California’s two primary salmon species, Coho and Chinook, have
experienced significant declines from historical populations.
Of particular importance is the Chinook salmon because the
species supports commercial fishing and related jobs and economic
activities at fish hatcheries.
The decline in salmon numbers is attributed to a variety of
manmade and natural factors including drought, habitat
destruction, water diversions, migratory obstacles created by
local, state and federal water projects, over-fishing,
unfavorable ocean conditions, pollution and introduced predator
species. Wetlands have also been drained and diked; dams have
blocked salmon from reaching historic spawning grounds.
Years of declining populations represent a significant economic
loss and have led to federally mandated salmon restoration plans
that complicate water diversions and conveyance for agriculture
and other uses.
In California’s Central Valley, studies have found that
increased streamflow can improve the survival of imperiled
juvenile salmon populations during their oceanward migration.
However, these studies have not explored the potential
nonlinearities between flow and survival, giving resource
managers the difficult task of designing flows intended to help
salmon without clear guidance on flow targets.
Illegal marijuana grows continue to show up in our national
forests but removing the sites is only half the battle,
according to Ryan Henson, Senior Policy Director with the
California Wilderness Coalition. Henson says, “Cartels are
able to get away with establishing these grows. By now, there
are literally thousands of them out there, even when they are
found out, mostly the marijuana is removed and not the
waste.” Waste like illegal pesticides. … Those
chemicals can potentially leak into the Kern river and
watersheds impacting native fish species.
More than $160 million will be headed to the Klamath Basin over
the next five years, thanks to the recent passage of the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act by Congress. It is
likely the largest singular federal investment in the basin to
date, and it could help watershed restoration efforts take a
big step forward. Signed into law by President Biden on
November 15, the funding package will allocate $162 million to
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service specifically for “Klamath
Basin restoration activities,” according to the text of the
bill.
Advocates for the environment hailed the state’s recent
decision to implement updated water-flow standards in the San
Joaquin River, but what the move will mean for Sacramento River
flows remains to be seen. The action taken by the California
Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and the California
Environmental Protection Agency (CEPA) ended the voluntary
agreement process for the San Joaquin River watershed.
I grew up on a small tribal reservation in coastal Mendocino
County, the rancheria of the Manchester-Point Arena Band of
Pomo Indians. Life “on the rez” is disconnected from our
traditional land. For example, our river, known as p’da:haw in
Pomo language and the Garcia River in English, is very
important to our culture. But until recently, our tribal
members needed a special permit to fish in p’da:haw or to
gather traditional plants there to make woven baskets. -Written by Juan Cruz Dominguez, a community
organizer who was raised on the Manchester-Point Arena Band of
Pomo Indians Rancheria in Mendocino County.
Autumnal rain has sent a surge of Chinook salmon swimming up
Bay Area creeks, a sharp reversal in fortune for an iconic
species that has struggled after years of drought. A living
link between our mountains and coast, the fish responded to
late October’s fierce atmospheric river by rushing up the
region’s once-parched rivers, say biologists, frequenting spots
where they’ve never been seen. … In recent years, populations
of Chinook, also known as king salmon, have collapsed with
astonishing speed — and even this current run is unlikely to
end well if more rain doesn’t come.
A coordinated effort between the Biden and Newsom
administrations to drop two-year-old environmental rules
governing water deliveries to the Central Valley and Southern
California reached a new benchmark two days before
Thanksgiving. In a flurry of pre-holiday filings, Federal
officials, in consultation with Newsom administration
officials, requested that a Fresno-based Federal judge adopt a
hastily-arranged plan to govern water pumping in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
At the confluence of the Klamath and Salmon rivers stands a
small mountain known as á›uuyich to the Karuk people, for whom
it is the center of the world. Close by is the historic village
of Katimiîn, where the Karuk Tribe’s annual world renewal
ceremony to restore balance to the universe takes place, and
down river is Ameekyáaraam, site of the Jump Dance and First
Salmon Ceremony. Sacred to the Karuk people since time
immemorial, these lands will be among some 1,200 acres returned
to the tribe from U.S. Forest Service control under legislation
introduced this month by North Coast Congressmember Jared
Huffman.
Amy Cordalis is a fisherwoman, attorney, mother, and member of
the Yurok Tribe, the largest federally recognized Tribe in
California. From 2014-2016, she was General Counsel for the
Tribe, the first woman and first Yurok tribal member to serve
in that position. She is also the principal of the Ridges to
Riffles Conservation Fund, a non-profit fund representing
Native American tribes in natural and cultural resource
matters.
