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.
The final salmon egg taking of the season will be available for
the public to view at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery next week,
according to hatchery officials. Egg-taking combines eggs from
euthanized female fish with milt, which contains sperm, from
male salmon. The fertilized eggs are then submerged in a water
tank and later taken to a holding area in the hatchery to
continue the fertilization process. The egg-taking is done to
aid in the conservation of the species. … Although late
in the season, dozens of Chinook salmon can still be seen
swimming up the fish ladder at the hatchery’s visitor center.
After the conclusion of salmon spawning, the ladder will remain
open through the winter for the migration of steelhead trout.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, who also serve as the
Board of Directors for the Sonoma County Water Agency, voted
today to approve a Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement with
Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission to form the
Eel-Russian Project Authority. The new entity will have
the power to negotiate with the Pacific Gas and Electric
Company (PG&E) as the utility moves ahead with plans to
surrender operations of the Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project
and to decommission the Scott and Cape Horn dams on the Eel
River. The new authority will also have the legal capacity to
own, construct and operate a new water diversion facility near
the Cape Horn dam. … The Potter Valley Project,
currently owned and operated by PG&E, has been diverting
water from the Eel River into the Russian River watershed for
more than a century, playing a critical role in supplying water
for agriculture, homes, and instream flows to benefit aquatic
ecosystems and threatened salmonids in Mendocino and Sonoma
counties.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s
Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase. Updated and
redesigned, the easy-to-read overview comes as the
nation’s largest dam removal project is underway with the
first of four Klamath River hydropower dams
demolished this year. The Layperson’s Guide covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers. The
river’s vast watershed straddles Cailfornia and Oregon and
hosts one of the nation’s oldest and largest reclamation
projects.
Low-interest federal loans are now available in 31 California
counties to help small businesses impacted by the decision to
cancel this year’s commercial Chinook salmon season. The
Pacific Fishery Management Council canceled the 2023 fishing
season back in April, and on Nov. 29 the U.S. Small Business
Administration declared a disaster, which allows the government
to offer financial assistance to small businesses that have
suffered economic hardships as a result of the
cancelation. … The 4 percent-interest-rate loans are for
small businesses while there are 2.375 percent loans for
private nonprofit organizations. The loans feature terms
of up to 30 years and are restricted to small businesses
without the financial ability to offset the adverse impact
without hardship, according to Sonoma County officials.
Different utility, different river, similar process: Pacific
Gas & Electric is preparing to give up the two Eel River dams
of its Potter Valley Project, leading to their potential
demolition. PG&E recently filed papers to that effect with
FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The process is
similar to the one that has already removed one dam from the
Klamath River, with three more slated for demolition during
2024. Friends of the Eel River and the Pacific Coast Federation
of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) have joined other groups in
pushing for the removal of the dams from the Eel. Alicia Hamann
from the Friends group and Vivian Helliwell from PCFFA talk to
the JX about the steps ahead, which could take five years or
more.
On Tuesday, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced the
availability of up to $106 million in funding through
the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF)
for Pacific salmon and steelhead recovery and
conservation projects. This funding — which includes funding
from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)
and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — will support
state and tribal salmon restoration projects and activities to
protect, conserve and restore these fish populations and their
habitats. … The PCSRF program funds projects and activities
necessary for conservation of salmon and steelhead populations
listed as threatened or endangered or identified by a state as
at-risk to be listed; for maintaining populations necessary for
exercise of tribal treaty fishing rights or native subsistence
fishing; or for conservation of Pacific coastal salmon and
steelhead habitat.
When we meet with legislators and regulators we talk about the
Pacific Flyway, salmon and the hundreds of species of wildlife
that use rice. We also focus on the rural communities in the
Sacramento Valley that are so closely tied to our industry.
