The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

knock the mrk all you want but this is the reality we are faced with. Aw is not going to give up until they get their way.

FERC has released their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the McCloud /Pit Hydroelectric Project in Northern California. In this document FERC staff provides their "preferred alternative" for flows on the McCloud River that could go into the new project license to PG&E. In the DEIS, FERC has evaluated a number of flow proposals from, PG&E, the Forest Service, Angling Groups, and American Whitewater.

The McCloud River is quite possibly the best Class III/IV multi-day run in California. While many boaters are familiar with the free flowing run on the McCloud River above McCloud Reservoir, relatively few people have been able to experience the lower McCloud. This is due to the fact that the waters of the upper McCloud, which are high enough to be boatable throughout the summer, are diverted by PG&E leaving a small fraction of that flow below the Dam. It has been American Whitewater's goal to restore more natural flows in the lower McCloud that would better protect the river and return some fraction of the boating opportunity that would have existed before this project was built in 1960.

Unfortunately, FERC has different plans. In the DEIS they are recommending to keep lower flows that are preferred by some anglers. In the DEIS FERC states, "Given the importance of the existing blue ribbon fishery in the Lower McCloud River, we give more weight to safe angling opportunities than to recreational boating. Therefore, for reasons noted above, we do not recommend American Whitewater's recreational spring boating releases". We are dumbfounded at this response, particularly because we were only asking for 1% of the boatable days to be returned on the McCloud. Even under the flow schedule that was proposed by the Forest Service, which we supported, the median number of boatable days per year would be two, while the number of angling days would be 200. In our view this has nothing to do balancing interests, this is about eliminating boating from this river.

A small but vocal group of anglers that are vehemently opposed to whitewater boating have been advocating to FERC, the Forest Service, and all other agencies that have any regulatory authority, that boating should be either banned or relegated to the winter months before angling season. What has been most astounding is that it has been the same angling groups that have been most vocal in their opposition to whitewater pulse flow that also oppose restoring more natural flow patterns to the McCloud. Their position is that they wish the McCloud to be at a wadable fishing flow every day of the year.

Fortunately, this is just the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. We still have time to change FERC's view that this river should be managed solely for recreational angling. Here are some things you can do -

If you would like to read the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the McCloud-Pit Hydroelectric Project you can download the document at:

http://eli...ession_num=20100730-4001


FIRST, write to FERC and tell them that:

· there are few class III/IV wilderness runs and that paddlers deserve the opportunity to boat the McCloud.

· FERC needs to restore a more natural hydrograph that provides for boating opportunity in the spring.

· managing this river solely for angling is wrong and returning 1% of the boatable days is not too much to ask.




Please send letters ASAP and preferably before Tuesday, September 28, 2010.



You have three options for filing comments with FERC:

1.You can register directly on the FERC website <http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp> and electronically file a formal comment under project docket P-2106-047. This option allows you to subscribe to the docket and follow the process. (please contact me if you would like additional assistance).
2.You can file an eComment with FERC <http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment.asp> this is an option for short comments (less than 6,000 characters). File under docket P-2106-047. This option is simpler than filing a formal comment.
3.You can file by mail using the address below. Please put in the subject line reference "FERC P-2106-047".



Send letters to:

Ms. Kimberly D. Bose

Secretary

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

888 First Street, NE &#8232;

Washington, DC 20426




Or, you can email your comments to AW and our Stewardship Assistant Carla Miner can file on your behalf; copy Dave Steindorf on your emailed comments.




SECOND, show up to the pubic comment meeting that will be held on Thursday, September 9th in Redding. We need to show FERC that this resource is important to the paddling community.

Morning meeting:
Date: September 9, 2010
Time: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Place: Holiday Inn Hotel, 1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA

Evening meeting:
Date: September 9, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Place: Holiday Inn Hotel, 1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA

Dave Steindorf
4 Baroni DriveChico, CA 95928 Details
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 530-343-1871



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fishhawk said -

FIRST, write to FERC and tell them that:

· there are few class III/IV wilderness runs and that paddlers deserve the opportunity to boat the McCloud.

