Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 13, 2009
3. Watersheds –
A winery friendly to fish
Fairfield Daily Republic
Rains turned Cottonwood Creek to muddy mess
Redding Record Searchlight
Fishers, nearby businesses clamor for extension of Diamond Valley Lake boat ramp
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Cross-current smoothing out
Eureka Times-Standard
River Watcher: What's in a hole?
Oroville Mercury-Register
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A winery friendly to fish
Fairfield Daily Republic-7/12/09
By Ben Antonius
There are plenty of wines meant to be paired with fish, but Winterhawk Winery is trying something new.
The Suisun Valley-based winery recently released Solano County's first wine to be marketed as “fish friendly.” The term is based on an environmental certification program that requires the winery to meet certain standards for how it manages its vineyard.
“It's nice to implement a program that integrates best management practices and great wine together,” said Vineyard Manager Jim Parr.
The Fish Friendly Farming program is a certification program for vineyards that are managed to restore fish and wildlife habitat and improve water quality. It is one of the most comprehensive environmental certification in the state and requires that Winterhawk Winery manage its vineyards with care to protect water quality and fish and wildlife habitats.
About 200 cases of the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc were produced.
The Solano College Small Business Development Center will hold a workshop Thursday on “marketing and advertising on
the Web.”
It will cover branding, effective Web design, site navigation and search engine optimization. The event is scheduled for 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday at 360 Campus Lane, Suite 102 in Fairfield. Registration costs $25.
For more information, call 864-3382
The Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce recently named Sherry McKillop as director of Leadership Today, its community leadership program. McKillop is principal and founder of Follow Your Compass, a company specializing in team and leadership development.
The program is aimed at up-and-coming leaders in the community. Leadership Today consists of in-class training and community field trip components. Applications are being accepted now for a place in the class of 2010.
For more information, visit http://www.ffsc-chamber.com/
North Valley Bank will host a free loss prevention seminar on Tuesday in conjunction with the Fairfield Police Department. The program will cover bad check collection and fraud prevention, as well as how to prevent forgery and embezzlement.
The seminar will be held at 8 a.m. at the Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce at 1111 Webster St.
For more information or to register, call 416-7421.
Westfield Solano recently launched WFamily, a free family program offering parents an exclusive membership that treats them to special shopping discounts, activities and amenities designed to entertain the families.
One of the highlights of the program is “Westfield Wednesdays” when all WFamily members receive exclusive savings each week just by showing their WFamily card to participating retailers at Westfield Solano.
Members also receive invitations to special events and activities, a free newsletter and a dedicated Web site with family-specific content.#
http://search.dailyrepublic.com/display.php?id=1925
Rains turned Cottonwood Creek to muddy mess
Redding Record Searchlight-7/12/09
By Dylan Darling and Michael Woodward
Fires last summer, combined with thunderstorms early this June, turned Cottonwood Creek into a thick, muddy mocha while making the 50-mile waterway inhospitable for fish.
"The destruction of habitat is phenomenal," said Doug Killam, a fisheries biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game in Red Bluff. "It's like nothing I've ever seen."
The same fires near Platina that threatened the small town also exposed hillsides. In early June, a thunderstorm dropped 3 to 6 inches of rain onto the creek's watershed, pushing tons of sediment into its flow. Carried by the current, the mud has piled up over gravel used by salmon and steelhead for spawning.
Over the past decade, pools that are 10 feet deep are filled with sediment in Beegum Creek, which feeds into Cottonwood Creek, Killam said. Culverts were plugged, causing washouts and closures on Beegum Road. Anywhere from 2 inches to 3 feet of sediment flowed into the creek, Killam said. Duncan Creek, which flows into Cottonwood Creek, also was inundated with sediment,
"Fill the Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District canal for at least seven miles with dirt," he said. "That's the kind of volume we're seeing."
Killam said it will take at least another year to flush it all out.
While such storm surges and color changes are a common occurrence in winter, Killam said the June storm came at a time crucial for fish and darkened the water more than normal.
A mile of the creek crosses over rangeland 10 miles west of Cottonwood where Bill Gibson has run cattle for 20 years. Gibson said the creek became a chocolate brown last month that he'd never seen before.
"It gets muddy, but never this color," Gibson said.
While the creek has returned to normal for this time of year - low and clear - the fish situation still concerns Killam.
Last week, he swam stretches of the creek with a snorkel in his mouth and an eye out for fish, but said he didn't see any salmon, steelhead or trout.
"It either killed them or drove them downstream," he said.
Killam said the creek provides salmon habitats all the way up into the mountains and that the sea-going fish often spend much of the year in its highest reaches.
