[env-trinity] Fishery Restoration

[Byron]

FISHERIES PROTECTION / NORTH COAST 

Creed of cooperation

Eureka Times-Standard - 1/21/05

By John Driscoll, staff writer

One hundred miles.

With hazardous culverts replaced, that's how much habitat has been opened
for salmon in five Northern California counties since 1997. It's the result
of unprecedented cooperation among local, state and federal governments and
private groups celebrated Thursday by salmon lovers.

The Five Counties Salmon Restoration Program has launched over 40 barrier
removal projects, and worked to reduce smothering sediment through projects
and education. 

At the Bayside Grange, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Fisheries Department Regional Administrator Rod McInnis lauded the effort
before about 100 people, and credited it for wise and efficient use of
public money.

"It's a risk we're all taking," McInnis said, "but not a major risk for the
payoff we're getting." 

Many of the culverts that have been replaced in Humboldt, Del Norte,
Mendocino, Trinity and Siskiyou counties have seen near instantaneous
results. In tributaries that haven't seen salmon in decades, surges of coho
and chinook salmon and steelhead and cutthroat trout have been witnessed. 

In Humboldt County alone, some 16 projects have been completed since 2001.
Program Director Mark Lancaster credited Chris Whitworth with the county
public works department for putting his shoulder behind the massive effort. 

Showing video of a big chinook salmon spawning in a stream narrower than the
fish was long, geologist and videographer Thomas Dunklin said there is more
spawning habitat available than perhaps was first envisioned. Biologist Ross
Taylor said a project to replace a culvert on Lindsay Creek also encouraged
landowners upstream to band together and replace shoddy culverts with
bridges, a boon to fish. 

The projects wouldn't have been possible without prioritizing the projects
and overcoming entrenched political differences between the counties and
between agencies, Lancaster said. 

"If you can get people around their political boundaries, you can do a lot
of great things," he said. 

Cooperation between NOAA, the California Department of Fish and Game -- and
coupled with the workhorse California Conservation Corps -- and politicians
came through, he said. People shared skills, knowledge, equipment and
materials vital for completing the projects, he said. 

Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick -- here for the second time in two
weeks -- said the backbone of the ongoing effort is community support. He
said it appears that people here are making personal investments in
restoring salmon.

"I'm always really impressed when I get up here to the North Coast ... it's
so community driven."

Another 10 projects are scheduled for 2005. Four are in Humboldt County.

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 519 4810 ce

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20050121/6dbd7ca7/attachment.html>