Our July meeting had 3 in attendance and me (Robin Eagan, Mel Odemar & John Carroz) and one special guest, Mark Powell, Endangered Species Coalition California Representative. Thanks to those who keep attending these important monthly meetings. Remember attendance at the committee meetings counts toward your total volunteer hours for the year.

Mark gave us an overview of the Delta issues: peripheral canal, more water from the Delta may go to LA, San Diego and other points south, the politics involved, possible closed door agreements (WESTLANDS) , legislative leaders calling for changing the rules about water needed for marine life, how all citizens of California must get behind the “conserve water initiative”; to save, don’t waste, recycle the water you use if possible.

 

Reports:

 

Auburn Ravine Tour - Mel Odemar - Friday, 6/25/2010

I participated in a tour of the Auburn Ravine conducted by the Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead Assoc. (SARSSA). Approximately 20 persons attended including governmental representatives from the CDFG, USFWS, CDWR, NOAA, Placer Co. Planning Dept, CPDA, local property owners, agriculture and members of the public.  The daylong tour began at the PG&E power plant on Wise Road in Auburn and concluded in the valley floor west of Lincoln where the water flow was totally diverted into rice fields.   On the valley floor Auburn Ravine does not follow a natural stream course but follows a system of artificial channels and eventually reaches the Feather River near Verona.  We visited 10 sites representing various stream habitats, dams and water diversions.

 

Auburn Ravine’s water primarily comes from a diversion from the Yuba River at Spaulding Reservoir.  The water enters the ravine at the PG&E power station on Wise Road near Ophir Road and provides a substantial year-round flow of cold water.  At the time of the tour the flow was estimated to be 450 cfs.  The stream at the upper portions of the ravine provides excellent salmonid habitat and it supports a substantial population of resident trout, primarily rainbows with some browns.  Steelhead have been identified in the ravine and we were told that salmon have been seen.  However I saw and heard nothing to support the claim by Placer Legacy that Auburn Ravine is presently providing an important salmon and steelhead spawning ground.  There is no doubt that the stream would provide excellent salmon and steelhead spawning and rearing habitat providing fish had access to these areas which is the goal of SARSSA. 

 

Much of the support for stream restoration comes from property owners who literally have the ravine in their backyards.  SARSSA has put much effort towards designing fish screening structures and is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars for diversion screening. The last two diversions are in the middle of rice fields where fish passage and screening would be difficult to accomplish. A CDFG biologist I spoke with on the tour also had serious doubts about fish passage in the lower reaches. The final diversion dam (Coppin Dam) is a temporary structure that I was told comes out in the fall and is installed in late spring.  The passage and screening problems in the upper reaches is doable, but the real challenge in my view is the diversions and barriers on the valley floor.

 

During the tour there was no mention of the GBF $10,000 donation to Placer Legacy to modify barriers.  Following the tour I was informed by Ronald Otto of SARSSA by email that the GBF donation will be used to modify, rather than remove, the Hemphill diversion or enhance fish passage at the gauging station downstream, both of which are NID facilities.  The County CEO is holding the funds in trust.  Edmund Sullivan of SARSSA will be glad to meet with us to provide an update and/or to discuss other conservation developments.

 

Public access to Auburn Ravine is very limited.  Nearly all the areas we visited were closed to the public, as were many of the diversion facilities in the upper reaches.   Regardless of whether or not Auburn Ravine is successfully modified for anadromous fish production, opening areas for angling access would be of tremendous fishery value. Increased public assess was not discussed.  Putah Creek may provide a model for such an effort.

 

Chris Shutes of CSPA was on the tour and he is very enthusiastic over the prospects of developing salmon and steelhead runs in the ravine and he believes it is doable.  He is the one that brought up to me the comparison with Putah Creek regarding the potential for quality angling opportunities.  

 

All in all it was a great tour and I learned a lot.

 

Lower Yuba River Symposium - Henry Sandigo - Monday 6/28/2010

 

I attended the Lower Yuba River Symposium in Sacramento.  This meeting was definitely a learning process for me and one that forced me to listen very intently to understand the acronyms, the goals and purposes of each player at this symposium. There were 9 speakers and the audience were mostly Biologists working in various role of Water Monitoring and Analysis and instruction. My takeaway from this symposium is; many agencies and organizations are working hard to continue to balance the needs of all users of our states waterways. Many are paid employees and many are volunteers who are truly dedicated to this cause. Daily monitoring and evaluating of salmonid, addressing recovery planning, mapping of the 24+ miles (Marysville Gage to Englebright Reservoir) of the lower Yuba river,  testing to evaluate the viability of Salmon populations (through a process known as Otolith Microchemistry), where are the fish throughout their growing season (do they leave the water ways for the oceans)?  The net net for me, the population of our fisheries is not growing and this location is only a small part of our waterways. Robin Egan of GBF has been working on this project for some time now. She can provide additional information, to those who are interested.

 

Red Sesbania Removal is scheduled August 7th. We will meet at 8:30 am at Rio Americano High School (4540 American River Drive).

 

Our next meeting & New Location will be Tuesday,  August 3rd at 7:00 pm, Round Table Pizza - Douglas Blvd. and Auburn-Folsom Rd.  The restaurant is on the NW corner of the intersection facing Douglas Blvd.  As always, all are welcome to attend.

 

For September our guest will be Edmund Sullivan who will discuss the Auburn Ravine Project (fish passage initiative), our contributions; recently GBF donated $10,000 to help with project.

 

Henry Sandigo

VP Conservation

Granite Bay Flycasters