Home > Programs > Completed Projects > RD 108 Levee Revegetation and Bank Stabilization Program

RD 108 Levee Revegetation and Bank Stabilization Program

Project Information
Client	RD 108 and Bureau of Reclamation
Type	Restoration project
Size	0.5 mile levee
Location	Yolo and Solano Counties
Status	Completed

The levee revegetation program was an opportunity to demonstrate that establishing native grasses, rushes, and sedges on levee banks and drainage ditches is a viable alternative to the traditional management of these areas by spraying and disking. By establishing specific vegetation in these locations, the anticipated effects are improved water quality, increased wildlife habitat, reduced soil erosion, and noxious weed suppression. Under this program, RD 108 staff reshaped and compacted over one-mile of canal bank to a 3:1 slope between 1999 and 2000, which they and RCD staff and a labor crew seeded and plugged with native grasses and wetland plant species. As part of the program, the RCD contracted researchers to evaluate the actual wildlife benefits of the new plantings, the potential water use of the selected native plants, and the costs of undertaking levee vegetation management with native plants as compared to standard "clean" techniques. Overall costs of vegetation management (including installation) appear to run in the same range as those of periodic levee repair and reshaping.