Category Archives: Fish

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

California Drought Prompting Extraordinary Measures To Protect Salmon

State and federal wildlife officials this month are preparing extraordinary measures to protect Chinook salmon returning to spawn in California’s drought-depleted rivers.

Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon are making their way upstream from the Pacific Ocean to begin their annual spawning ritual. These fish, primarily produced in hatcheries, make up the most abundant salmon run in California and are the primary catch for an ocean fishery that sustains thousand of jobs.

But the species has had wild population swings over the past decade because of droughts, poor ocean conditions and loss of habitat. Officials are hoping to avoid another wild swing by taking action to help this year’s run, including some measures that have never been tried in California.

At the American River Hatchery near Sacramento, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is installing water chillers at a cost of nearly $1 million to ensure water coursing through the hatchery doesn’t become lethally warm for salmon and other species hatched and raised there. The chillers, essentially giant refrigeration units, are in place at a few hatcheries around the state but had never before been used on the American River.

More at SacBee.com >>>

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

Agency Seeks $9.7M From State To Improve Local Water Supplies

Hoping to reduce the Sacramento region’s dependence on Folsom Lake for water, local officials seek $9.7 million in state funds for 17 projects.

Officials with the Regional Water Authoritysaid the money, which could come by the end of October, would pay for groundwater-supply projects that would lessen the reliance on Folsom in dry years.

“Folsom is our biggest risk when it comes to water supply, because it serves statewide water supply and environmental needs in addition to our own,” John Woodling, the authority’s executive director, said in a news release.

The projects include upgrading or installing 13 wells, building four pump stations for lifting water to higher elevations and increasing access to water from the Sacramento and American rivers even when they’re running particularly low.

More at BizJournals.com >>>

Fire, Fish, safety, Water, Wildlife

King Fire: Alleged Arsonist Arrested In El Dorado County

A 37-year-old man was arrested and accused of igniting the massive King Fire, which has burned 71,000 acres of Sierra foothills east of Placerville while sending up a huge column of smoke visible from the Bay Area, officials said Thursday.

El Dorado County authorities took Wayne Allen Huntsman into custody Wednesday on suspicion of felony arson and jailed him in lieu of $10 million bail.

The King Fire, which began Saturday and now ranks as one of the largest wildfires burning in California, has forced thousands from their homes and closed a stretch of Highway 50, the popular route between Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe.

Strong mountain winds were pushing the inferno north Thursday through the El Dorado National Forest. But no structures have been damaged because of the fire’s trajectory through sparsely populated hills, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

More than 2,000 homes remain threatened, however.

More at SFGate.com >>>

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

Great American River Clean Up Is This Saturday

This Saturday, September 20, offers opportunities to help the community as well as have fun.
During the hours of 9 am to noon the annual Great American River Clean Up will be held. To volunteer and enjoy the outdoors while helping to keep the American River Parkway clean; details and more information can be obtained at the American River Parkway Foundation website.

Fire, Fish, safety, Water, Wildlife

King Fire At 3,900 Acres, 10 Percent Contained

A 3,900-acre fire burning in the Pollock Pines area of El Dorado County caused many evacuations Sunday afternoon.

As of 7:30 a.m. the King Fire is 10 percent contained and is currently located in the canyon of the south fork of the American river, northeast of the community of Pollock Pines according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department website.

The fire, which started Saturday afternoon, caused 160 mandatory evacuations and 406 voluntary evacuations according to Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff.

There are 806 personnel battling the fire and 500 homes threatened according to Cal Fire PIO’s tweet.

Pollock Pines School District is closed Monday according to Pollock Pine’s School District Secretary Carmen Hodson.

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services has arranged for the Red Cross to provide space for sleep and meals for evacuees of the Kings Fire at Sierra Ridge Middle School located on 2700 Amber Trail.

More at News10.net >>>

Events, Fish, Salmon, Wildlife

Salmon Discussion At Nimbus Hatchery Tuesday at 7PM.

A discussion on salmon fishing in the American River will be the final installment in the Nimbus Hatchery speaker series at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the hatchery’s Visitor’s Center, 2001 Nimbus Road, in Rancho Cordova.

Justin Cisneros, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife and an avid fisherman, will share tips for successful salmon fishing, including gear, locations and methods.

Department senior environmental scientists Rob Titus and Mike Healey will talk about the state of the salmon run in the American River and how the department is managing it. Wildlife officer Alan Weingarten will talk about salmon fishing regulations.

Questions from the audience are encouraged.

For more information, call (916) 358-2884.

