The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Here is what Cal Trout is asking for on the McCloud. They want base flows to be measured from the dam, not further down river. They want base flows from the dam to be 150 cfs. Currently, base flows are measured at Ah Di Nah and so if Hawkins Creek is raging, they can and do cut flows from the dam to as low as 40 cfs. If they control from the dam, it will end the fluctuations on the Dam-Ash Camp stretch that happen right about the time the fish are spawning.

That's not white water flows, but some folks won't believe that and there is no evidence that would ever convince them otherwise.

c'est la vie.

You know Bjorn, I hate always saying "I told you so".

I guess American Whitewater can't be trusted after all. Stewards of the River my ASS! Stewards of their own self-serving interests is more like it!


By the way, isn't funny how American Whitewater doesn't mention the McCloud as "the best trout fishing stream in California" rather than "the best class III/ IV wilderness run in California"???



It makes me sick.



http://brt-insights.blogspot.com/

Guest Author: Dave Steindorf, aka Satan California Stewardship Director, American Whitewater.

American Whitewater has been working for three years to get improved flows on the McCloud River, quite possibly the best class III/ IV wilderness run in California. In order for this to become a reality we need your support! We need to get letters off to the Forest Service and other agencies ASAP to show that whitewater boaters are interested in the McCloud River. The agencies have proposed a flow schedule that we are happy about. This flow schedule mimics the natural hydrograph by having high flows in the spring. These flows will provide two months of good boating in an above normal year and one month in a below normal water year.

Unfortunately, some of our angling brethren are not happy about this flow schedule because these flows could cut into some angling days. They have been engaged in a scorched earth letter writing campaign to all of the resource agencies. In their letters they are saying how more water will destroy the fishery and the usual nasty stuff about whitewater boaters. We desperately need to let the agencies know that there is another side to the story. Please write a letter today and tell them the following:
* Why the McCloud River is special to whitewater boaters. (25 miles, class III/IV, wilderness, etc).
* Why a natural flow regime with high spring flows makes sense and meets the needs of whitewater recreation and the river.
* You can also speak to the fact that the McCloud River was boatable 365 days a year before the dam was built. Bringing back a few days a year is not too much to ask.
* If you like to fish you can also speak to this balance from an angling perspective and that the angling groups that they have been hearing from do not represent all anglers.
* Ask for a written response.

Why didn't Friends of the River send a letter of support for the USFWS position to end boating flows in Pit 1, P-2687 to USFS, SWRCB, and FERC, to protect the Shasta Crayfish, an ENDANGERED SPECIES? Don't they care about ENDANGERED SPECIES and the damage boating flows are doing to them? 5 years of study and data show major negative effects, and in the "Adaptive Management" BS that AWA loves to ram down anglers throats, AWA is fighting changes to DISNEYLAND FLOWS AGAIN! AWA is in denial and trying to spin the findings again.


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended ending summer whitewater releases on the Pit River to protecting the ENDANGERED Shasta Crayfish from the BOATING FLOWS. They displace the Shasta Crayfish from cold springs areas on the Pit 1 reach, and the boating flows push warm water thru the reach. Shasta Crayfish need cold water.

It would be prudent to end these releases and study further, yet American Whitewater started a letter writing blitz to FERC, the State Water Resources Control Board and the US Forest Service, DFG ( all of AWA's "special supporters".) to fight stopping the pulse flows. Damn the fish, damn the bugs, damn everyone! We will whitewater boat here come hell or high water!

As far as FOR and the Pit... they didn't work on the Pit. They have about 3 dedicated conservation staff and they can't do every river. They aren't working on the McCloud either. Too many rivers, too few staff, too little money... do the math... FOR can't be everywhere, they aren't TNC or Environmental Defense or those other massive orgs. Their budget is small, they work on a ton of different river issues, not just FERC. As far as I know they are only doing FERC right now on the Klamath and the Merced.

I have not seen the proposed flow schedules, I just know what Cal Trout has advocated for, which was a pretty far cry from a white water flow. I've been out of the country for a couple weeks, so, I'll start looking into it. The numbers will tell the real story... next time you post up about how the sky is falling (or water is rising) try to put the data in there too since now I have to go and find it. If the flow regime is simply that they'll gauge at the dam and not at the creek, then there really is nothing to this... if the agencies disregarded Cal Trout's desires, that's another.

B-