Bike Trail, Fish, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Sacramento levees’ failure of federal standards declared

Levees protecting most of the city of Sacramento and 15 other areas of the Central Valley were declared today to have failed federal maintenance criteria. As a result, they are no longer eligible for federal rebuilding funds in the event of a levee breach.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made the declaration today. It did so after concluding that a new state plan to improve Central Valley levees does not provide enough detail to ensure maintenance problems — such as erosion and intrusion by structures — will be fixed.

The affected levee systems include 40 miles of levees wrapping most of the city of Sacramento on the American and Sacramento rivers. This system of levees, known on flood-control maps as “Maintenance Area 9,” includes the south bank of the American River from about Bradshaw Road downstream to the confluence with the Sacramento River, then downstream from there nearly to Courtland.

More at ModestoBee.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

Notebook of missing UC Davis student found

A notebook belonging to missing UC Davis student Linnea Lomax was found just off the American River bike trail, her family announced Sunday.

It was the first solid lead since her disappearance June 26, said Craig Lomax, the girl’s father, at a Sunday news conference.

The notebook was found near the Sutter Medical Center outpatient facility on Howe Avenue where the 19-year-old Placerville woman was last seen. She was receiving treatment after having a mental breakdown while studying for finals, her father said.

The evidence has been turned over to police, but Lomax confirmed it belonged to his daughter.

“I saw the handwriting on the notebook,” he said. “It was Linnea’s.” The notebook was found during a search by 250 volunteers over the weekend.

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safety

Mountain biker flown out of American River Canyon

An Auburn man was flown via helicopter out of the American River Canyon Monday when he fell over the side of a trail on his mountain bike.

Rex Maynard, 68, was riding his mountain bike with a friend on the Lake Clementine Trail near the Foresthill Bridge when he lost control, left the trail on the right side and tumbled 70 feet down a rocky hill, according to Supervising Ranger Scott Liske with the Auburn State Recreation Area. The accident happened around 2 p.m.

As of Monday immediately following the rescue Liske could only say that Maynard suffered lacerations to the head due to the accident.

“After looking at the rock field he’s very lucky he was wearing a helmet because it probably saved his life,” Liske said.

Becky Morris, Maynard’s wife, said her husband is an avid mountain biker and that “he would never get on a bike without a helmet.” Morris also said Maynard has ridden the Lake Clementine Trail extensively and that he never lost consciousness after the accident.

“He’s 68 going on 12 as far as his activity level is concerned,” Morris said.

Maynard has also finished the Western States Trail Run multiple times and rode in the Coolest 24 Mountain Bike Race recently in Soda Springs.

More at AuburnJournal.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

American River levee construction causes bike trail detour

For the second year in a row, cyclists will have to take a detour route along the American River that runs from the Campus Commons Golf Course to the Northrop Avenue trail entrance because of scheduled construction of a seepage wall.

The construction begins today and could continue until Nov. 30 or later, said Todd Plain, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District.

Plain said bikers will “not be inconvenienced” because of the detour, but implored bikers to be extra cautious because of the narrower width of the trail.

“The regular trail is 12 feet paved with granite shoulders on both sides of about three feet,” Plain said. He said the alternate path varies between eight and 10 feet, with a mowed dirt shoulder of two feet on each side.

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Bike Trail, safety, Water

Volunteers search American River for missing teen

Hundreds of volunteers on Sunday were taking part in a search along the American River in Sacramento for a missing University of California,Davis student.

The search for Linnea Lomax comes as Marc Klaas, who founded the KlaasKids Foundation after his 12-year-old daughter was kidnapped from her Petaluma home and murdered in 1993, said he was getting involved in the efforts to find her.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Water, Wildlife

UC Merced plans research project in American River basin

The American River basin is set to host a large-scale research project involving wireless sensors that will help flood-control managers, farmers and scientists get a much more detailed picture of the amount of water in the basin for homes, businesses, crops and power generation.

The unique project marks a big step toward a statewide water-monitoring system, according to the University of California Merced, whose researchers are working on the American River basin system.

The project involves installing low-cost wireless sensors throughout the basin, which serves the Sacramento metro area. The sensors will give continuous information about how much water is available to users.

The system, which is being used in the Sierra Nevada, could go live as early as January 2013, according to the university.