As planning and environmental review efforts continue to
support the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) determination
of whether a single tunnel option to modernize Delta conveyance
should be approved, an important component of the environmental
review process is to assess environmental resource impacts
within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s (Delta) estuary.
When farmers turned the San Joaquin Valley into an agricultural
powerhouse in the 20th century, they dammed and drained its
central river … siphoned water from Northern California’s
river systems and brought it south to thirsty farmland.
… Released on streaming platforms earlier this month,
[the documentary film] River’s End is an urgent crash
course on the water wars that are shaping California—and, by
extension, the U.S. food system. Viewers get a primer on
California’s major rivers and salmon runs, then watch as
agribusiness—and the city of Los Angeles—wreak havoc on them,
with moneyed interests seizing water through lobbying
and shady deals. –Written by Teresa Cotsirilos, a staff writer and
producer at FERN, where she covers food systems, labor, and
climate change in the Western US.
As part of an ongoing effort to protect and restore critical
habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the Department of
Water Resources (DWR) has restored more than half of the 1,187
acres of former grazing and dairy lands into rich habitat for
fish and wildlife as part of the Dutch Slough Tidal Marsh
Restoration Project. The project is one of the largest
multi-benefit freshwater tidal marsh restoration efforts
implemented.
The Mokelumne River was seeing an outstanding run of fall
chinook salmon at the fish hatchery when the atmospheric river
hit on Oct. 24-25. “We lost a lot of our fish,” said
William Smith, manager of the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery.
“The Cosumnes River went up to 14,000 cfs (cubic feet per
second) and every creek in the region came up with the storm.
As a result, the salmon scattered throughout the Valley.
Meanwhile, the releases from Camanche Dam were still 250 cfs.”
To save coho salmon from extinction and promote healthy water
quality for residents, SPAWN provides indisputable scientific
data and calls on decision makers to take speedy and decisive
action to protect Marin’s coho salmon and expand their chances
for recovery to sustainable population levels. Currently, the
Marin County Board of Supervisors can ensure protections for
coho salmon by passing a science-based, common-sense Streamside
Conservation Area Ordinance.
The simple way to think about this crisis: There’s no longer
enough water to go around to meet the needs of farmers and
Native American populations as well as fish and birds. For more
than a century, the federal government has overseen an
intricate and imperfect system of water distribution intended
to sustain an ecosystem and an economy. The whole precarious
balance was based on the assumption that enough snow would
always fall…
It’s getting hard to find the lake at Lake Mendocino. A bed of
cracked, dry dirt grows steadily as the shoreline recedes,
exposing abandoned homesteads that had been submerged for
decades. State officials warn that the lake could go dry — a
first for a major California reservoir. Lake Mendocino is a
crucial link in the North Coast’s water supply chain, and even
a drought-busting winter won’t ensure its recovery.
Land and waterway managers labored hard over the course of a
century to control California’s unruly rivers by building dams
and levees to slow and contain their water. Now, farmers,
environmentalists and agencies are undoing some of that work as
part of an accelerating campaign to restore the state’s major
floodplains. … The hope, shared by stakeholders who have
traditionally fought over water and land, is to rebuild habitat
for fish, birds and other wildlife while simultaneously
providing benefits, like improved flood protection and
groundwater recharge, for towns and farms.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has begun
releasing juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon into the Klamath
River now that river conditions have improved with cooler
temperatures and increased flows that give the young salmon
their best chance at survival and reaching the Pacific Ocean.
More than 2 million baby Chinook salmon that were hatched in
early 2021 at CDFW’s Iron Gate Fish Hatchery in Siskiyou County
were held over the summer at three different CDFW facilities,
including 1 million fish trucked to the Trinity River Hatchery
through Redding in triple-digit heat.
Land and waterway managers labored
hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly
rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their
water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing
some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore
the state’s major floodplains.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
Every two years just before the salmon run in the fall,
ceremony leader Merv George, Jr. gathers members of the Hoopa
tribe to perform what’s called the “White Deer Skin Dance.” The
ceremony involves a 10-day canoe ride down the Trinity River in
Northern California. The White Deer Skin dance is essential to
Hoopa culture, and its origin is told through a story that
starts with a trickster. The trickster, named Coyote, wanted to
steal a woodpecker blanket from the Kahani, which are the
tribe’s spirits.