As many as 400 spring-run salmon have been counted by scientists like Killam, but this year there have been none.
But the washout might not be to blame. Killam said there weren't any salmon found in the creek last year when its water was clear.
He blames that on a string of poor ocean years that have led to an overall crash in salmon numbers around the state.
"I believe it was just lousy conditions out in the ocean," Killam said.
Any creek repairs will have to wait until after the state funding crisis passes, Killam said.#
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/jul/12/rains-turned-cottonwood-creek-to-muddy-messc/
Fishers, nearby businesses clamor for extension of Diamond Valley Lake boat ramp
Riverside Press-Enterprise-7/12/09
By Michael Perrault
Many anglers and boaters across the Inland region and beyond say their passion for Diamond Valley Lake extends to their wallets.
More than 1,000 people have signed a petition asking that the private boat ramp at the lake southwest of Hemet be extended several hundred feet into steadily receding waters.
They say they're willing to pay higher fees to make it happen.
"I'd be willing to pay more than the regular ($6) fee to put a boat in," said Brandon, who helped biologists tag fish before the sprawling lake opened in 2003.
"I'd go, say, another $20 to help pay for the ramp. It just killed me when they closed it."
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which operates the regional reservoir, closed the 11-lane concrete boat launch in October.
Drought conditions and the halt of water deliveries had caused the water level to decline so much that the ramp could no longer be used to safely launch boats.
Extending the entire ramp is estimated to cost more than $1.5 million, a formidable cost that district board members don't want ratepayers to have to shoulder.
Now district officials are exploring new options to extend the ramp so anglers and others can again launch their boats, said Gilbert F. Ivey, MWD assistant general manager and chief administrative officer.
"We're getting a lot of interest in this, and we understand," Ivey said.
On Tuesday, the water district's board of directors will meet in Los Angeles and consider whether to authorize extending at least a portion of the ramp.
The willingness of boaters, fishers and other lake-lovers to help pay for construction could go a long way in persuading MWD board members to extend the ramp, said Megan Merchant, owner of Last Chance Bait & Tackle in Hemet.
Merchant has traveled to Los Angeles almost monthly to plead with board members to extend the ramp.
"We only want three (of 11) lanes," she said. "Hopefully, sometime next year we can be back in the water."
Merchant, who started the petition, said those who sign it agree to reasonable fee increases to cover the cost of extending the ramp.
Anyone wanting to sign the petition can do so online at www.gopetition.com/petitions/diamond-valley-lake-launch-ramp.html.
She said she hears complaints daily from customers who stop by her shop. As they sort through fishing gear or pick up bait, anglers voice frustration about not being able to launch their boats onto the lake.
"It's killing my business this summer because there are no night tournaments in this region," Merchant said. "We've not only lost the anglers who come in from out of town -- now we're losing the business of those who live here."
Nearby restaurants, gas stations, fishing guides and others report a decline in business.
Lynne Peterson, co-director of the National Bass West fishing tournament series, said extending the ramp would open the door to local fishing tournaments.
That would generate money to help MWD more quickly recoup costs for the ramp project.
The ramp must be extended more than 220 feet to allow for safe boat launches.
Since June 1, MWD has been adding water from Northern California at a rate of about 180 acre-feet a day, or about 58.7 million gallons, said Bob Muir, MWD spokesman.
Still, that's only been enough to raise the water level of the 4.5-mile wide, 2.5-mile long lake by a half of a foot.
Boats that are already in the lake are available for rental.
But fishers and others who have paid tens of thousands of dollars to buy a boat often are reluctant to dish out $70 to $160 a day to rent one, particularly when rentals sometimes conk out.
"We suggest that they take a spare battery," Merchant said, recalling how one boater who lost cell phone contact was stranded for two hours.
Those who do make it out to their favorite spot are reporting excellent fishing conditions, and some "big fish," Brandon said.
Many fisherman watch over the often eerily quiet lake as if it were there own, Brandon said.
They're hoping it will regain a sense of vibrancy.
"It's a wonderful, wonderful lake," Brandon said. "I'd like to donate some money and get all of my friends who are bass fishermen involved."#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_diamond13.448c5bd.html
Cross-current smoothing out
Eureka Times-Standard-7/12/09
The state and its program to rope off or curtail the use of wide stretches of coastal waters is finding itself in increasingly rough seas as it moves north.
Those who fear the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative has overstepped its bounds to the hazard of fishermen and other gatherers have, as the program has moved from region to region, been called “a vocal minority.” The state secretary of resources, Mike Chrisman, has called them, “Those few who seem opposed.”
