Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 4, 2009
3. Watersheds –
Steelhead strategy roils local waters
San Diego Union-Tribune
Giving Mother Nature a hand
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Weekend lightning fires in Butte County controlled
Chico Enterprise-Record
Yosemite-area fire burns more than 500 acres
Sonora Union Democrat
Lightning sparks 19 fires on KNF land
Siskiyou Daily News
Do La Jolla seals have squatters' rights?
L.A. Times
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Steelhead strategy roils local waters
Fisheries plan would cut into supplies for people
San Diego Union-Tribune-8/4/09
By Mike Lee
A new federal proposal to reel Southern California steelhead salmon back from the brink of extinction threatens to disrupt fragile water systems that serve millions of residents from Santa Barbara to North County.
Vista, Oceanside, Escondido and at least five Indian tribes, which together provide water to more than 400,000 people, could be hit directly by efforts to make the San Luis Rey River run like it did before dams, pollution and development devastated steelhead populations. They might have to take less water from the waterway for decades.
The effects would ripple countywide when those providers seek more imported water, effectively competing with other local suppliers.
Similar scenarios probably would play out across Southern California once the National Marine Fisheries Service finalizes its strategy for steelhead recovery, as it intends to do by early next year.
Water supplies already are low because of drought, population growth and court-ordered reductions to protect other fish species.
“It's the worst time in the world to even think about doing something like this,” said Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District, where farmers have been hard-hit by water cutbacks in the past two years. “At some point, we have to think about what's more important – re-establishing the steelhead or providing water for people and our communities.”
After steelhead were added to the Endangered Species Act list in 1997, federal officials have spent years on the complex process of developing a recovery plan for the fish.
The 430-page proposal from the fisheries service, released last week, lacks mandate power. But its recommendations will set the tone for when the agency and other regulators review water and flood-control projects.
“Permitting agencies can come back to you and say, 'We have got a concern now that we didn't have before,' ” said Roger Patterson, a top official at the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles.
Nowhere is the conflict between protecting fish and securing water supplies clearer than in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where federal efforts to help the threatened smelt have slashed the amount of water available for statewide distribution.
Leaders of water districts fear the steelhead recovery blueprint is a precursor to similar restrictions on local lakes and rivers.
“A new environmental use of this water puts further pressure on the overall water supply system in California,” said Don Smith of the Vista Irrigation District, which relies on Lake Henshaw in the San Luis Rey River watershed for roughly one-quarter of its inventory.
Chris Yates, a fisheries service supervisor for Southern California, cast his agency's proposal as the opening of a dialogue.
“We are looking at trying to re-establish the species across the extent of its range. It's an incredibly daunting set of actions . . . but you have to start somewhere,” he said.
Fisheries officials won't predict how much the draft document will change because they want public feedback before making final revisions. So far, the plan lacks cost estimates and timelines. Funding would come from federal, state and local agencies, as well as conservation groups, private property owners and others.
Steelhead – technically a salmon but commonly called a trout – were the only abundant salmon species indigenous to the coastal mountain ranges of Southern California until the post-World War II era.
More than 30,000 of them returned from the ocean each year to spawn until dams, concrete channels, contamination and other man-made hazards severely damaged their habitat. Today's annual runs number about 500 adults, making steelhead one of the rarest species in the nation.
Environmentalists and California's wildlife leaders applaud the fisheries service for its proposal.
“This draft plan provides a comprehensive road map so steelhead can survive, if not thrive, in our urban environment,” said Ed Pert at the California Department of Fish and Game.
Nica Knite, a program manager at California Trout in San Diego, urged water officials and others to support steelhead, once a prized fish for anglers.
“We don't want to be looking in hindsight at the loss of steelhead when we could have done something to save them,” Knite said.
The fisheries service has identified about a dozen top-priority watersheds for the species, including the San Luis Rey River, San Juan Creek in Orange County and Malibu Creek in Los Angeles County.
San Mateo Creek and the Santa Margarita River are listed as second-tier areas for steelhead recovery in San Diego County.
The agency's proposal calls for making more water available in the targeted rivers at certain times of the year, removing or modifying dams, minimizing water pollution, curbing fishing and fully enforcing laws and regulations concerning steelhead.
For the San Luis Rey River, that would involve fixing roads and culverts to improve fish passage, moving livestock and farms to minimize water pollution and revising land-use policies to better protect the waterway.
Lori Vereker, utilities director for Escondido, questioned whether it's feasible to restore the San Luis Rey basin to the condition needed for large steelhead runs. Escondido gets up to 30 percent of its water from the watershed.
