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.
For workers with the Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation,
creating new fish habitat as part of the restoration of Prairie
Creek in their ancestral territory is more than just a job. …
This is the second year the construction corporation and the
Yurok Fisheries Department have been working on restoring the
ecological integrity of Prairie Creek. The five-year $25
million restoration project includes redirecting the creek away
from U.S. Highway 101 and getting as close as possible to
recreating its original condition after being used as a lumber
mill for decades.
On Tuesday evening, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed
Yurok Tribe’s Forestry Department Director Dawn Blake to the
State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. … Dawn is
an enrolled Hoopa Tribal member and Yurok descendant with a
Master of Science degree in natural resources. … Ranging from
wildlife research to prescribed burning, Dawn is well-versed in
all aspects of modern forest management. As the Yurok Forestry
Director, she manages more than 70,000 acres of Yurok-owned
forest for the benefit of current and future generations of
Yurok people. She oversees the Tribe’s 15,000-acre Old-Growth
Forest and Salmon Sanctuary on Blue Creek, a critically
important tributary of the Klamath River.
The Six Rivers National Forest Fisheries Program has partnered
with the Klamath Basin Fish Health Assessment Team to monitor
water quality and fish health conditions in the Klamath River.
This is in response to increased mortality and disease rates
among the chinook and steelhead salmon populations in the
river. According to officials, this die-off is a result of poor
fish health conditions in the Klamath River due to changes in
flows, water temperature and fish density. These conditions
began to change in early August due to the nearby McKinney
Fire’s effect on the water.
Tribal scientists had hoped that the incoming fall run of adult
chinook salmon would escape the devastating effects of August’s
debris slide on the Klamath River, which killed tens of
thousands of fish. But they were disappointed. The salmon,
which were gathering at the estuary at the time of the debris
slide, migrated upstream early to spawn and found themselves
trapped in toxic waters. … What the river really needs,
according to Karuk Tribal Fisheries Field Supervisor Kenneth
Brink, is a good springtime flow to flush out the debris. But
spring, of course, isn’t coming anytime soon. There is water
behind Iron Gate, the Klamath’s lowermost dam, but toxic algal
blooms have made it hazardous to salmon, too.
Cool waters flow south as a group of geese (skeins) fly over
the clear, blue-tinted river waters following the warm weather.
The life cycle of the salmon occurs in six stages: egg, alevin,
fry, parr, smolt and adult. For the Sacramento River winter-run
Chinook salmon the waters are a way of life for them. The cool
river waters are critical to the salmon because cold water can
hold more oxygen than warmer water and the cold waters help the
salmon’s metabolism by slowing down the way they digest their
food. The endangered winter-run salmon spawning grounds were
once in the McCloud River, but after the construction of Shasta
and Keswick dams the salmon lost the only way to swim
downstream the Sacramento River.
The Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) turns 30
this year. We asked three experts—Jeanne Brantigan of The
Nature Conservancy, Samantha Arthur of the National Audubon
Society, and Catherine Hickey of Point Blue Conservation
Science—to explain what the CVPIA is and why it’s so important
for birds. Can you explain a little bit about dedicating water
for wildlife refuges under CVPIA? When did it start, and why
has it been so significant for California? Samantha
Arthur: Congress passed the act in 1992. It recognized the
importance of the Central Valley’s rivers for migratory birds,
fish, and other wildlife—and the need to make protection and
restoration of fish and wildlife a coequal purpose of the
Central Valley Project (CVP), along with other uses, including
agricultural, municipal, industrial, and more.
We have been engaging in restoration within the Klamath River
Basin since at least passage of the Klamath Act in 1980. Over
several decades, hundreds of millions of dollars have been
expended on projects to restore salmon in the lower Basin and
suckers in the Upper Basin. Klamath River Basin restoration has
now been institutionalized as an ongoing program of the US
Bureau of Reclamation and the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation. And yet, in spite of so many “projects” and
so many dollars expended, neither Shortnose and Lost River
sucker fish in the Upper Basin, nor Coho and Chinook Salmon in
the Lower Basin, have recovered.
