No one ever said that removing fish-blocking dams on California’s rivers was going to be easy. That has been particularly true on the Klamath River, but wrangling that has gone on for years seems to be almost over, and the result will be the removal of four dams that have blocked salmon and steelhead runs for almost a century. “The Klamath River was once the largest producer of salmon on the West Coast,” said the Portland-based American Rivers conservation group, one of many parties involved in the complex planning effort. “But for nearly 100 years, four dams have blocked salmon and steelhead from reaching up to 300 hundred miles of historic habitat.”
After following the sometimes arcane requirements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the States of California and Oregon and a number of recreational and commercial fishing groups, the Karuk and Yurok tribes, local agencies, irrigators, and others have agreed on a process for removing the J. C. Boyle Dam, which is located in Oregon and creates the 22.8-acre John Boyle Reservoir. Also slated for removal are the Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, and Iron Gate Dams, which are located in California, northeast of Yreka. The dams range from just under 100 feet to over 600 feet high and 400 to 700 feet wide. Supporters of the dam-removal process include California Trout (CalTrout), Trout Unlimited (TU), and the Northern California Council of Fly Fishers International (NCCFFI).
“The dam removal and restoration project, currently the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, is expected to improve water quality, revive fisheries, create local jobs, and boost tourism and recreation,” stated American Rivers. The dam removal plan is spelled out in a 2,300-page Definite Plan for the Lower Klamath Project and is expected to begin in 2021, implemented by the San Francisco-based Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) at a cost of $397.7 million. Dam removal gained impetus after the two states in 2008 estimated it would cost more than $500 million to bring the dams up to twenty-first-century safety and environmental standards.
The dams, built in the early twentieth century, have been owned and operated by PacifiCorp. An agreement to remove the dams was reached in 2010, but failed to get the required approval from Congress. That agreement expired in 2015. Based in Portland, PacifiCorp provides power to customers in six Western states, including to 45,078 customers in California, and has been operating the dams on licenses that have been renewed annually. Two years ago, Bob Gravely, spokesman for PacifiCorp, told the press, “From the company’s standpoint, we have the same agreement [today] that we negotiated since 2008. This is simply a way to continue pursuing it without needing involvement from Congress.”
The Definite Plan implements the earlier agreement and calls for transferring ownership to KRRC, which will manage the dam removal project. In addition to the dam removal, “the project includes site remediation and restoration, including previously inundated lands and measures to avoid or minimize adverse downstream impacts,” says the plan. “The purpose is to achieve free-flowing conditions and fish passage in the Klamath.”
The dam removal plan must get past a few hurdles under the proposed time line. By late 2019, water-quality agencies in the two states will review the plan, and environmental permitting and a risk management assessment will be completed. The FERC process of transferring ownership will be finished by early 2020. Final design of the project will be completed by late 2020. Dam removal will be done between 2021 and 2022. The agencies will be engaged in public outreach throughout the planning and implementation process.
As part of the planning process, FERC has appointed independent consultants to review and provide comments on the proposal to remove the dams and remediate the sites. “In May, FERC authorized KRRC to convene a panel of nationally recognized experts to serve as an Independent Board of Consultants for the project,” said American Rivers. “The panel brings expertise in dam construction and removal, engineering, aquatic and terrestrial biology, construction, cost estimating, and risk management.” The budget for 2018 for KRRC is $27.4 million. The corporation receives funding from the California and Oregon Public Utilities Commissions and the California Natural Resource Agency.
KRRC’s website lists four staff members, who are assisted by a 13-person board of directors appointed by the two states, public agencies, tribes, and nonprofit groups with interests in the project. California’s trout and fisheries conservation groups appointed Brian Johnson, California director for TU, and Laura Rose Day, a principal in Source Consulting in Maine, as directors. Day helped lead the Penobscot River Restoration Project in Maine.
For more information on the Klamath River project, you can see the 2,300page Definite Plan for the Lower Klamath Project at http://www.klamathrenewal.org/definite-plan, and go to the websites of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, http://www.klamathrenewal.org, and PacifiCorp, http://www.pacificorp.com/index.html. Klamath dam removal and restoration planning documents can be found at https://klamathrestoration.gov, and local planning efforts can be found at KlamathRestoration.gov. Background and pictures of the dams can be found at http://www.klamathrenewal.org/background.
Some Wins, Some Losses, as the Legislature Adjourns
There were not a lot of big gains for fish and their habitat when the California State Legislature completed its session this year. The governor signed Senate Bill 144, which extended the requirement that anglers must have a “steelhead trout report restoration card, and the requirement to purchase the card for $5.00 was extended until July 1, 2022. (The fee for the card has not been raised since 2004.) A legislative report estimated that the card raises about $350,000 annually, which is to be used by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) for steelhead protection and restoration projects. The legislature appropriated $300,000 for the department to manage the program.
Here is an update on other legislation.
Wild and Scenic Rivers. AB2975 was signed into law. This measure gives state protection to the 747 miles of streams designated as Wild and Scenic Rivers in the event that the federal government removes them from protection.
Wild and Scenic Mokelumne. SB854 was signed into law. This measure adds sections of the Mokelumne River for protection of its “wild, scenic, and recreational” values under the California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. SB-854 also requires that the CDFW contract with an independent entity to conduct a “service-based budget review and tracking system.” The measure authorizes the Delta Protection Commission to produce a long-range plan for the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, but says that no general state funds can be used for the work.
