[env-trinity] Oregonian, feds can't meet tribal requests; capital press- Restoration of 40 Trinity River sites

[tstokely at trinityalps.net]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/10887699041474
20.xml

Feds reply water can't meet tribal requests 
Native Americans on the Klamath River asked for extra releases to flush
fish past parasite infestations 

Friday, July 02, 2004

MICHAEL MILSTEIN 

Federal water managers said there is not enough water in the Klamath Basin
to release extra for diseased fish in the Klamath River as tribes
downstream had requested. 

Upwards of 80 percent of young salmon collected in some parts of the river
this year have been infected with often lethal parasites, said Gary Stacey
of the California Department of Fish and Game. The parasites are native to
the river system, but the outbreak this year seems severe, he said. 

He said low and warm water in what has become the latest of a series of dry
years may be stressing fish, leaving them more vulnerable to disease. 

However, Al Donner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the die-off
started in early May when water was clean, cool and more plentiful. 

"There's probably other stuff going on, too," Donner said. 

Managers of the federal Klamath Project, which supplies water to farmers on
the Oregon-California line, control much of the water flowing into the
Klamath River. 

They must maintain certain water levels in Upper Klamath Lake for
endangered suckers while sending prescribed amounts into the river for
threatened coho salmon. But increasingly dry conditions have left little
extra water. 

It's an example of continuing tensions about the distribution of water
among farms, wildlife and Native American tribes that depend on salmon.
Protections for fish during a severe drought in 2001 meant that little
water was left for farms. 

Tribes, working with state and federal biologists, asked project managers
on Wednesday to send a surge of extra water down the river in hopes of
pushing fish through diseased areas before they are infected. 

But U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials concluded there was not enough
water to meet the request, said Christine Karas, deputy area manager.
Releasing the water would have lowered Upper Klamath Lake below levels
required by the Endangered Species Act, she said. 

"Everybody feels very bad about it," she said. "If we had the water, we
would have tried it." 

Karas said officials would try to allow extra water for such a contingency
in next year's planning. 

Mike Orcutt of the Hoopa Valley tribe said biologists did not know whether
the extra surge of water would have helped the fish, but they thought it
was important to try. The tribe remains concerned about a repeat of fish
die-offs that have struck young and adult salmon in past years. 

Biologists have focused more study on the parasites and their effects this
year, Donner said. 

Michael Milstein: 503-294-7689; michaelmilstein at news.oregonian.com 




http://www.capitalpress.info/Main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=792&ArticleI
D=10662

Friday, July 02, 2004

Restoration of 40 Trinity River sites in the works

By TAM MOORE Oregon Staff Writer
cappress at charter.net


KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Yet another try at fixing fish habitat on the
water-starved Trinity River begins this fall. This time around, the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation will let the powerful river do some of the work.

Doug Schleusner, executive director of the BuRec Trinity Restoration
Program, last week told the Klamath Fisheries Management Task Force that by
2007 over half of 40 separate bank restoration projects should be complete.

“Then, we are going to stop and see how it works,” said Schleusner.

Adjustments in engineering, based on actual fish utilization of expanded
spawning areas, will be made before the final sites are tackled.

“Our goal is to double the available spawning habitat,” Schleusner said.

The Trinity, the largest tributary of the Klamath River, had most of its
flow stored and diverted to bolster irrigation in BuRec’s Central Valley
Project. 

Westlands Irrigation District, west of Fresno, is the primary user of
Trinity water.

Maximum flows for several decades amounted to 340,000 acre feet a year.
Under the new plan, if it gets court approval in December, up to 647,000
acre feet a year could go downstream.

Previous attempts to restore salmon and steelhead spawning habitat failed
as bank-side willow growth re-established channels handling just a fraction
of historic flows. The new project is coupled with increased Trinity flows
specified in a 2001 Environmental Impact Statement that is still under
revision as a result of lawsuits brought by Westlands, hydroelectric power
generation agencies and others impacted by smaller diversions.

Schleusner said the multi-year lead-up to this fall’s pilot restoration
project is caused by the need to raise most Trinity River bridges so they
can accept flows that mimic natural storm events. Until the bridge
contracts are complete this summer, the maximum discharge from Lewiston Dam
is 6,000 cubic feet per second.

Under the EIS, flows up to 11,000 cfs would go downstream in extremely wet
years. Schleusner said the extra water is expected to carve out new
channels across gravel bars, creating acres and acres of spawning gravel.

The demonstration project will be at Hocker Flat near Weaverville,
involving land under three ownerships. Four other sites west of Weaverville
are under engineering design this summer. The target is to complete 25
sites by the 2007.

Trinity County and the Hoopa and Yurok American Indian tribes are doing
major work on the supplemental environmental impact statement. It’s out for
public comment this summer. Orville Wanger, the federal judge supervising
the Trinity lawsuit, set a Dec. 23 deadline for filing the completed EIS
with his court. 

Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail address is
cappress at charter.net.  


--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .