[env-trinity] SiskDailyNews: Scott River salmon rescue draws attention from national news

[Sari Sommarstrom]

By David Smith
dsmith at siskiyoudaily.com 

August 21. 2014 10:33AM

Scott River salmon rescue draws attention from national news

The effort to rescue and relocate coho salmon in the Scott River is winding down, but it will soon be featured on the national stage. 


Scott Valley rancher and Executive Director of the Scott River Water Trust Preston Harris said Wednesday that a crew from ABC’s Nightline series visited July 31 to cover the salmon rescue efforts. 
According to Harris, the seeds of the plan started forming in late 2013 as it became evident that there would be a “perfect storm” on the  horizon – a historic salmon run right in the middle of an extreme drought. 
Last year approximately 3,000 coho salmon returned to the Scott River system, constituting one of the largest runs of the Southern Oregon/
Northern California coho region and an estimated 54 percent of that evolutionary unit’s numbers. 
Coinciding with the salmon run were the ongoing drought conditions in Siskiyou County, bringing little precipitation and leaving the mountains with very little snowpack. 
According to Harris, the conditions forced approximately 95 percent of the returning coho to spawn in the mainstem Scott instead of the tributaries they have used historically. 
With little to no water coming into the system, Harris said, the SRWT, Siskiyou Resource Conservation District and area irrigation districts formed a working group and began to explore strategies for protecting the estimated 4 million salmon fry from drying up.
As it became more clear that the situation was not getting  better, Harris said, the working group was joined by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the United States Forest Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, as well as local consultants and biologists. 
In April, the group and agencies came up with a large-scale monitoring and relocation plan to address the pressing issue, Harris said. He explained that conditions were monitored to identify parts of the river in danger of drying up and the large density of young salmon populations that would most likely die from losing the water. 
According to Harris, identifying the highest-risk populations was only the first part of the effort – once rescued, they had to go somewhere. 
He said that many of the tributaries the salmon normally use to spawn flow through private property, and landowner approval was crucial to the effort to find new places for the coho to rear. 
According to Harris, approximately 18 landowners stepped in to allow the threatened salmon to be placed on their land, and the state and federal agencies fast-tracked a deal to keep those landowners from being targeted if the fish die. 
The USFS also agreed to allow relocations on its lands as part of the collaborative effort.
The exchange allows landowners to engage in their normal practices, including agricultural work, as long as “best management practices” are used. Harris said that that could be water sharing agreements or the landowner agreeing to shut off irrigation at certain times. 
Now at the tail end of the effort, Harris said that about 120,000 coho have been relocated to their natural rearing and spawning grounds, where they are expected to grow until their outmigration in the spring. 
According to Gary Curtis of the CDFW, this year’s coho brood will be back from its trek to the ocean in about three years.
Curtis called the effort a good collaboration, stating that everyone came together to help save the beleaguered fish. 
“We’ve done what we could to mitigate the effects of the drought,” he said. 
According to Harris, those actions caught the attention of ABC’s Nightline program, and the crew that came to Siskiyou County looked at numerous aspects of how the drought is affecting salmon and agriculture in the area. 
For Harris, the hope is that the biggest message to come out of the national story is that landowners played a crucial role in making sure the rescue worked. 
“We knew we were going to be able to do it because the landowners supported it,” he said, lauding participating landowners’ willingness to alter their operations to accommodate the salmon and provide a refuge.
“You hope they tell the story you gave them,” Harris said of the Nightline coverage, noting that he feels the crew seemed to focus on the positive aspects of the drought efforts, leaving politics aside. 
Thus far, a date has not been given for the airing of the program, but Curtis said that it could be soon. ABC was contacted for information but was unable to respond by press time.  
 

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/article/20140821/NEWS/140829921  <http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/article/20140821/NEWS/140829921> 

 

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