Beavers are famous for gnawing on wood and building giant dams
in rivers and streams. Those dams help fight climate change —
as they store water, increase biodiversity, and curb fires. Now
California scientists are urging the state to reestablish the
rodents’ dwindling population, and a new statewide “beaver
restoration unit” just might do the trick. “When the
beaver builds its dam, it starts to create a pond and slow the
water down. And that gives it time to really seep out into the
soil around it,” says Emily Fairfax, assistant professor
of environmental science and resource management at Cal State
Channel Islands. “And that is water storage.”
Rafael Cuevas Uribe wants to rid the Eel River of all female
Sacramento pikeminnows in order to help the river’s salmon
population. Cuevas Uribe and Andre Buchheister, professors of
Fisheries Biology at Cal Poly Humboldt, were recently awarded a
$150,000 grant from CalTrout, a non-profit conservation group,
to help eliminate the invasive species from the Eel River. …
Cuevas Uribe and Buchheister hope to use an aquaculture method
of breeding fish that could result in a population of all male
fish, keeping the pikeminnow from being able to continue to
reproduce. The Trojan Y strategy modifies the genetics of the
fish to produce YY males.
The brainchild for fishgate came to River Partners Senior
Restoration Ecologist Michael Rogner, and Co-Founder of
River Partners and Director of Special Projects John Carlon,
over a couple of beers at a bar. Fishgate is an
automated/engineered fish door which helps struggling Chinook
salmon at River Partners’ Willow Bend Preserve near Colusa
return back to their native riverside ranges along the
Sacramento River. The first-of-its-kind fish gate
designed by the Cal Poly Irrigation & Training Research Center
will prevent juvenile salmon from being trapped on the restored
floodplain.
California is at a transformational moment when it comes to
managing water. As aridification of the western United States
intensifies, we have an opportunity to advance a better
approach to flow management in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta and our rivers through a process of voluntary agreements
to update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. The
agreements, signed by parties from Red Bluff to San Diego,
propose a new structure for managing water resources in the
Delta and beyond in a way that is collaborative, innovative and
foundational for adapting to climate realities while benefiting
communities, farms, fish and wildlife. -Written by Jennifer Pierre, the general manager
of the State Water Contractors, an association of 27
public water agencies; and David Guy, president of
the Northern California Water Association, which
represents Sacramento Valley water interests.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has
thrown out a lawsuit in which Klamath Basin irrigators won an
injunction against federally authorized releases of stored
water from Upper Klamath Lake. The court ruled the lawsuit
shouldn’t have been allowed to proceed because the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation, which is under court orders to protect tribal
water rights and comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA),
wasn’t named as a defendant and can’t be compelled to
participate in state court litigation. The complaint was filed
against the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) for
failing to protect the irrigators’ water rights.
On September 8, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit) issued its decision in
Klamath Irrigation District et al. v. United States et al.,
Case No. 20-36009, affirming the United States District Court
for the District of Oregon’s dismissal of two actions filed by
various Klamath Project (Project) irrigation parties
challenging United States Bureau of Reclamation’s (Reclamation)
operating procedures for the Project. In April 2019, Project
irrigation parties, including the Klamath Irrigation District
(KID) and a group that included the Klamath Water Users
Association (KWUA) and several Project districts and individual
farmers filed two complaints challenging Reclamation’s
2019-2024 operating plans or procedures for the Project in the
District Court.
Turlock Irrigation District’s board of directors voted
unanimously Tuesday to move toward a voluntary agreement that
would supersede flow requirements within the Bay-Delta Water
Quality Control Plan. That plan was first adopted in
2018, but the flow requirements never have been implemented.
But since then, the plan has been the flashpoint for a
debate — in simplest terms, think of it as fish vs. farms
— that pits the environmental groups, such as the Tuolumne
River Trust, against public utilities, such as the Turlock
Irrigation District, Modesto Irrigation District and the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Those three agencies
share the Tuolumne River’s water rights.