“Our research provides a template for the next-generation water system for California,” UC Merced lecturer and researcher Robert Rice said in a news release. “We will be able to accurately know the amount of snow across the Sierra Nevada, as well as the timing and magnitude of snowmelt, which provides our water.”

Early research was conducted by professor Roger Bales, director of UC Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute, near Shaver Lake. The American River basin project will be much larger.

“We’re going from monitoring a 5-square-kilometer area to a 5,000-square-kilometer area in one big jump,” engineering professorMartha Conklin said in the news release. “It’s a full-basin hydrologic observatory, and a prototype water information system.”

The National Science Foundation granted $2 million for the monitoring systems’ construction and installation. The data will be streamed online and available to the public.

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Fish, Salmon, Wildlife

Fish and Game staff will prowl rivers checking salmon

There was all but a total collapse of salmon numbers a mere five years ago. Fishing for salmon in the ocean and river systems was closed.

Salmon numbers have rebounded since then. Some of the best salmon fishing in many years is being seen in the ocean. Their favored grub — krill and anchovy — are in the water. Chinook are gorging themselves and getting fat and big.

Not every salmon off the coast of California will be coming up the river systems this year. They return up the rivers to spawn and die when they’re 4 or 5 years of age.

Ocean salmon range from those released from hatcheries mere weeks ago to lunkers that have been reaching their maximum size before they make the run up the rivers.

Limits have been the rule with the ocean fishery. Fat and sassy with a lot of feed, they fight with ferocity.

Because of the tremendous offshore fishery, the main run in the fall is expected to be phenomenal as well in the Mokelumne, San Joaquin, Sacramento, American and Feather rivers.

Because they’re eating so well, there should be numerous record-size fish, too.

More at PlacerHerald.com >>>

Bike Trail, Events, Rafting, safety

Sacramento supervisors extend alcohol ban on American River Parkway

Sacramento County supervisors voted to extend a ban on alcohol along the American River Parkway following last month’s drunken fracas at an event called Rafters Gone Wild.

Supervisors granted the county parks director the authority to ban alcohol consumption on the parkway between Hazel and Watt avenues when he anticipates such events could threaten public safety.

The action extends the county’s previous drinking ban on the parkway, which is in effect on three holidays – Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day. Supporters of the stronger ban say they expect young revelers will find a way around it.

“They’ve declared war on you,” said John Barris, a retired county juvenile court administrator.

This was the second year public safety officials struggled to contain fights, nudity and other questionable activity at Rafting Gone Wild, an event that has been promoted through social media without any support by a known organization. More than 3,000 people showed up to the event last month, with 23 people arrested.

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Fish, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Sacramento gains more funding to aid salmon

Since 2006, Sacramento city officials have received $1.78 million from the U.S. government to help salmon spawn in the summer, and they’re about to get $650,000 more.

The City Council approved funding last week from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue the Lower American River Salmonid Spawning Gravel Augmentation Project.

Tom Gohring, executive director for the City-County Office of Metropolitan Water Planning, the office in charge of the program, said the dams and reservoir on the American River stop the “natural movement of sediment and gravel.” He said those items are necessary for successful salmon spawning.

Salmon, like humans, need oxygen to survive, said Lisa Thompson, director for the Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture at UC Davis. That means their eggs need to have access to oxygen, as well, which they get from flowing water.

In the egg-laying process, a female salmon will turn on her side and move her tail up and down to lift out some of the finer materials in the gravel while leaving the larger pieces to fall back down. Eggs are then laid in a nest and covered up with the remaining gravel.

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Fish, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Study: California lacks protocols to manage hatchery salmon

California needs to dramatically reform its fish hatcheries in order to maintain healthy salmon and steelhead populations, according to a major new study.

The $2 million study, released Tuesday by state and federal wildlife agencies, concludes nearly two years of work by a panel of fishery experts. It found, among other things, that the state lacks standard protocols to manage the 40 million salmon it produces each year at eight hatcheries. It also does not do enough field monitoring to fully understand the fate of all those fish.

The hatcheries, most of them on the Sacramento River and its tributaries, were built to atone for the spawning habitat eliminated by dams. But artificial breeding can also weaken the wild salmon that remain, making the entire population more vulnerable to environmental disruptions.

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