By John Bowman
Siskiyou Daily News
December 23, 2011

Scott Valley —

Preliminary data from the California Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Scott River fish counting weir indicate that this year’s return of adult coho salmon to the Scott River is substantially higher than expected.

As of Dec. 13, 344 coho had passed through the weir on their way upstream to their spawning grounds in Scott Valley. The weir is located 18 miles from the Scott River’s confluence with the Klamath River and some portion of the run may spawn in areas downstream of that location.

A joint press release issued by the Siskiyou Resource Conservation District (RCD) and the Scott River Water Trust (SRWT) said, “This season’s surprisingly higher return of coho salmon to the Scott River is generating lots of local excitement.”

The release said that this year’s return “represents a significant increase over the 62 fish counted when this brood year last returned three years ago in 2008.”

Gary Black, contractor and former senior project manager with the RCD, said in the release that he believes the higher fish returns are due in part to restoration efforts by Scott Valley landowners.

“The Scott Valley community should be proud of the unexpectedly higher coho return because measures taken by its residents have helped the stream habitat in the Scott River and tributaries to become much better than it was 10-15 years ago,” Black said.

This year’s run has peaked and is now dwindling, but the Siskiyou RCD and DFG will continue to conduct several more field surveys to document the remainder of the run to its conclusion.

The surveys performed upstream of the weir – in the valley – are primarily intended to gather data on spawning distribution since those fish have already been counted by the video-monitored weir.

Surveys conducted in the canyon reaches of the river – downstream of the weir – will provide limited fish counts of coho that have not passed through the weir, in addition to providing spawning distribution data.

Klamath River coho salmon were listed as a threatened species in 1997 under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and in 2005 under the California ESA.

Since then, survival and restoration of the species has been a key issue at the heart of several local environmental projects.

Some environmental activism groups have focused on disconnected surface flows in the Scott River, claiming the condition is a major obstacle to coho survival, while local property and water rights activists have insisted that the dwindling numbers are a natural occurrence.

Several Scott River tributaries are still disconnected from the river, rendering them inaccessible to coho spawners. However, Shackleford, Shackleford-Mill, French and Miner’s creeks, as well as the south fork of the Scott River, have been connected this season.

“The rain that occurred Nov. 18 was enough to provide access through the mainstem as far upstream as the confluence of the East Fork/South Fork,” Danielle Yokel of the Siskiyou RCD said. “It appears that the extended dry fall and relatively small amount of rain in November presented difficulties in accessing Patterson, Etna and Kidder creeks, which have large alluvial fans that flow sub-surface during the summer months.”

These tributaries are among those still disconnected.

“Despite the dry weather, coho distribution seems to be throughout most of the watershed, with coho being able to utilize the prime spawning/rearing habitat available in Shackleford-Mill and French-Miners Creeks,” Yokel added.

According to Yokel, coho spawning likely also occurred in the mainstem Scott River, where several carcasses were recovered.

Yokel also believes that juveniles will have the opportunity to re-distribute into suitable summer habitat during the spring run-off period.

DFG Biologist Morgan Knechtle told the Daily News he thinks it’s safe to say that improved Klamath River conditions in the spring of 2010, when this year’s juveniles were out-migrating, did contribute to a higher survival rate for this brood year.

Knechtle added that more favorable ocean conditions were probably a contributing factor, as well.

Though DFG staff members have not finished reviewing videos from the Shasta River counting weir, Knechtle said that so far, it does not appear that the increase in coho will be as substantial on that river this year.

By Matt Weiser
Sacramento Bee
December 25, 2011

The salmon came back.

After four long years of record-low numbers, the fall-run chinook salmon population surged back from the ocean this year, once again filling the Sacramento Valley's rivers on their spawning run.

Hatcheries on the American River, the Feather River and Battle Creek – the region's three largest – saw the return of more than double the number of fish in 2010, and five times as many as in 2009.

Anglers, wounded by the unprecedented cancellation of fishing seasons in 2008 and 2009, are back on the water. Local salmon is back on dinner menus.

Maybe most important of all, the rivers seem to have life again.

"There was plenty of fish out there," said Don Herrold, a Rancho Cordova resident who has fished for salmon in the American River for more than 50 years. "It felt great. It's part of our heritage here in Sacramento."

This year's local fishing season, which started in July, draws to a close this month.

Herrold said he caught 10 salmon this season, mostly near the mouth of the American River. Three weighed over 30 pounds. He smoked the fish himself and gave some to his wife's hairdresser, manicurist and their house cleaner.

"I had a very, very good season," Herrold said. "I know the bait shops really benefited. You could tell because you would go in to buy your favorite lure and the walls would be empty."

J.D. Richey, a Sacramento fishing guide, had a bounty of clients again as anglers satisfied a pent-up demand for salmon.

"It was the best salmon fishing we've seen in 10 years. It was fabulous," said Richey. "It felt like we had vibrant rivers again."

But make no mistake, it is still a tenuous existence for Central Valley salmon. Cut off from thousands of miles of their historic habitat by dams, the species now depends largely on hatcheries.

Rather than swimming into mountain streams, most of the run now ends up in the hatcheries, built to atone for the dams. There, males and females are killed and cut open, and their eggs and sperm mixed artificially.

The resulting young salmon, or fry, are reared in tanks until they reach fingerling size. Most are then hauled in trucks to San Pablo Bay to help them avoid the pollution, predators and water diversion pumps in the Delta.

The Pacific Ocean is their home for the next two to four years, when the fish are mysteriously compelled to swim back into fresh water.

Ocean's health improves

The decline in the salmon population in recent years likely resulted from a combination of drought and poor ocean conditions. This deprived young salmon, first, of freshwater habitat and, second, of food in the ocean once they got there.

The three-year drought also cast a spotlight on water management challenges in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which provides drinking water to 25 million Californians. The state learned it may not have enough water to serve both its people and fish.

"The lesson you get from this year is that, when you get a lot of water in the system, the fish really respond," said Peter Moyle, a fisheries biologist at the University of California, Davis, who has studied the region's salmon for decades. "And it wasn't just salmon. Everything responded."

Last winter made all the difference. Bountiful rain and snow delivered enough water to fill the state's reservoirs and provide ample flow for fish migration.

At the same time, the ocean improved with normal upwelling conditions that brought nutrients up from cold, deep water to charge the food chain. The large number of dolphins and whales in coastal waters provided one of the most spectacular pieces of proof.

"The ocean looks better than I've ever seen it," said Larry Collins, a commercial salmon and crab fisherman and president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association. "I'm thinking next year could be big. We're really hoping."

That hope rests on the fact that a large share of the spawning salmon this year were 2-year-old fish.

Salmon normally spawn at 3 or 4 years old. The high number of 2-year-olds in the mix usually suggests an even greater number are still in the ocean and will spawn as 3-year-olds the following year.

About half the spawning fish at the three large hatcheries were 2-year-olds this year, an unusually large percentage.

"It was impressive looking out on the fish ladder at times to see all the fish that were stacked up," said Brett Galyean, deputy manager of the Coleman National Hatchery on Battle Creek. "Hopefully we can keep going on this upward trend for a while and enjoy the ride."

Hatcheries' role grows

This year's abundance is still a far cry from historical conditions, when the run regularly included hundreds of thousands of salmon. And though there were more fish this year, anglers noticed most were on the small side.

The shortages in recent years spurred important research on the salmon population, much of it ongoing.

One important realization is that Central Valley salmon have become largely a hatchery-dependent species.

The state has begun tagging 25 percent of all hatchery salmon with coded wires. Recovered when the fish return as adults to spawn, the tags provide initial indications that as much as 80 percent of the fall run is composed of hatchery-raised fish.

A new emphasis is being placed on creating more wild spawning habitat. Gravel beds are being restored below the dams, and fish ladders are being built so salmon can again access old habitat above the dams.

The Nevada Irrigation District, serving Nevada, Placer and Yuba counties, last month completed a new fish ladder at its Lincoln Gauging Station, a small dam on Auburn Ravine. Salmon now have access to an additional mile of spawning habitat there.

Similar projects are being considered for larger dams in the region. But because of the cost of large fish ladders, salmon might be trucked around these dams in the years to come.

