It’s not uncommon for Western rivers to disappear entirely during the dry season. The Salinas River goes underground for the summer; the Mojave River in the San Bernardino Mountains appears only in wet times.
But plenty of water bodies go subterranean not due to natural wet and dry cycles, but because they’ve been paved over. Among them are the almost invisible stream beds of urban environments, like Hartnell Gulch in Monterey.
It’s most noticeable for a brief stretch between the Trader Joe’s parking lot and Hartnell Street, where a wooden boardwalk forms a walkway. Then the stream disappears into a drain under the parking lot – and from there it wends, invisibly, under city streets to the Monterey Bay.
Just upstream from Trader Joe’s, a dodgy dirt path next to the library is a popular pedestrian thoroughfare. Monterey’s Neighborhood Improvement Program committee has recommended $50,000 in funding to restore that segment, add signage and benches, and create a more permanent walkway.
Hartnell Gulch Park is one of 29 citizen-recommended projects approved by the NIP committee, pared down from about 100 applications. Those projects include many more utilitarian efforts like eliminating a right-turn lane on Hermann Drive, extending a Via Mirada sidewalk by 90 feet and repaving a block of Doud Street. The final list – with a $2.1 million total budget – heads to the Parks & Recreation Commission on May 15, City Council on May 20 and Planning Commission May 27 for final approvals.
“It’s a good grassroots type of process, where the residents of the city get to have a very direct conduit to city government,” City Engineer Tom Reeves says.
The Hartnell Gulch restoration will start with the removal of invasive English ivy and the planting of natives, like blue-eyed grass, gooseberries and willows.
Most NIP projects take a one-time cash infusion, like $45,000 for a bocce court at Veteran’s Park or $15,000 to replace damaged panels on the Del Monte Beach walkway. The gulch project will be a long-term effort.
“I’m doubtful we’d spray Roundup and herbicides because it’s right next to a creek,” Reeves says, “so it needs an awful lot of hand labor.”
A new group, Friends of Hartnell Gulch, plans to lead volunteer efforts for ongoing maintenance of the walkway. It’s headed by Megan Tolbert, the project applicant, who sees this as a chance to improve a shortcut to downtown, straight to the Monterey-Salinas Transit plaza. The project should also improve habitat by planting natives that attract pollinators and help with stormwater management. “There’s a huge amount of land area here we’re missing out on,” she says.
There’s also the more abstract notion of bringing attention to a mostly invisible urban stream.
According to a report by the nonprofit American Rivers, “daylighting” hidden urban waterways offers a long list of benefits like flood control and reducing strain on sewer systems. “Preserving and protecting small streams is the best approach to ensure environmental and community benefits,” the report states.
“It’s about watershed appreciation,” Tolbert says. “People usually take care of what they see.”