Everyone gets it. They understand that our rice fields are so
much more than the sushi rice they produce. What is harder, is
when we are asked how much rice we need in California to
support all these benefits. That is where the Rice Footprint
comes in. The Rice Footprint, an idea born in our
strategic planning, is a comprehensive effort to answer that
question – how many acres of rice and where, to continue to
provide all the needed habitat for the Pacific Flyway, rearing
and food resources for juvenile salmon and support our rural
communities.
Years of drought have taken a toll on the endangered coho
Salmon in Northern California, but a proposed waterline project
could help the fish population and a North Bay community. The
project would change how Muir Beach residents draw water. There
is also a major federal project down the road that could be a
roadblock, as conservationists say time is running out. For
resident Jim White, he waters his plants using collected
rainwater knowing every drop saved, means less water pumped out
from nearby Redwood Creek — the only source of water for the
residents of Muir Beach. The creek is important for coho
Salmon as well, as they travel upstream to spawn every year.
Every fall, Barry McCovey, a member of the Yurok Tribe and
director of tribal fisheries, takes his four children salmon
fishing on the Klamath River, the second largest river in
California. A strong salmon run normally nets his family 30 or
40 fish. … But this year, the predicted salmon run was the
second lowest since detailed records began in 1978, and the
fall fishing season was cancelled. The river’s salmon
population has declined due to myriad factors, but the biggest
culprit is believed to be a series of dams built
along the river from 1918 to 1962, cutting off fish migration
routes. Now, after decades of Indigenous advocacy, four of
the structures are being demolished as part of the largest dam
removal project in United States history. In November, crews
finished removing the first of the four dams as part of a push
to restore 644 kilometres (400 miles) of fish habitat.
The California Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the nation’s
largest agricultural district in its bid for a permanent water
contract with the Bureau of Reclamation. The state’s highest
court [last] Wednesday denied a request from the Westlands
Water District to reverse a series of lower court rulings
refusing to validate the contract, a decision that opponents of
the deal said will leave the Rhode Island-sized agricultural
district with little choice but to rely on temporary
agreements. … A coalition of Native Americans,
commercial and recreational fishermen, scientists, and
conservation groups had opposed the contract, saying there
needs to be more scrutiny about use of water in drought-plagued
California, as well as attention to impacts on fisheries.
In the Bay Area of California, home of San Francisco, San Jose,
Santa Clara County, and Silicon Valley a famous Pacific
resident is heading home for the holidays—up newly-cleaned
creeks to spawn. Who could have thought that the cradle of
21st-century civilization, with its problems and advancements,
would have space for wild river ecosystems capable of
supporting salmon runs? But here they are, reports KTVU, as
large as 30 pounds, as long as 35 inches, running up the
Guadalupe River Watershed by the hundreds.
… The South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition, a
non-profit responsible for the salmon’s return, removed 1.3
million pounds of trash from the creeks, from bottles and tires
to cars and mattresses.
Located in northern Mendocino County, Cedar Creek is an
important cold-water tributary to the South Fork Eel River. But
since the late 1940s a dam had been in place to supply water to
a now defunct fish hatchery. The Cedar Creek hatchery dam, only
a few hundred feet from the South Fork Eel River, impeded fish
access to most of the creek’s prime habitat. In 2022, CalTrout
and our partners removed this dam on Cedar Creek, increasing
access to approximately nine miles of high-quality habitat
previously inaccessible to juvenile salmon and steelhead. In an
exciting development, CalTrout staff observed juvenile coho
salmon in Cedar Creek above the former dam site.
Tribal nations have a complicated relationship with the 1973
Endangered Species Act. Tribal governments have used the ESA on
behalf of imperiled, culturally important species, litigating
over dams that block salmon migration and securing funding to
reintroduce protected species on their lands. But beyond
Alaskan Native subsistence hunting rights, the law does not
acknowledge tribal sovereignty. How, or even if, it affects
treaty hunting rights and other aspects of sovereignty remains
a disputed question. The Endangered Species Act can be “both
sword and shield for tribes,” said Monte Mills, director of the
Native American Law Center at the University of Washington.