Hatchery and water management practices are also getting close scrutiny in order to boost fish survival.

This fall, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation closed its Delta Cross Channel Gates near Walnut Grove during a crucial part of the spawning run. The goal was to prevent Mokelumne River salmon from getting lost on their run.

The gates, built in the 1950s, have historically been left open during the run to provide fresh water for urban and agricultural diversions.

At the same time, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which operates Pardee Reservoir upstream, released water in special pulse flows to help provide salmon with migratory cues.

The Mokelumne River Hatchery also began releasing its juvenile salmon at Sherman Island, near the Delta's western edge, rather than in the Central Delta. The goal is to protect the fish from predators during their outward migration.

These measures apparently worked. This year, 15,849 adult salmon returned to the Mokelumne hatchery, three times more than last year and far more than the dismal 234 fish that returned in 2008.

"It seems to be working quite well," said William Smith, the Mokelumne hatchery manager. "We are definitely rebounding."

By John Bowman
Siskiyou Daily News
December 21, 2011

Yreka, Calif. —
The Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) and Roseburg Resources Company have secured $7.8 million in state funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board for PFT to purchase a working forest conservation easement on 8,230 acres of forested watershed supplying flows to the Sacramento Delta.
The grant funding finalizes the agreement between Roseburg and the PFT and “will help secure forests, water and jobs key to the economic health of the struggling Northern California timber region,” according to a Dec. 13 press release issued by the PFT.

The conservation area, known as the Bear Creek Working Forest, straddles the border of Siskiyou and Shasta counties southeast of McCloud, though the majority of the land falls within Shasta County.The grant awarded on Dec. 8 will allow the PFT to purchase the conservation easement from Roseburg Resources, which will continue to own and manage the Bear Creek lands in accordance with the easement’s terms. Working forest conservation easements are designed to keep forestland in private ownership and productive use while preventing it from being developed or converted to other non-forest uses.

In addition to protecting the tract of land from non-forest development, it will ensure the permanent conservation of the upper Bear Creek watershed.
This watershed is a spawning ground for Fall River rainbow trout and plays a major role in the watershed health of the Fall River, which is a tributary of the Pit River. The Pit River is a major source of water into Lake Shasta on the Sacramento River, which supplies the majority of California’s agricultural and drinking water.

According to PFT, the easement will also allow public recreational use throughout the property, including hunting and fishing.

Funds for the grant are provided by bonds already sold under Proposition 84.
Prop. 84 is the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, which authorized $5.388 billion in general obligation bonds for water projects, resource conservation and education in California.

District 1 Siskiyou County Supervisor Jim Cook, District 3 Supervisor Michael Kobseff and County Natural Resource Policy Specialist Ric Costales traveled to the Wildlife Conservation Board meeting in Sacramento to speak in favor of the conservation easement.

“A mutual, symbiotic relationship does exist between the environmental infrastructure and the human infrastructure,” Costales said. “Roseburg, PFT and Siskiyou County realize that this is essential to sustainability. The Bear Creek Working Forest Project squarely targets that goal.”

Roseburg President Allyn Ford said, “We believe the future of our company and our industry is in managing our forests for all the public benefits they provide, including sustainable wood supplies, renewable energy, clean drinking water, habitat for fish and wildlife, and increased carbon storage. Conservation easements provide us with compensation for this stewardship, making our business more robust. In working with Pacific Forest Trust we are showing our deep commitment to the future of California’s forests and to the forest industry.”

According to the PFT, “The Bear Creek easement will safeguard the property’s resources in perpetuity for far less than what it would cost to purchase lands outright for state or federal protection.”

By John Bowman
Siskiyou Daily News
December 7, 2011

At its Tuesday meeting, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted not to participate in the California Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Scott and Shasta River In-stream Flow Study.

On Nov. 1, the DFG presented information about its intention to perform an assessment of data needs for the study by way of its release of a Request For Proposal of data needs. The department says it will identify data needs and create study plans necessary for the eventual development of in-stream flow recommendations for fish resources for the two rivers.

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Siskiyou County Resource Policy Specialist Ric Costales presented his recommendation to participate in the early stages of the study. He advised the board that the county could have more influence over the process from within than they could from the outside.

DFG Supervising Biologist Mark Pisano told the board on Nov. 1 that the flow study is only in its planning stage at this point. He said the study will be open and transparent, and will include a stakeholder team and many opportunities for public input.

Pisano reiterated those statements at Tuesday’s meeting and said he fully supported the participation and input of Costales, agreeing that the only way for the DFG to include the county’s input is for it to be involved.

All of the supervisors except District 2 Supervisor Ed Valenzuela strongly opposed official county participation, citing fears that it could be construed as approval and support for the process.

“I am fundamentally opposed to this,” District 5 Supervisor Marcia Armstrong said. “This process is obviously structured to redirect already-adjudicated water resources.”

She added that Costales’ participation would be viewed as a stamp of approval by the board. Armstrong said she also took issue with the board being lumped in with “stakeholders.”

“We are not stakeholders,” she said. “We are elected officials who directly represent our constituents. We are government and deserve a government-to-government relationship and role in this process. And, as the County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, we have jurisdiction over flows, not [the DFG].”

Pisano said he did not want to get into a discussion over jurisdiction, but assured the board that the end result of the study would be “flow recommendations only.”

He said the recommendations would then be used in discussions about how best to consider and achieve them.
Board Chairman Jim Cook asked Pisano if the department intended to do the study regardless of the county’s position.
“We are committed to the first stage of the process at this point,” Pisano responded.

District 3 Supervisor Michael Kobseff expressed concern that the county would only be included on a superficial level in order to satisfy coordination requirements. He said his expectation was that eventually the county would be shut out and the DFG would proceed according to its own agenda.

Three members of the public spoke against the county’s participation in the study process. Siskiyou County Water Users Association President Leo Bergeron told the board, “Coordination is the key. Force them to coordinate and then stick to it.”

After extensive discussion, Cook moved to adopt a motion that the board “respectfully declines official participation at this time.”

Cook invited Pisano to come back to the board when the stakeholder group had been identified, and the board may reconsider at that time.
He also suggested that Costales attend the public meetings held for the study process and keep the board informed of its progress.

Armstrong offered a second to the motion, which was approved by a 4-to-1 vote, with Valenzuela casting the dissenting vote.

“As usual, I’d rather see us work from the inside instead of the outside. You have to give it a chance,” Valenzuela said. “This is the opportunity to show that we can cooperate, to see if we can build on something.”

By Matt Weiser
The Sacramento Bee
November 28, 2011

More than 1,500 acres of mountain land in Nevada and Placer counties will be handed over to public agencies as part of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. bankruptcy proceedings begun in 2004.

A part of that total – 64 acres – will go to the Auburn Recreation and Parks District for a new community park. The University of California Center for Forestry, based at UC Berkeley, will take over the remainder: 1,484 acres near Lake Spaulding in Nevada County.

The UC center will also take title to 3,100 acres in Shasta County's Pit River watershed. An adjacent 5,200 acres will go to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, along with 1,800 acres in Shasta County's Tunnel Reservoir area.

The actions, which are preliminary, were approved Nov. 16 by the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, a nonprofit created to conserve 140,000 acres of PG&E watershed lands as part of the utility's bankruptcy settlement. The process of distributing those lands is about halfway complete.

The transfers, totaling more than 11,000 acres, come at no cost to the recipients. But they must commit to manage the land for public benefits such as recreation, water quality, wildlife habitat and research.

The UC parcels, totaling 4,584 acres, are the largest single acquisition of forestland in university history and will nearly double its forest holdings. Its goal is to learn how forests can provide sustainable ecosystem benefits amid climate change.

"The university's goal is to harvest knowledge, not timber," J. Keith Gilles, dean of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources, said in a statement.

The UC and Cal Fire properties in the Pit River area are adjacent. The agencies have worked together in the past on forest research, and this will mark their first collaboration on a jointly owned tract of land, said Russ Henley, Cal Fire assistant deputy director.

"We think that's going to really have good benefits for our programs," he said.

Those programs include research on forestry practices and watershed management of the sort already taking place on Cal Fire's eight demonstration forests. These programs are funded by logging the properties and selling the wood. There is no general fund subsidy from the state. With that management approach in mind, environmental groups are monitoring the transfers to Cal Fire to ensure that the logging is sustainable.

