[env-trinity] Trinity Journal December 3 2008

Mon Dec 8 18:45:40 PST 2008

Restoring river is hard, but the task can be done 
By AMY GITTELSOHN 

 <javascript:openimage('005p1_xlg.jpg',631,1000)>
http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/2008/1203/front_page/005p1_lg.jpg

by PHIL NELSON Doug Schleusner stands on the Biggers Road Bridge, one of
four bridges replaced to make room for higher Trinity River flows. 

Doug Schleusner recalls his first day on the job as executive director of
the Trinity River Restoration Program seven years ago.

Schleusner, who moved here from Washington, D.C., met former Bureau of
Reclamation area manager Mike Ryan at Shasta Dam and was handed a laptop
computer, cell phone and car keys. "Weaverville's that way," Ryan told him.

There was not a lot of hoopla when Schleusner came on board late in 2001.
There was no office. No staff, for that matter. Authorization for the
previous Trinity River Restoration Program initiated in 1984 had expired,
with approval for the new restoration program coming with former Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt's signing of the Trinity River Record of Decision in
2000.

"I worked out of my home office for the first year," said Schleusner, who
moved to Weaverville with his wife Sandy and their two children, teenagers
at the time.

Schleusner, 55, is set to retire in January. It has been a busy seven years
for the restoration program, which has goals of restoring the river, its
fisheries and wildlife that have been impacted by water diversions since the
completion of Trinity and Lewiston dams in 1963.

Born in Yreka, Schleusner came to the program after a 25-year career in land
use planning and recreation management with the U.S. Forest Service.

Back in 2001, his first task was to set up the field office, which opened at
the Tops Super Foods shopping center a year later. He was joined by staff
members, with the office now numbering 11, including experts in fisheries,
civil engineering, geomorphology and realty, to name a few. He also worked
with the eight-member Trinity Management Council, county planning staff, and
partners including a 16-member stakeholder group.

The restoration program now has an annual budget of just over $10 million a
year, including $8 million from the Bureau of Reclamation, $1.5 to $2
million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and $500,000 from the state
Department of Fish and Game.

Schleusner said the program benefited from some good decisions made before
he came into the picture -- for one thing, putting the office in Weaverville
rather than Redding or Sacramento as had been considered.

"I think the big advantage is we're becoming part of the community," he
said. "We have people in and out of the office all day long."

Also, the Trinity River flow study completed in 1999 laid the groundwork for
restoration projects and the higher flows. "The work we're doing on the
river is really based on some pretty solid science," Schleusner said.

Although the restoration program was authorized with the Trinity River
Record of Decision in 2000, the higher river flows called for in that
decision were blocked by litigation from agriculture interests and physical
structures on the river.

The flow decision was defended by the federal government, Trinity County and
the Hoopa Valley Tribe, prevailing against the final appeal in late 2004.
However, due to bridges and other structures by the river, flows from the
dam were limited at the time to 6,000 cubic feet per second, whereas the
flows decision called for spring flows going up to 11,000 cfs in an
extremely wet year.

By 2005, the program had replaced four bridges over the Trinity River.
Landowners were reimbursed for moving or improving 70 wells. Decks and pump
houses were moved. One property was purchased.

"That is one of the most important things we could do for this river,"
Schleusner said.

Schleusner said one of his greatest satisfactions was the work he and
restoration program staff did "developing a really good working relationship
with the local landowners along the river."

"We started out from the very beginning saying condemning property is not in
our vocabulary," Schleusner said.

In addition to making way for higher flows, he noted that these changes have
the added benefit of allowing Bureau of Reclamation officials flexibility to
keep more water in Trinity Lake through the winter. The ability to have
higher releases when necessary can avert draining of the reservoir when
storms approach, he noted.

In addition to higher flows, the Record of Decision called for channel
restoration projects on the river, which has been altered by years of low
flows.

By the end of this month, the program will have completed restoration
projects at 16 sites along the river. Heavy equipment has been used to
create side channels and re-contour floodplains, providing slower moving
water that juvenile fish use. Gravel has been added to areas for spawning.

Schleusner's last duties with the restoration program will be to help
prepare the new executive director. His replacement is to be Mike Hamman of
Chama, New Mexico. Hamman most recently worked for the Jicarilla Apache
Nation where he was CEO of the water utility authority.

He worked from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s as a Bureau of Reclamation civil
engineer in Albuquerque and has worked for the City of Santa Fe as water
utility director. He is to start work with the Trinity River Restoration
Program this month.

Byron Leydecker, JCT

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810

415 519 4810 cell

 <mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net> bwl3 at comcast.net

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

 <http://fotr.org> http://fotr.org 

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