Many people understand that dams kill salmon — but what about
tires? Most would be surprised to learn that our tires produce
the second-most toxic chemical to aquatic species ever
evaluated. Yet despite the lethal threat to aquatic species
like Endangered Species Act-protected salmon and steelhead,
tire manufacturers continue to rely on a dangerous chemical
called 6PPD. Earlier this month, our two groups
representing Pacific coastal fishing-dependent communities
filed suit against 13 of the largest U.S. tire manufacturers to
help change that. -Written by Glen Spain, the Northwest regional director for
the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
The U.S. government is willing to help build enough new clean
energy projects in the Pacific Northwest to replace the
hydropower generated by four controversial dams on the Snake
River, according to a leaked Biden administration document that
is giving hope to conservationists who have long sought the
removal of the dams as a key to restoring depleted salmon runs.
Still, Congress would have to agree before any of the Lower
Snake River dams in Washington state are removed, and that’s
unlikely to happen in the near future. The document is a draft
agreement to uphold 168-year-old treaties with four tribes in
the Pacific Northwest that preserved their right to harvest
fish in the river, among other things. … Conservation
groups and tribes sued the federal government in an
effort to save the struggling fisheries, and both sides
notified the court earlier this fall they were close to
reaching an agreement that could put the the lawsuit on hold.
A $2.5 million grant has been awarded to the state Department
of Water Resources to design a berm removal project to
create floodplain and tidal marsh habitat in the Yolo Bypass.
It is part of $144 million in grants awarded toward 109
projects in 31 states through the National Coastal Resilience
Fund by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The funding
source is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. … The Yolo
Bypass project has the goals of improving flood
conveyance, increasing groundwater recharge, promoting
recreational opportunities and enhancing fish and wildlife
habitat, the foundation stated. This grant completes
funding for project design “to restore 700 acres of floodplain
and 250 acres of wetland through berm removal and site
excavation, create 700 acres of floodwater storage, and
increase groundwater recharge potential producing quality
habitat for salmonids.”
Bay Area waterways are seeing incredible numbers and sizes of
Chinook salmon. Some of them are being seen in areas right by
homes and major roads. The fish can be seen just under a bridge
on Branham Lane in San Jose. The South Bay Clean Creeks
Coalition has been tracking them in South Bay waterways for
more than 10 years. ABC7 News tagged along with Steve Holmes,
the coalition’s founder and executive director as he worked to
track down carcasses. … Holmes and the coalition take
the heads off of the fish and send them off to UC Davis where
work is done to determine where they came from. Holmes
said it was once believed that fish in these urban waterways
came from hatcheries, but the research they’re helping is
proving that many are not.
In April 2020, the world is in lockdown as the coronavirus
pandemic rages on. But in the foothills at the south end of
Oregon’s Coast Range mountains, resource extraction is going
full speed ahead. On Kenyon Mountain in eastern Coos County,
about 50 miles from the Pacific Ocean, a crew of loggers is
chopping down 51 acres of old-growth and mature trees. Some of
these trees have been alive since George Washington was
president, based on a count of rings on the stump.
… Kenyon Mountain is located near the juncture of two
ancient geological formations: the Coast Range to the north,
which emerged about sixty million years ago during the
Paleocene age; and the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains to the south
and east, which originated 400 million years ago in the
Jurassic period.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been positioning himself as a global
climate leader this year, evangelizing California
environmentalism in China and at the United Nations. But at
home, he is increasingly at loggerheads with leading
environmentalists. Environmental groups and tribes say the
governor’s plan to protect water supply from climate change
will exacerbate existing ecological devastation and
irreversibly damage the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the
central hub of the state’s water system. While this
relationship has been fraying for years, a new fault line
opened this month when Newsom used newfound authority to fast
track approval for the largest proposed piece of concrete water
infrastructure to be built by the state in decades.