"In our conversations with Cal Fire, they've pretty much alleviated our concerns, although we're going to watch them closely," said Pete Bell, a Stewardship Council alternate board member who represents environmental groups. "At this point, I haven't seen anything that really raises a red flag yet."

The parcel designated for the Auburn Recreation and Parks District is in a residential area along Bell Road in north Auburn. It will likely become a new community park, said district administrator Kahl Muscott, with walking paths, picnic areas and possibly a ballfield.

"That residential area does not have anything like that," Muscott said. "It's relatively flat, which makes any development we do there easier because flat land in Auburn is at a little bit of a premium."

Muscott said development of the site will take time. The district has no money for the work, and plans must still be approved by the Stewardship Council.

The Nov. 16 vote by the council is considered preliminary for all the parcels. A final vote in December is required. Then the council must approve management plans to govern how the parcels are used. Transfer of title will occur only after approval by the state Public Utilities Commission.

Written by Ryan Campbell
The Union Democrat
November 18, 2011

Finger-pointing has begun in earnest following the destruction of dozens of Chinook salmon spawning grounds in the Stanislaus River this month.

Area irrigation districts are claiming that federal water regulators failed to properly manage the flow of water down the Stanislaus River over the past several months, causing about 23 spawning zones to be left high and dry after salmon deposited their eggs.

Federal employees, meanwhile, said they released more water than usual from New Melones Reservoir because they needed to make room for future rainfall following record precipitation levels last year.

The fish kerfuffle began after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates New Melones Reservoir, began releasing more than 2,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Stanislaus River. The flow was well above the seasonal average of 500 cubic feet per second due to unusually high rainfall last year.

The greater volume of water drove breeding salmon populations further into spawning channels than usual, according to biologist Doug Demko with the Oakdale-based firm FISHBIO, which conducts studies of several San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts. When the Bureau of Reclamation reduced the flow to more normal levels on Nov. 2, several breeding channels were drained, leaving spawning zones or “redds” to dry out or become stagnant, he said.

“Salmon are very particular. They need a lot of flow for their nests,” he said.

Demko said the move was essentially a mistake that could have been avoided if the bureau had contacted FISHBIO or one of the three major irrigation districts that draw water from the lower Stanislaus River —the Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts and the Stockton East Water District.

The areas primarily affected are between Knights Ferry and Orange Blossom Bridge. Some of the areas that went dry were restoration sites the government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make suitable for salmon redds, Demko said.

He said about 23 redds were destroyed outright while another 13 were damaged, amounting to the loss of roughly 10 percent of the entire breeding population of Chinook salmon, which is classified by the federal government as a “species of concern.”

He said as many as 200,000 eggs could have been lost due to the flow variations, potentially impacting future salmon runs up the Stanislaus River.

“It doesn’t matter if flows are increased now, those eggs are dead,” he said.

But higher-than-average water levels left the federal agency no choice but to release “pulse” flows from New Melones Reservoir, according to Louis Moore, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

“We were making adjustments to make sure safe space was maintained in the reservoir,” he said. “We need to make sure we have enough space in the reservoir to make room for storm systems that might come in.”

He said it is not unusual for salmon spawning grounds to be damaged during high-flow years, but that the bureau was able to achieve the“best case scenario for all the demands involved.” New Melones Reservoir now stands at roughly 81 percent capacity with 1.95 million acre-feet of water in storage.

“It’s always a balancing act to maintain water storage at the reservoir,” Moore said.

Valley water authorities, meanwhile, were calling for more communication with state and federal water policymakers — as well as a position on the Stanislaus Operating Group, which helps decide how much water should flow down the river.

“Because we hold the first water rights to the Stanislaus River, we think we deserve the right to sit on that committee,” said Jeff Shields, general manager of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District.

He said state and federal water agencies have ignored much of the research and expertise local water agencies have offered.

“We should have been releasing a lot more water throughout the year,” said Kevin Kauffman, general manager of the Stockton East Water District.

Steve Knell, general manager of the Oakdale Irrigation District, said the bureau should have either maintained higher water levels throughout the salmon nesting season, or kept the water level low.

“They ran the river high and encouraged (the salmon) to go into the back channels, and then they cut the water level,” he said. “We ended up with this unfortunate loss of salmon.”

He said the Bureau of Reclamation should listen to the concerns of local agencies because they have more expertise in specific river systems.

“The irrigation districts know more about the river than the state and federal government, but when it comes to decision time we don’t have a seat at the table,” he said.

By Peter Ottesen
Record Correspondent
November 16, 2011

Since 1879, when striped bass were introduced into the Delta from the East Coast, stripers and Chinook salmon coexisted so well that their numbers expanded into the millions of adult-sized fish. That is until 1999, when excessive water exports to Southern California set the Delta's ecology on its ear and caused severe declines in many species - Delta smelt, sturgeon, steelhead and American shad - in addition to the collapse of stripers and salmon.

Now, in a brazen move by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, striped bass have been made into pawns at the center of a $1.5 million lawsuit against the Department of Fish and Game. The coalition isn't made of Delta interests as the name implies. Instead, it represents mega water barons - billionaire businessmen and the Westside Water District, among others - who are blaming striped bass for the predating on endangered species.

Many would be surprised to learn that the dominant species in the Delta are all introduced species, not natives - largemouth bass, black and white crappie, bluegill, threadfin shad, striped bass, log perch, white catfish, brown bullhead carp, according to Peter Moyle, a renowned fishery biologist at UC Davis.

In fact, there are approximately 66 species of fish in the Delta estuary, and less than half are native, reported the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. So why go after striped bass and try to eradicate them?

"Eliminating stripers would serve two purposes for the plotting water barons who don't care about a Delta smelt or a clapper rail," said Keith Frazer, a conservationist and bait deal from San Rafael. "All they see is one gigantic plum at the top of a money tree - the Peripheral Canal."
Fraser believes the water gab game hasn't changed in 30 years and getting rid of striped bass would divert attention from the primary cause for declining fish numbers - water export.

"Secondly," he said, "if bass are gone conservationists can't claim that massive water export would destroy a fishery that no longer exists."
In his book, "Inland Fishes of California," Moyle characterized striped bass as "gregarious pelagic predators" that feed mostly on threadfin shad and smaller striped bass. Juveniles primarily are invertebrate feeders.

"(Stripers) have very limited diets, but are opportunistic," he wrote.

At a Nov. 8 meeting in Rio Vista to roll out changes in fishing regulations that would essentially wipe out striped bass, Fish and Game biologist Marty Gingras made the comment that water still was the primary issue with declining fish species in the Delta.

"That was a pretty enlightening statement to be said in a public meeting," said David Scatena of Stockton, a longtime leader of the California Striped Bass Association. "He, in a sense, said that striped bass were not the major problem but instead pointed to water exports."

Under the Fish and Game proposal, in efforts to placate the coalition, the daily bag limit for striped bass would increase from two to six fish and the minimum size would be reduced from 18 inches to 12 inches. The possession limit would be doubled.

Additionally, Fish and Game would establish a "hot spot" for stripers at Clifton Court Forebay near Tracy, and adjacent waterways, where the daily bag would be 20 fish, with no minimum size limit. The possession limit would increase to 40 fish in the area.

What's missing in the Fish and Game proposal is a model to show exactly how reducing the striped bass population would help endangered species such as Delta smelt or salmon. The agency uses flowery phrases such as, "the extent of striped bass predation on listed species cannot be precisely determined," which means they don't have a clue.

A draft of the proposed Fish and Games regulations changes is available online at: nrmsecure.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=39586, and includes authorization of additional harvest of striped bass.

What will make up for the hundreds of millions of dollars lost to local economies?
If striped bass are allowed to be annihilated by new Fish and Game regulations, what species is next to be eradicated, the Delta's billion dollar black bass fishery? Black bass fishing here is ranked in the Top 3 in the U.S.

Longtime Delta advocate Jay Sorensen of Stockton put it plainly when he asked: "Isn't Fish and Game supposed to protect our natural resources? What has gone wrong here?"