“The financial burden in doing all of that would be – I don't even like to think how big it is,” Vereker said.
Oceanside's leaders said they're all for steelhead recovery projects as long as they're done somewhere else. They're ramping up withdrawals of groundwater in the lower reaches of the San Luis Rey watershed to offset shrinking imports from Northern California and the Colorado River.
“If you have to supply flows for these fish, then it would be a restriction on how much water we could withdraw,” said Mo Lahsaie, coordinator of Oceanside's clean-water program. “Reintroducing this fish into this watershed has so many financial and logistical challenges.”#
Giving Mother Nature a hand
Santa Rosa Press Democrat-8/3/09
By Bob Norberg
In a project designed to imitate Mother Nature, logs and boulders were placed in Grape Creek last week to create shelter for coho salmon that disappeared from the creek years ago.
“It’s an attempt to make the area more hospitable,” said Greg Fisher, Sotoyome Resource Conservation District project manager. “In Grape Creek, there are some great habitat features, we are just enhancing and improving them and make them that much better.”
Grape Creek, one of several tributaries to Dry Creek, snakes through vineyards with a canopy of ash, alders, willows, walnut, oaks and blackberry.
It is part of the Dry Creek watershed that is home to coho, which is on the federal endangered list, and chinook salmon and steelhead, which are on the threatened list.
The watershed is also a major part of a mandate by the National Marine Fisheries Service requiring the Sonoma County Water Agency to enhance the habitat, lower flows and change the way the Russian River estuary at Jenner is managed.
The cost to the water agency could reach $100 million over the next 15 years and impact how much water it can deliver from Lake Sonoma to its 600,000 customers.
This creek project is the first effort to meet the government’s biological demands. “These tributaries are essential to how the fish survive in the watershed as a whole,” said Dave Manning, a water agency biologist and senior environmental specialist.
Coho are native to Dry Creek, its tributaries and Russian River tributaries, but few have been found in recent years.
In Wine Creek, a tributary to Grape Creek, coho were last seen 11 years ago.
In Dry Creek, a Water Agency fish rotary trap was able to catch three native coho in April, along with 2,400 chinook and 20,000 steelhead.
The three species share the same need for clean, cool water and the pools and riffles necessary to reproduce and grow.
“What we are doing here is to lay out the welcome mat for coho so when they do return they can use this tributary as habitat,” Fisher said. “It is historically well documented as a coho stream, just not in recent years.”
The work on Grape Creek will take two weeks and involve putting in structures of redwood trees and boulders along a quarter mile stretch.
The cost is about $200,000 for the construction and to monitor the result.
The work is being done by Prunuske Chatham Inc. of Sebastopol, which had a two-man crew using an excavator to angle the trees and rocks into place to create pools and shelter.
“The log structures are designed to mimic the type of habitat in an overhanging bank,” said president Steven Chatham. “They can use it for cover, hang out underneath it so predators can't get to them, and to get out of the way during flood flows.”
A second project, also costing about $200,000, will be on Grape Creek closer to Dry Creek in two month.#
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090803/ARTICLES/908039970
Weekend lightning fires in Butte County controlled
Chico Enterprise-Record-8/4/09
By Greg Welter
Fire crews made quick work of five Butte County wildland blazes started by lightning on Saturday.
The first was reported at 10:49 p.m. As other reports came in, personnel responded to small blazes in the Feather Falls, Brush Creek, Stirling City and Sawmill Peak areas.
The fires were controlled by Sunday afternoon after burning through a total of about six acres in steep, rocky terrain. No structures were threatened by any of them.
In addition to nine engine companies, hand crews and water tenders, a helicopter from Vina was ordered to fly over the fires but didn't make any water drops.
"We just wanted to make sure we weren't missing any of the fires," said Cal Fire Capt. Scott McLean. He noted that crews will be on the watch for "sleeper" fires that may flare up if enough wind gets on them.
McLean said dry thunderstorms that could produce lightning remain in the forecast through much of the week.
Other lightning-caused fires continue to burn near Burney in Shasta County, where road closures were necessary on Monday.
Cal Fire-Butte County has sent a strike team to the area to provide mutual aid. It includes 13 engines, water tenders, more than 25 firefighters, and command personnel.#
http://www.chicoer.com/advertise/ci_12987388?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
Yosemite-area fire burns more than 500 acres
Sonora Union Democrat-8/3/09
By James Damschroder
A lightning-sparked fire, which ignited Wednesday night in Yosemite National Park’s rugged Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River, grew from 320 acres on Friday to 497 acres on Sunday.