On Nov. 3, 2023, the U.S. Forestry Service temporarily
interrupted the water flow to Taylor Creek from the Fallen Leaf
Lake dam for three days. This raised concern from community
members regarding the spawning kokanee salmon and the future of
their eggs. University of Nevada, Reno Professor Sudeep Chandra
says the flow into the lake also attracts kokanee to the stream
for spawning and that while this interruption could impact
reproduction, another concern is ensuring warm water invasive
fish species don’t move across the ecosystem, becoming fully
established in Taylor Creek and Fallen Leaf Lake.
… Last week, the East Bay Municipal Utility District
announced a record-breaking fall salmon run in the Mokelumne
River … According to EBMUD, over 20,000 salmon have already
returned to spawn in the river this year, a figure not seen in
80 years of record-keeping. … Yet salmon observers
across the state say the record-breaking numbers are unlikely
to be a step toward large, more sustainable salmon populations.
Instead, the salmon in the Mokelumne this year could just be
the fleeting appearance of progress in developed, modern river
systems that don’t prioritize the fish’s success.
… A series of hydroelectric dams had altered the Klamath’s
flow more than a century ago, creating an unnatural system that
left fish and people high and dry. … But the
6,500-member Yurok Tribe and its neighbors in the Klamath River
Basin still had cause to celebrate: They had won a 20-year-long
struggle to demolish four decommissioned hydroelectric dams in
the middle basin. That massive project, the largest in U.S.
history, is ongoing and expected to be completed sometime in
early 2025.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), in
an August 2023 Assessment, provided a status
review of spring-run Chinook salmon in California’s Central
Valley. The Assessment found that salmon are declining,
but primarily as part of a short-term trend, under the burden
of climate change. The conclusions of the August
Assessment stand in stark contrast to October’s condor-like
effort to preserve remaining wild spring-run salmon in a
conservation hatchery at UC Davis. This contrast
demonstrates the limitations of the federal and state resource
agencies’ focus on climate change and the ocean as the cause of
the salmon declines and the reason to shut down
fisheries.1 The resource agencies need to direct more
attention to controllable elements: water operations. On
that level, they must take immediate action, before another one
of California’s most important public trust resources is lost.
More than three years after a wildfire devastated Big Basin
Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the massive
redwood trees in California’s oldest state park continue to
recover with surprising speed. But some wildlife species,
particularly salmon and steelhead trout in the park’s streams,
and some types of birds, are still struggling and could take
many years to bounce back. That was the conclusion of
researchers who spoke at a recent scientific symposium
exploring how Big Basin is faring in the wake of the 2020 CZU
Lightning Complex Fire. The best news: The park’s famed
old-growth redwoods, some of which tower more than 250 feet and
date back more than 1,500 years, are nearly all green again,
showing significant amounts of new growth after the wildfire’s
flames charred their bark black and for a while gave them a
doomed appearance.
More than 30 years ago, a piece of federal legislation dropped
like a bomb on California’s Central Valley farmers.
Reverberations from that legislation continue through today.
Just last month, a San Joaquin Valley congressman added
language to an appropriations bill that would unwind a key
portion of the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act
(CVPIA). … One of its cornerstones was that 800,000 acre
feet of water per year would be carved out of supplies that had
been sent to towns and farms and redirect it to the environment
instead. Specifically, the legislation hoped to save salmon
populations, which had been crashing. Thirty-one years later,
salmon are still on the brink. Now, Republican lawmakers
are trying to get rid of the environmental protections in the
CVPIA for good.
A record number of over 20,000 fall-run Chinook salmon
have returned to the Mokelumne River, a tributary of the
San Joaquin River in the Central Valley, despite relatively low
returns on some other Central Valley rivers. The fish are now
returning from the ocean in a year where all salmon fishing was
closed in California’s rivers and ocean waters, due to the
projected low abundance of Sacramento and Klamath River
fall-run Chinook salmon. Fishery managers and salmon advocates
are keeping a close eye on this fall’s spawning escapement.