· FERC needs to restore a more natural hydrograph that provides for boating opportunity in the spring.

· managing this river solely for angling is wrong and returning 1% of the boatable days is not too much to ask.




Please send letters ASAP and preferably before Tuesday, September 28, 2010


what?? I don't think you are supporting recreational flows??

First - The McCloud is a unigue fishery that needs protection.

Second - Let the crazy kayyakers use it everyday during spring runoff.

Third - Manage this river for what it is - A river, and don't "Manage" it. sheeesh! Haven't we messed up enough rivers up already??

Paul

uugh what ????

I'm still wondering what the relationship is between The Fly Shop and Bollibolka.
And I'm all for keeping the river primarily for fishing and not kayaks and drift boats. Sheesh, maybe we could add some more water and have aluminum jet boats there, as well.

From Jack Trout, who as far as I know is a highly credible and respected expert on fishing in the Mt. Shasta area. He's talking about this issue in the context of a similar issue in Chile.

http://www...g=bollibokka-information
Take it from us here in the USA, 50 years after the dams were put in, the consensus is dams can be helpful and harmful. If I were in the shoes of any interested Chilean, I would thoroughly consider development of wind and solar power as they are existing natural resources in the north. In the long run, it makes more sense. Dams will cause the demise of salmon runs, cuisine, farming and sales if not stopped now. Consider the alternatives and look beyond your country and see what other countries have learned, don’t make the same mistakes we have. The Westland’s Water District and their Arch Evil Commander Tom Birmingham, head of the richest water district in the world is a pure demonstration of what water profiteers can do the State of California. This guy and their associations with anyone who supports their efforts are aiding the “Chevron of Fly Fishing”.

So be careful Chile, and consider your options, a loss of salmon could be very crucial in the future. Likewise Californians have tough environmental issues to consider and possibly a soul searching quest about where ones heart really lies. I left the Bollibokka on the McCloud River when I was faced with doing business with Westland’s Water District and Tom Birmingham. See I know the whole story, Tom Birmingham never fly fished when he first met me, I took him out on his first trip on the Bollibokka and all he talked about was how the Westland’s owned the rights to the water on the McCloud River. When I caught wind about them secretly purchasing the Bollibokka Club I contacted the San Francisco Chronicle and the story made the front page. I felt I had a duty to every Californian that they should know what was going to happen to California rivers and in particularly the McCloud River. I walked from $50,000 gross a year selling days and weeks at Bollibokka, but I never sold my soul to the devil. I was the first person they banned from the property when Tom Birmingham and the Westland’s Water District purchase was finalized. So I can tell you first hand these water power companies can be ruthless and will do whatever it takes to get what they want.

Even if it means losing out to the Nature Conservancy who at the same time had a buyer who was willing to pay Leighton & Gray Hills full price for their property their grandfather had bought back in 1900. Tom Birmingham in a underhanded deal came up with 5 million more and stole our river loving souls. So if it could happen here in California, it could happen here in Chile too. Dams are cruel and what people do to build them and control the water it stores is even more ruthless. Drown whoever gets in the way and put a hose down their throat just to make sure they stay on the bottom. If you want to be environmental, look to the Winnemum Wintu Indians who have lost everything to the families of Leighton & Gray Hills, Dean Whiter, Alfred Schilling, Randolph Hearst and countless others who made sure they were never recognized as a formal tribe, never given compensation for land that was taken from them. If you want to give back, at least these Native Americans are trying to get salmon & steelhead back into the McCloud & Upper Sac rivers now. The rest of what many people are saying is all bullshit…. Many Rivers, Jack Trout

Andrew Weiner wrote:
From Jack Trout, who as far as I know is a highly credible and respected expert on fishing in the Mt. Shasta area. ......snip.......

Okay, Ed---would you at least find him credible about this issue?