Category Archives: Fish

Events, Fish, safety, Water, Wildlife

1964 Highway 49 Bridge Rubble Remains A Cleanup Quandary

HWy49Bridge

By most accounts, the Highway 49 bridge blowout of December 1964 was spectacular.

The Dec. 23, 1964, bridge washout put traffic on the Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge for four months, and a new Highway 49 bridge was in place by spring of 1965. That year was also when the Auburn dam project was authorized by Congress. Though the dam was never built, the possibility that it would be constructed left the option of doing nothing open. The downstream rubble and steel the washout left behind would soon be under hundreds of feet of water.

Almost 50 years later, the dam has yet to be built and the remains of the bridge have yet to be cleared away – leaving a quandary for several levels of government, as well as environmentalists advocating greater use of the Auburn State Recreation Area as a park.

During fall days like Wednesday, when the American River flows are down to their lowest levels of the year, the mangled steel can be seen clearly in the river bed, some of the pieces poking up above the water line. The broken concrete – giant gray chunks weighing several tons – litters the canyon shoreline.

Elias Silver of the Lake Tahoe area was at the shoreline skipping stones with friends as their dogs romped in the calm, meandering waters at the confluence below the newer Highway 49 bridge.

“It’s definitely noticeable,” Silver said. “With all the state budget problems, it would be expensive to fish out. It’s not a small project.”

More at FolsomTelegraph.com >>>

Events, Fish, Salmon, Wildlife

Salmon leap at a chance to spawn at hatchery

With a swish of its tail, a salmon jumps more than 20 steps – one at a time – to the top of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery ladder Monday as the annual fall migration takes place. Nikolai Andryhoushkin, pictured, of Sacramento photographs the event, vital to the survival of salmon and steelhead in the lower American River.

Once they make their way up the fish ladder, the salmon are sorted and spawned on a table. An average salmon female has more than 5,000 eggs. The eggs are housed in the spawning building and the fish are raised until they are 4 to 6 inches long before being released. Steelhead are also raised at the hatchery, just off Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova.

Since 1958, the Nimbus Fish Hatchery has been successfully providing mitigation for the loss of natural fish habitat in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

More at SacBee.com >>>
Events, Fish, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Salmon ladder opens at Nimbus Hatchery on Monday

Chinook_Nimbus

The fish ladder at Nimbus Hatchery on the American River opens Monday, and salmon are reportedly piling up waiting to use it.

The Chinook salmon run is an annual spectacle on the American River as the giant fish return each fall from the ocean to spawn. This year, the run that continues into December should be noteworthy, because the salmon population is expected to rebound significantly from recent lows.

The fish ladder leading to the hatchery is a great place to view the run, and visitors can stand alongside the ladder while the big salmon jump into the hatchery. The ladder is scheduled to open at 10:45 a.m. Monday.

“There will definitely be fish,” said Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which operates the hatchery.

More at SacBee.com >>>

 

Fish, Salmon, Wildlife

Researchers say California salmon experiment a success

Flooded rice fields appear capable of serving as substitutes for now-depleted wetlands and helping California’s Chinook salmon population recover, researchers have concluded.

In a report submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the researchers said salmon raised in replicated rice fields near Sacramento as part of their experiments were the fattest and fastest-growing salmon ever documented in freshwater in the state.

“We’re finding that land managers and regulatory agencies can use these agricultural fields to mimic natural processes,” study co-author Carson Jeffries, field and laboratory director of the University of California, Davis’ Center for Watershed Sciences, said in a news release on Thursday.

The state Department of Water Resources and a nonprofit called California Trout also participated in the report, which is dated Oct. 1.

Juvenile Chinook salmon in California’s Central Valley have traditionally been reared in wetlands, where they fatten up before heading off to the ocean. A salmon’s size is an indicator of its likelihood of returning to spawn as an adult, according to the study.

The goal of the researchers’ experiment was to determine whether rice fields flooded between harvests could stand in for the wetlands that once filled the area.

More at MercuryNews.com >>>

Fish, Water, Wildlife

Dry October doesn’t help reservoir water levels

With docks perched on sand and vehicles parked where buoys once floated, anyone heading out to Folsom Lake can see right away that the water level is low.

“We’re getting dangerously low,” said a fisherman who was out at the Lake Tuesday.

The reservoir, which is used for municipal and industrial purposes, is 11 percent lower than is was this time last year, according to the Department of Reclamation.

“Last year we were at about 42 percent of capacity, this time of year; this year we are at about 33 percent in Folsom,” Department of Reclamation’s Lewis Moore said.