A habitat restoration project in the lower Yuba River is
complete. The project not only helps the local fish population
but also those who live along the river’s banks.”The Hallwood
Fish Habitat Project” restored the natural flow of the
Yuba River after decades of collecting debris from hydraulic
mining during the Gold Rush. Aaron Zettler-Mann, executive
director of the South Yuba River Citizens League, said he’s
proud of the project and the flood plain it’s
created. ”Prior to this project, really, the Yuba River
was characterized by training walls, so massive piles roughly
80 feet tall of just aggregate,” Zettler-Mann said.
California water agencies say they have nearly secured $4.5
billion in funding needed to build the state’s largest
reservoir in nearly a century, Sites Reservoir, as a state
environmental review process for the project comes to a rapid
close after decades of delay. … Approving it would mark a key
procedural milestone and official green light for construction
scheduled to begin in 2026.
A November 1, 2023 article, originally published in High
Country News and later posted in Maven’s Notebook, describes
the practice of trucking juvenile salmon from hatcheries for
release in salt water as a “culprit,” stating: According
to a growing body of scientific evidence, it’s also the reason
that many salmon are getting lost on their way back to their
birth rivers, placing the future resilience of the species at
risk … What the article doesn’t say is that juvenile
salmon released directly in San Francisco Bay or San Pablo Bay,
or in the ocean, are as much as ten to a hundred times more
likely to live to spawn as are juvenile fish released near
their hatcheries of origin.
For several decades, many coho salmon returning to waterways
around Seattle to spawn have died mysteriously following heavy
rains. In some urban streams, nearly all of the coho returning
from the ocean died. It wasn’t until 2021 that scientists
figured out what was behind what they called “urban runoff
mortality syndrome,” and it was not until this month that
federal regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency moved
to do something about it. The EPA on Nov. 2 said it would
consider an August petition from the California-based Yurok
Tribe and the Washington-based Port Gamble S’Klallam and
Puyallup tribes, calling for a ban of the chemical 6PPD-q. It’s
used in car tires to keep them from cracking and degrading, but
as tires wear down, they shed particles containing the chemical
into stormwater and streams.
California’s state government began drawing up plans for Sites
Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley 70 years ago. And it still
only exists on paper. So, kudos to Gov. Gavin Newsom for
deciding that it’s finally time to put this tardy project on
the fast track. Fast track means there’ll be limited time for
any opponent to contest the project in court on environmental
grounds. Newsom used a new law he pushed through the
Legislature in June aimed at making it easier to build
transportation, clean energy and water infrastructure by
expediting lawsuits under the California Environmental Quality
Act. -Written by LA Times columnist George Skelton.
A possible record run of fall-run Chinook salmon is now
returning to the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery.
In contrast, the Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle
Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento, is reporting
the second lowest return of fall-run Chinooks in many
years. The fish are now returning from the ocean in a year
where all salmon fishing was closed in California’s rivers and
ocean waters, due to the projected low abundance of Sacramento
and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon, so fishery managers
and salmon advocates are keeping a close eye on this fall’s
spawning escapement.
The 13 largest U.S. tire manufacturers are facing a lawsuit
from a pair of California commercial fishing organizations that
could force the companies to stop using a chemical added to
almost every tire because it kills migrating salmon. Also found
in footwear, synthetic turf and playground equipment, the
rubber preservative 6PPD has been used in tires for 60 years.
As tires wear, tiny particles of rubber are left behind on
roads and parking lots, breaking down into a byproduct,
6PPD-quinone, that is deadly to salmon, steelhead trout and
other aquatic wildlife when rains wash it into rivers.
… The Institute for Fisheries Resources and the Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations filed the lawsuit
in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday against
Goodyear, Bridgestone, Continental and others.
In July 2022, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe as well as several fish
and wildlife agencies celebrated the reintroduction of Chinook
salmon to the McCloud River in far Northern California for the
first time since World War II. That was when federal officials
removed Winnemem Wintu people from their ancestral homes along
the river and erected the 602-foot Shasta Dam, blocking the
salmon’s migration path and flooding 27 miles of the lower
McCloud. Because mother salmon couldn’t swim up the river
to dig their nests, called redds, agency staff trucked and
helicoptered fertilized salmon eggs from a Sacramento River
hatchery to the remote, mountainous site on the McCloud
River.
