Arroyo Hondo Preserve is grappling with extensive storm damage, forcing staff to temporarily close it for several months following a significant rain that soaked Santa Barbara County.

The 910-acre canyon preserve along Highway 101 on the Gaviota Coast sustained substantial damages to its trails, roads, parking areas and infrastructure from widespread flooding and landslides on the grassy hills during the early January storm.  

“This is our 25-year anniversary of having Arroyo Hondo as a public preserve, and we really expected to kick off its birthday differently,” said Meredith Hendricks, executive director of The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County.

And those are just some of the damages. 

Land Trust staff had not yet been able to access all of the preserve to assess the full extent of the damage as of Friday.

“There’s so much silt, built-up debris and damage to the roads that we haven’t gotten far back in the preserve. Everything is still settling,” she said. 

But from areas that have been able to be assessed, staff say the creek carried down large amounts of debris, mud and silt that now cover the top of the preserve’s access bridge. 

Hendricks estimates the roads will need to be regraded, and the mud will have to be redistributed to other areas once it dries. 

The barn on the preserve also endured flooding that seeped into the foundation of the building, jostling the entire infrastructure. 

“That is not in an area that has typically flooded, but the flooding was more intense this time,” she said. 

Additionally, rainfall added so much water to the fish passage under Highway 101 that connects the creek to the ocean, that water levels hit 10 feet, according to a measuring bar in the tunnel next to the creek. 

For repairs, staff will have to recut some of the trails, fix the roads and replant native plants once they are able to enter the canyon. 

Land Trust staff did not expect the New Year’s week rainstorm to be as extreme as the ones in November or even around Christmas. 

“It was a sleeper incident, in which we were more prepared for other storms to potentially cause damage than we were for this one,” Hendricks said. 

Staff is also bracing for more rainfall around February and March, which are the usual months the county sees the majority of its winter rain.

Since this water year has already proven to be a historic wet one, Hendricks is preparing by bringing in outside agencies. 

She already asked Caltrans to evaluate how the current road damage might get worse and what steps staff should take in the event of more heavy rain.

The extensive damage also cancelled upcoming field trips local schools had planned. The preserve is usually booked full every Monday and Wednesday for the entire school year with school visitors. 

So far, all the January school trips have been cancelled and Hendricks estimates more in the following months will have to be cut. 

“We all have to keep in mind that Mother Nature is the one calling the shots,” Hendricks said. “While this is really upsetting and really hard to see in some respects, this is also a canyon that behaves this way when we get inundated with these unbelievable storms.”