Moore said it’s not just Folsom where water levels are low. because of back-to-back below average annual precipitation amounts, all of the region’s reservoirs have dropped from 57 percent capacity last year down to 41 percent this year.

More at News10.net >>>

Bike Trail, Fish, safety, Water, Wildlife

Guy West Bridge will undergo restoration project to remove lead-based paint

The city of Sacramento will make numerous restorations to the Guy West bridge during the spring semester, including a removal of the original lead based paint that has deteriorated since the bridge was built.

“Primarily, it’s a bridge paint job,” said Max Katt, an associate engineer at the Sacramento based Quincy Engineering.

Quincy is one of the firms collaborating in the restoration.

“The existing paint has lead based materials and other hazardous materials that need to be fully removed before they can be replaced by a modern paint system. The existing paint is faded, cracked and losing adhesion and is no longer protecting the steel and doing its job to prevent corrosion,” said Katt.

Katt also said if the paint is not restored soon, it will continue to erode the bridge and may become a bigger problem.

The lead based paint will be contained and disposed of using hazardous material standards. The process will be closely monitored to ensure the safety of the surroundings, those working on the bridge and pedestrians who come into contact with the bridge during the restorations.

Other repairs to the bridge include work on the suspension cables, the deck and railings and the loose utility conduit. The entire project carries an estimated cost of $3.2 million.

More at StateHornet.com >>>

Fish, Rafting, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Salmon restoration in American River worries some kayakers, rafters

A project to improve salmon spawning habitat in the American River has some kayakers and rafters concerned that they may lose a favorite area of rapids.

The project, which started Sept. 3, involves using bulldozers to place 6,000 tons of large gravel cobbles in the riverbed near River Bend Park and Arden Way. The gravel is needed to create spawning habitat for wild chinook salmon, which make nests for their eggs in the rocks.

The work is occurring directly downstream from the parkway pedestrian bridge between River Bend Park and William Pond Recreation Area. This stretch of river includes the Arden rapids, an area favored by kayakers and rafters.

“It was a bit of a surprise to see all that rock in there and basically changing the whole flow of the river,” said Sven Lund, organizer of the SacYakkers kayak club. “For people going in it for the first time, it seems like an unnatural flow to the river and they will get caught on the gravel.”

Lund and others eventually learned that the right side of the river has water deep enough to pass.

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

Salmon habitat project begins on American River today

The latest phase of a project to restore salmon spawning areas in the American River begins today near River Bend Park in Sacramento.

The project involves spreading gravel in the riverbed so migrating wild Chinook salmon have more room to create “redds”, or nests for their eggs. The goal is to replenish gravel that would have naturally washed downstream, but has been blocked for decades by Folsom and Nimbus dams.

Led by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the dams, the project is in its sixth year and has already proven successful by increasing the number of documented redds.

About 6,000 tons of gravel will be added to the lower American River during this year’s phase of the project. Some 5,500 square yards of improved spawning habitat will be created. This year’s work is estimated to cost $400,000.

Work hours will be Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. All work is located immediately downstream from the pedestrian bridge at River Bend Park. The work is expected to be finished by Friday, Sept. 27.

More at SacBee.com >>>

 

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

Join The Great American River Cleanup September 21

Saturday, September 21, will be the annual “Great American River Clean Up” during the hours of 9 a.m. to noon which over the years has generated countless volunteer hours dedicated to gathering tons of trash.  The American River Parkway Foundation sponsors the annual event as one way to maintain the natural habitat that comprises the 23 mile stretch along the American River.

Volunteers can register online and many students use the event as a way to earn community service credits for school.  Staging sites where you can check-in include Alumni Grove at CSUS, Ancil Hoffman Park, and William Pond Park.  Details and more information can be obtained online at the American River Parkway Foundation website.

Fish, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Folsom Lake Concerns: San Juan Water District Adopts Voluntary Restrictions

Customers of San Juan Water District in are being asked to reduce their water use 5 to 10 percent due to concerns that Folsom Lake may not be able to serve normal demand.

The district’s board of directors last week adopted a Stage 2 Water Alert, which calls on customers to take voluntary actions to conserve water. The district serves Granite Bay and portions of Roseville, Folsom and Orangevale.

“We’re encouraging residents to avoid all unnecessary and wasteful uses of water,” Judy Johnson, the district’s customer services manager, said in a statement.

The request comes after the driest January-through-June period in the northern Sierra Nevada region in history. Lack of snowfall and resulting poor runoff has left many California reservoirs in a depleted state, including Folsom Lake. The lake supplies most of the water used by San Juan customers, and there is mounting concern it will not be able to meet demand next year.

More at SacBee.com >>>