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0112im.jpg){kind=tracking} 2.3.3 Ash Avenue
2.3.3.1 Intertidal
Figure 2-2 shows biological resources in the vicinity of the Ash Avenue site. The
intertidal substrate in the Ash Avenue beach placement area is primarily sand. Cobble
occurs at the downcoast end of the placement area, offshore from the end of
Linden Avenue. Exposed cobble substrate also occurs in the intertidal area offshore
Carpinteria Marsh, west of the Ash Avenue proposed beach placement site. Cobble
underlies this entire stretch of beach.
A significant rocky intertidal area occurs approximately 1,500 ft. downcoast from the
Ash Avenue beach placement area off the eastern end of Carpinteria State Beach. The
hard substrate occurs from the mid-intertidal to shallow subtidal. The reef consists of
many low relief flats with scattered remnants of hogback ridges and pinnacles 2 to 6 ft.
high (Ambrose et al 1992, J. Engle, UCSB, personal communication 2000). Mid-reef
there are extensive beds of surfgrass (Phylllospadix torreyi ) and large numbers of
green anemones, Anthopleura elegantissima. In the low intertidal and shallow subtidal,
surfgrass and feather boa kelp are dominant. Fairly thick mussel beds (Mytilus
californianus) occur near the outer edge of the reef. Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) haul
out on the offshore portions of the reef. Several hundred meters east of the main reef
flats are several outcroppings of boulders that support mussels, acorn barnacles
(Chthamalus spp.) and gooseneck barnacles (Pollicipes polymerus). The rocky
intertidal area off Carpinteria Sate Beach is part of a long term intertidal monitoring
program funded by the Minerals Management Service. It has been designated an ESH
in the Santa Barbara County Coastal Plan (1982) because of the diversity of intertidal
life found there.
2.3.3.2 Subtidal
The subtidal substrate shallower than about 14 ft. depth off the proposed Ash Avenue
beach placement site is sand. A significant subtidal reef, Carpinteria Reef, is found
about 1,000 ft. west of the Ash Avenue beach placement site off the inlet to Carpinteria
Marsh. Carpinteria Reef includes a high relief feature that breaks the surface during
very low tides. The reef extends from a distance of about 500 ft. off the beach to a
water depth of about 35 ft. around 1,500 ft. offshore (D. Reed, UCSB, personal
communication 2000). It extends to the east about 700 ft. and then the hard substrate
gradually diminishes to a substrate of scattered rocks and sand. The University of
California at Santa Barbara is monitoring the kelp bed off Carpinteria as part of a
National Science Foundation-funded program to establish Long Term Ecological
Reference sites. Carpinteria Reef is designated as an ESH by the County of Santa
Barbara and the City of Carpinteria.
In the 1989 kelp survey, a band of kelp over a mile long was recorded from west of
El Estero to the western limit of Carpinteria State Beach (Ecoscan 1989). In recent
years this kelp bed has been decimated by sea urchins (D. Reed, UCSB, personal
communication 2000).
18
3208 Bio Report
06/12/02
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