By 2013, illegal cannabis grows were such a destructive
environmental force in California that state water regulators
decided it time to go beyond their complaint-driven, piecemeal
approach at enforcement. That required knowing how much
cannabis there was statewide, and where. Nearly a decade later,
the answer still eludes California. So the Los Angeles Times
embarked on its own effort to map illegally grown cannabis, one
that depended on a view from space. Cannabis operations are
easy to spot in satellite imagery. Plastic-covered hoop houses
and plots of individual dark-green plants are distinctive and
hard to miss, even more so in clear-cut tracts of forest or
vast expanses of desert.
Registration is filling up quickly for our fall programs,
including: The in-person return of our 38th annual Water
Summit in Sacramento. A reunion
of our Water Leader graduates to celebrate the
program’s 25th anniversary. A tour
along the San Joaquin River to learn more
about infrastructure and the impacts on farms and habitat from
salmon restoration efforts. Plus, with all the activity
involving water in California and the drought gripping the
West, be sure to subscribe to our Aquafornia service so
you don’t miss out on top water news compiled each weekday
and delivered to your inbox. Check out the details below to
learn more about these fall programs and our Aquafornia
newsfeed.
The main diverters of Tuolumne River water could be closing in,
finally, on an agreement with the state on fish protections.
The boards of the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts
voted separately Tuesday to direct their staffs to finalize the
deal. Details have not yet been disclosed on how much water
would be released from Don Pedro Reservoir to support salmon
and other fish in the lower river.
Marin County’s code enforcement program is receiving increased
scrutiny following the adoption of an ordinance that prohibits
new building along San Geronimo Creek and its tributaries. In
March, the Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance empowering
the county to fine residents up to $500 per day for code
violations. In May, the county announced it had reached a
tentative settlement over the ordinance with the Salmon
Protection and Watershed Network, or SPAWN.
An irrigation district has urged the Ninth Circuit to overturn
a decision that it couldn’t step into the Yurok Tribe’s suit
over the U.S. government’s refusal to release water for a river
ceremony.
At first glance, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new water supply strategy
might suggest the projects he is proposing will create about 7
million acre-feet of new water, but a closer reading shows
that’s not quite true. If every proposed storage facility is
built, and the proposed water recycling and desalination
projects are also eventually completed, Newsom’s water supply
strategy will add about half that much. Even so, his plan is
timely and much needed, but making it happen will require
unprecedented compromises from California’s powerful
environmentalist lobby. -Written by Edward Ring, co-founder of
the California Policy Center, a libertarian think tank,
and the author of “The Abundance Choice – Our Fight for
More Water in California.”
In the mountains and foothills of California, an enduring
drought has depleted the state’s major reserves of water. …
But in the central Sierra Nevada, a trio of artificial lakes
remain flush with cold mountain water. The largest of them,
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, from which millions of Bay Area
residents receive water, is more than 80 percent full. … But
some environmental advocates are hardly cheering San
Francisco’s water conservation success. Instead, they’re
accusing the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission of
hoarding its water through an excessively conservative
management plan they say harms the environment and benefits
almost no one – not even the city dwellers who use the water.
Two top Democrats in Washington State have come out in favor of
eventually breaching four hydroelectric dams in the lower Snake
River to try to save endangered salmon runs, a contentious
option that environmentalists, tribes and business groups in
the region have argued over for decades. In recommendations
issued on Thursday, Senator Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee
provided their most definitive stance in the fight to save
salmon in the Columbia River basin and honor longstanding
treaties with tribal nations in the Pacific Northwest.
In the face of California’s megadrought, farmland across the
state is at a crossroads. Some land is now being repurposed to
make sure it’s viable for generations to come. We traveled to
the Central Valley for a closer look at so-called “rewilding.”
A withered and water-starved corn field is a snapshot of some
of the farmland of the future. … While the idea of
repurposing agricultural land is still taking shape in Tulare
County, it’s already showing promise 150 miles north, with the
largest floodplain restoration project in California at Dos
Rios Ranch.
Every spring and fall, Chinook salmon make their way from the
Pacific Ocean into the Klamath River, in Northern California.
Historically, their black-speckled bodies would swim upstream,
around the Cascade and Klamath mountain range and into the
Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon, before spawning in its major
tributaries. Since time immemorial, local tribes—the
Klamath, Karuk, Hoopa Valley, and Yurok—fished these waters.
