We are proud to be joined by a growing group of South Coast environmental organizations calling for the retirement of the Montecito Emergency Debris Flow Mitigation Project (aka the Montecito Ring Net Project). Click here to read our group-letter to Santa Barbara County and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Montecito Debris Flow of 2018 damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings and tragically resulted in the death of 23 community members. It was with that tragedy in mind that local residents admirably banded together to implement the Montecito Emergency Debris Flow Mitigation Project, six steel ring nets stretched across Montecito creeks to add incremental additional protection for downstream homeowners until the fire-scarred slopes had revegetated.
Despite the well-intentioned nature of the endeavor, the ring net project faced a high degree of skepticism. Though seemingly large in scale, the actual capacity of the nets is dwarfed in relative comparison to the volume of material that gets transported during a large storm event. The nets were described as a privately-funded experiment by the project’s proponents who themselves acknowledged that the structures wouldn’t have withstood or prevented the devastating flows of 2018.
Environmentally, the project is a modern anomaly, cutting against decades of effort and millions of dollars invested to remove existing barriers from local streams. The construction of new barriers is currently almost unheard of due to the myriad of environmental impacts such structures are known to create. Nevertheless, the ring nets were approved to be installed temporarily by County, State and Federal officials for a duration of 5 years until mountain slopes have revegetated and stabilized.
Conditional permits for the project required that the nets be installed high enough from the ground so that wildlife could travel underneath them. In the event that the nets fill up with debris, conditions imposed by the County and Department of Fish and Wildlife include a requirement that the nets be cleared “preferably within 48 hours but no later than 72 hours after [the net is inspected]”.
Whether the nets can be efficiently and effectively maintained after filling with material has always been the key question raised by environmental groups, community members, and many public officials. Lacking any road access, the only option for heavy maintenance is to use helicopters to lift in heavy equipment by air for a remote excavation and “restoration” of the creek post flow. Logistically, such maintenance is daunting.
In January of 2023, the net on upper San Ysidro Creek filled up with debris after the first major storm of this season. From all appearances, the net filled, NOT with the SUV-sized boulders the community was concerned about, but with smaller vegetation that backed up against the ring nets and then trapped thousands of cubic yards of cobble, gravel and sand that would have otherwise been transported out to our beaches.
The structure currently serves as a 25-foot dam entirely blocking the creek, fragmenting sensitive wildlife habitat and posing a serious public safety hazard and liability.
As the creek remains blocked heading into the summer season, Los Padres ForestWatch and other organizations are calling upon local officials to re-examine the long-term future of the ring net program. Current circumstances demonstrate that the nets are not feasible to maintain. Public funds, better utilized for other purposes, are now being relied upon to implement the project. It’s unclear what real amount of risk the nets mitigate for downstream neighborhoods or to what degree the nets may increase risk to downstream community members by providing a false sense of security. The mountains are now largely revegetated, and the risk of future catastrophic debris flows is very significantly reduced.
Further, under current restrictions, the nets are already slated to be removed by the end of 2023. It was a temporary project and an experiment. Its purpose has been served, and it’s time to restore our creeks and take down the ring nets.
Read our op-ed in the Santa Barbara Independent.
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