Keeping salmon in her children’s diet is “an entire job,” says
Georgiana Gensaw, a Yurok Tribe member and mother of four in
Klamath Glen, a community whose only easily accessible food
store is a fried chicken shop attached to a gas station a few
miles away. … The salmon [the Yurok people
have] long depended on as both dietary staple and cultural
cornerstone have become scarce. Combined with the lack of food
sovereignty, it has prompted the need to fight for their main
sources of nutrition and for their very way of life, they say.
On November 15, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a more than $1 trillion
bipartisan infrastructure bill into law before a bipartisan,
celebratory crowd on the White House lawn. Sandra
Jacobson, CalTrout’s South Coast and Sierra Director, and Chair
of California’s Fish Passage Forum, took a detailed look at the
infrastructure bill and how it would aid fish passage for our
state.
State officials have a “grim” outlook for California’s
winter-run Chinook salmon along the Sacramento River. The
deepening drought and rising temperatures are exhausting agency
resources for managing the species to prevent extinction, and
with long-term forecasts predicting little precipitation for
Northern California in the months ahead, the state is making
plans for worst-case scenarios and an emergency overhaul of
water management in California.
Advocates … argue that beavers play a key role in creating
healthy waterways and ecosystems. The role of beavers in the
recent storm is just one example of why advocates want to
reintroduce—and protect—beavers throughout the state. However,
under state law, beavers are considered a “detrimental species”
due in part to their dam-building, which can damage
agricultural land and flood human developments. They are
feared, and often killed, by landowners for this reason.
Three years ago, a 26,600-acre ranch in remote Northern
California, with a 10-bedroom lodge, 16 miles of riverfront and
two herds of Roosevelt elk was drawing attention in the
nation’s luxury real estate market. … As it turns out, the
$25 million plot on the Eel River, which spans both Mendocino
and Trinity counties, will go to a conservation group. The
Wildlands Conservancy closed escrow on the tract Tuesday and
plans to turn this mostly untamed stretch of mountains and
valleys into a preserve open to the public.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has announced $2.7 million in
funding for projects aimed at helping coho salmon in the
Klamath River basin. The species is listed as threatened under
the Endangered Species Act and has seen its numbers dwindle
amid rising river temperatures and reduced water flows. The
grant announced Monday will be administered by the National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with help from federal and state
agencies, and will prioritize projects that improve salmon
habitat and fish passage in the lower part of the river and its
tributaries, according to a bureau news release.
As I write this on an October weekend, rain is falling steadily
in Davis and has been for most of the day. This is the first
real rain we have had in over seven months. But it is not the
end of the drought. Multiple storms are needed. The landscape
is a dry sponge, reservoirs are empty, water rationing is in
place or expected to be, and aquatic species are in decline.
Chinook salmon are back, baby! After a rush of cold-running
water brought by the atmospheric river in late October, Sonoma
Creek, along with other streams across the Bay Area, saw a
surge in flow giving Chinook, or king salmon, the perfect
conditions to make their way upstream from the Pacific.
Experts are “very confident” the decades-long goal of Klamath
dam removal is slated to become a reality in 2023. Removal of
PacifiCorp’s four dams along the Klamath River will open 420
miles of salmon-spawning habitat as well as improve water
quality and reduce critical temperature conditions that cause
and increase disease in fish.
Like so many places in Northern California, the recent rains
have really transformed things here along Alameda Creek. It is
putting on quite a show for the locals, and it’s a great
reminder of the importance of a project underway here just
below Niles Canyon. … Stop and watch the creek, and
it does not take long to spot them.
There are no shortages of critical issues facing Oakdale
Irrigation District in central California. As the
state looks to take 40% of the district’s springtime river
flows, district directors are searching for their next water
champion. … In October the State of California informed
OID and five other water districts, including the City and
County of San Francisco, that it would no longer negotiate over
stream flow agreements commonly known as “voluntary
agreements.” Under these coerced negotiations, the state seeks
to take 40% of river flows…
Recent storms along the Northern California coastline may have
brought concerns about mudslides and scattered power outages,
but for the adult Chinook Salmon and steelheads migrating from
the ocean to the Smith River to reproduce – it’s been like
turning on the river’s vacancy sign. Thanks to some
recently-installed sonar monitoring equipment courtesy of the
Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation Fisheries Division, cameras are able to
capture the moment.