The governor-appointed Fish and Game Commission, a five-member panel, must approve the striped bass regulations or the whole scenario will be dropped, at least for this legal round of wrangling.

Contact the commissioners - fgc.ca.gov - and ask then not to knuckle under to the big water grab or decimation of striped bass. Secondly, ask them to hold a public hearing in February at its scheduled meeting in Sacramento, where folks most affected can turn out in force to express their outrage.

By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer
November 14, 2011

STOCKTON - King salmon have returned to the Calaveras River, swimming through the heart of Stockton for the first time in four years.

And on this visit, they're finding the accommodations more to their liking.

Just east of Highway 99, crews have finished knocking out one of four major barriers which have often prevented the chinook from completing their voyage from the ocean.

Meanwhile, last year's heavy rainfall allowed officials at New Hogan Dam to release a special pulse of water earlier this month. The extra flow - nearly 10 times what would normally be in the river - alerted fish in the Delta that it was time to journey upstream.

Journey they did, swimming right under Pershing Avenue and past the University of the Pacific, all the way through urban Stockton.

It'll be weeks before experts know how many of the perhaps 3-foot-long fish made the trip. Kari Burr, a senior biologist with the Fishery Foundation of California, said this is the most salmon she's seen on the Calaveras since 2005.

"I just want Stockton to know they have chinook in their river," Burr said Wednesday.

How many of those fish will successfully spawn is another story.

The Calaveras is still a bit of a dead end as fish approach the foothill country. Many salmon are unable to flop over the top of Bellota Weir, east of Linden. That's a problem because the best places to spawn are above the weir.

Long-awaited plans to build a permanent $7 million fish ladder there are still on hold.

"It's really frustrating," Burr said. "Until that gets fixed, they're not going to get upstream."

What's more, extra flows to guide the fish aren't always a guarantee. During the recent drought that water would not have been available, says the Stockton East Water District, which diverts much of the river for farms and drinking water.

Regardless, when it comes to the often overlooked Calaveras, you have to celebrate the small victories.

"I think everybody's thrilled," said Kevin Kauffman, general manager of the water district. "The pulse flows we're putting down seem to be doing their job in attracting the fish."

Stacy Luthy, an assistant professor of biology at Pacific, had never seen a chinook in the Calaveras. She arrived at the university in 2007.

Last week Luthy deployed special sonar equipment just west of the university footbridge, and spotted the profile of what appeared to be a large salmon.

"It was amazing," Luthy said.

She and Burr then headed upstream to Budiselich Dam near Highway 99, where only a few weeks earlier crews finished building a rock ramp to help fish upstream. (In the past, salmon had to climb a steep pitch of about 7 vertical feet - a tall task, even for chinook.)

The biologists saw no fish, but it was clear salmon would be able to wriggle up the ramp.

So they went farther upstream, to Bellota, where they watched as salmon flopped their way onto the dam's concrete apron in what appeared to be futile attempts to get over the top.

Burr said she counted 45 attempts by fish to get over the weir in the span of about one hour. Two temporary fish ladders were placed there, but most of the fish didn't appear to be using them, she said.

Donnie Ratcliff, a Lodi-based biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said there is some chance that the frustrated fish will reproduce even below Bellota. But there might be too many fish competing for a limited amount of quality habitat.

Stockton East has committed to improve passage at Bellota as part of a years-overdue habitat conservation plan. The plan has been sitting in the offices of federal wildlife regulators who have been busy with bigger rivers and bigger problems - like the deteriorating Delta.

Ratcliff said resolving the problem at Budiselich Dam is, at least, a first step.

"You've got to work on whatever you can work on," he said.

The extra flows from New Hogan have subsided, but Stockton East plans to release another wave of water around Thanksgiving. That could help additional fall-run chinook as well as steelhead, a threatened species.

The Calaveras is not known as a great salmon stream. Historically, it fluctuated based on how much rain fell. When there was water, opportunistic salmon took advantage. But the barriers and the regulation of flows from New Hogan took away some of those opportunities.

On Wednesday morning, at the dam restoration site near Highway 99, Ratcliff and John Green, assistant general manager at Stockton East, watched the water as it splashed down the terraced rock ramp, swirled around carefully placed boulders and over large pebbles.

What stood out, though, was the sound.

"It sounds like a river," Green said.

By Rob Rogers
Marin Independent Journal
October 30, 2011

Aaron Paff knows his fish.

As a sophomore at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, Paff has spent the past year studying the care and feeding of Chinook salmon. He and the other members of the Casa Grande United Anglers helped catch adult fish in the Sacramento River, obtain and fertilize fish roe and watch over the growing fry throughout the year, until the salmon had grown large enough to make their way in the ocean.

"We catch them, we feed them and when they're old enough, we bring them here so that they can acclimate to the salt water," Paff said. "It's a process that takes all year."

Like the other students in the Casa Grande program — and like those participating in a similar program with the Tiburon Salmonid Institute — Paff was looking forward to watching the fish he'd raised begin their new lives in the sea, an event scheduled for Sunday. That dream ended on Oct. 4, when vandals slashed the holding nets at the Romberg-Tiburon Center and released the 60,000 or so fish inside into the ocean. Yet Sunday's planned fish release took place anyway, thanks to the California Department of Fish and Game, which provided the students with one thousand young steelhead trout from Sacramento's Nimbus Hatchery to deliver to the bay.

"This is the spot to do it — it's the intersection of the 'salmonid highway' for all the species returning to the sea," said Carl Wilcox, regional manager for the California Department of Fish and Game's Bay Delta. "Unfortunately, there were people who decided to cut the nets and release the fish early. But the students we've partnered with are still participating today."

The event marked the highlight of the Romberg Tiburon Center's Discovery Day, an annual showcase for the bayside research center that allows scientists to share the work they're doing — and the excitement they feel about it — with visiting families.

As the moment of the release drew close, about two hundred people — members of the Casa Grande and Tiburon programs, Romberg-Tiburon scientists and curious visitors — surrounded the fish-filled tanker truck parked at the edge of the pier.

After participating in what Brooke Halsey, executive director of the Tiburon Salmonid Institute, called a traditional Native American prayer, the crowd stretched into a line linking the tanker truck with Casa Grande students at the end of the pier. Fish and Game officials used a net to drop squirming steelhead into buckets held by waiting volunteers, who then passed those buckets down the line — hand to hand, volunteer to volunteer — until they reached the water, where a Casa Grande senior bid them farewell.

A Fish and Game patrol boat kept other sailors at bay during the release, but it had no jurisdiction over the gulls who swooped, dove and captured many of the young steelhead on their way out to sea, to the great disappointment of the crowd. Only about 1 percent of the fish who do reach the open water are likely to survive long enough to make the return journey to the Sacramento River in 2013, according to Andrew Wolf, a biologist for the Tiburon Salmonid Institute.

Nevertheless, many of those who helped Sunday's steelhead — and their salmon predecessors — reach the sea are hopeful. After all, the last year has seen a better-than-average return of salmon to the area, Wolf said. And those who participate in "fish in the classroom" programs like the one at Casa Grande learn a lot about their local ecology, and may develop an interest in science that could last a lifetime.

"We have alumni operating the largest fish hatchery in the state, and working as biologists for the Department of Fish and Game," said Dan Hubacker, who serves as the United Anglers of Casa Grande's adult adviser.

Hubacker should know. He graduated from Casa Grande in 1998 as an active member of the United Anglers program, and has remained involved ever since. "I was never strong in science when I was in school," Hubacker said. "But I loved the outdoors. And at the end of the day, I was able to say I was helping."

Hubacker has watched interest in the program climb steadily over the last year, from 15 students to 50. He was upset to learn that the fish his students had husbanded for so long had disappeared in the night, and proud that so many of them put their disappointment behind them in order to participate in Sunday's release — though he wasn't really surprised.

"These are students for whom 'no' is not an option," he said.

By Bob Norberg
The Press Democrat
October 26, 2011

Chinook salmon are coming up the Russian River to spawn in near-record numbers, signaling what may be one of the best returns of the threatened fish in a decade.

“I am optimistic, but ever cautious,” said Dave Manning, a principal environmental specialist for the Sonoma County Water Agency. “Until the season is over, it is difficult to say how this will stack up, but it will be above average.”

