Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 7, 2009
3. Watersheds –
Wilderness fire spreads
Eureka Times-Standard
Multiple fires burning on Klamath National Forest land
Siskiyou Daily News
Groups seek to block new boating facilities at Lake Tahoe
Bay City News Service
California Water Wars Renewed in Salmon Run
Courthouse News
Beached sardines were an accident, fishermen say
Santa Cruz County Sentinel
Merced River has a vital role
Merced Sun-Star
A day of rafting ends badly; drunken brawl leaves young man in a coma
Sacramento Bee
Boater, tuber assisted in water incidents
Chico Enterprise-Record
Campground opens along Putah Creek
Fairfield Daily Republic
Dam concerns prompt draining of Incline Lake
Reno Gazette-Journal
Endangered fish get a new chance
The Arizona Republic
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Wilderness fire spreads
Eureka Times-Standard-7/7/09
By John Driscoll
A wildfire in the Trinity Alps Wilderness expanded swiftly to 3,300 acres Sunday afternoon and Monday despite cooler temperatures, fire officials said.
While the fire is still far from most communities, it's burning on the hot dry southwest slopes in trees burned by the 1999 Megram Fire, presenting a challenge to firefighters.
Winds and topography -- and in part better mapping -- is cited as the reason the blaze grew from 300 to 3,300 acres in a day, said fire information officer Kerry Greene.
The Backbone Fire on the Six Rivers National Forest and the Trinity Fire on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest have merged. The Atlanta-based National Incident Management Organization is expected to take over management of the fire on Wednesday.
Six Rivers National Forest Supervisor Tyrone Kelley was scheduled to meet with Hoopa Valley Tribe Chairman Leonard Masten Monday to discuss protection of cultural sites in the area.
Officials have called in significant resources to quell the blaze, including nine hotshot crews, attack and helitack crews, eight helicopters and four engines. Some 290 personnel are assigned to the fire.
Roads and trails in the fire area are closed to the public. Rafting on the Trinity River is still allowed, but officials are asking rafters to proceed with caution near the helibase in Willow Creek.
National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Stroz said the next few days are forecast to be cool and breezy due to a weather
system lingering over the West Coast. Wind at higher elevations could gust to 20 miles per hour today, Stroz said, but humidity should increase at night.
”That should help them to hopefully get a better handle on it,” Stroz said.
By the weekend, temperatures are expected to increase, and are forecast to be in the 90s by early next week, Stroz said.
FIRE FACTS
Size: About 3,300 acres
Started: July 1, 2009
Resources threatened: No structures are threatened.
Location: 36 miles northeast of Willow Creek in Trinity Alps Wilderness
Resources:
9 hotshot crews
1 Type II initial attack crew
1 helitack crew
1 Type 3 helicopter; 2 Type 2 helicopter, 5 Type I helicopters
4 engines
3 water tenders
Total personnel: 290#
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_12767167?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
Multiple fires burning on Klamath National Forest land
Siskiyou Daily News-7/7/09
Twenty-four fires are burning on Klamath National Forest land, and most of them were started by lightning late last week, CAL FIRE spokeswoman Suzanne Brady said.
The fires ranged from one-quarter of an acre to 5 acres. All fires are contained and are being monitored by crews to avoid re-kindling.
With warming temperatures and increased winds, a higher chance of “sleeper fires” (a smoldering fire ignited by lighting and cooled by rain that can spread as conditions dry) could start to appear, Brady said. As new fires are discovered or new lightning strikes occur, resources will respond accordingly.
More resources have been ordered to meet emerging needs.
Landowners are advised to look over their property after lightning has passed and immediately report any fires to 9-1-1. The public is asked to continue to report any smoke, especially in remote areas.#
Groups seek to block new boating facilities at Lake Tahoe
Bay City News Service-706/09
Two environmental groups represented by the Oakland-based Earthjustice law firm have asked a federal judge in Sacramento to halt any placement of new buoys, piers or boat ramps at Lake Tahoe.
The League to Save Lake Tahoe and the Tahoe Area Sierra Club filed a request last week for a preliminary injunction that would block new projects until an environmental review of a shoreline development plan by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is completed.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton is scheduled to hold a hearing on the request in Sacramento on Aug. 3.
The groups claim new boating facilities will increase water and air pollution and could increase the chances of quagga mussels entering the lake.
If granted, the injunction would be issued in connection with a lawsuit the groups filed in November.