The record-breaking storm in late October has helped salmon
spawn in Taylor Creek, an event that was threatened due to
severe drought conditions. People flock to Taylor Creek each
October to watch kokanee salmon fight their way upstream.
Several people on Tuesday were taking in the sites of the
red-colored fish from a bridge on California State Route 89.
According to Forest Service Aquatic Biologist Sarah Muskopf,
kokanee typically spawn anytime between September and February
when there are increased stream flows and cooler temperatures.
Storing water in reservoirs is important for maintaining
freshwater ecosystem health and protecting native species.
Stored water also is essential for adapting to the changing
climate, especially warming and drought intensification. Yet,
reservoir operators often treat environmental objectives as a
constraint, rather than as a priority akin to water deliveries
for cities and farms.
State officials confirmed dire predictions of catastrophic fish
kills due to sizzling water temperatures in California’s
largest river, announcing Thursday that just 2% of winter-run
Chinook juvenile salmon likely survived the summer. The
alarming percentage of juvenile salmon killed on the Sacramento
River surpasses the scope of die-offs recorded in the state’s
recent drought years and has officials sounding the alarm about
the potential permanent collapse of the endangered species.
On Oct. 27, in a victory for tribes in Northern California,
Fresno County Superior Court Judge D. Tyler Tharpe rejected a
Trump-era water contract between the federal Bureau of
Reclamation and Westlands Water District, the public entity in
charge of distributing water to farms in California’s San
Joaquin Valley. … The contract would have given
Westlands permanent access to 1.15 million acre-feet of water
from the Trinity River … without ensuring that Westlands paid
an estimated sixth of the $400 million it owed the Bureau of
Reclamation for ecosystem restoration.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has signaled its desire
to go ahead with rigid fish flow increases despite the
deepening drought and hydrology changes in precipitating
patterns the state’s own experts are anticipating. The state
last week abruptly broke off negotiations with agencies
representing water users on the Stanislaus, Merced, and
Tuolumne watersheds regarding its desire to implement new fish
flows that will essentially reduce water available for urban
and farm uses.
The Calif. Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced the
release of the program guidelines and proposal solicitation
package to distribute $200 million in funding available through
the Urban and Multibenefit Drought Relief Grant Program.
Designed to help communities facing the loss or contamination
of their water supplies due to drought, the Urban and
Multibenefit Drought Relief Grant Program aims to address
immediate drought impacts on human health and safety, protect
fish and wildlife resources and provide other public benefits,
such as ecosystem improvements.
The Newsom administration has informed regional water districts
that it will move forward with a plan to increase flows from
San Joaquin River tributaries in an action that may create more
water uncertainty for farmers. A notice from the California
Natural Resources Agency and state Environmental Protection
Agency represents a departure from the state’s earlier
willingness to consider voluntary agreements with water
districts, which includes aspects other than just flow
increases.
In an effort to blunt the devastating toll California’s
extended drought has taken on the state’s chinook salmon
population, state and federal fish hatcheries in Northern
California are spawning millions of additional salmon smolts in
order to increase their odds of survival. The state’s prolonged
drought has left many of its dams and rivers unable to supply
the cold water currents wild salmon require for their eggs to
survive. So, hatcheries are trying to make up for nature’s dry
spell with human intervention.
By all measures, the storm of October 24th was remarkable. It
broke one-day precipitation records throughout Northern
California. And it did this in October, a month not known for
biblical deluges in California. But did this unusually intense
atmospheric river lead to significant changes in our drought
picture? Yes and, mostly, no. … But the bad is vastly
outweighed by the good from this unusual storm.
Yesterday, Save California Salmon, the Pacific Coast Federation
of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), and 12 California
environmental organizations joined Klamath River Tribes in
asking the California State Water Resources Control Board to
establish permanent instream flow requirements for the Scott
and Shasta Rivers, two of the Klamath River’s largest
tributaries, according to a press release from the groups and
Tribes.
For nearly three years, some of California’s biggest water
users, including San Francisco, have been quietly meeting with
the state to figure out how much water they should be taking
from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. The talks were
launched to prevent some of California’s mightiest rivers from
drying up, and keep fish populations from disappearing, while
still allowing cities and farms to draw the supplies they need.
The vision was nothing short of a grand compromise on divvying
up California’s water. But late last week, the state
conceded the negotiations had failed.