The Chinook formed a vital part of the tribes’
culture, economy and food security. Since the early 20th
century, Chinook salmon numbers in the Klamath River—once
the third-largest salmon-producing river in the
United States—have fallen by more than 90 percent,
according to federal statistics.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has advanced the
nation’s largest dam-removal project, which could restore
flowing water to more than 400 miles of the Klamath River near
the California-Oregon line. FERC’s release Friday of its final
environmental impact statement reiterated its support for
removing the Lower Klamath Project’s four hydroelectric
dams. … Proponents of removing the four dams assert
that restoring the river will improve the health of species
like salmon, steelhead and lamprey, both by reopening spawning
habitat upstream and by reducing water temperatures that
contributed to disease in the fish.
In a single day in mid-August, the Shasta River’s flows dropped
by more than half and stayed there for a week, which could
jeopardize the salmon and other fish that spawn there…. The
State Water Resources Control Board ordered the Shasta River
Water Association, which serves roughly 110 farms and ranches
in central Siskiyou County, to stop pumping…. The
weeklong standoff crystallized a warning from California water
watchers: The state has limited power to speedily intervene in
urgent conflicts over water, which are expected to flare across
the state as drought squeezes water supplies for ranches,
farms, tribes, cities and fish.
The Shasta River Water Association appears to have resumed
compliance with water curtailment regulations set by the
California State Water Resources Control Board. Flow
measurements taken by the U.S. Geological Survey in Yreka on
Wednesday, Aug. 24 show a return to normal flow of about 50
cubic-feet-per-second. On Aug. 17 the SRWA sent a letter
to the state water board informing, “we will start pumping to
supply water to livestock as the weather is over 90 degrees.”
The water association, which serves farmers in the Shasta
Basin, also moved to fill about a dozen ponds, for the use of
fire suppression.
The Yurok and Karuk tribes have blown the whistle on ranchers
in Northern California who are defying state orders to curtail
water usage by diverting flow from the Shasta River, imperiling
already endangered salmon of the Klamath tributaries. The
tribes say the diversion led to a 37% decrease in Shasta River
flows, from 58 cubic feet per second to 36 in two hours on Aug.
17. The Shasta River Water Association’s diversion came days
after a fire-induced mudslide killed tens of thousands of fish
in a 60-mile reach of the Klamath River.
Millions of dollars in federal funding is beginning to flow
into the drought-stricken Klamath Basin that will be used for a
variety of projects to improve water quality, irrigation
efficiency and stabilize populations of endangered fish. The
U.S. Department of the Interior previously earmarked $162
million over five years for the basin. It comes from the $1.2
trillion infrastructure bill passed in 2021. Officials
announced the rollout of $26 million Tuesday, Aug. 23, calling
it an “historic” investment for the region that has endured
decades of conflict over water management for farms, ranches
and several species of endangered fish.
Stormwater runoff containing a toxic compound from automobile
tires that washes into streams is lethal to protected coho
salmon, Pacific steelhead, and Chinook salmon, according to new
research published today. In contrast, sockeye salmon seem
largely unaffected by the same compounds. The newly identified
risk to steelhead and Chinook salmon could help inform
mitigation efforts for construction and overhaul of highways on
the West Coast to ensure that future runoff is less lethal to
salmon and steelhead. Some western states have already begun
designing highways with inexpensive filtration measures shown
to protect salmon.
An environmental group is arguing that the city’s water agency
is taking too much water from the Sierra Nevadas, and that its
drought planning will wind up hoarding water unnecessarily and
hurting vulnerable river ecosystems. The group, Tuolomne
River Trust, says its pleadings have fallen on deaf ears up
until now. But with the state mulling the Bay Delta Water
Quality Control Plan, a plan that would reduce the city’s
rights to water from the Tuolomne River, the question of
whether San Francisco controls more than its fair share of
water is back up for discussion and spilled over into a meeting
of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on
Tuesday.
This past month was a major setback for California’s diverse
freshwater ecosystems. Drought preparedness bill AB 2451,
representing real hope for water scarcity, likely failed, and
Governor Newsom introduced a Water Supply Strategy that is an
important step but inadequate for the protection of freshwater
ecosystems – especially in the face of the ongoing climate
crisis. Here at CalTrout, we balance the needs of fish, water,
and people. We recognize that the California we know and love
is a functionally altered landscape.
