[env-trinity] Some recent articles on Trinity

[Tom Stokely]

>From http://trinityjournal.com/ 7/14/04
Appellate court supports Trinity River restoration

The long-awaited appellate court decision on Trinity River flows overturned most of a U.S. District Court judge's rulings that blocked a river restoration plan.

A three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco found that the supplemental river report ordered by Judge Oliver Wanger was unnecessary. A draft of that document, known as the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Supplemental EIS/EIR, has already been released for public comment.

Regarding the original river report that studied the restoration plan, the panel disagreed with Judge Wanger on issues such as the need he found for further study into mechanical alternatives rather than increased river flows.

Trinity County Natural Resources Planner Tom Stokely said that this decision means the river restoration plan, with its increased flows, can proceed unless further appeals are pursued by opponents of the plan.

On one side of the court battle were the Westlands Water District of Fresno and King counties and the Northern California Power Association. Appealing Judge Wanger's ruling was the Hoopa Valley Tribe.

Trinity County, one of the agencies involved in preparing the original and supplemental reports, has not yet certified either report. The county was waiting to see what happened in federal court.

A decision has not yet been made by the county as to whether the supplemental report is still necessary, given the appellate court decision, Stokely said. 






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Supervisor Modine ill; return to board uncertain

District 3 Supervisor Ralph Modine of Hayfork missed the last board meeting due to health problems, and he told the Journal Tuesday that he is unsure whether or not he will be back.

"I don't know," said Modine, 59. "It all depends on whether we can deal with this." Modine said he has been suffering stomach pain for months, and "I've sort of been gritting my teeth." Recently, he said, the pain became unbearable -- and it's worse in stressful situations.

Modine recently spent four days at Trinity Hospital for tests, and on Monday he saw a specialist in Redding. Modine is home now, but he said more testing has been recommended. 

"Some of it might be stress driven, but then there are other possibilities, so we're sort of weeding out all the possibilities," Modine said. "Then we'll just go from there." 

Modine was uncertain whether he'll be able to resume his board duties, and said he's upset that the board must function now with only four members.

Roger Jaegel of Hayfork is slated to take Modine's seat as District 3 supervisor in January.

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http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2273857,00.html

Trinity River people eager for restoration 

By John Driscoll The Times-Standard 


For Hupa Indian Merv George, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to clear the way for restoration of the Trinity River is a prayer answered. 

George, a former tribal councilman who has long been involved in the battle over the river, said Tuesday's decision seems to reflect a change of heart in those looking in on the river from the outside. 

"When we pray to the creator, we pray for balance," George said. "We put a lot of stock in the creator to fix these kinds of things." 

The 9th Circuit's decision will put water behind the work of restoration. Some elements of the plan have been flowing along despite Central Valley irrigators' suit. The district court ruling that was overturned by the three-judge panel didn't block those projects. 

But some efforts will be helped along with more water, the central theme of the ruling.  
     

The plan splits the water between the Trinity River -- which will receive 48 percent of the water -- and Central Valley irrigators, like Westlands Water District, which led the suit to block the restoration. 

The dams on the Trinity River that have diverted water south since the early 1960s not only block spawning grounds for salmon and steelhead, but have changed the shape of the river below them. 

Gently tapered banks that provided spawning and rearing areas became steeper and unusable by fish. The channel changed from a V-shape to a U-shape as sediment built up along the banks. 

Heavy equipment will be used to help coerce the river back into something resembling its former shape. That effort -- which will take several years -- needs to be done with help from bigger flows, said Trinity County Senior Planner Tom Stokely. 

Other projects are needed to make way for the water. This summer, four bridges over the Trinity are being replaced and raised, necessary to put down heavy flows called for in very wet years. 

That would allow big flows -- except that there has been little progress in removing the old bridges and other structures that stand in the way. 

Spawning gravel will also be added to the river as it was last year, though more gravel additions have yet to be permitted, Stokely said. 

Stokely said he'll be relieved to see some genuine movement on the project now that the suit has been quashed. 

"To finally have that burden off our shoulders will really allow us to implement the program," Stokely said. 

Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries Director Mike Orcutt said staffing the effort and drawing regulatory agencies together to smooth permitting for the restoration work will be key. He said that with the water issue decided, all parties hold an interest in making sure it's used in the best way possible. 

