Push for Teichert Ponds name change continues
More camps at area, neighbor says
A natural water retention and habitat area in Chico by Highway 99 continues to be a subject of debate — over a new name as a park area and an increase in camping.
Dick Cory of Little Chico Creek Educators’ Consortium has led calls for the city to manage Teichert Ponds for years, after a water chemistry study in 2008 first found improvements could total over $2 million in costs.
The site of over 40 acres, created in 1965, consists of four community types — open water, swamp, riparian around the ponds’ perimeter and upland deciduous — and different species of animals reside in the area. The city was granted permission to use the ponds for water detention and flood control in 1980.
A Teichert Ponds Habitat Management Plan was developed and approved by the council in 2008, to remove
invasive vegetation, dredge silt buildup and divide the ponds to keep storm water and freshwater separate, and also suggested a long-term maintenance plan. But with high costs, in 2010 a restoration foundation was formed to continue public education and garner funding for improvements. Money raised by supporters — about $10,000 — helped pay for the kiosk, trail improvements and invasive weed removal, among other projects.
Knowing restorative efforts in the area are costly, Cory has turned his focus to renaming the area to Teichert Peace Ponds Nature Area, hoping to focus it as a place the community would use for recreation. The ponds’ current function is to naturally treat water dumped from many lots and storm drains, and is a home for added fish, birds, turtles, river otters and occasionally beavers.
Those beavers and overgrown cattails are becoming issues in the area, which can be shallow in spots, Cory said. Residents have also complained of seeing dying fish in the ponds, which Chico’s Park and Natural Resource Manager Linda Herman confirmed were dead due to lack of oxygen in the water and a thick layer of ash atop many parts of the pond.
Cory said the study had recommended the shallower pools be separated from the storm drains, leaving the large pond “to be fed by what little flow came into it.”
He also hopes the city would consider cleaning up trails to make them easier to access, which along with regulating storm drains and removing cattails, would “help regulate the water for an all purpose
trail,” he said.
Cory also said he thinks the city needs to address an increase in people camping around the area due to their proximity to the water.
The name change was unanimously approved for forwarding to the council for consideration by Bidwell Park and Playground Commission on Feb. 24, 2020. But when the issue was brought to Chico City Council by Herman on Feb. 16, Cory’s proposal to rename the area, as a chance to begin treating the area as a park with maintenance needs, failed 3- 4.
“I really think they didn’t understand the purpose of the renaming,” he said. “It’s a nature preserve and needs to be treated as such, as a species reserve.
“I’m getting to the desperate point. The ponds will continue to deteriorate.”
Camps around the pond
Jessica Smith lives close by the pond area and said she has seen more camps than ever particularly in the last four days and was told by
Chico police about the other enforcement operations taking place. Humboldt Park was the latest, in a string of sweeps removing people from public spaces, Thursday and Friday, and “Now they’re just getting closer and closer,” she said.
Smith added there has also been an accumulation of trash and needles in the area and she and other neighbors are writing letters to the council to complain.
Public Works Operations and Maintenance Director Erik Gustafson said the “encampments in the Teichert Ponds area fluctuate quite a bit.”
“Some pop up around the parameters and seem to move along while others get a little more entrenched.”
He added there are no other outside contamination issues “other than a portion is part of the storm drain system and the easterly portion is fed by the aquifer.
“The outfall adjacent to Humboldt Road does get clogged quite a bit due to beaver impacts, however our staff keep a close eye on it and commonly remove blockages.”