Press Release Dated June 12 2003:
The California Rivers Restoration Fund (CRRF) filed a legal brief on 6 June 2003 supporting the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) in their petition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reopen the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation District's license on the lower Tuolumne River so that steelhead trout can be protected. CRRF has been joined by California Trout, California SportFishing Protection Alliance, Friends of the River, South Yuba River Citizens League, and Tuolumne River Preservation Trust to support our legal action.
The Lower Tuolumne River once held the most prolific native Chinook salmon and steelhead fisheries in the Central Valley. Decades of in stream gravel mining and inadequate reservoir releases from lake Don Pedro to the Lower Tuolumne River nearly eradicated these fish during the 1987-1992 drought. Since that time, the wet climate and high flows in the lower Tuolumne River between 1995 and 2000 improved conditions for the few remaining adult fish migrating into the river to spawn and for their offspring migrating back to the ocean. As a result, many large adult steelhead have been caught by sport anglers in the Tuolumne River since 1999. However, now that we have had several dry years that began in 2001, the streamflow releases and the steelhead catch is starting to decline. In fact, flow releases from the New Don Pedro Reservoir inadvertently dropped below the required level in June 2001 due to a faulty gage and as a result there was a substantial fish kill. Even when flow releases meet the required levels, there are only a few miles of marginally suitable habitat for steelhead below the dam. Because most juvenile steelhead must grow in the river for two years before migrating to the ocean, the 2001 fish kill and the continuing low flows will be devastating to the future return of adult steelhead beginning in 2004. Steelhead are listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, which mandates that actions, such as the TID/MID operations at New Don Pedro Reservoir, should not cause potential harm to these fish. Although we informed the resource agencies about our concerns immediately after the 2001 fish kill, nothing has happened to improve the habitat or protect steelhead in the Tuolumne River.
There was a FERC hearing in 1994 and 1995 to renew the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts' license to generate and sell water and power from New Don Pedro Reservoir. The focus of the hearing was to determine the best way to manage streamflow to sustain the Chinook salmon population, whereas steelhead were not considered by the participants. It is our intention to help NOAA Fisheries resume these public hearings so we can present evidence that steelhead exist in the Tuolumne River and that the conditions mandated in the 1995 FERC license agreement are inadequate to sustain a population of steelhead. We have numerous photos and video evidence of all life stages of steelhead in the lower Tuolumne River as well as photographic evidence of the dead steelhead, salmon, American shad, Sacramento pikeminnow, and Sacramento sucker that died as a result of the low flow releases in June 2001.
Another concern of ours is that consultants working under the direction of the 1995 FERC license agreement for New Don Pedro are designing river restoration projects to benefit Chinook salmon and restore natural ecosystem processes, but do not provide habitat for steelhead. The consultants have plans to reconstruct five different sections of the lower Tuolumne River within the next few years. According to their current designs, they would construct large riffles to provide spawning habitat for salmon and re-contour the streambanks to restore floodplain habitat. However, these actions would eliminate much of the pool habitat and bankside vegetation required by steelhead. We have informed the consultants of our concerns and offered our assistance, but they have yet to respond.
To obtain a copy of the Brief, or for more information on the efforts that
CRRF and the other groups are doing to protect the endangered steelhead
in the Lower Tuolumne and other rivers in the state, please contact:
Steve B Walser
Executive Director of the California Rivers Restoration
Fund
209-532-7146
http://www.calriversfund.org.
The California Rivers Restoration Fund is a non-profit corporation dedicated to finding viable solutions for the management, protection, and restoration of habitat for steelhead, salmon, and other game fish in California. Our directors are designing, implementing and monitoring restoration projects that benefit steelhead and Chinook salmon in the lower Stanislaus River. Many of our members are sport anglers that frequently fish the San Joaquin River basin. Our membership also consists of property and business owners in the San Joaquin River basin. Our offices are in Soulsbyville and El Dorado, California.