Left to right: Mike Berry
(DFG), Chip Stalica & Liv Imset (PG&E), Steve Gilmore (BCWC),
Glenn
Graham (Shasta-Trinity Fly Fishers), Steve Tussing & Tom Knight
(BCWC) and Tricia Parker (USFWS)
On May 20, 2008, members
of the Greater Battle Creek Watershed Working Group toured sites in
the Battle Creek watershed. The group included representatives from
BCWC, DFG, NOAA, PG&E, Shasta-Trinity Fly Fishers, The Nature
Conservancy and USFWS. The objectives of the field trip were to learn
how conservation easements help preserve wildlife habitat and promote
watershed health and to tour the DFG State Trout Hatchery at Darrah
Springs.
The group gathers at Asbury
Pumping Station, where flow from Darrah Springs
hatchery is diverted into the Coleman Canal
Left to right: Glenn Graham (Shasta-Trinity
Fly Fishers), Steve Gilmore, Steve Tussing &
Tom Knight (BCWC), Jake Jacobson and Rich Reiner (TNC) and Tricia
Parker (USFWS) |
Conservation Easements
Jake Jacobson and Rich Reiner
of The Nature Conservancy led the group to a cattle ranch near Baldwin
Creek in the Battle Creek watershed where TNC has acquired a conservation
easement. They explained that TNC believes well-managed cattle grazing
programs promote biodiversity because without grazing, invasive
species such as medusa head and star thistle will take over and
displace native species. Only winter grazing is allowed on this
ranch, so cattle are removed before the blue oak leafs out in the
spring. They said that TNC considers conservation easements to be
the "biggest tool to protect land".
With their mission to protect
global biodiversity, The
Nature Conservancy is the largest
owner of nature preserves in the world. Eighty thousand acres in the
Lassen
Foothills Project have been purchased
by TNC or have TNC conservation easements.
Rich and Jake stressed that TNC
never files lawsuits to stop development. They work with individual
owners to negotiate agreements customized to fit each property. Though
the terms of the easements in the Lassen Foothills vary, they include
restrictions on subdivisions, tree cutting (unless diseased) and rock
picking. Selling rock can be quite lucrative for landowners, but TNC
believes it is important to preserve the natural landscape.
Rich Reiner (2nd from left)
displays a map of TNC easements and holdings within the Lassen Foothills
Project area
(MOUSE OVER PHOTO FOR MORE INFORMATION
ABOUT THE LASSEN FOOTHILLS PROJECT)
Jake told the group that conservation
easements are recorded and must be adhered to into perpetuity, whether
the land is sold or is passed to future generations. There are special
cases in which the terms may be amended, but Jake warned that changing
the terms of the easement is a complex process with possible I. R.S.
implications for the landowner.
There is a one-time payment for
conservation easements. A real estate appraiser determines what the
value of a particular ranch would be with and without easement restrictions.
The price paid is typically 40% of the value of the land, but the
more restrictions that are imposed in the terms of the easement, the
higher the value of that easement.
Easement properties are monitored
annually, and more often if need be. Though TNC easements are purchased
in part with public funds, the properties are typically not open to
public access. Hunting and fishing may be allowed at the owner's discretion
with some TNC restrictions like the number of rods allowed in the
river per day. Non-native fish cannot be stocked without prior approval
of TNC, and no exotic plants or animals can be brought onto the property.
TNC does allow for limited landscaping around homes however.
Darrah Springs State
Fish Hatchery
The group met with Linda Radford,
DFG Regional Hatchery Manager of Darrah Springs State Fish Hatchery,
and her staff for a very interesting tour of the facility.
Linda Radford, DFG Regional Hatchery
Manager (left), leads tour of Darrah
Springs State Fish Hatchery
Darrah Springs raises several varieties of
trout, including rainbow, Lahonton, cut throat and Eagle Lake trout.
Eagle Lake trout are a unique subspecies of trout that are related
to both rainbow trout and cutthroat trout. The Eagle Lake trout
strain raised at Darrah Springs Hatchery tolerates the lake's high
akali content. Similar to rainbow trout, Eagle Lake trout have 58
chromosomes.
The hatchery supplies an average of 430,000
lbs of trout annually to waters throughout the state of California.
Funding for the operation is provided by the Hatchery
and Inland Fisheries Fund,
(Assembly Bill 7) with its major revenue source being sport fishing
license fees. Darrah Springs is specifically
geared toward raising trout for DFG's recreational catchable trout
program. The parents of these fish are kept in captivity for several
years. The fish raised from these eggs are stocked into lakes and
streams for recreational angling; these fish are not intended to
reproduce naturally. (This is very different from the federal hatchery
in lower Battle Creek. Anadromous salmon and steelhead that are
released from Coleman National Fish Hatchery have parents who recently
migrated upstream 250 miles from the ocean. This hatchery is a mitigation
hatchery to make up for the 200 miles of natural salmon/steelhead
spawning habitat lost when Shasta Dam was constructed.)
Darrah Springs produces about 25 to 30 cfs
year-round, with average temperatures of 56 - 57 degrees F. While
these temperatures make it ideal for growth, it is too warm for
spawning. The brood fish are kept at the facility but are sent to
Mt. Shasta Hatchery to spawn. Darrah Springs keeps the brood females
for an average of 5 years but the males are rotated out more often.
Embryos hatching at Darrah
Springs |
A nursery tank at Darrah Springs
With 60 ponds,
32 nursery tanks, and a 120-trough hatchery building,
there are about 2 million fish at the hatchery at any given time.
Ponds at Darrah Springs each hold 50,000 trout