The return to the place of their birth indicates conditions for the chinook, which as a threatened species was one step away from extinction, are generally improving in the Russian River system.

It also means there were favorable conditions in the Pacific Ocean three years ago, when the juvenile salmon left the Russian River for the ocean.

“There is something compelling about salmon, they bring a bit of the wild into our backyards every time they return,” Manning said. “Their journey is amazing for any species, the rigors of their environments, their instincts to survive and return to where they have spawned.”

Chinook are native to the Russian River and genetically distinct from the chinook that are found in the Sacramento, Klamath, Eel and other rivers.

Water Agency biologists follow the fish throughout their life cycle. As juveniles, biologists catch them in nets as they are preparing to leave the Russian River at Jenner in the spring.

Since mid-September, the first chinook adults have been photographed as they move through the Water Agency's fish ladders at Forestville.
On Wednesday, biologists began their annual survey of spawning chinook, using kayaks to float along the Russian River between Crocker and Washington School roads in Cloverdale looking for activity.

“We didn't see any salmon. I was a little disappointed but not surprised. it is still early in the salmon run window,” said Water Agency biologist Dave Cook.

The biologists were looking for redds, the shallow nest that a female salmon will dig in the gravel with her tail and fill with eggs, fertilized by a male salmon, and then die.

Knowing where and when the spawning ritual begins helps the Water Agency manage water releases from Lakes Mendocino and Sonoma, which are vital for spawning.

“The peak spawning is two to three weeks out,” Cook said. “If we get some rain in the next two or three weeks, that will be cue. Now they are just holding.”

As of Monday, 2,175 chinook have been photographed moving through the Water Agency's fish ladders, where the agency has a rubber dam erected to form a pool for its water pumping system.

The only year in which more fish have passed through by this time in the spawning run was in 2002, when 2,363 fish were seen and the total run for the season was 5,474, the second highest in 12 years of record-keeping.

The highest count in the 12 years the agency has been photographing the fish was in 2003, when 6,103 were recorded. The low was 2008, when 1,125 were seen.

Chinook usually enter the Russian River after a two-year stay in the ocean, where they feed primarily on krill. The spawning run starts in mid-September and peaks from mid-October to mid-November.

Bill Sydeman of Petaluma, president of the Farallon Institute for Ecological Research, said the return this year is not a surprise.“These are fish that went to sea in 2008 and 2009, and 2008 was an exceptionally good year with an abundance of krill,” Sydeman said. “Small krill and small fish leads to survival.”

Chinook generally spawn in the upper Russian River above Healdsburg, in Dry Creek and in a few other Russian River tributaries.
Since chinook need an adequate flow in the Russian River for the spawning run, the Water Agency for the past five years has held back water in Lake Mendocino for release in the fall.

This year, with an abundance of water in Lake Mendocino, the amount of water released into the Russian River was doubled a week ago, which may have spurred more fish to come in from the ocean, Manning said.

By Peter Fimrite
The San Francisco Chronicle
October 27, 2011

The discovery in British Columbia of an infectious virus that has devastated salmon farms on the East Coast, in Europe and Chile has alarmed conservationists, some of whom blame the aquaculture industry, but fishery scientists say it is too early to panic.

The lethal virus, infectious salmon anemia, was detected in two of the 48 wild sockeye salmon tested during a Simon Fraser University study in Rivers Inlet, on the central coast of British Columbia.

The implication is that the disease could already be running rampant through the wild population of Pacific salmon, including California chinook and coho. The virus kills fish in as little as 10 days but has no effect on humans.

"The concern is that it could spread," said Richard Routledge, a Simon Fraser professor and environmental scientist who found the virus in tissue samples of smolts during an ongoing sockeye study that began in 2002. "Many of the wild salmon populations migrate along the continental shelf in the United States and Canada, and they presumably come in contact with each other."

The European strain of the virus, which until now had never been detected in salmon on the Pacific Coast, was confirmed this month by the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island. It was found in the heart tissues of the two sockeye and reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which is conducting an investigation.

The virus has devastated Atlantic salmon populations in Maine, Norway, South America and eastern Canada.

No vaccine, no cure

There is no vaccine or cure for the disease, which has always been associated with fish in offshore saltwater pens, where most of the Atlantic salmon sold in the United States comes from. The discovery of the virus among wild migrating sockeye has created a furor, especially considering that the Atlantic salmon being raised in exposed pens in British Columbia fjords and inlets are the most likely vectors.

Millions of Atlantic salmon eggs have been imported to the province over the last 25 years, primarily from Iceland and Scandinavia, officials said.

"The problem is you are raising salmon in pens and the sockeye are migrating past those pens, so it's very easy for them to pick up diseases from those pens," said Peter Moyle, a professor of fish biology at UC Davis. "We know it can happen. Salmon can pick up viruses in the water."

Fishery biologists in British Columbia warned against jumping to conclusions.

Jim Winton, the chief of the research section for the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle, said some 4,000 penned Atlantic salmon have been tested over the past three or four years and no trace of the virus has been found.

"The question is, how did the virus occur in wild fish when the disease was not present in the salmon farms?" Winton said.

There are other possibilities, Winton said. He said some species of cod and other fish migrate across the Arctic Ocean and might have carried infectious salmon anemia to the Pacific. Fish and their diseases also frequently get transported in the ballast of ships, he said.

Previous tests have shown that some of the five species of Pacific salmon are less susceptible than Atlantic salmon to the disease.

Here all along?

"It is very possible that it was always here but just was never detected," said Mark Strom, a research scientist and microbiology program manager for the National Marine Fishery Service's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

Nobody really knows at this point whether the virus has spread, but Routledge is concerned because he had previously heard reports about fish showing symptoms of the disease. He said he took the samples after he and his students had a difficult time catching sockeye, an indication to him that the local fish population was in decline.

There are a lot of other reasons to be concerned, Moyle said, especially considering recent history. He said farmed Atlantic salmon have often escaped from their pens, sometimes through rips in the nets. Thousands were released during a storm in Norway several years ago, he said. Atlantic salmon are now regularly found in streams and the ocean in British Columbia, he said.

The mixing of wild and farm-raised fish is a worry because studies have documented wild fish with sea lice and other infections that were spread by farmed fish. Researchers have also documented fertility problems and less-robust offspring after wild fish have mated with hatchery fish, even after a generation in the wild.

Virus can mutate

The experts agree that the presence of the virus is bad news even if there is some immunity among Pacific salmon. The pathogen is a member of the orthomyxo family, which includes influenza. And, like the flu, infectious salmon anemia can mutate.

"This virus can mutate from a benign form to a particularly virulent one, and it has done this in the relatively recent past," Routledge said. "The implications could be very serious."

California does not practice fish farming the same way as British Columbia - the state's hatcheries raise fish for release into the wild - and Moyle said the California fishery does not appear to be in immediate danger. The virus could nonetheless be a death knell for the West Coast fishing industry, he said, were it to find its way into the state's signature chinook stock.

"Anytime you have a new disease that occurs, it could be devastating," Moyle said.

By Dan Bacher
Indian Country Today
October 21, 2011

Native American Indian tribes from throughout Northern California are banding together with Friends of the Eel River to take “spiritual, scientific, and legal” action to save the waterway and the fish that swim in it. Since 2009, multi-tribe ceremonies have taken place in different parts of the nearly 3,600-square mile Eel River watershed; the most recent, in which the Wiyot Tribe, Friends of the Eel River were joined by members of the Bear River, Cahto, Grindstone, Sherwood Rancheria, Round Valley, Pomo, Hoopa, Yurok, and Karuk Tribes, occurred on September 10 and focused on returning the Eel River and the fisheries it supports to a healthy, sustainable state.

“Rivers need water to survive,” said Nadananda, Executive Director of the Friends of the Eel River. “The cost of diverting so much water out of the Eel River is simply too high. Salmon and steelhead are on the brink of extinction here. While increases in water flows over the past five years have made it possible for Chinook salmon populations to begin to make a comeback, significantly more water will need to be returned to the river if we are going to save these fish.”

In 2004, dam owner Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) increased flows on the Eel River from 5 cubic feet/second to 20-25 cubic feet/second under the orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The 2010 fall run of chinook salmon on the Eel River was the largest recorded in 77 years, with more than 2,300 adult fish migrating upriver to spawn. Last year’s salmon run also benefitted from an unusually heavy rain season.

