Feds say restoring north state salmon and steelhead could cost billions
Scott Mobley
Record Searchlight
10/08/2009
A plan to restore endangered chinook salmon and threatened steelhead to Central Valley streams asks Californians to cut their water consumption by 20 percent over the next decade.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Wednesday released a draft of the plan, which would cost up to $1 billion over the next five years and $10.4 billion over a half-century.
Salmon and steelhead populations have shrunk since at least the 1960s, according to the report. Central Valley fisheries could see full recovery in 50 to 100 years, should officials follow through, the report said.
The recovery plan calls for flooding the Sacramento River one week each spring and moving the Coleman National Fish Hatchery to help wild fish populations flourish.
But the report dismisses Redding-area tributaries of the Sacramento as too developed for meaningful salmon and steelhead habitat restoration.
Federal officials, working with state and local officials and experts, would reintroduce salmon and steelhead to the Little Sacramento and McCloud rivers, and Battle and Clear Creeks, among other Northern California streams.
The report singles out Battle Creek in the far southern Cascades as particularly promising for salmon and steelhead recovery, thanks to its persistently strong cold water flows.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation has already launched plans to remove some of the five dams on Battle Creek as part of a long-term effort to restore that fishery. Crews are slated to begin dismantling the Wildcat Diversion Dam on the creek's north fork next month.
The Central Valley recovery plan calls for installing fish ladders at any of the dams remaining on Battle Creek and stepping up cold water releases.
The plan also suggests conducting a study of moving or at least modifying Coleman Hatchery operations to spare wild salmon in Battle Creek.
Clear Creek also has high salmon and steelhead recovery potential, thanks in part to restoration efforts begun nearly a decade ago with the McCormack-Saeltzer Dam removal, according to the report.
The Whiskeytown Dam upstream has contributed to improving fish habitat, the report suggests, which calls for boosting cold water releases from the lake to keep water temperatures below 65 degrees year-round. The plan calls for water temperatures in Clear Creek down to 56 degrees in late summer.
On the main stem Sacramento below Keswick Dam, the plan urges restoring the river's "meanderbelt," or shifting stream channel, between Keswick and Colusa. The report also suggests inundating the river's flood plain for at least seven days each spring in two out of three years.
The billions needed to carry out the Central Valley fisheries recovery plan should be considered an investment, according to the report.
