[env-trinity] Trinity Journal (12/14/11)-River fans air concerns

[Tom Stokely]

Please note that this article is a week old.

River fans air concerns

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/2011-12-14/Front_Page/River_fans_air_concerns.html 
Meeting held as public outreach
BY AMY GITTELSOHN
THE TRINITY JOURNAL

Gene Goodyear points out a restoration project along the Trinity River at Reading Creek that has affected his family’s property. Restoration Program Executive Director Robin Schrock declined to comment specifically on the Reading Creek project but said, “I do want to reiterate the goal of the program through the ( Trinity River Record of Decision) is to return natural river processes to the Trinity River.”
PHIL NELSON | THE TRINITY JOURNAL
Complaints about Trinity River Restoration Program projects were aired at a forum last week in Junction City.

Many said deep pools used by adult fish have been filled in with spawning gravel, and injection of woody debris for habitat is hazardous to people recreating on the river. Others asked about the cost. Some said the work is just plain ugly.

About 25 people attended the Dec. 7 meeting at the North Fork Grange Hall put on by the Trinity County Resource Conservation District, under contract with the restoration program. The meeting was run by RCD employees Alex Cousins and Donna Rupp, and consultant Jeff Morris. Noting that the Resource Conservation District is not the decision making entity for the restoration program, the three said their job is to bring the questions and concerns to the entities involved.

The public outreach meeting follows a letter from the Trinity River Guide Association and California Water Impact Network to the restoration program’s director and others seeking a moratorium on the second phase of channel restoration projects until a review of the first phase is complete. The Trinity River Record of Decision signed by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2000 called for higher flows and channel manipulation projects to restore the Trinity River.

The channel projects received plenty of criticism at last week’s meeting.

“I want to know how much has been spent on this,” said Dan Morrison of Junction City. Morrison said he has lived in the area since 1983, and older restoration sites have become completely overgrown.

“How can they assess them if they don’t maintain them?” he asked.

Fishing guide Travis Michel noted that projects in the Lewiston area have made the river shallow and gravel-filled.

“There’s nowhere to fish up there anymore, especially if you’re a fly fisherman,” he said.

While noting that gravel is good for spawning salmon, he said holding areas for adult fish need to be evaluated as well. The river guides have said spawning gravel added to project sites has filled in holes adult fish use.

Before projects, “I think they need to evaluate the values of a stretch of river that are already there,” Michel said.

“We asked seven years ago that they put part of the budget in to dredge out the holes,” said Vince Holson, another fishing guide.

Property owners also spoke up.

Gene Goodyear said a project across the Trinity River from property his family owns in the Reading Creek area has caused problems.

Gravel injected at the site filled a hole used by fish and redirected the Trinity River so that it is eroding the Goodyear property, he said.

Goodyear added that his family had expressed concerns before the project, and “they blew us off.”

“We had like a month to sift through two years of their work,” he said. “To me that’s unacceptable.”

Mike Hopko, who fishes on the river, said the projects are ugly. “It’s not pretty floating down, that’s for sure,” he said.

Goodyear noted that vegetation did not line the river as it does now before the dam was built, but Hopko said, “It’s never going to be like that again.”

Concerns were also expressed about projects to put woody debris in the river.

“Who’s responsible for safety issues on the river from the work you are doing?” Holson asked.

Hopko noted that the salmon life cycle is three to four years and some projects were recently completed, so it is early to finish an evaluation. “We need to stop and wait and see what happens,” he said.

“I think we have a perfect opportunity,” Michel said. “The project’s half done. Go work on the watersheds.”

Michel also asked if the public will have the opportunity to comment on the two projects planned for 2012.

County Sup. Debra Chapman said the program needs to put out information on the outcomes of its efforts.

“Put it in layman’s terms,” pitched in fishing guide Ed Duggan, a member of the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group which advises the Trinity Management Council.

A former member of the advisory group, Tom Weseloh, said the group has asked many of the questions brought up at the meeting and has been ignored. He suggested that concerned citizens also go to the Trinity Management Council meetings.

“If you don’t say it they’re going to think everything’s going great,” he said.

In response to a comment that the only ones happy with the program are those making money off it, Weseloh noted that residents along the river did appreciate the project to replace bridges and other structures that prevented higher flows.

Resource Conservation District staff said they would take the group’s concerns and questions to the advisory group as well as the Trinity Management Council itself. The advisory group met last Friday in Weaverville, and the management council meets this Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 14 and 15, in Redding.

“We’re going to get written answers to all of these,” said Jeff Morris, a consultant for the Resource Conservation District.

More meetings to gather public input are to be scheduled in communities along the river.

Trinity Management Council

Meets at noon today, Dec. 14, and 8:30 a m. Thursday, Dec. 15.

U.S. Forest Service offices at 3644 Avtech Parkway in Redding

Meetings are open to the public. An open forum for comments on agenda items is scheduled for 12:15 p m. Wednesday. An open forum for comments from the public isscheduledfor3pm.Thursday.

Topics include: Letter from Trinity River Guide Association and California Water Impact Network, 2012 projects and 2013 planning, 2012 gravel augmentation and revegetation, large woody debris and public safety, 2012 watershed projects, public outreach, update on Trinity River Hatchery review.

. . .

The Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group on Friday voted to recommend to the Trinity Management Council that some projects go forward, though scaled-back after a neeting with stakeholders.


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