Large reservoirs like those that rim the Central Valley are
essential for managing water in California’s highly variable
climate. They provide multiple benefits including water supply,
hydropower, flood management, and recreation. … California
needs a new approach for managing environmental water in its
large reservoirs, particularly as the climate warms and
droughts become more intense.
Last week, California Governor Newsom released his Water Supply
Strategy, which is intended to guide and improve the state’s
ability to adapt to a hotter, drier future. Leading cold-water
conservation groups California Trout (CalTrout) and Trout
Unlimited (TU) applauded the governor’s action but said the
strategy must also articulate how it will address the worsening
state of freshwater ecosystems, native fish populations, and
recreational and commercial fisheries. The strategy lays out a
number of proposed actions to increase water supply, including
developing new supplies, expanding storage capacity, reducing
demand and improving forecasting, data, and management,
including water rights modernization. Missing are actions to
restore and protect streams and water vital for salmon,
steelhead and trout.
Golf courses are highly managed landscapes, requiring constant
human intervention to maintain them in the form desired by
their users. But what would it take to convert a golf course
into a more natural state, one that is resilient to climate
change, benefits protected aquatic species, and meets the needs
of the human community of which it is a part? A former golf
course in Northern California’s Marin County is undergoing just
such a conversion, and the process is expected to result in the
restoration of critical habitat for imperiled fish species
while also providing a key link between multiple existing
preservation areas. Intensive hydrologic work will underpin
these efforts.
Another lawsuit was filed this week in the continuing saga of
the Potter Valley Project, a hydroelectric plant affecting the
Russian and Eel Rivers. PG&E is in the early stages
of surrendering control of the Project – a pair of dams, a
diversion tunnel, and a hydro-electric station along the Eel
River – and some groups are hoping the surrender will result in
California’s next dam removal project.
Just 290 spring Chinook migrated up the Klamath River this
year. While significantly below the longterm average, it was
the highest number since 2016, and a sign the population is
somewhat bouncing back after only 95 migrated upriver in 2021.
Shortly after those numbers were finalized, torrential rains in
the McKinney Fire area washed a slurry of ash, mud and debris
into the river. … But, representatives of the Karuk Tribe say
it appears the species dodged a bullet. When debris flowed into
the Klamath River, adult Chinook had already completed their
migration to tributaries nearby.
California’s Republican congressional delegation, led by House
GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has opened up a new
front in the state’s ongoing water wars, urging Gov. Gavin
Newsom to support the expansion of the Shasta
Dam. … The letter says that there has been no
“objective, scientific analysis” that raising the dam 18.5 feet
would impact the free-flowing condition of the McCloud. In
light of Newsom’s recently stated goal of increasing above-and
below-ground water storage by 3.7 million acre-feet, the letter
makes three recommendations to the governor.
Nearly 300 wild spring Chinook salmon made the 85-mile trip to
cool mountain waters for spawning this year, up from a mere 90
last year. While still far below, according to the Karuk Tribe
and Salmon River Restoration Council, the numbers were at least
moving in a positive direction. But soon after the count was
complete, disaster struck in the form of flash floods that sent
torrents of “silt, wood and other debris” into the South Fork
of the Salmon River in early August, “dropping the dissolved
oxygen in the water to dangerous levels, and threatening all
species of fish in the river,” a news release from the tribe
and council states.
A coalition of five conservation and fishing groups has filed a
lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
in federal court over alleged Endangered Species Act (ESA)
violations in operating the Potter Valley Project. The
hydropower project diverting flows from the Eel River to the
Russian River is set to be decommissioned, and FERC recently
approved Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)’s proposed 30-month
timeline for creating its final decommissioning plan. On
Aug. 15, Friends of the Eel River, California Trout, Trout
Unlimited, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations, and the Institute for Fisheries Resources sued
FERC in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the
court to modify the Annual License FERC recently issued for the
Potter Valley Project, in order to comply with the ESA.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic
landscape while learning 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.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
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.
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.
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 Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
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.