It’s a Saturday in September and [Yvette] Hudson can expect to
sell all her fish, as she does three times a week. It’s good
money, but it isn’t enough, and by the end of the year she and
her husband, Mike, will be quitting the commercial fishing
business after 25 years. … Water diversion and habitat
loss continue to threaten the population of wild salmon
migrating between freshwater and saltwater. An even more
serious problem is looming. This year’s heat wave and extended
drought imperiled the Chinook population as warm rivers killed
salmon eggs.
In drought years and when marine heat waves warm the Pacific
Ocean, late-migrating juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon of
California’s Central Valley are the ultimate survivors. They
are among the few salmon that survive in those difficult years
and return to spawning rivers to keep their populations alive,
according to a study published October 28 in Nature Climate
Change.
A new water management program is being proposed for the
Trinity River to help dwindling salmon populations. The Yurok
Tribe helped develop the plan through its participation in the
Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP), which is comprised of
tribal, state, and federal agencies, and then submitted it to
the Bureau of Reclamation for approval where it currently lies.
The new water release plan will shift some of the water
normally released from Lewiston Dam in late spring to the
winter and early spring, which will create conditions that more
closely mimic a free-flowing river.
Despite the rain that drenched central and northern California
recently, drought still casts a long shadow over the state. The
consequences of a multi-year water shortage are dire:
reservoirs that serve millions of people and massive swaths of
farmland are disappearing, hydroelectric dams are in danger of
losing power and wild salmon are facing mass die
outs….Stanford water experts Newsha Ajami, Rosemary
Knight, Felicia Marcus and Barton “Buzz”
Thompson discuss lessons learned from previous droughts,
imperatives for infrastructure investment and reasons for hope
in this arid era.
The state is moving ahead with its proposal to boost flows on
the Tuolumne and nearby rivers, to the dismay of irrigation
districts and San Francisco. The reservoir releases are needed
to help fish and other wildlife on tributaries to the San
Joaquin River, two cabinet secretaries said in a letter
Thursday, Oct. 20. The water users contend that the releases
would take too much from farms and cities supplied by the
Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced rivers. They have instead
sought “voluntary agreements” that would increase reservoir
releases to some extent while enhancing fish habitat in other
ways, such as restoring spawning gravel for salmon.
[A] suite of federal, state, and local laws ostensibly
protect California’s watersheds from pollution, and volumes of
codes are dedicated specifically to safeguarding streams and
rivers from cattle. Yet through a variety of loopholes and
exemptions, and possibly agency languor, roaming cows have
access to many of the state’s waterways. Here, the animals
denude riverbanks, eliminate riparian habitat, and degrade
water quality. High concentrations of manure-born bacteria are
known to flow from Marin County cattle ranches into the waters
surrounding Point Reyes.
Despite the deluge of rain sparked by an atmospheric river in
Northern California this week, the state is still gripped by an
unprecedented drought. Karla Nemeth, director of the California
Department of Water Resources, and others will discuss how the
drought has impacted wildlife, farms, cities and more
at our Water Summit on Thursday, and explore what
longer-term projects and partnerships are aiming to make the
state more drought-resilient.
The group Save California Salmon is taking many approaches to
fulfilling its name. Those include a new podcast about water
justice, a continually hot topic in California and elsewhere.
The most recent episode of the West Coast Water Justice podcast
features Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, the Chair of Native American
Studies at Humboldt State University (she is Hupa, Karuk,
Yurok, and enrolled in the Hoopa Valley Tribe). We discuss
water justice in the context of the Klamath Basin with Dr.
Baldy and with Regina Chichizola, Co-Director of Save
California Salmon.
It is strange to think of an eye as a diet journal, but a
fish’s eye can tell much about what it has been eating at each
point in its life. If we know what a fish has been eating and
when, then we can figure out where a fish has been. You just
need to know where to look and how to understand what the eye
is telling you. This approach formed the basis for our
publication Advancing diet reconstruction in fish eye lenses in
Methods in Ecology and Evolution. In this study, we used stable
isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in fish eyes to better
understand diet and habitat history of juvenile and adult
Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).
Chances are slim to none that a group of Northern California
agencies, known as the Two-Basin Partnership, will raise the
funds required to take over the license for the Potter Valley
Project — a water diversion system in the Eel River basin — by
April 2022 but the organization remains undeterred. The
Two-Basin Partnership — California Trout, Humboldt County, the
Mendocino County Inland Water & Power Commission, the Round
Valley Indian Tribes and Sonoma County Water Agency
— requested an extension on its license transfer
application to provide agencies additional time to work out a
water plan and to develop strategies for dam removal and
restoration of the Eel and Russian river basins.
