Gaviota’s Fish and Frogs Win Home Improvement Project

Coastal Ranches Conservancy Settles Lawsuit with State Parks to Restore Wetland Habitat in Gaviota State Park

Gaviota’s wetlands, home to endangered steelhead trout and red-legged frogs, are being restored thanks to a recent settlement between Coastal Ranches Conservancy and State Parks. | Credit: NOAA and U.S. National Park Service

Santa Barbara conservationists are revamping part of Gaviota State Park after settling a two-year-old lawsuit against the California State Parks department.

Gaviota spans 2,000 acres and is known for its coastal bluffs, grasslands, estuaries, watersheds, and sandy beaches. For humans, it’s a beautiful camping destination. For mountain lions, black bears, and endangered steelhead trout and red-legged frogs, it’s home.

In 2022, the local Coastal Ranches Conservancy sued State Parks over its alleged abuse of the spring water near Gaviota State Beach and the department’s failure to restore the Gaviota Creek estuary, violating agreements outlined in environmental documents from the 1990s.

However, the two groups will now be working together to restore and enhance Gaviota’s wetland, resolving that lawsuit and marking a win for the fish and frogs. The agreement, announced last week, will address current and future impacts of climate change — including rising sea levels and increased storm severity — for three acres of salt marsh and one acre of habitat along the bank of the Gaviota Creek. According to the conservancy, these climate impacts are already affecting the campground and day-use parking areas adjacent to the Gaviota Creek estuary.

Candice Meneghin, executive director of the conservancy, called the work “long overdue.”

“State Parks shares our vision of a restored Gaviota Creek estuary, which will provide benefits to wildlife and reduce the park’s exposure to flooding,” she said.

Coastal Ranches Conservancy had sued State Parks to remove four acres of fill in the Gaviota Estuary, which is home to the endangered Southern California steelhead. | Credit: Courtesy Coastal Ranches Conservancy

As part of the agreement, State Parks will reduce the volume of water diverted out of the Las Cruces Spring during the dry season to help protect essential steelhead habitat in nearby creeks. It will also open an avenue for public and private fundraising to support the work.

Planned improvements will promote fish passages and support the long-term sustainability of native fish populations, the conservancy said. Gaviota Creek, it noted, has one of the only two self-sustaining populations of endangered Southern California steelhead on that part of the Gaviota Coast. This agreement will improve conditions for the steelhead’s recovery, which is dependent on healthy estuaries and creeks, it added.

Come August, the conservancy will put together an advisory group to start planning the estuary’s restoration. For the diversion project, an environmental review will be completed by September. Although the timing is uncertain, a wholesale project outline could be finished by the end of the year, according to Meneghin.

State Parks is looking forward to starting the project to support Gaviota’s “diverse landscape,” said Dena Bellman, superintendent of State Parks’ Channel Coast District. “Gaviota State Park provides essential public access to iconic recreational resources, and this agreement supports that objective while restoring critical habitat,” she said.

The work will go hand in hand with other efforts by the state and the conservancy to restore and protect sensitive aquatic habitats to support the recovery of endangered fish populations. The conservancy has been supporting the restoration of the Gaviota Creek watershed since 2013, including projects to remove fish passage barriers and a joint effort with Caltrans to construct a wildlife crossing in the Gaviota Pass.

“All of these improvements will, together, make a difference for steelhead in the region,” Meneghin said. “With so few of these iconic, native fish remaining, these types of improvements are essential to support recovery of this species, now on the verge of extinction.”