Rochelle Nason, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, said, "This is no time to be adding more buoys and piers and ramps along the shore of the lake."
"Lake Tahoe is still very much in jeopardy of losing its famed clarity," Nason said.#
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12762513?nclick_check=1
California Water Wars Renewed in Salmon Run
Courthouse News-7/6/09
By Maria Dinzeo
California's age-old conflicts over water have been renewed in a confrontation between environmentalists and farmers over the fate of Steelhead salmon in the Carmel River, whose numbers have fallen sharply due to diversion of the natural river run in order to grow crops.
The Sierra Club and Carmel River Steelhead Association say that despite their fish rescue efforts, they cannot "prevent the death of an unknown but presumably large number of juvenile steelhead that perish as flows decline to level at which rescues occur, or that avoid capture."
The groups say that California American is only allowed to divert 3,376 acre-feet from this critical steelhead habitat, but they have been diverting up to 10,000 acre-feet annually. "There are of course other causes to the declining steelhead population," said lead attorney Laurens Silver with the California Environmental Law Project of Mill Valley. "But we believe, and everyone concedes, that the reason behind the major decline has been the diversions."
In 1995, the State Water Resources Control Board found that as urban demand for water increased, "wells drilled into the Carmel Valley alluvium aquifer were added to supplement supply," leading to decreased river water levels and the death of many juvenile steelhead.
The board concluded that "Cal-Am was diverting water unlawfully from the Carmel River," and has since imposed constraints on the company, issuing a cease and desist order that Silver called "ineffective."
Silver said that this year, adult steelhead returns were only 95, down from 500 in past years, although there have been as few as 15 returns during periods of critical drought. "The National Fishery Service has made a determination that the steelhead has a high likelihood of becoming extinct, and our expert agrees," Silver said.
The groups request an order forcing California American to reduce its Carmel River diversions to the level necessary to preserve the steelhead.
"To ask that they cease diverting altogether would be unrealistic, so we're asking for a 25 percent reduction," Silver said.#
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/07/06/California_Water_Wars_Renewed_in_Salmon_Run.htm
Beached sardines were an accident, fishermen say
Santa Cruz County Sentinel-7/7/09
By Ramona Turner
A torn fishing net was the source of the thousands of dead sardines that washed up on Rio del Mar State Beach over the weekend, according to a commerical fisherman.
"What we had there was a strong southwest wind," said David Tibbles, who was fishing for sardines near the boat that had the problem Saturday. "One boat there was filling up with fish when he got caught in shallow water and his net got tangled."
The net ripped, dumping a portion of the catch into the Monterey Bay, said Tibbles, who did not know how many fish were lost. He said two boats where in the area where the spill occurred, and that he did not know which boat's net was torn.
"It's really a shame, but there's nothing you can do about it," said the San Luis Obispo County-based fisherman who has been plying the state's waters for more than 40 years. He sells his fish to Del Mar Seafood in Watsonville.
The sight of the fish washed up on the beach Saturday had many residents crying foul.
"Birds and sea lions are starving, yet we have these big fishing boats coming out to our shore every single day, most of the day," said Stacy Patyk of Seacliff. "Come on."
State Fish and Game officials, however, said they would be hard-pressed to establish a link between those sea lion deaths and the commercial fishing industry since the deaths started well before the commercial sardine season.
Since spring, the Marine Mammal Center in Moss Landing has rescued more than twice the number of sea lions than during the the same period last year. In June 2008, staffers picked up 120 sea lion pups, said Sue Andrews, center manager. Last month, they rescued 360.
The baby sea mammals are starving because they've been weaned off their mother's milk and, unlike the larger animals, can't swim far or deep enough to find food, she said.
"We are cooperating with other scientific organizations to find out what's causing this," she said.
Fish and Game officials on Sunday had surmised that the fish kill was caused by commercial fishing boats using so-called purse seines to net sardines. As the nets enclose the fish, some of the catch can get "squished" and die, said Jason Rogers, a Fish and Game warden.
But that was not the case this past weekend, said Tibbles, adding that what Rogers was talking about does happen but is "very rare."
Tibbles and the other commercial fishermen seen circling close to shore have a small window to catch a federally mandated total of 55,000 tons of sardines during a season that began July 1, he said. They are fishing close to shore because that's where the fish are, he said.
While Fish and Game does not limit the proximity to shore that boats can go, State Parks prohibits vessels from going within 1,000 feet of shore to protect swimmers and to give lifeguards time to react in case a boat runs into trouble, said Dan Perry, State Parks lifeguard.
