Category Archives: safety

Fire, safety, Water

Emergency Plan In Place To Protect Dam From Downed King Fire Trees

An emergency plan is now in place ahead of storms that threaten to damage a dam above Auburn with tons of downed trees from the King Fire.

The King Fire burned 40,000 acres of the Placer County Water Agency watershed and the downed trees and the sediment washed down from the bare hillsides is creating a dangerous situation in and around the Ralston Afterbay, about 30 miles upstream from Auburn.

“And we have a dam downstream that is at risk of an over top as a result of those trees just floating down the river,” PCWA’s Tony Ferenzi, Deputy Director of Technical Services said.

Ferenzi says PCWA has a plan to catch the trees before they get down to the dam.

More at SacBee.com >>>
safety, Water

Hiker Rescued After Falling Down Embankment In El Dorado County

A Pollock Pines man who fell down an embankment while hiking in the area, then became stranded on a rock in the American River, was rescued and flown to safety by a California Highway Patrol helicopter Wednesday morning.

Robert Douglas, 47, was suffering from minor hypothermia, scrapes and bruises to both legs, and an injury to his ankle when he was rescued about 11:30 a.m., said Deputy James Morgan of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue division.

Morgan said Douglas told rescuers that he had started hiking about noon Tuesday near the Forebay Road pike area. During the hike, he slipped and fell down a steep embankment. Unable to climb back up the embankment, he spent the night in a makeshift dirt cave.

At daybreak, he spotted power lines leading to a Sacramento Municipal Utility District power plant and began following them. He saw a power plant on the other side the river and decided to swim across, but he became tired and cold, and took refuge on a rock in the middle of the river. He then spotted employees of the El Dorado Irrigation District, which also has a power plant in the area, and began yelling for help.

More at SacBee.com >>>
Bike Trail, Fire, safety, Wildlife

Campfire Enforcement To Be Increased After KCRA Investigation

Sacramento County officials pledged to do more to enforce campfire laws in light of a KCRA 3 investigation that found only a handful of citations were issued this year.

A KCRA 3 investigation found only six illegal campfire citations have been issued on Sacramento’s parkway this year, despite an unprecedented number of fires — and drought conditions across the state.

Despite a continuing statewide drought and an unprecedented number of wildfires along the American River Parkway this summer, a review of citations found only six were written for open campfires.

KCRA 3 captured video of open fires burning along the American River Parkway and spotted smoldering fire pits remnants.

“As long as nobody does anything about it and makes them move or finds somewhere for them to be, preferably not here, they’re going to continue to illegally camp along the river — and they are destroying it,” Cathe Torgerson said at a homeowners meeting in the Woodlake neighborhood recently.

Jeff Leatherman, the director of the county’s Regional Parks Department, said officials are now reviewing how the county is enforcing campfire laws.

“We need to do an increase in enforcement — not only on the campfires, but then we have new ordinances in place that deal with barbecues on the parkway, as well,” Leatherman said.

The fires are indicative of a larger issue, the sheer number of homeless people camping along the river.

The parks department has beefed up its force of 21 park rangers, including a task force dedicated to illegal camping.

When officials find people in the tents, they get a citation.

“You are going to get a ticket today,” a ranger told two campers after waking them in their tents. “It’s an infraction. All right. Make sure you guys take care of it or it will turn into a warrant.”

Through September of this year, rangers have cited 485 people for illegal camping.

More at KCRA.com >>>

Fish, safety, Salmon, Wildlife

Poachers Take In Calif: $100 Million On The Black Market

It’s a big business in California.

Poachers steal an estimated $100 million worth of wild animals and fish every year in the state. Many of the thieves are repeat offenders, according to California Fish and Wildlife officials.

It is illegal to sell wild fish or animals in California, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said poachers can’t resist the cash they can make on the black market.

“It’s all about personal profit. This is not about feeding himself or his family. It’s about personal profit,” Fish and Wildlife Officer Patrick Foy said. He took News10 on a hunt for poachers in the wee hours of the morning. Using night vision technology, he scanned the American River outside the gates of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery for salmon poachers.

It’s not just salmon, though.

Divers poach an estimated 250,000 Abalone every year on California’s coast. The value of that many abalone is estimated at $25 million.

Another expensive delicacy is poached from the Sacramento River Delta, where where one female sturgeon can hold a belly full of eggs worth more than $30,000. Processed sturgeon eggs have been compared to Beluga; the most expensive type of caviar.

“These guys are getting $80 to $100 an ounce,” Foy said. “That’s a lot of money, and if you look at the amount of eggs a single female fish can produce you are talking about a huge lucrative market and an incentive to poach sturgeon.”

More at News10.net >>>

Bike Trail, safety, Wildlife

Sacramento Officials Seek Opinions On Proposed 12th Street Bike Path

Sacramento city officials are soliciting public opinions about reducing 12th Street from four lanes to three as it enters downtown from Highway 160.

The far west lane on the street would be turned into a two-way bicycling path, separated 5 feet from cars by a crosshatched area with bollards as far south as F Street.

If built, it would be the first full, exclusive bike path directly into downtown, giving bicyclists a safer way in and out of downtown from the northern neighborhoods and from the Two Rivers Bicycle Trail along the American River. City traffic officials say it also will force drivers coming off of Highway 160 into downtown to slow through an area where there are numerous pedestrians.

