[env-trinity] Redding.com: Indian tribes rally to support salmon

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.redding.com/news/local-news/indian-tribes-rally-to-support-salmon_92347628

Indian tribes rally to support salmon
Damon Arthur
7:38 PM, Aug 27, 2014
7:45 PM, Aug 27, 2014
 
Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ANDREAS FUHRMANN
SHOW CAPTION
LEWISTON, California - More than 200 members of North State American Indian tribes and their supporters gathered near Lewiston Dam on Wednesday to rally for the fish they say are at the center of their cultures.
“This brings all the water warriors together to show them we have a united front,” said Danielle Vigil-Masten, chairwoman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe.
The Hoopa were joined by members of the Yurok, Karuk, Winnemum Wintu and Nor Rel Muk tribes at the Trinity River Fish Hatchery near the dam. Members at a barbecue lunch and listened to traditional songs and watched tribal dancing.
Vigil-Masten said they were celebrating a decision made last week to send more water out of Lewiston Dam and down the Trinity River, a tributary to the Klamath River, where tribes and others were worried about low water levels causing a die-off among spawning salmon.
“We were bracing for another catastrophic die-off,” said Trinity County Supervisor Debra Chapman, who attended Wednesday’s rally.
In 2002 more than 30,500 fish died in the lower Klamath River under similar low, warm water conditions.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation agreed last week to send pulse flows of water down the river to prevent an outbreak of fish disease. But on Monday two San Joaquin Valley agricultural water agencies, the Westlands Water District and the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority, sued the agency to stop the higher flows.
The two agencies argued the bureau did not have the authority to increase water flows, and that sending more water downstream would further harm agricultural communities in the San Joaquin Valley that are already suffering from the effects of the drought.
A little more than half the water in Trinity Lake is piped over the mountains to Whiskeytown Lake and eventually ends up in the Sacramento River, which flows through the San Joaquin Delta on its way to the Pacific Ocean.
But a federal judge on Wednesday denied the agencies’ request. It was the second year in a row a judge had ruled against the water agencies.
Vigil-Masten said the high water flows were due to a recent visit to the North State from Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel. Members of her tribe held a small rally in Redding when Jewell visited Redding on Aug. 12. Two days after Jewell’s visit, members of her staff visited her tribe and traveled out to the Klamath River, where they were shown fish dying in the water, Vigil-Masten said.
The following week, the bureau agreed to increase water levels in the river, she said.
Earlier this week, dam releases were scheduled to be more than 2,000 cubic-feet second. On Wednesday, the flow was at 950 cfs. The pulse flows are to continue until at least Sept. 14.
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