Wetfish --" sardines, mackerels, anchovy and squid --" are big business in California, said Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association. California's commercial fishery complex is a $100 million a year wholesale business, she said.
"For retail, multiply that by four," she said, noting that California has a very large fishery. "It always has been big and it's still very important."
So important, that in August, the association will participate in a project spanning south of Monterey to Canada that involves coordinating planes with fishing vessels fitted with sonar to track sardines.
The goal is to keep a more accurate count of the sardine population than the current way of counting eggs in the hatchery, she said.#
Merced River has a vital role
Re-licensing of Merced Irrigation District's dams could have far-reaching consequences
Merced Sun-Star-7/7/09
By Jonah Owen Lamb
The Merced River is not often thought of as ground zero in the state's water wars.
Most think of it as just one of many dammed-up rivers that make their way from the Sierra to the Valley floor and feed the San Joaquin River's path north.
But because of the overuse of the San Joaquin River water south of Merced County, the Merced River has effectively become the San Joaquin's headwaters, according to water managers and environmentalists.
So the re-licensing of Merced Irrigation District's dams on the Merced River with the Federal Energy Commission may have much farther reaching consequences in a state water system of interconnected mazes of pumping stations and canals.
"The Merced is essentially the headwaters of the San Joaquin River," said Ron Stork, a senior policy advocate at Friends of the River, an environmental group.
Three rivers, the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus -- the Merced being the first and furthest south -- are all that contribute to the San Joaquin's meager northward flow.
Much of that water, along with water from the Sacramento River, is pumped back south to Westside farmers and Southern California's cities through the Delta Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct, according to state and federal officials.
So much water is diverted from the Central Valley Water Project's Friant Dam in Fresno County that the San Joaquin River is little more than a stream for much of its southern length, Stork said.
"The San Joaquin is kind of a stagnant, very turbid, river," he said.
By the time it crosses Highway 99 and heads north, the river is all but gone. It only becomes a real river again where it meets the Merced River.
Currently, the Merced and its two sister rivers to the north, the Tuolumne and Stanislaus, make up the the San Joaquin's main watershed, according to the irrigation districts and federal managers of dams along those rivers.
Each year, the three rivers main dams must release a certain amount of water to the San Joaquin depending on drought conditions and federal environmental regulations.
The Merced River releases 159,000 acre-feet in a normal year (An acre foot is equivalent to 326,000 gallons.)
Upstream the Tuolumne's Don Pedro Dam, run by Turlock Irrigation District and Modesto Irrigation Canal, released 158,386 acre-feet into the San Joaquin in 2008. Finally, the Stanislaus River's New Melones Dam, run by the Bureau of Reclamation, releases more than 800,000 acre-feet a year.
These combined releases make up the majority of San Joaquin water that flows into the delta.
Not far from the mouth of the San Joaquin, north of Tracy, is the California State Water Project's pumping station.
In 2008, according to the California Department of Water Resources, 1,633,324 acre-feet were pumped from the delta at this site, the majority of which went to Southern California.
The Bureau of Reclamation has its own pumping station nearby -- part of the Central Valley Water Project -- which in turn pumps roughly 2 million acre-feet a year south along the Delta Mendota Canal, according to the bureau.
While the pumping from the delta by these two bodies is dependent upon a series of factors -- tides, rainfall and snowmelt -- there is no way to count water molecules, said Stork, so it's unknown where the water that is taken south actually comes from -- the Sacramento or the San Joaquin River.
For instance, in a wet year the state puts 85 percent of the Feather River's flows into the Sacramento and hence the delta. But the delta pumps are closer to the San Joaquin than the Sacramento where the Feather's water ends up.
Much the same is true for the Bureau of Reclamation's CVWP.
Two huge northern dams -- Shasta and the Keswick -- release 5.1 million acre-feet into the Sacramento River every year. (Friant Dam on the San Joaquin is also run by the CVWP.) But the project's pumping station -- like the state's -- is closer to the mouth of the San Joaquin than the Sacramento where most of the CVWP's water flows into the delta.
Pete Lucero, the Bureau of Reclamation's spokesman, says that it's not that simple. The San Joaquin might be closer to the pumps, he said, but the sheer volume of water coming into the delta does not compare to the much larger Sacramento.
