.11 CURTIS STREET CULVERT... 14
3.12 NEILSON STREET CULVERT .... 14
3.13 PERALTA STREET CULVERT .... 15
4.0 Conceptual Solutions - St. Marys High Schools Area ... 16
4.1 DOWNSTREAM BANK EROSION AREA ... 16
4.2 ALBINA STREET BRIDGE .... 16
4.3 UPSTREAM RECTANGULAR CONCRETE SECTION... 17
5.0 Recommended Next Steps... 17
6.0 References/Bibliography... 18
Codornices Creek is one of the most open creeks in this area of San Francisco Bay and represents an important opportunity to restore a viable anadromous fish run along the Bay. Along the lower reaches of the creek between the railroad tracks and San Pablo Avenue, there are plans to implement a significant creek restoration project scheduled to begin in 2004 (WRI 2001). This work will involve the removal of culverts at 5th and 10th and eventually 6th Streets along Lower Codornices Creek below San Pablo Avenue.
An important part of analyzing the potential for a viable run of anadromous salmonids is to hydraulically evaluate barriers to fish passage. The most common barriers are culverts under road crossings. Culverts that can hinder or stop upstream fish passage are often located on smaller streams, such as Codornices Creek, that may contain important habitat reaches....
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