Spring-run Chinook Salmon are starting to spawn in the San
Joaquin River after a brutally dry, hot summer. But the success
of the juvenile fish is uncertain as the drought and high
temperatures continue. Spring-run salmon, which return to the
river from the ocean as adults in spring months, have been
absent from the San Joaquin River for more than 70 years
because of dams that dried up the river. But the federal
government has reintroduced the fish in an attempt to bring
back the once native population.
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Before dams were built on the upper
Sacramento River, flood water regularly carried woody debris that
was an important part of the aquatic habitat.
Deprived of this refuge, salmon in the lower parts of the upper
Sacramento River have had a difficult time surviving and making
it down the river and out to the ocean. Seeing this, a group of
people, including water users, decided to lend a hand with an
unprecedented pilot project that saw massive walnut tree trunks
affixed to 12,000-pound boulders and deposited into the deepest
part of the Sacramento River near Redding to provide shelter for
young salmon and steelhead migrating downstream.
Protecting and restoring California’s populations of threatened
and endangered Chinook salmon and steelhead trout have been a big
part of the state’s water management picture for more than 20
years. Significant resources have been dedicated to helping the
various runs of the iconic fish, with successes and setbacks. In
a landscape dramatically altered from its natural setting,
finding a balance between the competing demands for water is
challenging.
Less than 50 miles northeast of Chico, California, begins the
93-mile Butte Creek – a tributary of the Sacramento River. It is named
after Butte County, which was in turn named for the nearby
volcanic plateaus, or “buttes,” and travels through a massive
canyon on its way southwest to the Sacramento Valley.
As a watershed, it drains about 800 square miles, both for
agricultural and residential use. The upper watershed is
dominated by forests, while the lower watershed is primarily
agricultural.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to
Flood Management explains the physical flood control system,
including levees; discusses previous flood events (including the
1997 flooding); explores issues of floodplain management and
development; provides an overview of flood forecasting; and
outlines ongoing flood control projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to
California Water provides an excellent overview of the history of
water development and use in California. It includes sections on
flood management; the state, federal and Colorado River delivery
systems; Delta issues; water rights; environmental issues; water
quality; and options for stretching the water supply such as
water marketing and conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of
the guide is a section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
The Red Bluff Diversion Dam, its gates raised since 2011 to allow
fish passage, spans the Sacramento River two miles
southeast of Red Bluff on the Sacramento River in Tehama County.
It is owned by the Bureau of Reclamation and operated and
maintained by the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority.
Pelagic fish are those that live near the water’s surface rather
than on the bottom. In California, pelagic fish species include
the Delta smelt, longfin
smelt, striped bass and salmon.
In California, the fate of pelagic fish has been closely tied to
the use of the water that supports them.
The Klamath Basin’s Chinook salmon and coho salmon serve a vital
role in the watershed.
Together, they are key to the region’s water management, habitat
restoration and fishing.
However, years of declining population have led to federally
mandated salmon restoration plans—plans that complicate the
diversion of Klamath water for agriculture and other uses.
Battle Creek, a tributary of the
Sacramento River in Shasta and Tehama counties, is considered one
of the most important anadromous fish spawning streams in the
Sacramento Valley.
At present, barriers make it difficult for anadromous fish,
including chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead trout, to
migrate. Battle Creek has several hydroelectric dams, diversions
and a complex canal system between its north and south forks that
impede migration.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines science –
the answers it can provide to help guide management decisions in
the Delta and the inherent uncertainty it holds that can make
moving forward such a tenuous task.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and
Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to
the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering
drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring
the vestiges of the native past.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
This issue of Western Water explores the implications for the San
Joaquin River following the decision in the Natural Resources
Defense Council lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation and
Friant Water Users Authority that Friant Dam is required to
comply with a state law that requires enough water be released to
sustain downstream fish populations.
Fresh from the ocean, adult salmon struggle to swim hundreds of
miles upstream to spawn — and then die — in the same stream in
which they were born. For the salmon, the river-to-ocean,
ocean-to-river life cycle is nothing more than instinct. For
humans, it invites wonder. The cycle has prevailed for centuries,
yet as salmon populations have declined, the cycle has become a
source of conflict. Water users have seen their supplies reduced.
Fishermen have had their catch curtailed. Environmentalists have
pushed for more instream flows for fish.
