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Bike Trail, Events, Fish, Rafting, safety, Water, Wildlife

12 tons of trash pulled in Great Sierra River Cleanup

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More than one thousand volunteers in the Sierra Nevada Region helped pull 12 tons of trash from rivers, lakes, and streams on Saturday.

The event was all a part of the 8th annual Great Sierra River Cleanup.

Estefan Galvan, 25, is a diver with seven years experience who helped cleanup Saturday.

“Diving is a whole different world. It’s an entirely different world,” Galvan said. “When you get under water it’s a completely different feel, your away from everything at the surface.”

Galvan joined a crew of a dozen divers in Folsom, California who pulled several items from the American River.

“Our main focus is going to be under the cliff diving spots and under the bridges where people tend to be looking over the edges or jumping off or throwing things over,” Galvan said.

The group pulled a bicycle, fishing rod, cans, glass, anchors and more from the American River.

More at ABC10.com >>>

Bike Trail, Fire, safety, Wildlife

Mop up continues on American River Parkway fire

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Sacramento firefighters kept an overnight vigil on the American River Parkway fire that blanketed parts of Sacramento in smoke and ash Thursday evening.

Firefighters contained the blaze at around 176 acres, but continued to mop up hot spots that smoldered Friday morning.

Under a full moon, embers rained down from trees left smoldering in the blackened area behind Cal Expo.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, though the origin did appear to be near a homeless camp, according to the fire department’s spokesman.

The evacuation order at Cal Expo was lifted after an estimated 1,000 people were asked to leave the grounds Thursday afternoon.

More at KCRA.com >>>

Bike Trail, Fire, safety, Water, Wildlife

Crews Contain 176-Acre Fire Near Cal Expo

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UPDATE 6:16 p.m.: Crews with the Sacramento Fire Department have contained a grass fire that burned 175 acres on the American River Parkway near Cal Expo Thursday. The blazed prompted officials to close the bike trail for evening commuters.

As of 6:24 p.m., crews are mopping up and will continue to clean up through the night. Officials say there are multiple fires still burning within the perimeter of the blaze.

UPDATE 3:15 p.m.: The Sacramento Fire Department is fighting a two-alarm fire between Cal Expo and the American River bike trail Thursday afternoon.

Chris Harvey is with the department. He says the winds moved the fire fairly quickly.

“Along the bike trail there, it’s relatively flat and the fuels are more like shin-high to waist-high fuels,” says Harvey. “But, once the wind started blowing it to the north, it started getting into some of these taller cottonwoods and the star thistle and then the fire really takes off.”

Cal Expo employees and people who live at the stables were evacuated.

Park rangers evacuated the homeless camps in the area.

One person was treated for smoke inhalation.

No cause has been identified. This is the third fire in the area in the last 48 hours.

Firefighters will be mopping up for several hours.

UPDATE:  Sacramento Fire officials say the blaze at American River Parkway continues to burn Thursday afternoon.

Helicopters have been unable to drop water close to the fire due to power lines in the area.

Some homeless people living on the parkway have been evacuated. Cal Expo employees and residents nearby have also been evacuated.

Officials say two fires have been started in the area within the last 58 hours.

One person was treated for smoke inhalation.

More at CapRadio.org >>>

Bike Trail, Fire, safety, Video, Wildlife

Large fire burns along American River Parkway

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Firefighters are battling a large blaze burning south of Cal Expo near Business Interstate 80 along the American River Parkway in Sacramento.

The blaze broke out sometime before 1:15 p.m. near mile marker 5 along the American River.

Crews were getting a handle on the fire when flames jumped a fire road and burned toward Cal Expo. LiveCopter 3 spotted sparks coming from transformers and power lines in the area where the blaze was burning.

People at Cal Expo have been evacuated because of the fire as much of the smoke moves that direction. The blaze is moving to the northeast, away from Business 80.

More at KCRA.com >>>

safety, Video

CHP Helicopter Crew Rescue Man Who Took 20-Foot Tumble in Rugged Terrain

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A California Highway Patrol helicopter crew rescued a man Sunday who took a 20 foot tumble in rugged terrain.

The victim, identified as 58-year-old Donald Stockard of Antelope, was hiking with a group, trying to reach the American River from the North Fork Campground near Emigrant Gap when he fell.

The hikers were able to use a cell phone to call for help. Cal Fire crews hiked in and prepared Stockard for a helicopter hoist lift.