Also, a small fire was discovered on Friday about a quarter mile north of Yosemite Falls. The quarter-acre fire was suppressed because it’s in an area of high hiker use, fire officials said.
The fire along the Tuolumne River, called the Wildcat Fire, is burning on the north side of the Tuolumne River, between Pate Valley and Glen Aulin — about five miles up river from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
The Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River trail is closed from Glen Aulin to Pate Valley.
The canyon is one of the most remote, steep and rugged areas in Yosemite, said Gary Wuchner, Yosemite fire information officer. Red fir, Jeffrey pine and brush are providing the fire’s fuel.
Three eight-person fire crews— two from Yosemite and one from the Stanislaus National Forest— were sent out to the fire’s perimeter on Friday, Wuchner said. They’ll remain camped near the fire for eight days to manage the blaze and monitor its behavior.
Because of the remoteness of the fire and lack of values to protect, crews will cut fire lines and use natural barriers a distance away from where the blaze currently is burning.
“We’ll allow the fire to roam in its natural direction,” Wuchner said.
The fire is expected to grow from between 1,500 acres to 3,500 acres before it’s extinguished, he said.
Flames are mostly spreading to the east and northeast.
Potential values to be protected include the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp, the Tuolumne River, wildlife habitat, trail systems and bridges.
Managing fires, rather than aggressively extinguishing them, is standard practice within Yosemite’s boundaries.
“The Sierra is a fire-dependent ecosystem,” Wuchner said.
Smoke columns coming from the fire have been visible within the park, Wuchner said.
The fire could affect air quality in the area depending on winds.
The blaze was spotted from Pilot Peak, a fire lookout dozens of miles to the southwest.
“It’s quite a distance from the fire,” Wuchner said.#
Lightning sparks 19 fires on KNF land
Siskiyou Daily News-8/4/09
Nineteen new wildfires started on the Klamath National Forest (KNF) as a result of lightning strikes during severe thunderstorm activity over the weekend, a KNF news release announced Monday. The thunderstorms produced over 3,000 lightning strikes in Northern California, resulting in 300 fires.
There were fifteen starts on the Happy Camp/Oak Knoll Ranger District, two on the Salmon/Scott Ranger District and two on the Goosenest Ranger District. These fires totaled approximately three acres, with the largest being 1.3 acres.
As the lightning-caused fires were discovered, Forest Service firefighters immediately responded and began fire suppression activity and were able to contain or control all of the fires.
Firefighters from the KNF worked in cooperation with CAL FIRE firefighters in fire suppression efforts over the weekend. CAL FIRE dispatch reported 19 lightning-caused fires.
Some resources from the KNF have been sent to assist in the firefighting efforts on the Modoc and Lassen national forests as well as in Oregon, the release stated. All other crews are available on the forest for initial attack and are monitoring the areas that had the largest amount of lightning strikes.
More fires are expected to be reported as temperatures rise, and fire management personnel are managing the fires as they are reported. Forest service meteorologists expect continued thunderstorm activity with possible lightning for the next three days.#
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/police_and_fire/x154263453/Lightning-sparks-19-fires-on-KNF-land
Do La Jolla seals have squatters' rights?
L.A. Times-8/4/09
By Tony Perry
Summer Dunsmore, 19, glanced over her shoulder at the 50 or so harbor seals snoozing on a small horseshoe-shaped beach beside the Children's Pool in La Jolla.
"Look at them," said the La Jolla High graduate who is now a student at San Diego Mesa College. "They're such peaceful creatures."
Dunsmore has been organizing rallies this summer -- at the beach, at the downtown courthouse, even at the governor's San Diego office -- in support of letting the seals remain on the beach, which was created when philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps paid to build a breakwater in 1931.
The pinnipeds may be peaceful, but not the lawyers, politicians, city employees, federal officials and activists who are well into the second decade of controversy over whether the seals should be allowed to stay or should be scared away so the beach can be cleaned up for children.
Dunsmore is a second-generation activist. She remembers tagging along with her mother at an early protest rally when City Hall, under pressure from La Jolla residents, was considering evicting the seals.
At the moment, the seals appear to have the upper flipper.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill last month changing the wording of the 1931 deed granted to the city for the beach.
The deed has long been interpreted as requiring the city to maintain the beach for children, as the newspaper heiress wanted. As amended by SB 428, however, the deed allows the city to declare it a marine sanctuary.
The passion in the dispute stems largely from its location. This is La Jolla, the most elite address inside city limits. A short walk from the beach is Prospect Street, San Diego's equivalent to Rodeo Drive.