"The Merced River is not a major factor in the CVWP," said Lucero. Neither are the other rivers that flow into the San Joaquin.
While the Merced River's contribution to the state's water picture is small compared to the whole, a change in its FERC licensing could affect its down-river flows.
The licensing process, that will end in 2012, is moving toward a scoping document that will effectively study the area influenced by the river's dams. That scoping document is a bone of contention between the river's stake holders.
PG&E and MID, that own dams on the river, want the study of the dam's effects to be limited to the immediate environs of Lake McClure. Environmentalists want the study to go as far as the delta.
Whichever side's choice is picked may influence the rules under a new license, specifically water releases.
Whatever happens on the Merced will influence decision that affect delta fish, nearby dams, Westside farmers and Southern Californians.#
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/937912.html
A day of rafting ends badly; drunken brawl leaves young man in a coma
Sacramento Bee-7/7/09
By Kim Minugh
The mêlée at River Bend Park was exactly the kind of alcohol-infused violence officials have been trying to avoid with a three-year-old alcohol ban during holidays on the American River.
This time, though, the violence erupted one week before the July 4th celebration and much-heralded ban on booze.
Matthew Wright, 22, has been in a coma at UC Davis Medical Center since taking a heavy flashlight to the head during a drunken brawl the evening of June 27.
"We're just all beside ourselves, really. We're hoping for a miracle," said Wright's aunt, Tammi Chase-Wright. "Matt is literally fighting for his life."
Sacramento County park rangers, who are investigating the incident, are seeking the public's help in piecing together the events leading up to Wright's beating.
This much, however, they know: Alcohol was involved "heavily," said park ranger William Wetzel.
He said two separate groups of friends had rafted down the river, exited at River Bend Park – formerly known as Goethe Park – and were waiting for rides when trouble started shortly after 8 p.m.
About 15 people are believed to have been involved in the fight, which began with words, escalated to punches and ended with the blow to Wright, Wetzel said.
Participants interviewed thus far have given two completely different stories. Accounts from Wright's friends describe "a very straightforward assault," Wetzel said.
"But when we talk to the other group, it becomes more cloudy. So we're not sure," he said. "The 10 or 15 seconds preceding the hitting with the flashlight is going to be paramount."
Among those interviewed was the man who hit Wright with the flashlight. He has not been arrested because officials are not certain whether he committed a crime or acted in self-defense, Wetzel said.
The District Attorney's Office will make the final call whether to prosecute anyone in the fight, the park ranger said.
In the meantime, Wright's family is suffering a different agonizing wait – for Wright to awaken.
He suffered severe head trauma and has undergone two brain surgeries already, said his aunt, Chase-Wright. As of Monday afternoon, he remained on a ventilator.
Chase-Wright said her nephew grew up in Sacramento but moved to Texas with his mother and stepfather for high school and some college work. He returned to the Sacramento area, where his father lives, to attend American River College. He was an avid football player and has remained a fan.
When she first met him, Chase-Wright said she instantly loved Matthew for how sweetly he treated his grandmother.
"He's a good kid," she said. "He's a sweet boy."
Wetzel said the incident underscores the importance of drinking in moderation and avoiding conflict.
"Once people have been drinking, their inhibitions are dropped," he said. "A lot of people become more aggressive."
People who witness any problems on the river should call 911 rather than settling the score themselves, he said. "It saves everybody from … going to the hospital or going to jail, which is what we want to avoid."#
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2005106.html
Boater, tuber assisted in water incidents
Chico Enterprise-Record-7/7/09
The Glenn County Sheriff's Office assisted people on a boat that sank Saturday at Black Butte Reservoir, and helped a tuber who hauled out of the Sacramento River, but didn't now where he was.
About 2:30 p.m. Jose Rodriguez Ceja, 43, said his boat became swamped on a tight turn and sank near Rocky Point northwest of Eagle's Pass.
Ceja and two other men in the boat were wearing personal floatation devices and made it safely to shore. A passing boater later transported the victims to Buckhorn Beach. Tehama County authorities took the accident report. Shortly before 4:30 p.m.
Saturday a man who was tubing on the Sacramento River near Hamilton City called the California Highway Patrol to report he had gotten out of the water on the west side and was lost in an orchard.
A K-9 team responded and found the man, Charles Andrew Hahn, 23, a half mile south of Hamilton City, between the river and J Levee. He was transported back to Irvine Finch River Access.#
http://www.chicoer.com/advertise/ci_12766984?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
Campground opens along Putah Creek
Fairfield Daily Republice-7/6/09
Yolo County has opened a primitive campground facility near Putah Creek.
