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The sold-out first phase of the Rancho Jamul Mitigation Bank was approved in 2000 and included the re-establishment, rehabilitation, and enhancement of riparian and wetland habitat within the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve in San Diego County, California. The Bank identified two phases of re-establishment, rehabilitation, and enhancement activities; Wildlands has already implemented Phases IA and IB of the Bank and is currently proposing to establish Phase IIB of the Bank just north and east of the Bank’s Phase I restoration area.

Phase IIB of the Bank proposes to conduct additional stream and wetland restoration in the form of wetland re-establishment along Jamul Creek and its tributaries. Creek corridors throughout the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve have been degraded by a long history of intensive agricultural use and grazing. Over time the stream channels have become entrenched and now lack connection with their adjacent floodplain terrace, which limits riparian habitat development. In some areas along Jamul Creek, the bed of the channel is 15 to 20 feet below the valley surface.

Riparian habitat along these corridors lacks structural diversity and is often confined in width to the extent of the channel’s bed and bank. Much of the habitat within the surrounding inactive floodplain is dominated by ruderal, non-native vegetation. Groundwater levels continue to fall with increasing channel incision, further limiting riparian and wetland habitat development in the adjacent creek corridor/inactive floodplain. Additionally, ephemeral streams routing seasonal surface water to Jamul Creek have been diverted into a high line ditch, reducing water inputs that would otherwise be available to support wetland and riparian habitat. To date, over 55 acres of riparian and wetland re-establishment, rehabilitation, and enhancement has occurred through the initial phases of the Bank. Through the establishment of Phase IIB, an additional 26 acres of stream and riparian floodplain habitat would be re-established by re-aligning/relocating the existing stream channel to an area that historically supported wetlands. Restoration through re-establishment would ameliorate continuing channel incision and create a sustainable solution for riparian wetland improvements and the associated ancillary species benefits.

Phase IIB is currently under review with the regulatory agencies: California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE”), Region IX of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”), San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (“RWQCB”), and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (“CDFW”), South Coast Region.