But as the process moves to the North Coast, the initiative is facing a coalition of county and city governments, special districts and tribal interests who have strongly supported a delay in the program.
They are worried that, even though the region sees only a tiny fraction of the fishing and other extractive activities that occur in points south, Marine Protected Areas could be set up not so unlike those in the rest of the state.
Others have a hard time believing any amount of opposition will stop the process, and worry that groups and individuals who boycott the effort would simply be shooting themselves in the foot.
Initiative Program Manager Melissa Miller-Henson said that the concerns voiced on the North Coast are valid, but added that the planning process she directs carries no regulatory authority -- that's held by the California Fish and Game Commission and the state Department of Fish and Game.
She also said that the act isn't intended to be a fisheries management tool, but rather a means of protecting whole ecosystems from human impacts.
”What you are doing is managing human behavior,” Miller-Henson said.
Miller-Henson said that it's entirely possible that the state may choose not to implement the recommendations developed through the initiative's process, be it for lack of funds for monitoring or enforcement or for other reasons.
The initiative over the next several months will be collecting information on the region to determine where best Marine Protected Areas might be drawn along the Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte coastline.
Those areas would be developed into three categories, and vary between allowing no fishing or other consumptive activities, to allowing some commercial fishing.
There's limited scientific information available on many of the marine habitats along the North Coast, and even less on the effects fishing and other activities have on those habitats.
There are also only about a dozen commercial hook-and-line fishermen in the region, and a much smaller fleet of sport fishermen than in other areas. The initiative has scheduled a data-gathering workshop in Eureka for July 23 to make sure it has as much information as it can get.
Miller-Henson said that protected areas aren't developed necessarily to restore the vitality of an area -- though they could -- but can also serve as a haven for marine life into the future. It's also not a question, she said, of whether there is an impact on the area.
In that sense, the network of protected areas on the North Coast probably won't be dramatically different from those in other areas, Miller-Henson said.
A data-poor process isn't appropriate to the North Coast, reads a letter endorsed by North Coast counties and cities expected to soon be delivered to Chrisman. The information used so far by the initiative to draft Marine Protected Areas falls far below standards used in other preserve efforts, the letter reads. It also points out that a request to fund relevant studies that would be useful was turned down by the state's Ocean Protection Council, and asks that the process be delayed until that information can be gathered.
The letter was written as part of the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District's working group assembled to consider the process.
Fishermen here are organized and ready to participate, said Casey Allen, a longtime sport fisherman with Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers. Allen said the hope is to steer the initiative in a direction that won't be prohibitive to fishing and impact the local economy. While many anglers might want to see the process delayed or canceled, Allen said, there is no plan to boycott the process.
”If we didn't participate, they would just close whatever they wanted to,” Allen said.
Humboldt County 1st District Supervisor Jimmy Smith said that the initiative should not come to the North Coast with a presumption that the MPA network will be similar to those in other areas.
”It is different, and recognize that when you come to our front door,” Smith said. “We have these hugely rich fishing grounds and very restricted fisheries.”
But he said that there is little doubt there are some in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration that want to see the process fast-tracked, and aren't interested in the long history of fishing and strict fishery management on the North Coast.
Currently, prohibitions include a closure of all areas deeper than 120 feet to rockfishing, closure of rockfishing when the state believes a quota of yelloweye rockfish has been reached, and the Klamath Management Zone, which severely restricts salmon fishing in Northern California and Southern Oregon.
The Schwarzenegger administration has claimed that the MLPA process is well-funded, and the planning process is, thanks to a public-private partnership that includes the Packard Foundation. “There's no reason, funding or otherwise, for the process supporting the law to be postponed,” Chrisman wrote in a terse letter to the Fish and Game Commission in June, after some commissioners raised questions about the wisdom of moving forward in the current budgetary climate.
But the monitoring and enforcement of the restricted zones being developed would cost the state some $35 million a year, and Commissioner Daniel Richards shot back at Chrisman for suggesting the commission impose $35 million in unfunded costs on the department when there isn't even a plan to maintain its funding beyond next June.
The Legislative Analyst's Office recently recommended the MLPA be suspended, and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee voted to strip general fund money for MLPA activities, Richards wrote.
”That does not sound to me like any level of support from the Legislature,” Richards wrote.
Fred Euphrat staffs the state's Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture for its chair, Sen. Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa. He said the senator holds that the 1999 marine life legislation is good, and should move forward. However, Euphrat said, Wiggins shares worries about how the process will play out on the North Coast.
”The senator is very concerned that no one loses their livelihood from the implementation of the act,” Euphrat said.