"Let's engage on the constructive part of things -- hopefully collectively," Orcutt said. 

************************************************

Note: Some of this article you may have seen, but I never saw this version.  It's much longer.  Sorry for the formatting.

TS

Indians Take Fight Against Klamath Dams to Scotland, By Eric Bailey 
        Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2004 

        ORLEANS, Calif. - A delegation from some of California's poorest 
        Indian tribes leaves for Scotland today to urge a multinational 
        company to modify six dams that tribal biologists say have 
        contributed to a 90% decline in salmon on the Klamath River. 

        Along with environmentalists and North Coast commercial fishermen, 
        the 18 tribal representatives plan to dramatize their concerns at
the 
        July 23 annual general stockholders meeting of ScottishPower. A
U.S. 
        subsidiary of that company owns and operates the Klamath River dams 
        that have cut off the fish - on which the tribes have depended for 
        generations - from their upriver spawning grounds. 

        The dams, tribal leaders contend, have kept migratory fish out of
350 
        miles of upriver habitat while producing oxygen-robbing algae and 
        unnaturally raising and lowering the river to the detriment of the 
        fish. 

        The tribes, which filed a $1-billion lawsuit against ScottishPower 
        this spring asking for compensation, hope to use the trip to
publicly 
        pressure a firm that bills itself as environmentally responsible. 

        Members of the Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa and Klamath tribes plan to dig a 
        fire pit near the corporation's Edinburgh headquarters, smoke
Klamath 
        salmon over the embers and share it with stockholders. 

        "We're going to take this fight right to the boardroom, right to
the 
        corporate headquarters, right to their shareholders," said Leaf 
        Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribe of California. "We will
go 
        to the ends of the earth for the fish." 

        The tribes and their allies have lobbied PacifiCorp for two years
to 
        do something about the dams - install fish ladders so salmon can 
        crest the smaller of the dams, and perhaps even demolish the
biggest 
        of the six, the 173-foot-tall Iron Gate Dam. 

        But officials at Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp, ScottishPower's 
        U.S. subsidiary, say that removing any of the dams could backfire, 
        because they help improve downstream water quality by letting
upriver 
        particulates and farm pollution settle in the reservoirs behind the 
        structures. The company warns that fish moving upstream of the dams 
        could face hazardous water conditions. 

        "The challenge of the Klamath River is: There really isn't one 
        silver-bullet solution," said Jon Coney, a PacifiCorp spokesman.
"The 
        tribes and their allies are free to go to Scotland. Our senior 
        management is paying close attention. But the negotiations are here 
        in the U.S." 

        The trip to Scotland coincides with a renewal of tensions between
the 
        alliance of Indians, commercial fishermen and environmentalists,
and 
        a common adversary: upstream farmers in the Klamath Basin, a 
        200,000-acre swath of farmland straddling the Oregon-California 
        border that is irrigated with water diverted from the Klamath. 

        A congressional hearing on issues related to the Endangered Species 
        Act is planned today in Klamath Falls, Ore., center of a 2001 water 
        crisis that outraged farmers and prompted the Bush administration
to 
        intervene on their behalf. Irrigation water had been shut off for 
        months by federal regulators intent on helping endangered
suckerfish 
        in Upper Klamath Lake and coho salmon in the river. 

        Meanwhile, drought conditions and low flows continue to take a toll 
        on what was once the West Coast's third most productive 
        salmon-bearing river. This spring, a parasite killed more than half 
        the river's juvenile salmon, stirring fear of a repeat of a die-off 
        three years ago that left 33,000 adult salmon carcasses littering
the 
        banks. 

        Though biologists continue to wrangle over how to address the
river's 
        ills, there is consensus that the fish decline springs from
numerous 
        factors, including the dams, low flows, warmer water, irrigation 
        diversions, pollution, silt from logged hillsides, natural
predators 
        and a century of unfettered commercial fishing.> 

        The series of dams dividing the lower and upper river have come
under 
        scrutiny lately because PacifiCorp must apply to the federal 
        government for a new operating license by 2006. If nothing is done
to 
        aid the fish, the tribes say, they will try to persuade the 
        government to block the license renewal. 

        "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix this problem,"
said 
        Craig Tucker of Friends of the River, which is helping fund the
trip 
        to Scotland. "The troubles caused by the dams need to be told." 