Boating, Fish, safety, Water

Slow Down At Folsom Lake: Rocks Ahead

Put away those water skis because the speed limit on Folsom Lake is now 5 mph.

Beginning Tuesday, state parks officials lowered the speed limit to 5 mph because the drought has caused the reservoir to be so low that a fast-moving vessel or a skier could hit rocks.

The low water level has also left most boat ramps dry. Rattlesnake Bar, Granite Bay, Folsom Point and Peninsula boat ramps are all out of the water and closed to boat launching.

More at SacBee.com>>>
Boating, Fish, Rafting, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

California Drought: El Niño Chances Fall Again

Hopes of an almighty El Niño bringing rain to a drought-stricken California – with its fallow fields, depleted streams and parched lawns – were further dashed Thursday. The National Weather Service, in its monthly El Niño report, again downgraded the chances of the influential weather pattern occurring in the fall or winter.

The odds were 80 percent in May, but were placed between 60 and 65 percent this week.

Meanwhile, the agency also announced that the much-needed weather event is likely to be weak instead of moderate in strength – another retreat from the more robust projections made earlier this year that fueled speculation that California’s three-year dry spell might be snapped.

El Niños, defined by warming Pacific Ocean waters that release enough energy to shape worldwide weather, have been associated with wet winters in the Golden State. The strong 1997-98 event correlated with San Francisco’s biggest recorded rain year: a whopping 47.2 inches of rain.

But the correlation doesn’t always hold up. While El Niños carry the potential to bring quenching showers, this week’s climate report doesn’t necessarily doom the state to another year of drought.

More at SFGate.com >>>

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

Sac State Sustainability Adopts Parkway, Volunteer Efforts In Cleaning

The Sac State Sustainability team has added another project in effort to make the campus more environmentally aware, with the recent adoption of Mile 7 South of the American River Parkway.

The “Adopt a Parkway” program through the foundation allows organizations in the Sacramento area to “adopt” individual miles, becoming volunteer stewards of their adopted miles.

This includes clean-up efforts and monitoring the parkway for anything that needs attention from the American River Parkway Foundation, such as broken picnic tables, damage to the parkway itself or invasive plant species.

“This is a great relationship and we are incredibly happy to be partners with Sacramento State Sustainability,” said Meghan Toland, volunteer coordinator for the American River Parkway Foundation. “This will help all who use the parkway around Sacramento State, students and others who use the parkway for recreational use.”

Part of the agreement in becoming stewards is ensuring volunteer hours are met. At least 20 man hours must be completed per quarter. All trash bags, sign in sheets and volunteer resources are provided by the foundation.

According to Joey Martinez, Recycling and Sustainability Coordinator for Sacramento State, how and who completes 20 hours of required service is up to the volunteers.

“This can be 20 people committing one hour of their time or even 2 people committing 10 hours—as long as it adds up to 20 hours per quarter,” said Martinez.

For Sac State, this means faculty, students and staff will be able to have a hands-on experience in helping sustain the parkway that has become a staple for both the university and Sacramento.

“Mile 7 South has the potential to become a bigger part of the Sac State community in that it will allow for the members of said community to become more invested as its environmental stewards,” Toland said.

The campus population taking active steps in caring for the parkway is exactly what the American River Parkway Foundation looks for in volunteers,Toland said.

More at StateHornet.com >>>

Boating, Fish, Rafting, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Folsom Lake Spillway Keeps To Schedule, Budget

The approximately $900 million auxiliary spillway for Folsom Dam, which will increase the dam’s release capacity and reduce flood risk downstream, is “on time and on budget” for its scheduled October 2017 completion.

 Also on schedule are the first phase of the project’s control structure, scheduled to wrap up in the summer of 2015, and the second phase, set for completion in May 2017, said Katie Huff, a senior project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Site restoration will begin in 2016-17,” she said.

The auxiliary spillway’s completion target is four years sooner than the original planned completion date of 2021 — and nearly $416 million below original cost projections.

Construction on the new dam, the control structure, began in May 2012. Crews have been working nearly around the clock, six days a week, to meet the completion deadline of mid-2015.

The third year of California drought hasn’t had an impact on construction of the auxiliary spillway. It’s essentially a second dam that will allow water to be released earlier and more safely from Folsom Lake during large storms.

Rather, with the extended dry conditions, “We’ve been able to do work in the ‘dry,’ instead of the ‘wet,’” said Huff, who lives in El Dorado Hills.

The Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California’s Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the Sacramento Flood Control Agency are working together to build the auxiliary spillway to increase its release capacity and reduce flood risk downstream.

More at AuburnJournal.com >>>