Federal judge could pause razing of trees on American River Parkway in Sacramento

A federal project cutting trees on the American River Parkway to fortify banks against flooding could be stalled as a judge heard arguments Friday from environmental groups seeking a preliminary injunction.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned flood protection measures at the lower American River, Natomas East Main Drainage Canal, Arcade Creek and Magpie Creek. Congress in 2016 approved about $1.5 million to safeguard about 11 miles across those rivers. The Central Valley Flood Protection Board approved work concerning the lower American River this year.

The American River Parkway is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by Sacramento nonprofits and the Center for Biological Diversity, a national environmental conservation group. A judge will consider whether to block a 3.3-mile portion of the Corps’ work, between Watt and Howe avenues.

The Corps proposed strengthening the bank by implementing riprap, or rocks. But the construction will cut off access to a recreational area for months while destroying century-old trees and disrupting wildlife, according to the lawsuit stemming from Sacramento residents with the nonprofits Save the American River Association and American River Trees.

The lawsuit does not hope to stop this project and only seeks to ask the Corps to consider an alternative to riprap, attorney Patrick Soluri, who is representing the local nonprofits, has said previously to The Sacramento Bee.

The request for a preliminary injunction comes as the Corps says it must begin razing trees between November and February, according to court documents. Uprooting trees could upset migratory birds’ nesting season, and a short-term injunction will postpone work for about a year, the government said in court papers.

Government officials and the nonprofits’ attorneys presented divergent views about two key issues in the case: public safety concerns and how to sufficiently prevent flooding.

The Corps project averts potential catastrophic flooding that could lay siege to about 475,000 residents, California and the nation, according to the government’s court documents. An expert cannot predict when a “weather event” could gush into Folsom Dam and overrun the levees, said Devon Lehman McCune, an attorney representing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“You just don’t know when that’s going to happen,” Lehman McCune said.

But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ documents show a risk of levee failure is low, Soluri said, arguing that the public safety risk is not imminent.

“While public safety is a legitimate concern, the defendants are frankly overstating the risk,” Soluri said.

The Corps promised to consider an alternative flood protection measure aside from riprap in a 2015 report, said Justin John Augustine, an attorney for the Center for Biology Diversity.

But in 2023, that promise was not upheld when the Corps released a draft supplemental environmental report, Augustine said. Any bioengineering fortification methods — such as vegetation or using smaller rocks — was simply ignored, he said.

“It literally disappears from analysis,” he said.

Lehman McCune said the Corps did consider a bioengineering alternative. But engineers determined using small rocks could be susceptible to washing downstream, she said.

Judge Dena Coggins of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California did not rule Friday on the preliminary injunction and will issue a decision in the coming weeks.