Muddy Hollow Fish Passage Restoration Project

Fish passage and estuarine process will be restored. Miles of streams will be available for endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout.

The park has initiated the second and final year of the Coastal Watershed Restoration Project, which includes replacement or removal of culverts and fish passage problems within the Drakes Estero watershed. The project will restore natural stream process and improve fish passage in Laguna, Muddy Hollow, Glenbrook, Home Ranch and East Schooner Creek, which will benefit federally threatened steelhead trout, and potentially endangered coho salmon. In addition, removal of two dams will restore estuarine processes to the inner arms of the Estero de Limantour. The project will also reduce the maintenance demands at Point Reyes, eliminate the risk of major failure of culverts and dams, and increase sustainability, both operationally and ecologically within these small coastal watersheds. Once completed, the entire length of Muddy Hollow creek will be available for fish spawning that should benefit coho salmon and steelhead trout, both federally listed species.

In 2007, the NPS and its contractor, Hanford Construction completed replacement restoration activities at four sites to enhance fish passage and reduce maintenance requirements. In addition to these improvements, the NPS trails program completed two trail reroutes to Estero Trail and Muddy Hollow Trail.

In 2008, project activities are occurring at three locations in the Limantour area between August 1 and October 31. These activities include removal of fill and restoration of estuarine process adjacent to the Limantour Beach parking lot and access.

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Click on this image to download a 94 KB PDF map of the Limantour Beach Pond Dam Removal construction area.

Updated: October 20, 2008
Removal of dams to restore estuarine habitat and fish passage.
August 1 to October 31
At the Limantour Beach access point, the project will remove a culvert and install a 30 meter (100 foot) long pedestrian bridge from the Limantour Beach main parking lot to the beach. The bridge would replace existing beach access in a manner that will restore natural conditions to the Estero de Limantour and increase estuarine habitat at Point Reyes. In addition, the project has removed Muddy Hollow Dam, resulting in restoration of estuarine habitat and fish passage to the watershed. A smaller area of freshwater pond habitat will be retained to provide habitat for California red-legged frog and waterbirds.

A temporary access trail now provides public access to Limantour Beach. A temporary trail has been constructed from the parking area to the beach. The temporary detour trail leads from the vault toilets west along the Muddy Hollow Trail to a tidal berm. At this location, tidal gates have been installed and the trail has been placed overtop heading south to a point on the Limantour Spit Trail to allow visitors access to the beach.

Pile driving for the new foot bridge to Limantour Beach is nearly complete. The bridge is scheduled to arrive the week of October 20, and should be in place and open by October 31.

The contractors are staging near the Muddy Hollow Dam and not in the Limantour Beach parking lot. There will be times when trucks will be going from the Limantour Beach Pond Dam to the Muddy Hollow Dam area, but traffic will be infrequent and hopefully there will only be a slight delay and inconvenience to visitors.

There will be ongoing cleanup work going on through mid November, after which, all of the work in the wetland areas will be finished.

Map of Limantour Beach Pond Dam Removal construction area (94 KB PDF)

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Click on this image to download a 208 KB PDF map of the Estero Trail reroute (highlighted in yellow).

Estero Trail Reroute.
Removal of dam and culvert crossings to restore natural process has necessitated the rerouting of the southeastern section of the Estero Trail. The new section of the Estero Trail will be open to the public on August 1, 2008. The eastern trailhead for the Estero Trail will now be at the Muddy Hollow Road Trailhead, instead of at Limantour Beach.

Map of new reroute of the Estero Trail (208 KB PDF)

Visit our Coastal Watershed Restoration Program page for background and more information on these projects.

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