Located on 150 acres along a 3.25-mile stretch of Putah Creek and Highway 128, 7 miles west of Winters, the Putah Creek Campground features camping facilities at two distinct sites.
These sites are available from 4 p.m. Friday through 2 p.m. Sunday, by reservation only. Campers will be required to pay $20 in advance for an individual camping permit or $100 for group camping, and must display their permit and have their receipt while in the park. Day-use parking will be available at each site for $6.
“In a time when the state and various other counties and agencies are expecting to close park facilities, we are thrilled to be providing our residents with another option for enjoying the beauty of Yolo County,” said Warren Westrup, Yolo County director of parks and resources.
Putah Creek Access Site One will provide overnight camping for one group site and four individual sites. Campers can enjoy picnic tables, shade from mature oak trees, restroom facilities and the sounds of the creek at these sites.
Putah Creek Access Site Four will provide for a designated overnight camper parking area, and campers with permits may place their tents and associated equipment anywhere on the property. This site provides a variety of sunny, open camping opportunities for 15 camp sites and a restroom facility.
Both sites are primitive, without water or electricity. Campfires are not permitted, but propane barbecues are allowed.
“This is a great, low-cost opportunity to enjoy the beautiful aquamarine waters of Putah Creek in the summer,” said Supervisor Mike McGowan, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. “We encourage everyone to take time this summer to visit our Yolo County parks, and to stay awhile in this new campground facility.”
Reservations for Putah Creek camping facilities may be made by calling the Yolo County Parks and Resources Department at (530) 406-4881, Mondays through Fridays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
For more information on Yolo County parks, visit http://www.yolocounty.org (go to Government — Parks & Resources).#
http://search.dailyrepublic.com/display.php?id=1487
Dam concerns prompt draining of Incline Lake
Reno Gazette-Journal-7/7/09
By Jeff Delong
While the value of a former private Sierra enclave is determined in federal court, the lake that was the property's crown jewel will remain dry.
Incline Lake was drained by its former owners amid concern about seismic safety of its dam. The lake will be dry until the U.S. Forest Service prepares a plan for the 750-acre parcel it acquired last July, forest officials said Monday.
Whether the lake, once enjoyed by some of Nevada's most wealthy residents, will be restored to its full glory remains to be seen.
"That will be part of the discussion. Shall we keep it, remove it, or something in between?" said Rex Norman, spokesman for the Forest Service's Lake Tahoe unit.
This summer, people can visit the Incline Lake property but will find a sandy stretch of dry land studded with shallow pools. The lake won't be restored for a year or more.
Ending four years of arduous negotiations between the government and Incline Lake Corp., the Forest Service bought the property last July for $46 million, after the owners sought $75 million.
Whether they are entitled to more money will be determined through a "friendly condemnation" proceeding in U.S. District Court in Reno.
Experts concluded that the dam, built in 1942, was unstable and a failure could cause serious flooding along Third Creek in Incline Village. The Forest Service required Incline Lake Corp. to drain the lake last summer, at the same time it was tearing down lakeside cabins.
The Forest Service kept the dam open over the winter. This season's snow melt was allowed to run down Third Creek, keeping the lake dry.
U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., secured more than $5 million through the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act to rebuild the dam.
The act also was used to raise the $46 million to buy Incline Lake.
The dam reconstruction money is being held in reserve until the Forest Service decides what to do with the property, Norman said.
And it won't initiate that process until the federal court determines the land value, he said.
"There's always the possibility the court decree will have certain implications how that area will be managed. We just don't know that yet," Norman said.
Glen Williams of Terra Firma Associates, representing Incline Lake Corp., said the court proceedings are "immensely complex" and the government and corporation are exchanging and rebutting evidence and expert reports on land appraisals, water rights, zoning and other issues.
The trial probably won't start until spring, Williams said.
Whether the lake is restored might well come down to the desires of the public, he said.
"The desire for the Forest Service to acquire the property in the first place was for the lake and its recreational opportunities," Williams said. "
Are there compelling reasons for the lake to be there? Are there compelling reasons for it not to be?"
Hiking in the area Monday, South Lake Tahoe resident Karin Manfredi said the land should be restored to its natural condition -- absent a dam and artificial lake.
"They should let it be what it was supposed to be," said Manfredi, 39. "They should let it do what it wants to do."