Climate and Water. AB-2528 was vetoed by the governor. This bill would have added four areas for study in the water-related-emphasis area of the state’s triennial Safeguarding California Plan, which identifies the vulnerability of various resources to climate change. “These areas include source watersheds, strongholds for salmon and steelhead, mountain meadows, and estuaries,” said Curtis Knight, CalTrout’s executive director, in a letter to the governor in support of the measure.
Fishing License Age. AB-478 died at the end of the session, but would have increased the age at which a person is required to have a sport fishing license from 16 to 18 or older.
Sierra Watersheds. AB-2849 was approved and signed into law. It provides legal recognition for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s Watershed Improvement Program, which brings together state, federal, and local agencies, nonprofit groups, and others to implement largescale watershed restoration efforts.
Lead Tackle Ban. AB-2787 was gutted and then died. It would have banned use of lead in fishing tackle.
For more information on bills, go to https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billSearchClient.xhtml.
CDFW Awards $27.8 Million to Watershed Projects
The CDFW has selected 24 projects to receive $27.8 million in awards from its Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 Restoration Grant Programs. Of the total, approximately $23.9 million was awarded through the Watershed Restoration Grant Program to projects of statewide importance outside of the Delta, and approximately $3.9 million was awarded through the Delta Water Quality and Ecosystem Restoration Grant Program to projects that directly benefit the Delta.
“CDFW has maintained an adaptive priority-setting approach each year under our Prop. 1 grant program, and we are pleased to fund a number of projects this year that support fire recovery, as well as continuing restoration actions,” CDFW director Charlton H. Bonham said. “We are proud to have funded over 100 on-the-ground projects in the four years since the implementation of Proposition 1. These are projects that will continue to deliver benefits to our fish and wildlife and the habitats where they thrive.”
Here are the grants for implementation of fish-related projects.
Restoring ecosystem function in the upper Salt River watershed ($1.131 million to the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District); the Upper Truckee River and Marsh Restoration Project ($1.7 to the California Tahoe Conservancy); the Martis Wildlife Area Restoration
Project ($3.28 million to the Truckee River Watershed Council); El Capitan Creek fish passage restoration implementation ($1.17 million to the California Department of Parks and Recreation); the Rubber Dam No. 1 System Fish Passage Improvements Project ($5 million to the Alameda County Water District); the East Creek Restoration Project ($316,803 to the Plumas Corporation); the Reidy Creek Restoration and Beautification Project ($380,873 to the Escondido Creek Conservancy); postfire forest management and sediment reduction for coho recovery ($1.42 million to the Sonoma Resource Conservation District); the Grasslands Floodplain Restoration Implementation Project ($1.34 million to American Rivers); and the West Stanislaus Irrigation District Fish Screen Project ($2.25 million to the West Stanislaus Irrigation District).
General information about CDFW’s Proposition 1 Restoration Grant Programs, as well as a schedule of locations and dates for workshops, once they are available, can be found at www.wildlife. ca.gov/grants.
Summer Steelhead Endangered Species Listing
The California Fish and Game Commission has received a petition from Friends of the Eel River to list northern California summer steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act.
Summer steelhead migrate further inland into smaller tributaries than winter fish. According to the Commission, these fish spend summer months resting in pools with consistent cool temperatures as they mature, waiting for winter rains to spawn in December–February. Summer steelhead can tolerate water temperatures up to approximately 23°C (about 73°F) for short periods of time, but seek refuge in deep pools with cool seeps and springs. They prefer pools with boulders, large woody debris, and undercut banks that provide cover from predators and visual separation from other fishes.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will evaluate the petition and likely make a recommendation to the Commission at its February 6–7, 2019 meeting in Sacramento. Interested parties may contact Kevin Shaffer, CDFW Fisheries Branch Chief, at Kevin Shaffer@ wildlife.ca.gov, for information on the petition or to submit information to the CDFW relating to the petitioned species.
Trinity River Anglers Urged to Return Fish Tags in Timely Manner
The CDFW reminds Trinity River anglers to return coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead tags in a timely manner. Tag return information is used each year to calculate the harvest and help biologists estimate the population size of steelhead and salmon runs. This information feeds into the Klamath Basin fall Chinook salmon run size estimate and informs the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s regulations and quota sizes for the Klamath fishery. The data also allow the CDFW to determine if progress is being made toward the goals of the Trinity River Restoration Program.
The CDFW will no longer be paying rewards for Trinity River tags returned from previous seasons, according to CDFW Trinity River Project environmental scientist Mary Claire Kier. “We rely on anglers returning reward tags to us in the same season that the fish are caught so we can use the information in the season-setting process,” Kier said. “Timely return of reward tags is very important to secure an accurate estimate of the annual harvest. Only tags returned to the CDFW in the same season they are obtained can be used in the harvest estimates, yet we often have tags returned to us as many as 10 years late. Unfortunately that catch information has no value to us at that point.”
As a reminder, anglers must immediately release all coho salmon and wild steelhead (identified as those with an intact adipose fin). Tags may be removed from these species, but the fish must remain in the water during tag removal.
Return Trinity River fish tags to the CDFW, 5341 Ericson Way, Arcata, CA 95521. Anglers can obtain a form to accompany the tags at www.wildlife.ca.gov/fishing/inland/fish-tags, although they can also be sent with the angler’s name, address, date and location of the catch, and whether the fish was kept or released.