Euphrat said Wiggins' office is hoping to team up with Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, to hold an independent forum sometime in August. In the long term, he said, if the MPAs for the North Coast end up being unpalatable for the community, Wiggins may choose to find some remedy through the fisheries committee, which makes recommendations to the Fish and Game Commission.
Chesbro said in a statement Friday that he's skeptical of the process to develop MPAs, though he voted for the act itself in 1999.
”The process must be based on sound science,” Chesbro said. “I have been saying, 'show me the science.' So far I'm not satisfied with the answers I've been getting.”
Others also doubt that the planning process will be delayed. Pete Nichols with Humboldt Baykeeper said he shares concerns about the availability of ecological data and the general evolution of the process, but said a boycott of the process would be counterproductive.
A better tack, he believes, is for a unified group to craft a single proposal to submit to the initiative, that would be passed on to rulemakers for adoption.
Nichols said he wants conservation interests to meet with tribes and commercial and sport fishermen -- who have the best regional information -- to come to an agreement. Otherwise, it could be the initiative itself that draws the map, he said.
”I don't want to see this be a divide-and-conquer kind of thing,” Nichols said.
IF YOU GO:
A series of meetings is starting the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative on the North Coast.
Three open houses -- which aim to outline the program -- will be held, all beginning at 5 p.m..
July 20 -- Wharfinger Building on Marine Way in Eureka
July 21 -- Dana Gray Elementary School on Chestnut Street in Fort Bragg
July 22 -- Cultural Center on Front Street in Crescent City
A data-gathering workshop is scheduled for July 23 in Eureka from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. An exact location is expected to be announced next week. The meeting is meant to allow organizations and individuals to provide information that may be useful to the initiative process.#
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_12821140?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
River Watcher: What's in a hole?
Oroville Mercury-Register-7/12/09
By Rex Burress
I saw an interesting documentary about a photographer climbing up into the Dardanelles Volcanic Range in Sonora Pass country to see a "Hole-in-the-Rock" landmark. It is quite remarkable what the artist can do creatively with one of those natural holes framing landscapes.
Some of those holes through a mountain become a natural bridge, the kind found in Utah's red rock wonderland, and such arches are fascinating.
Down by the Feather River Nature Center, there are some conical holes in rocks that don't go all the way through, but rather are seemingly drilled in the river bedrock. We know them as mortar holes where ancient Indians once sat and pounded acorn kernels into a food — flour.
Using a rock pestle, Indian women would sit there and patiently process the oak seeds.
Over a hundred holes have survived in the vicinity on both sides of the river, and they look very ancient. The first Europeans asked the Maidu when the holes were started, and they said they were there before their beginning.
It takes a long time to peck out a foot-deep hole in hard basalt rock, but bit by bit and the deed was done by someone in the shady past. The sandy bits got mixed with the meal and were abrasive on the Indians' teeth.
Two of those mortar holes are right in front of the Feather River Nature Center, and portable mortar rocks are displayed in the center's artifacts as well as at the Pioneer Museum. A slab full of mortar holes is displayed at the Lake Oroville Visitor's Center.
The mortar-like holes in the granite of Bald Rock near Berry Creek were not made by Indians but rather by water freezing and thawing. Potholes in rapids are made by water swirling small stones in depressions.
The silent stones tell stories, not only of Indian presence, but of landscape formations, and in the eroding effects of rivers tumbling rocks into smooth, round cobbles before becoming eventual sand. Fossils in stone tell of previous life on earth.
The most gigantic holes in rocks are caves — unless you consider volcano craters or asteroid craters — and the largest cave systems are in limestone that dissolves in certain mineral waters.
Carlsbad Caverns, Jewel Cave of South Dakota, and Blanchard Caves of Arkansas are just samples of astonishing beautiful caves of crystals, stalactites, and stalagmites found all over the world. It seems every community has some kind of cave nearby.
There are a few quaint caves on Table Mountain, some from mine shafts, some shallow lava caves, and others where petrified trees have been excavated.
The holes most important to wildlife are crevices in trees, excavations in the ground, and shelter/nesting places of birds such as cliff swallows that build a jug-shaped nest of mud placed under bridge supports and on building overhangs.
Even the tiny bushtit bird builds a hanging nest with a hole in the side, and woodpeckers are the kings of holes.
Ground holes around gardens can be bad news for the gardener if it's made by gophers, moles, or rats, but creatures of the soil find their underworld a haven of life.
"In shallow holes moles make fools of dragons." — Proverb.
What kind of hole are you involved in?
"If you're in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging." — Denis Healey
"A mouse does not rely on just one hole." — Plautis#
http://www.orovillemr.com/search/ci_12823749?IADID=Search-www.orovillemr.com-www.orovillemr.com
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