The September event marks the first time that so many different tribes came together in call for healing on the river. Salmon are a sacred fish and traditional source of food for the Round Valley Tribes and other Native American Indians who were once the only human inhabitants of this remote watershed. Members from several of the tribes performed tribal prayer dances at the mouth of the river on the Wiyot’s Table Bluff Reservation.

”This day, Wiyot Day, is a way to show respect for our elders and for where we come from—for many of us, the Eel River is a big part of that,” Wiyot Tribal Chairman Ted Hernandez told the Eureka Times-Standard.

“The tribes native to this area once thrived on the abundant salmon runs on the Eel River,” said former Round Valley Tribal Council member and current Friends of the Eel River board member Ernie Merrifield. “We must rely on all of our resources—spiritual, scientific, and legal—to restore this river and these fisheries to health. If we work together, we may have a chance to reverse the damage caused by a century of water deprivation.”

Last year’s record salmon run, the largest number of fish counted at the Van Arsdale Fisheries Station on the Eel River below Cape Horn Dam since the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) began keeping records, arrived just a few months after members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo conducted dances and ceremonies to bring back the salmon.

In July of 2010, the Feather Dancers of the Tribes joined Friends of the Eel River at a swimming hole in the Hearst area, a few miles downstream of the PG&E Potter Valley diversion (PVP) to the Russian River.

“Water and salmon hold sacred value among the Tribes of the Round Valley, and both have been bankrupted,” said Merrifield. “Like a person, if you block the free flow of blood in your veins you will die, just as PG&E’s dams are killing the Eel River.”

FOER will continue its efforts to improve river conditions in the coming year. The group will present information to the State Water Resources Board next year as Sonoma County renegotiates flows between the Russian and Eel Rivers. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the current flow regimes on both rivers are damaging endangered salmon and steelhead habitat due to insufficient water in the Eel and too much water in the Russian.

FOER is also a party to an ongoing lawsuit aimed at preventing an environmentally damaging quarry and freight railroad from reopening within the sensitive Eel River watershed.

By Clark Mason
The Press Democrat
September 29, 2011

By Derek Moore
The Press Democrat
October 18, 2011

The watershed is mostly within Sonoma Coast State Park. It also flows in an area of privately-held ranches and land owned by the Mendocino Redwood Company.

A network of culverts that had been accumulating sediment after state parks purchased the property in 1987 and discontinued dredging were identified as significant impediments to Coho salmon being able to travel up and down the creek.

The stewards group proposed replacing the culverts with a 43-foot bridge that is nearing completion and that will re-establish connectivity through 1,000 feet of wetlands. The work, totaling more than $1 million, is being paid for with a combination of government grants.

Several of the agencies involved in the project had representatives on hand Tuesday, including from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the California Department of Fish and Game, state parks and the Sonoma County Water Agency.

Joe Pecharich with NOAA said the federal agency is making the Willow Creek restoration effort a high priority — contributing $400,000 through the agency's Open Rivers Initiative — because it potentially buys “seven miles of additional habitat for endangered Coho salmon.”

Fish and Game put in $352,000 and Trout Unlimited secured $100,000 from the county water agency.

“It's really an exciting multi-agency collaboration that has been sustained for a number of years,” said David Manning, the supervisory biologist for the water agency.

The fish released Tuesday were raised at the Warm Springs National Hatchery, which is leading an effort to restore salmon populations in waterways across Northern California, including the release of 170,000 fish into 22 Sonoma County streams this fall.

As many as 50 percent of the salmon fingerlings released into Willow Creek Tuesday are expected to survive, according to Ben White, a fisheries biologist for the Corps. He said all of the fish have tiny wire tags implanted in their snouts, and that a smaller number carry transponders for more advanced tracking.

White said if all goes well, the fish will venture downstream in the spring and spend the next two years maturing in the ocean, before returning to the creek to spawn.

Bill Bambrick, president of the Stewards' board of directors, said the water tests that he and other volunteers have been conducting at Willow Creek since 2003 have revealed ideal conditions for Coho, including an average water temperature between 50 and 55 degrees.

“If they could get up here, they'd love it,” Bambrick said.

By Cornelia Dean and Rachel Nuwer
The New York Times
October 17, 2011

A lethal and highly contagious marine virus has been detected for the first time in wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest, researchers in British Columbia said on Monday, stirring concern that it could spread there, as it has in Chile, Scotland and elsewhere.

Farms hit by the virus, infectious salmon anemia, have lost 70 percent or more of their fish in recent decades. But until now, the virus, which does not affect humans, had never been confirmed on the West Coast of North America.

The researchers, from Simon Fraser University and elsewhere, said at a news conference in Vancouver that the virus had been found in 2 of 48 juvenile fish collected as part of a study of sockeye salmon in Rivers Inlet, on the central coast of British Columbia. The study was undertaken after scientists observed a decline in the number of young sockeye.

Richard Routledge, an environmental scientist at the university who leads the sockeye study, suggested that the virus had spread from the province’s aquaculture industry, which has imported millions of Atlantic salmon eggs over the last 25 years, primarily from Iceland and Scandinavia. He acknowledged that no direct evidence of that link existed, but noted that the two fish had tested positive for the European strain of infectious salmon anemia.

The virus could have “a devastating impact” not just on the region’s farmed and wild salmon but on the many species that depend on them in the food web, like grizzly bears, killer whales and wolves, Dr. Routledge said. “No country has ever gotten rid of it once it arrives,” he said in a statement.

The only barrier between the salmon farms and wild fish is a net, he noted at the news conference, opening the way for “pathogens sweeping in and out.” No treatment exists for infectious salmon anemia.

Gary Marty, the fish pathologist for the province’s Ministry of Agriculture, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency would seek fish samples from the researchers and run its own tests.

The British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association, an industry group, said fish health departments had regularly tested for the virus on the farms “and have never found a positive case.” Dr. Marty confirmed that no cases had been found in that testing.

Still, “if these results are valid, this could be a threat to our business and the communities that rely on our productive industry,” said Stewart Hawthorn, the managing director for Grieg Seafood, an association member.

At the news conference, the Simon Fraser researchers said Fred Kibenge, a researcher at Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, the global center for tests detecting the virus, had confirmed its presence in the two fish. They called for widespread testing to determine where the virus exists in the region and in what fish.

Alexandra Morton, a researcher and activist who collected the sockeye samples and is an outspoken critic of salmon farming practices in British Columbia, called the virus “a cataclysmic threat” to both salmon and herring, which can also contract it.

“If we test five million fish and found two sick, O.K.,” she said. “But 48 in the middle of nowhere?” The inlet where the samples were taken is 60 miles from the nearest salmon farm, the researchers said.

Fishery experts with no connection to the study agreed that the threat was serious. James Winton, who leads the fish health research group at the Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle, an arm of the United States Geological Survey, called it a “disease emergency” and urged that research begin at once to determine on how far the virus had spread.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infectious salmon anemia virus morphed from a benign form in nature into a “novel virulent strain” when salmon stocks entered Norway’s densely packed salmon farms. Rather than getting picked off by a predator, a sick fish would undergo a slow death in a crowded pen, shedding virus particles.

By Ed Fletcher
The Sacramento Bee
October 17, 2011

Delayed by vandals and two early fall storms, a crew in Placer County is racing to finish a stream-restoration project before the salmon they're trying to protect begin their annual migration.

The timetable is critical, with the start of the fall salmon run only weeks off.

The nonprofit Dry Creek Conservancy, working with the city of Roseville, is using a $150,000 grant from the state Department of Water Resources to remove physical barriers and improve the fish habitat at a key location along Secret Ravine Creek in Roseville. The stream has been identified by environmentalists as a prime spawning area for fall-run chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

Environmentalists and some government agencies have been working to undo some of the negative impacts of development. Backers of the Secret Ravine project said this one is noteworthy in that it attacks the issue in an urban waterway a short distance from a movie multiplex, strip mall and water park.

"I don't think there has been a project like this in the Sacramento metro area," said Greg Bates, executive director of the Dry Creek Conservancy. "It's pretty exciting."

