Respecting the Past, Planning for the Future: Integrating Cultural Resources and Watershed Connectivity Into Co-Design of a Road Modification Project - NERRS/NSC(NERRS Science Collaborative)

Building on previous and ongoing work at China Camp State Park, this project provided field data, vulnerability assessments and community engagement to advance toward selecting adaptation strategies to protect and enhance natural resources and archaeological and tribal cultural resources while accommodating ongoing utilization of an important shoreline road subject to regular coastal and storm flooding.

China Camp State Park is one of the few remaining ecologically intact bay-wetland-upland landscapes of the San Francisco Estuary. These landscapes historically and today have been used by and remain important to the local Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo groups, represented today by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR), a federally recognized tribe.

Since the 1890s, the North San Pedro Road has traversed China Camp to provide critical transportation needs. The road serves as the sole vehicle access to the State Park and all its recreational, educational, scientific, and cultural uses and natural resources. It also serves as a critical evacuation and emergency services route as well as a commuter corridor.
However, low-lying sections of this road are prone to frequent and severe king tide and storm flooding, impacting this important transportation corridor. The road also restricts tidal exchange with the interior marshes, impacting marsh ecology and impeding capacity for marsh migration into the adjacent alluvial meadows. Road modification is necessary for the community to maintain road access to and through the park as sea level rise continues to threaten low-lying roads and for remedying the impaired marsh ecology and resiliency. With rising sea levels and increased intensities of storm events, this flooding will increase in frequency and severity.