California has hundreds of outdated dams, small and large, that
no longer serve a function. These obsolete dams litter our
rivers and streams, block fish passage, and create costly
liabilities to communities. We need to accelerate our pace of
dam removal as a nature-based strategy for restoring freshwater
systems and preparing for increasing threats from climate
change. Dam removal fits nicely within California’s effort to
protect 30 percent of its land and coastal waters by 2030
(30×30). After all, rivers and streams connect the land to the
coast and along the way, they provide critical habitat for fish
and wildlife, drinking water for towns and cities, irrigation
water for farmers and ranchers, first foods and important
ceremonial spaces for Indigenous Peoples, and recreational
opportunities for many. -Written by Julie Turrini, director of Lands, Rivers,
and Communities at Resources Legacy Fund where she leads
the Open Rivers Fund.
The Office of Habitat Conservation’s Restoration
Center has awarded an unprecedented $27.8 million to
its partners through the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law and Inflation Reduction Act to bring Central
California Coast coho salmon back to California rivers. NOAA
designated CCC coho as a Species in the Spotlight due
to its high risk of extinction. Trout Unlimited,
the San Mateo and Gold Ridge Resource
Conservation Districts, and The Nature
Conservancy will implement or design more than 40 projects
over the next 3 to 4 years with these funds. … When NOAA
Fisheries Biologist Erin Seghesio was growing up, her
grandfather told her how he could feed his whole family by
fishing for coho salmon in California’s Russian River. Today,
she is the Recovery Coordinator for the federally endangered
CCC coho salmon.
In the shadow of the nation’s largest dam removal effort — the
dismantling of four dams on the Lower Klamath River —
ecologists are focused on an intensive rebuilding project that
will spring from 20 billion seeds. Restoration crews are
preparing to begin planting new vegetation on 2,200 acres of
soon-to-be-exposed reservoir beds and along up to 60 miles of
the reconfigured waterway. Starting next year, they will begin
to sow billions of native seeds across Oregon and California,
recreating the landscape that once bordered the river.
Living the good life has often meant finding ways to allow for
growth and construction while ostensibly protecting the natural
environment on which we depend. Want to build a housing
development, but there’s a wetland in the way? Mitigate the
harm by building a new one somewhere else. Want to dam a river,
but there’s a salmon run in the way? Build fish passage around
the dam. If that’s not feasible, build a hatchery instead.
… Unfortunately, these creative approaches often fail.
Constructed wetlands fail to reproduce the essential
hydrologic or biodiversity or other functions of natural
wetlands. Fish passage fails to get enough fish up
and down stream to keep populations viable.
Hatcheries can’t sustain fisheries over the long term
in the same way that habitat can.
U.S. regulators say they will review the use of a chemical
found in almost every tire after a petition from West Coast
Native American tribes, including one in Northern California,
that want it banned because it kills salmon as they return from
the ocean to their natal streams to spawn. The Yurok tribe in
Northern California and the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Puyallup
tribes in Washington asked the Environmental Protection Agency
to prohibit the rubber preservative 6PPD earlier this year,
saying it kills fish — especially coho salmon — when rains wash
it from roadways into rivers. Washington, Oregon, Vermont,
Rhode Island and Connecticut also wrote the EPA, citing the
chemical’s “unreasonable threat” to their waters and fisheries.
The feud over the flow of water in California is as old as the
state itself. The regional debate continues over whose needs
for the precious resource should take priority. The latest
exchange will take place in the upcoming State Water Resource
Control Board (SWRCB) hearings on Phase 2 of the Bay Delta
Plan. SWRCB will be considering updates to its Plan for the
Bay-Delta over the next year or so. State Water Board staff
released a series of documents in September that describe the
process to evaluate alternatives and other supporting
documents. The public will have the opportunity to comment over
the next several months. It is anticipated that the SWRCB will
consider those comments and adopt the Bay-Delta Plan Update in
late 2024, after considering the alternatives and their
environmental effects.