More at Fox40.com  >>>

Bike Trail, Boating, safety, Water

Folsom Lake Crossing to close for blasting

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Drivers will have to find an alternate route around Folsom Lake Crossing as engineers close the busy road for blasting as part of the Folsom Dam Auxiliary Spillway project.

Blasting is scheduled between 7 and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, beginning Monday and running through Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

During those times, Folsom Lake Crossing Road between Folsom-Auburn Road and Natoma Street will be shut down, as well the bike trail.

The blasting operation is designed to clear out rock from the outlet of the auxiliary spillway, creating an exit channel for water to flow from the spillway to the American River, officials said. This is expected to be the final round of blasting for the project.

More at KCRA.com >>>

Fish, Salmon, Wildlife

Federal Project Aims To Increase Salmon, Trout In American River

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Gravel, sand and rocks are being sorted and washed along the American River – preparing the area for salmon and trout.

It’s a huge federal project underway with a plan to increase the number of salmon and trout.

So who’s footing the bill, and how much does it cost?

About a mile west of Sunrise Boulevard is where workers are cleaning and sorting rocks getting the river primed for salmon. Heavy construction equipment traverses the banks of the American River at Sacramento Bar four miles downstream from Nimbus Dam.

“They’ll be habitat in here for the small fish. We’ll put wood in here and some willows growing up,” said John Hannon, a fish biologist with the Bureau of Reclamation.

This federally backed program has a mission: a home makeover for Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

“The existing gravel is too large for the fish to use in this area, so this new gravel is smaller and the fish will be able to reproduce successfully,” Hannon said.

According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the number of spawning fish here has been on the decrease since early 2000.

More at CBSLocal.com >>>

Fish, Rafting, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Old pipe removal requires less American River flow

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Flows on the American River will be lower and rafting will be excluded one morning later this month to allow for removal of an old water pipe.

The Carmichael Water District on Sept. 13 will take away concrete debris from the south side of the river and remove an existing 33-inch steel water pipeline crossing the river just upstream from Ancil Hoffman Park.

Flows are scheduled to be reduced from 1,500 cubic feet per second to 1,000 cubic feet per second starting in the morning and continuing through 2 p.m. Sept. 13. The old pipeline is in the river but is partially exposed.

“This removal of the old pipeline is one the things we are most excited about – to restore the river to its original condition,” said Chris Nelson, Carmichael Water District spokesman.

Also beginning at dawn and continuing until about 1 p.m., watercraft launching in the water will be prohibited beginning at Rossmoor Bar and at other upstream access points, including at Sunrise Boulevard. The watercraft prohibition between those points is needed for safety reasons due to heavy equipment being used that day to remove the pipeline.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Boating, History, safety, Water

Original Salmon Falls Bridge Resurfaces At Folsom Lake

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Salmon Falls Bridge

With water levels receding at Folsom Lake, old little snapshots of history are reappearing.

As documented by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office over the weekend, the orginal Salmon Falls Bridge has reappeared due to the low water levels.

The bridge is among the last remnants of the historic colony on Mormon Island. Back in Gold Rush times, the colony housed more than 2,500 residents. A devastating fire tore through the settlement in 1856 and it was never rebuilt.

More at CBSLocal.com >>>

Fish, History, News from Other Watersheds, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

California high court upholds ban on dredges to extract gold

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California’s ban on the use of suction dredges to extract gold from rivers is legal and not overridden by a 19th century federal law that allows mining on federal land, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court’s unanimous decision was a victory for environmentalists and a blow to miners, who argued that the ban essentially stopped gold mining because doing it by hand is labor intensive and makes the enterprise unprofitable.

Environmentalists say suction dredge mining risks killing fish and stirring up toxic mercury.

The high court’s ruling came in an appeal of a criminal case in which miner Brandon Rinehart was convicted of a misdemeanor for suction dredge mining without a permit in 2012 and sentenced to three years of probation.

Associate Justice Kathryn Werdegar, writing for the court, said the federal Mining Law of 1872 did not guarantee a right to mine free from regulation.

Instead, its goal was to protect miners’ property rights involving the federal land to which they laid claim, she said.

“The mining laws were neither a guarantee that mining would prove feasible nor a grant of immunity against local regulation, but simply an assurance that the ultimate original landowner, the United States, would not interfere by asserting its own property rights,” she wrote.

Rinehart’s attorney, James Buchal, said the high court showed a “casual disregard” for federal law.

He said Rinehart would likely ask the court to review its ruling or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Suction dredges are powerful underwater vacuums that suck up rocks, gravel and sand from riverbeds to filter out gold.

More at USNews.com >>>