Swami’s Restoration Initiative
Water Clarity with Swami Select: Project Summary
Swami Select, an organically minded, regenerative licensed small cannabis farm of less than 10,000 sq. ft. in Mendocino County, is pursuing a vital environmental remediation project to meet Lake and Stream Agreement (LSA) requirements and enhance local watershed health. Run by two elderly and respected local legacy farmers, Swami Chaitanya and Nikki Lastreto, the farm operates with provisional licensing and Clean Green and “DEM Pure” certifications.
Project Purpose and Environmental Benefit
The primary goal of the “Water Clarity with Swami Select” project is to diminish and eliminate situational erosion to prevent silt from entering the watershed, which will benefit local habitat, anadromous fish populations in Blue Rock Creek, and the overall aquatic population of the Eel River.
Current erosion threats include:
- A steep, winding road between the pond and gardens exhibiting rilling, rutting, and significant silt runoff.
- A perched culvert outlet eroding native surface soils.
- The risk of the pond’s bank collapsing and causing significant erosion if the current relief pipe clogs (Lake Rubbaducky).
- Unarmored surfaces surrounding the bridge near the swollen Blue Rock Creek during winter.
Planned Improvements
The project will address these concerns through several key, CDFW-approved interventions:
- Perched Culvert: Shortening and armoring the existing perched relief culvert to provide a shorter path to an armored rock surface, stabilizing native ground and removing the danger of plugging.
- Pond Spillway: Installation of a new emergency spillway for Lake Rubbaducky (the pond), which will act as the primary relief for stormwaters. This will increase freeboard, follow natural contours to a gentle armored outflow, and greatly increase dispersal and ground absorption of flow, even during a 100-year event.
- Road Erosion Control: Creating and installing multiple armored dips on the steep road between the pond and gardens to direct stormwater off the road to stable upland locations. This is essential for hydrologically disconnecting the road and preventing road fines and siltation from reaching Blue Rock Creek.
- Bridge Armoring: Adding additional armoring rock to the upstream banksides, above the current level of armoring, to deflect stormwaters, defend the bridge foundations from a 100-year storm event, and limit erosion and siltation.
- Water Monitoring: Installation of a water monitoring meter on the Swami’s spring line to measure and log total water diversion for cannabis cultivation, as required by the LSA.
Background and Need
Swami Chaitanya and Nikki Lastreto, who started their farm in 2004, have been dedicated to organic practices and maintaining a clean, orderly environment, successfully obtaining Clean Green certification in 2011 and securing their water permits (SDU and SIUR). They have spent over $250,000 completing work for current permits.
This CDFW Qualified Cultivator funding opportunity is crucial because the combination of excessive taxes, the cost of other required upgrades, and the current market downswing means the elderly farmers have no available funds to complete the remaining LSA work. Without this essential grant funding, the pond bank may fail during a major storm, and the road will continue to erode, dumping silt into the Wild and Scenic Eel River watershed.
The project is ready to start as soon as weather and Water Board restrictions permit and is intended to take one summer to conclude.