California Streamside Biosurvey of Phelps Creek, Tributary to Devereux Slough

The California Streamside Biosurvey is a standardized procedure used to measure the health of wadeable rivers. It helps identify point and non-point source pollutants based on physical, chemical, and biological properties, such as depth, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and benthic communities. In 2017, a restoration project began on the Devereux Slough in Goleta, Santa Barbara. This project reverted the upper arms of the estuary and its tributaries from their previous use as a golf course back into a natural slough. While the estuary itself has been more heavily monitored, the health of its tributaries has not been equally studied. Therefore, a bioassessment can indicate not only the health of these tributaries, in this case, Phelps Creek, but also the potential impacts on the downstream slough. The preliminary results illustrate that the river's health is marginal. The main sources of concern are the slow flow, high salinity, and lack of benthic diversity.