The city has published a Web page – http://n12street.com – offering details of the project concept and asking for comments.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

Bumpy Negro Bar Bike Trail To Get Fix

Portions of the bike trail through Negro Bar will be undergoing some much-needed smoothing thanks to a non-profit group and California State Parks.

Walkers, bike riders and joggers will appreciate the trail fix along the north shore of Lake Natoma when the work on the trail is completed. Much of the area suffers from bumps from tree roots, potholes, poor drainage and sand build-up.

Friends of Lakes Folsom and Natoma (FOLFAN) and state parks will repair about 1,300 linear feet of trail in three areas. Work will be done on both trail pavement and shoulders.

Dirt shoulders alongside the pavement will be built up again for pedestrians and joggers to safely pass.

New striping will be painted on the trail pavement and some new bollards installed.

“The damage to the trail in many cases is so extensive that is has become a real safety issue,” FOLFAN spokesman Jim Cassio said on the group’s website.

The project, which is scheduled to begin Nov. 3, will focus on three areas of the main trail: along the main Negro Bar parking lot, the slope and low point east of the parking lot and a set of drainage culverts near the main picnic area.

The trail will be closed through portions of Negro Bar. Signs will offer detours.

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

A Surprise From Folsom Lake: Conservation Is Helping

Folsom Lake now has slightly more water than it did one year ago, despite the third year of drought conditions across Northern California.

The lake elevation was 390 feet on Thursday.

One year ago, it was 389 feet.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Folsom Dam, credits extensive regional water conservation for allowing lake levels to remain somewhat steady.

“You’re getting a greater decrease in use, so it’s really saving water on a personal level,” said Luis Moore, of the Bureau of Reclamation. “Through those conservation efforts, we’ve been able to stretch this water supply.”

Water agencies that draw from Folsom are taking less because residential and business demand has fallen.

It’s one of the few positive developments in an otherwise dismal state water picture.

More at KCRA.com >>>

Fish, Rafting, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Study: 181 California Dams Key For Fish Survival

UC Davis researchers have identified “high priority” dams for fish survival in California.

In a study, the scientists evaluated 753 large dams in the state. Researchers said 25 percent, or 181 California dams, may need to increase water flows to protect native fish downstream.

Lead study author Ted Grantham said providing more water for fish during the drought may not be popular, but a strategy is needed to keep rivers flowing below dams. Otherwise, he said flows will be too low to sustain health fish populations for the dams on the “high priority” list.

He said those include the Folsom Dam on the American River, the Trinity Dam on the Trinity River and the New Melones Dam on the Stanislaus River.

A 2013 UC Davis study showed that salmon and other native freshwater fish in California will likely become extinct within the next century due to climate change if current trends continue.

Grantham said how dams are managed will determine the survival rate of many native fish species.

More at CapRadio.org >>>

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

Winter Rains Not Likely To Ease California Drought

Drought conditions will likely ease in much of the West this winter, but not in most of California, according to a new climate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The report, released Thursday, indicates that conditions in the Pacific Ocean, which include a developing El Niño weather pattern, may prompt above-average rainfall for the southern third of California over the next three months.

The Bay Area, however, as well as most of the rest of the state, stands only a one-third chance of seeing above-average rain — and equal chances for below-average rain and a normal amount.

“There’s just not a strong enough climate signal to make a prediction,” said Mike Halpert, acting director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

The forecast bodes poorly for Northern California, where residents are hoping a wet winter erases some of the costs of the state’s driest three-year period on record, including tight drinking-water supplies, fallowed agricultural fields and damaging wildfires.

But even a wetter-than-average winter would provide only a modicum of drought relief.

“It will take significantly above-average precipitation to fill reservoirs and recharge groundwater,” Halpert said.

The only good news for California, according to federal climate experts, is that the stubborn ridge of high-pressure air that consistently formed off the coast in recent years, blocking storms from making shore, won’t be nearly as prevalent.

The probable El Niño, which forms when the jet stream reacts with warm ocean surface waters, will likely push enough moisture across the high sea to keep the ridge from settling in, Halpert said.

More at SFGate.com >>>

Fire, safety, Wildlife

Rains May Bring Danger In Aftermath Of King Fire

ike Murphy is fearing the worst in the aftermath of the King Fire that nearly burned his home last month.

“I’m worried about the big rocks rolling down the hill and into this property and perhaps into my structures that I have here,” Murphy said, as he stood under darkening skies Tuesday afternoon.

He has reason to worry.

“There’s a large risk still of mud slides and debris flows when we start getting rain,” cautioned El Dorado National Forest District Ranger Richard Thornburgh, as he stood beside his headquarters building just a couple of miles southwest of Mike Murphy’s home.

Thornburg said a significant rain event could cause serious damage to the ecology of the 160 square miles of charred national forest land left by the King Fire.

“There’s nothing to really stop the water once it starts flowing over the bare earth once it’s all been burned off,” Thornburgh said. “Inside or even downstream of the fire, there can be flash flooding.”

Flames charred the soil, leaving it powdery white, incinerating tree and plant roots that once held it in place. In some areas, the fire burned so hot that it baked the soil into a water-resistant layer.

“It makes them what we call hydrophobic in some areas and so it actually makes a layer that the water just sheds off,” Thornburgh said.

Above Murphy’s place on the north side of the American River’s south fork, there are loosened boulders that could be sent toppling down onto his property.

“They will come down the hill. There’s just nothing gonna stop ’em,” Murphy said, looking up at the steep hillside above his property.

More at News10.net >>>