Abstract
This study measures the groundwater storage volume of a meadow located along Clarks Creek in the Feather River watershed in the northern Sierra Nevada of California and compares the volume in the restored half of the meadow with the volume in the non-restored half of the meadow. Hydrologic function has been restored to the northern half of the meadow using the “pond and plug” technique while the southern half of the meadow is still in an ecologically degraded state where the stream is disconnected from it’s floodplain. Previous work has not specifically measured groundwater volume capacity, nor the amount of groundwater present in a partially restored meadow. The groundwater volume was calculated for the years 2008 and 2009. This was done by measuring the depth of the meadow sediment using a seismic refraction technique and then calculating sediment volume. Porosity was measured and the average porosity value was used to calculate pore space volume of the meadow. Piezometers were installed and groundwater data was collected and then used along with the depth and porosity values to calculate actual water volume for the wettest and driest times of 2008 and 2009. Results from this study show that a section of meadow that has been successfully restored has a higher water table, stores more water during the wet and dry seasons and has less fluctuation in storage between the wet and dry seasons than a non-restored section of the same meadow.