Plus, the Children's Pool beach, although barely 100 yards long in a county with 70 miles of coastline, is special.
There are larger and, arguably, nicer beaches in La Jolla, but many residents have fond memories of swimming at the Children's Pool or taking their children there.
Once the seals arrived in the early 1990s, the tourists were not far behind. With up to 200 seals lounging at the beach, swimmers and picnickers have since moved elsewhere. At one point, the beach was officially closed to people because the fecal count had reached extremely high levels.
No one knows why the seals abandoned an offshore sanctuary called Seal Rock just a mile away. But soon the Children's Pool beach became possibly the most visible rookery -- where harbor seals give birth -- in Southern California.
The beach is just off Coast Boulevard. Visitors need walk only a few steps from the tour buses to get a good look.
With more tourists came more annoyance for La Jolla residents who want the seals gone. "I think for some people, it's a matter that they like animals more than they like their neighbors," said Mike Forbes, real estate agent and chairman of the La Jolla parks and beaches committee.
Among some La Jollans there is also a sentiment that letting the seals remain is disrespectful to the memory of "Miss Scripps," who never married but devoted much of her fortune to the health and pleasure of children, including a public library, an aviary for the San Diego Zoo and Scripps Memorial Hospital. The site of her former home, a short walk from the Children's Pool, is now the Museum of Contemporary Art.
A letter-writer to the La Jolla Light suggested that if the city does not disperse the seals, it should repay Scripps' heirs for the cost of the breakwater.
Former Councilman Scott Peters said no other issue during his eight years representing La Jolla was so fraught with emotion. "It's become two sides, and nobody is willing to compromise," said Peters, who tilted pro-children but hoped, in vain, to find a way for both species to coexist.
The current City Council, which backed SB 428, would like to end the controversy by letting the seals remain. It isn't that council members love seals more than children, but they are exhausted by the controversy and the legal bills.
The lawyer who has fought to enforce the original deed and oust the seals says the new law is illegal because the Legislature is trying to overturn a Superior Court decision that was in his favor.
"It's unbelievable -- it's just elementary civics," said lawyer Paul Kennerson, who represents a client who would like the seals moved out. "If you can do that, you have no need for courts anymore. The Legislature can just set itself up as a super-court."
If Kennerson succeeds at an Oct. 6 hearing in persuading Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann to reinstate his order that the city disperse the seals, Bryan Pease, an attorney for the Animal Protection and Rescue League, is ready to go to federal court.
The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act includes harbor seals among the animals to be protected.
The pingpong between the state court, bent on enforcing the 1931 deed, and the federal district court, backing the protection act, has prolonged the issue. The first order to clean the beach came in 2005 but was blocked by the federal court.
The city attorney's office estimates that San Diego has spent $1 million in legal fees to private lawyers, much of it awarded by the courts to Kennerson for his various victories.
Kennerson makes no apologies. The city, he fumes, has been shameful in its treatment of the Children's Pool by not removing the daily buildup of seal feces, allowing the lifeguard tower to rot and not repairing the rock breakwater or its rusting guardrails.
If ordered by the court, the city has a plan -- among other things -- to shoo away the seals by playing recordings of dogs barking, though even the mayor is skeptical. With the employees needed to run the public address system and police to protect against vandalism or worse by one side in the dispute or another, the city puts the total annual price tag at $700,000.
The pro-seal side stations watchers on the bluff 24 hours a day to ward off anyone who would harass the seals. Cameras are at the ready, and examples of anti-seal behavior are posted on YouTube.
An occasional drunk tries to "play" with the seals, said Marjane Aalam, co-founder of La Jolla Friends of the Seals. Aalam's group has posted signs asking people to stay off the beach and, speaking on behalf of the seals, protesting, "We seals are citizens too! We have the right to rest and do our daily yoga undisturbed."
There have been arrests of pro-seal and anti-seal activists. When it looked as though the city would have to begin moving the seals out, Mayor Jerry Sanders pleaded for both sides to remain civil.
Dunsmore, who hopes to attend UC Berkeley to study law and journalism, thinks the seal issue may come to a conclusion soon. "This is La Jolla, 'the jewel,' " she said. "There are other beaches for people, but there's only one for the seals."
Forbes cautions that, if the council declares the beach a marine sanctuary, it could require hearings, a land-use permit and an environmental study.
"If it goes that way," he said, "it'll take another 20 years to settle."#
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-outthere4-2009aug04,0,7870088.story?page=2
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