        The dams were erected over more than 50 years that ended with the 
        completion of Iron Gate in 1962. Their sole purpose is to provide 
        power -and not much of that. The 151 megawatts they generate 
        represent less than 2% of the electricity produced by PacifiCorp.
But 
        the firm considers it an important part of its power arsenal, 
        providing energy during hot summer afternoons as air conditioners 
        click on. 

        The California Energy Commission, however, contends that loss of
the 
        dam's electricity would not significantly undermine the region's 
        power supply. The state Water Resources Control Board recommends a 
        study of dam removal, as does a California Fish and Game Commission 
        team studying salmon recovery strategies. 

        To tribes like the Karuk, the dams are a prime culprit in the
decline 
        of the fish. 

        Along the river's boulder-strewn banks in California's far north,
the 
        Karuk have long clung to the ways of their forebears. Herded into 
        military encampments during the Gold Rush, most escaped to return
to 
        their homelands. 

        Today, many in the tribe of 3,400 live in poverty. The Karuk don't 
        have a casino and control only a fraction of their ancestral 
        territory - an area that was almost as large as Rhode Island. About 
        65% are unemployed, and many Karuk are still without electricity
and 
        phones. 

        What they have are the fish: salmon and steelhead, eel-like Pacific 
        lamprey and hulking green sturgeon. With dip nets in hand like
their 
        ancestors, tribal fishermen still work the Klamath's frothy pools 
        when the salmon start running. As with neighboring tribes, the 
        Karuk's culture, ceremonial life and subsidence revolve around the 
        fish. 

        Once, more than 1 million salmon returned to spawn every year. But 
        now the migrating salmon have dwindled by 90%, according to tribal 
        biologists. The spring run of Chinook salmon has all but
disappeared. 
        The sturgeon are teetering on the brink and stocks of lamprey, once 
        so plentiful and prized for their nutritious meat, have plummeted. 

        "Back in the day, we had 70 miles of river and more than 100
village 
        sites, each with its own spot to fish," said Ron Reed, the Karuk's 
        cultural biologist. "Today we're left with a handful of fishermen
at 
        Ishi Pishi." 

        Ishi Pishi Falls - a steep section of Klamath rapids near Orleans - 
        is among the Karuks' most sacred places. It lies in the shadow of a 
        sheered-off mountain, dubbed Sugarloaf by white people but known as 
        Auich to the Karuk, who believe it is where the first people came 
        from. 

        As salmon pause in calm pools below the falls before making another 
        mad rush up the whitewater, tribal fishermen like Reed capture them 
        with nets lashed to narrow oak poles bent into oval hoops. After
the 
        fish are dragged into the shallows, another tribe member clubs them 
        with a wooden mallet. 

        Walking to the edge of the rapids one day recently, Reed pointed to
a 
        cuff of smooth midstream rock, a clear sheet of water cascading 
        around the top. To him it is a signpost. If there is water boiling 
        across that rock, he said, there will be fish in the hole behind
it. 

        "There's a lot of technique and understanding to this," said Reed, 
        his hair drawn up in a ponytail. "But there's very few fish
anymore." 

        PacifiCorp spent more than $10 million on environmental and 
        engineering studies during the process of drafting its 
        license-renewal application.> 

        Spokesman Coney said the problem was that the Klamath was a river 
        upside down. The water of most tributaries is cleanest at its
source, 
        but loads up with particulates and pollution as it runs to the 
        river's mouth. The Klamath, in contrast, is dirtier in its upper 
        reaches because of volcanic sediments and pollution from uses such
as 
        cattle ranching and farming. 

        Studies by the firm indicate that the dams, about halfway down the 
        run to the ocean, act as settling ponds, producing cleaner water
for 
        the last half of the journey, Coney said. 

        The dam operator has found allies in Klamath Basin farmers. 

        Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Assn.,
said 
        razing the dams might prove "a terrible experiment" that would
sully 
        water quality in the lower river. Sending fish around the dams and 
        into the compromised water upstream could amount to a death
sentence, 
        he said. 

        "What we're seeing is a classic example of oversimplification and a 
        whole lot of myth-making by the tribes and their allies," Keppen 
        said. "I'm very skeptical that taking out those dams is going to
help 
        the way those protesters going to Scotland are saying." 


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