The most visible change was the removal of a weathered old bridge, but Bates said the most significant obstacle to fish migration was a section of concrete-covered, unused utility pipes under the bridge. During low flows, the width of the concrete encasement was too much for the fish to jump over, Bates said.

Last week, with the bridge gone, a backhoe operator placed large rocks into a dry fork of the creek.

Elsewhere, Bates and Delyn Ellison-Lloyd, the city's point person on the project, discussed vegetation issues – specifically whether a grove of willow trees will need to be removed.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team prepared to inflate a temporary dam on the active fork of the creek. Once the dam is in place, crews will place large boulders and tree stumps with root balls intact to contour the waterway and provide habitat.

Troubles with the temporary dam disrupted the project's timetable, Ellison-Lloyd said.

The dam uses two water-filled bladders, filled by a pump, to block the stream flow. The stream flow is then diverted through a pair of 24-inch-diameter plastic pipes and returned to the channel downstream.

With the dam in place, crews can work on the streambed below it without sending loose dirt and sediment downstream, which is bad for the fish and other aquatic life.

Vagrants camping in the area are believed to be responsible for knocking the pump and a generator out of commission, causing the dam to deflate and be moved aside.

Another setback came when recent storms caused the creek to surge.

"It didn't seem like that much rain, but the dam was dislodged again," Ellison-Lloyd said.

The work originally was expected to be completed last week. The city and conservancy have asked appropriate agencies for an extension allowing them to keep working on the stream until the end of the month, but Bates and Ellison-Lloyd said they hope to get done before that.

"What we are trying to do is get out before the salmon season starts," Ellison-Lloyd said.

By John Bowman
Siskiyou Daily News
October 10, 2011

Siskiyou County District 5 Supervisor Marcia Armstrong asked the Board of Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday to consider pulling out of the Five Counties Salmonid Conservation Program (5C). She is currently the 5C program’s county representative.

At the meeting, Armstrong expressed concerns that the program is beginning to shift its focus to more public policy-based efforts on issues including water quality and quantity.

“We have such sensitive issues with water quantity in Siskiyou County,” she said. “It’s an area that I’d like 5C to get out of but it looks like they are going there.”

According to the 5C website, “In 1997, the Counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Siskiyou and Trinity agreed to collaborate on a proactive, positive response to the federal listings of salmon as threatened species by forming the Five Counties Salmonid Conservation Program. The goal is to seek opportunities to contribute to the long-term recovery of salmon and steelhead in Northern California.”

The website states that the program’s objectives include “evaluating options for improving county plans, policies and practices to provide or improve salmonid habitat; identifying areas where counties might be vulnerable to challenges under the Endangered Species Act; and upgrading training programs as well as monitoring and reporting procedures.”

Armstrong began the discussion by acknowledging that the program has helped with Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) issues, road and bridge upgrades, and has provided technical expertise.

“It’s been a really good partnership,” Armstrong said.

Siskiyou County Director of Public Works Scott Sumner told the board, “I usually don’t gel real well with most of the state agency folks, but the 5C provides a roundtable discussion from where we can discuss and resolve issues.”

Sumner said he sees real benefits in the grant funding and training opportunities provided by participation in the program.
“I would be disappointed if the road department could no longer work with 5C,” Sumner said.

Siskiyou County Natural Resource Policy Specialist Ric Costales told the board that he adamantly opposed the county’s participation in the program originally, but he has ultimately found it to be a relatively successful program for the county.

“Given the benefit the county receives, I think it’s well worth our continued participation,” Costales said.

Mark Lancaster, 5C program director, was on hand Tuesday to address concerns and questions from Armstrong and the board.
Lancaster told the board that he considered Armstrong to be a valuable part of the group, but participating counties have the option of opting out of the entire process or individual provisions.

Lancaster said 5C has a “pretty passive interest in water quantity,” and they are not involved in water rights at all.
“I won’t touch Siskiyou County agricultural water use with a 10-foot pole,” Lancaster told the board.

Board Chairman Jim Cook said that he likes the fact that Siskiyou County can represent a different perspective in the 5C process and considers that to be one of the biggest benefits to involvement.

“I think we can influence the process more than we realize,” Cook said.

The board decided to continue its participation in the program and no action was taken on the issue.

By Cathy Locke
The Sacramento Bee
October 10, 2011

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is encouraging the public to buy and burn local firewood.

Cal Fire and the California Firewood Task Force have launched a campaign to inform campers, wood cutters, arborists and the public about the risks of long-distance movement of firewood.

Firewood can carry insects and pathogens that might not be visible, making it impossible to know whether an invasive pest is being transported when firewood is moved, the agency reported.

Once an invasive species is established in a new area, it can do considerable damage environmentally and economically because trees in the area have no natural defense to fight off the pest attack, according Don Owen, chairman of the California Firewood Task Force.

Buying and burning wood locally is a simple way to minimize the chances of spreading invasive species, he said.

The campaign includes surveying campers about their knowledge of invasive species and firewood areas affected by the goldspotted oak borer, an invasive beetle in San Diego County that was likely brought into the state on firewood.

Campaign participants also are distributing posters to campgrounds and parks for display in public locations, mailing information to industry professionals, and offering educational Frisbees and playing cards to campers.

For more information on the "Buy It Where You Burn It" campaign, see the website at www.firewood.ca.gov.

By Matt Weiser
The Sacramento Bee
October 10, 2011

Nonprofit conservation groups have preserved tens of thousands of acres of land in California – wild places where both hikers and animals roam. Now, some of them say the economic slump could force them to scale back.

Others say lean budgets make it harder for them to scrutinize land use proposals for environmental effects – a key role such groups play in the state's push-pull development process.

Most groups don't like to talk about their financial difficulties, but one, the American River Conservancy, recently took the unusual step of going public. In an email to members and supporters, the group confessed that "times are hard" and it needs to raise $250,000 by year-end or it will be forced to cut programs in 2012.

"What is happening to our organization is happening to a lot of organizations. We're just being honest about it," said Alan Ehrgott, the conservancy's executive director.

A major factor is the squeeze on government programs that provide money for land acquisition and education. In addition, private foundations that give grants to environmental groups have seen their endowments shrink substantially as the stock market has struggled.

"Every group really has got to focus on what they do well, what their core priorities are," said Tim Little, executive director of the Oakland-based Rose Foundation, which donates to environmental groups and is also helping coach them through tough times.

Like a number of other land groups operating in the Sacramento region, the American River Conservancy has worked on setting aside land for both recreation and wildlife habitat.

The conservancy has helped preserve 12,000 acres in the American River watershed, particularly along the south fork in the Coloma area. Among these projects was the acquisition last year of Gold Hill Ranch, site of the Wakamatsu Colony, the first Japanese settlement in North America.

It also has built more than 27 miles of public recreation trails, including the new South Fork American River Trail, which opened last year between Salmon Falls Road and Highway 49.

Lately, though, the group has been retrenching. It slashed its staff costs 27 percent – largely through voluntary actions by its 13 employees – and has tripled the number of grant applications it has in circulation.

If it can't raise $250,000, Ehrgott said, the conservancy may have to cut education programs that teach schoolchildren about the area's history and that take low-income kids into the wilderness to work on land management projects and learn about nature.

These programs have always been subsidized by grants to make them accessible to low-income participants. Ehrgott said the conservancy could continue the programs by charging participants the full cost, but that would change the experience.

"If we charge the full amount, we could probably do fewer trips, (mostly) with kids from wealthier families. But we think that's not socially responsible," he said. "We think everyone needs to learn about the outdoors and natural resource science."

A number of nonprofit groups told The Bee their paid membership ranks have remained surprisingly stable. But membership dues typically provide less than half of a conservation group's revenue. Grants provide the rest.

In the case of the California Native Plant Society, a statewide group based in Sacramento, memberships provide 40 percent of revenue, said executive director Tara Hansen.

"In terms of fundraising, it's definitely difficult," she said. "We have been working really hard to apply for grants and have not done too well this year."

Hansen declined to discuss any cost-cutting moves her group is considering.

A big task lately, she said, is scrutinizing renewable energy projects – solar, wind and geothermal – proposed throughout the state, especially in desert regions. The group does not oppose renewable energy, Hansen said, but wants to ensure that such projects are planned and built in a way that protects sensitive plants and habitats.

It is an example of the complex work, Hansen said, that the average citizen does not have time or expertise to do themselves.

"There are impacts on native vegetation all over the state, and we can't cover it all," she said. "We have to prioritize, and sometimes we have to say, 'No, we can't get involved in that.' We just simply don't have the resources."

Another watchdog feeling the financial strain is Friends of the River, a statewide organization based in Sacramento. It has long played a prominent role in monitoring state water management policy to protect rivers for recreation and habitat.

With just six employees, it currently operates without an executive director as a cost-saving move.

"Our budget is down considerably," said Ronald Stork, senior policy advocate with the group and one of the state's leading nongovernmental experts on water management and flood-control policy. "We're thin and we are struggling, but we're hanging in there."

The Rose Foundation last week hosted an event to help small nonprofits with their grantmaking pitches. Tim Little acknowledged that a "doom-and-gloom" feeling is taking hold at many nonprofits. But he said there is reason for optimism.

"Foundation endowments got whacked, there's no question about it. Donations are down for everybody," said Little, a veteran of several environmental groups. "But there's still a lot of money out there that folks can get. The challenge for every group, more than ever, is to be well organized."

By Mark Prado
Marin Independent Journal
October 4, 2011

Some 40,000 juvenile chinook salmon were set loose into the bay from Tiburon when vandals cut lines supporting the pens in which they were held.

The action shortchanges a planned year-end celebration for high school students who raised the fish from eggs and had planned to see them off at the end of the month as part of the Tiburon Salmon Institute's annual program.

"It was unreal to hear about it," said Dan Hubacker, the teacher who heads the salmon program at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, where the fish were reared. "The kids put a lot of energy into the program. Now I have to break the news that their fish are gone. I spoke to the student leader of the program and he was irate."

The institute partners with the Tyee Club on the project, which for the past 60-plus years has raised salmon to improve the species' population and provide education and fishing opportunities.

The pens have been in Tiburon since 1973 and are tethered to the dock of San Francisco State University's Romberg Tiburon Center near Paradise Beach Park.

The pens are 16 by 25 feet and weigh roughly two tons. They have nets that hang down about 8 feet.

Sometime between 10:30 a.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday the thick plastic lines that hold up two of the pens were cut, causing them to sag into the water, allowing the fish to swim out, said Brooke Halsey, executive director of the Tiburon Salmon Institute.

Halsey said the nets are repairable and that he will now seek donations to install security cameras at the dock.

Deputies from the Marin County Sheriff's Office told Halsey that someone may have released the fish as bait, so that larger fish would be lured to the area and be more easily caught. Halsey said that the young fish are vulnerable.

He said that one or more people "came along with essentially what are wire cutters to do this. It was purposeful. Someone knew what they were doing."

One of the pens was not touched, and about 20,000 fish remain, but they were not the salmon raised by students, Halsey said.

The Casa Grande students work with the fish from November through June. The fish are raised from eggs and eventually transferred to the underwater pens in Tiburon. There, they are fed four times daily by a cadre of volunteers who come from all over the Bay Area, including in summer by Marin children who help tend to the fish with donated pumps, tanks and filters.

By the first week of October, the fry have grown threefold, up to 10 inches long, and are released to make their journey through the Golden Gate to open sea.

While the fish would have been released anyway at the end of the month at Blackie's Pasture in Tiburon, the vandalism robbed students of the opportunity to finish what they started.

"Releasing the fish is the end of the rainbow for us," Halsey said. "That's the heart-wrenching part of this."

Central Valley Business Times
October 3, 2011

The federal Bureau of Reclamation is closing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s Cross Channel Gates for ten days beginning Tuesday Oct. 4 during the peak migration for returning adult salmon to the Delta.

The gate closing is expected to help king salmon migrate to the Mokelumne River Hatchery.

“What this means is we’ll likely see tens of thousands of additional salmon in our coastal waters three years from now because of this action,” says Golden Gate Salmon Association Director Dick Pool. “The Bureau of Reclamation is allowing more natural flows through the Delta for this ten day period which will greatly help adult salmon find their way home to reproduce.”

The association says the Cross Channel Gates reroute Sacramento River water to the south Delta, which throws Mokelumne River salmon off their historic migration track. Because of this, there has been only limited successful salmon production from the Mokelumne in recent years, the association says.

Last year, closing the Cross Channel Gates for two days resulted in a large number of salmon successfully finding their way to the Mokelumne, it says.

Federal water managers purposely force cleaner Sacramento River water off its natural course and into the south Delta at this time of year to dilute polluted San Joaquin River water flowing into the Delta, the association says.

The proposal to allow a more natural flow pattern in the Delta was put forth earlier this year by East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), which owns the hatchery and the Pardee Reservoir on the upper part of the Mokelumne River. The proposal was also supported by California Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Last year EBMUD offered to release some of its water to dilute the polluted agricultural runoff in the San Joaquin River.

“Salmon fishermen and industries that rely on salmon have something to be very thankful for,” says GGSA president Victor Gonella. “We’ve got a long way to go to restore our rivers, the Delta and our salmon fishery to more natural conditions and abundant levels but this is a big step in the right direction.”

The Mokelumne River salmon hatchery, operated by the California Fish and Game Department, is the most modern hatchery in the state. It was built to mitigate for the loss of natural salmon spawning runs of the river. The hatchery trucks its juvenile salmon from the hatchery to a release site near Antioch, safely beyond the point where they would be sucked into Delta pumps near Tracy.

When the Mokelumne River is functioning more naturally, without large volumes of Sacramento River water artificially routed across its Delta, 2,000 to 4,000 salmon naturally spawn in the river. In 2005, the last such good year, 10,400 salmon spawned naturally in the Mokelumne River, the association says.

By John DeVoe
The Sacramento Bee
October 2, 2011

John DeVoe, an attorney and executive director of WaterWatch of Oregon, is responding to the Sept. 25 Viewpoints article "Klamath restoration plan deserves congressional support" which stated: "The agreements would balance water use in the basin in a manner that gives agriculture greater water security while enhancing flows in the river at critical times of year for salmon."

While WaterWatch of Oregon supports Klamath River dam removal and has spent decades working toward a sustainable future for the Klamath Basin, we have joined several Oregon and California conservation groups and at least one Native American tribe in opposing the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement as unscientific, unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible. We believe the Klamath's natural resources and communities deserve better.

Proponents of the agreement frequently spout platitudes about the deal but ignore its critical shortcomings when claiming it will resolve the Klamath's fundamental problem – competition over water. Because the deal fails to balance the water budget in the basin, it guarantees the conflict will continue.

Though it promises specific water deliveries for irrigation, the agreement fails to guarantee any minimum flows for fish and fails to permanently reduce irrigation to a level that will produce stream flows consistent with the best available science, tribal trust responsibility and Endangered Species Act requirements.

The agreement fails to meet the lowest ecological standards. The deal's irrigation water guarantees would regularly cause stream flows to drop below minimum ecological base flows needed for fish survival. Projections indicate high-risk stream flows throughout August for 48 percent of future years, throughout September for 25 percent of years, throughout October and November for at least 98 percent of all future years. Overall, stream flows are projected to drop to dangerous and potentially lethal levels an average of four months each year.

To address this shortcoming, supporters propose a vague drought plan echoing previous Klamath water banks. Judging from history, leasing water to bring flows above the ecological danger zone would cost an average of $5 million a year or $250 million over the deal's time span – an extraordinary price to maintain fish conditions at barest survival levels. Flows sufficient for actual salmon recovery would cost more.

Moreover, the U.S. Geological Survey found previous Klamath water banking to be unsustainably reliant on groundwater pumping. Because Klamath groundwater and surface water are connected, over time, pumping groundwater to maintain stream flows robs Peter to pay Paul. Fifty years of water banking is neither fiscally nor environmentally sustainable.

Adequate stream flows to meet long-term recovery needs for Klamath salmon and other fish will require reduced water use and better water management. Congress must include concrete, science-based stream flow assurances in emerging federal legislation.

Only then will we have a chance of achieving peace on the river and a sustainable, vibrant future for region's communities.