Federal environmental regulators have granted a petition to
develop regulations addressing a vehicle tire compound that,
when it reacts with the air and mixes with water, kills coho
and other salmonids. The petition was submitted by three West
Coast tribes last summer, and in response the Environmental
Protection Agency announced it will publish an advance notice
of proposed rulemaking around the chemicals 6PPD and
6PPD-quinone by fall 2024, according to a notice.
This week, crews put the final touches on the removal of the
Copco No. 2 Dam and its diversion infrastructure. Removal of
the dam structure was completed in September, and crews spent
the last month removing the remaining diversion infrastructure,
grading the river channel, and performing erosion control. This
work prepares the river canyon for consistent river flows,
likely commencing within 30 days, which the canyon hasn’t seen
in 98 years. Currently, flows in the canyon are
fluctuating due to work being done to prepare Copco No. 1 for
drawdown. … The remaining three dams, Copco No. 1, Iron
Gate, and JC Boyle are slated for removal next year.
Researchers at Oregon State University have concluded that a
large-scale dam removal and restoration project currently
underway on the Klamath River in southern Oregon and northern
California will help salmon populations, according to college
officials. The college said a group of scientists published
their findings in a new paper that concludes salmon populations
devastated by disease and other factors will be aided by the
removal of four hydroelectric dams along the river. The project
will not, however, fully alleviate challenges faced by the
species, OSU said.
Shasta Reservoir – the anchor of the Central Valley Project –
is at a critical point in its history. Long relied upon for
water supply and power, the iconic dam and reservoir are beset
by factors that strain the foundation of its long-standing
operation. Drought, a struggling winter-run Chinook salmon
population and competing regulatory requirements have
compelled Reclamation and its many partners to undertake
a revised management strategy that acknowledges the
complexities of today in manner that is novel and more
inclusive. With a storage capacity of more than 4.5 million
acre-feet, Shasta can hold a significant amount of water. But
the capriciousness of California’s weather can push the
reservoir into crisis mode within just one water year.
Across California’s Central Valley, more and more salmon are
getting lost as they migrate back to their spawning grounds.
The culprit is a conservation tactic meant to help save them —
and it all starts at the hatcheries. … In California’s
Central Valley, one tactic has drawn particular attention:
packing young salmon into trucks and physically hauling them
downstream. … In a 2019 study published in the
journal Fisheries, researchers found that the farther
salmon were trucked from their birthplace, the more likely they
were to wander into a different river when they came back.
The number of salmon returning to Battle Creek for spawning
this year is some of the lowest in decades. Staff at the
Coleman National Fish Hatchery say the numbers likely mean it
will take years before populations recover. According to the
project lead of the hatchery, Brett Galyean, this year, only
5,000 Chinook Salmon returned to spawn. A sharp drop from the
10,000 last year and the second-lowest the hatchery has seen in
two decades. Galyean says the low number of salmon returning
will make it harder to collect the 12 million eggs they hope to
get that would let them release a large generation of smelts in
the spring of 2024.
The Klamath River Basin was once one
of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed
teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived
alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly
from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper
Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the
Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty,
redwood-lined finish.
This tour explored 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 explored 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.
Butte Creek, a tributary of the
Sacramento River, begins less than 50 miles northeast of Chico,
California and is named after nearby volcanic plateaus or
“buttes.” The cold, clear waters of the 93-mile creek sustain the
largest naturally spawning wild population of spring-run chinook salmon in the Central Valley.
Several other native fish species are found in Butte Creek,
including Pacific lamprey and Sacramento pikeminnow.
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 Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
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 River Basin is one of the West’s most important and
contentious watersheds.
The watershed, which bisects California and Oregon, is unusual.
Unlike many major western rivers, the Klamath does not originate
in snowcapped mountains but rather a high desert plateau. It’s
considered an “upside-down river” because of its unusual
geography.
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.