Since the lake was established with the dam's construction more than 65 years ago, the exclusive enclave was visited by the likes of philanthropist and dairy king Max Fleischmann, longtime U.S. Sen. Patrick McCarran and Moya Lear, philanthropist and widow of Bill Lear, creator of the Lear jet.#
http://www.rgj.com/article/20090707/NEWS/907070343/1321/Dam-concerns-prompt-draining-of-Incline-Lake
Endangered fish get a new chance
Chub relocated to warmer waters in Canyon
The Arizona Republic-7/7/09
About 300 young humpback chub have moved to a new home in the Grand Canyon as part of a long-term effort by wildlife biologists to save the endangered fish from extinction.
The fish, captured not long after they hatched about a year ago, were released last month in a remote creek that flows into the Colorado River, the chub's ancestral home but one that has become increasingly hostile in recent years.
Scientists want to see if they can re-establish a habitat for the fish in a quarter-mile stretch of Shinumo Creek, which more than 30 years ago harbored a small chub outpost.
Construction of Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s altered the water temperature and flow patterns of the main Colorado, leaving it less hospitable to native fish. The humpback chub's Canyon population now clusters mostly in the Little Colorado River, a larger tributary of the main river.
Scattering the fish could help sustain the species and reveal new insights about how other native wildlife adapt to changing conditions.
The project also puts to work what researchers are learning about the river and its environment, moving from the pages of a study to an experiment that could improve the health of the Canyon.
In this case, if the new habitat develops successfully, the fish could begin to rebuild their numbers up and down the Canyon, which could ripple throughout the river's ecosystem.
"That's kind of our hope," said Steve Mietz, natural-resources chief for Grand Canyon National Park. "Maybe we can establish populations that can help feed the mainstream populations and maybe see long reaches of the Colorado with fish, the way it used to be."
A monitoring team set off on Friday to check up on the fish, which were placed in Shinumo Creek on June 15. A second group of fish, also captured from the Little Colorado, could be taken to the site this fall or early next year.
The humpback chub have become a much-studied - and much-litigated - measure of the Grand Canyon's health in recent years.
The fish, which have plied the Colorado River for as long as 5 million years, have dwindled in number with the arrival of non-native trout and the construction of the dam upstream of the Grand Canyon.
The dam changed the river's complexion, cooling the water and smoothing out the fluctuating flows that helped maintain fish habitat. A federal judge ruled in May that the government's attempts to offset the changes had failed to protect the fish. He ordered a new review of some dam operations, the latest twist in a legal and environmental tug-of-war that dates to 1988.
As conditions on the main Colorado worsened, the chub found habitat on the Little Colorado, which enters the big river about 60 miles from the Canyon's eastern edge. The water in the little river was warmer, more desirable for the chub and less so for the trout, which can eat small chub and outcompete the remaining ones for food.
Scientists already had tried transplanting chub upstream on the Little Colorado, successfully establishing a new habitat above Chute Falls. The Shinumo Creek experiment is the first attempt in the Canyon to move the fish to a new waterway.
Mietz said Shinumo offers many conditions that should help the fish: small pools of water, higher temperatures than the main river, a food source and the presence of other native fish, including speckled dace and bluehead sucker.
The chub were captured in the Little Colorado last year and taken first to an Arizona Game and Fish Department hatchery in Page Springs and later to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery in Dexter, N.M.
Mietz said the fish needed to grow big enough to carry identifying tags that will help scientists follow them.
Mietz helped release the fish into the Shinumo Creek site, about 45 river miles down the Colorado from their birthplace.
"It was amazing to see them swimming in the creek that day," he said. "The water is clear. The fish were silver . . . you could see them clearly from the shore."
Scientists will check on the fish about twice a year, monitoring weight, length and whether they move from the habitat.
Their survival odds are best, Mietz said, if they don't escape into the main Colorado at a young age.
The National Park Service will work with the state and federal wildlife agencies, as well as the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, to track the fish for at least three years.
Canyon Superintendent Steve Martin said the experiment represents an important step in helping the Canyon's natural resources adapt to an environment changed by the upstream dam.
"We need to be doing these proactive experiments, not just to study something or study the decline of it but to put the conservation science to work," he said.
"We need to protect the plants and animals and fish and archaeology. I hope a few years from now, it's just one piece of a robust program of taking care of the Canyon."#
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/07/07/20090707env-movingfish0707.html
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