Disclaimer: Citizen volunteers who love the Wild and Scenic American River Parkway are providing information as well as advocating action based on our opinions and to the best of our knowledge and abilities. You are responsible for informing yourself and drawing your own conclusions. (Full Disclaimer below).
AMERICAN RIVER TREES
MORE ABOUT THE ARMY CORPS (USACE) CONTRACT (PROJECT) "3B"
URGENT!
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has officially released its upcoming Project 3B environmental analysis for public comment. Project 3B is slated to bulldoze over 500 trees in an especially pristine stretch of the American River Parkway, as this new plan pushes extremely destructive methods (claimed to be needed for “bank erosion potential”) more miles further upstream beyond similar work that has already been occurring near Sacramento State University. Those prior projects have bulldozed nearly all trees in the work zones and have left barren dirt banks, as seen in the photo below taken from the Howe Ave bridge where work is nearly complete.
The same methods are planned in Project 3B, which extends from Watt Ave east (upstream) behind Rogue River, Larchmont Park, Rio Bravo/Mayhew on the south bank (site 4-1), and from Howe Ave to the Estates Dr area on the north bank. The Army Corps proposes heavy equipment staging areas (including Larchmont Park), haul roads through neighborhoods, and destructive “access ramps” needed for bulldozers and big trucks, in addition to the actual project work zones, involving bulldozing of most of the trees along river banks in order to install their “launchable rock toes” and “trenches” as “revetments” to supposedly prevent “bank erosion” at the normal water’s edge river banks. This massively destructive approach is not justified in this upstream area, which is relatively straight with low modeled velocities at the banks. This upcoming 3B project would extend the extremely damaging engineering methods into a designated “Protected area” under the American River Parkway Plan, and the American River is also a federal and state Wild and Scenic River.
Tips on using the USACE website:
FAQs
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The link below will take you out to the USACE official website, where you will want to look under their section called “Current Project Activities”, then the “American River Common Features (ARCF) SEIS/SEIR” entry, to see the “Notice of Availability of Draft SEIS/SEIR”:
https://www.spk.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Sacramento-Levee-Upgrades/
You should see “American River Erosion Contract 3B” mentioned to verify you have the right report. The dates for comments and the January 10 and 16 virtual public meetings are explained. You can “Subscribe” to USACE to get notices. The Draft SEIS/SEIR document and its appendices are linked on their page. The links USACE provides for the public meetings (which you can join as a guest without an account), are:
Wednesday, Jan. 10 (5:30 to 6:30 pm): Webex Link for Jan. 10, 2024
Tuesday, Jan. 16 (5:30 to 6:30 pm): Webex Link for Jan. 16, 2024
To join the Public Meetings by phone: 1-844-800-2712 (US Toll Free)
The public comments to USACE are only OFFICIAL if they are received by USACE between Dec. 22 and Feb. 5. Earlier or later comments may not be officially counted in their FINAL SEIS/SEIR document. USACE provides two email addresses for submittal of comments (to cover both federal and state). Be sure to submit your comments to BOTH:
and PublicCommentARCF16@water.ca.gov .
You can write your own email/letter and provide it directly to USACE. You are also welcome to check back here at this website (https://americanrivertrees.org) in a week or so for possible sample points or a sample email that might be helpful. You can edit and personalize them with your specific concerns and your unique connection to the American River Parkway.
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The sooner the better, and to all that are relevant and that you would like. Your timely emails help raise awareness among our public leaders to the concerns, and we hope to influence some imminent decisions. For example, the USACE proposal will be seeking Sacramento Regional Parks and the National Park Service to make findings regarding whether or not there is “consistency” with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. “Conditions” could be required by Sac Regional Parks before finding “consistency”. Hearing from many people that raise concerns is valuable, and hearing they want to see alternatives – particularly because this stretch of river is not only a “Protected area” of the Parkway and Wild and Scenic River, but any need for this type of sweeping and massive bank erosion work is much less compelling here, compared to other regions around the Sacramento area that still needed actual levee upgrades (e.g., slurry cutoff walls), to be covered in those other regions under the 2016 “umbrella” analysis. By contrast, the upper reaches of 3B-south already had all those flood control measures fully completed. Minor spots of erosion should be evaluated for much more targeted and less destructive methods in this zone, if needed at all.