Page 12 - 2015 Annual Project Review

• Began recreation infrastructure improvements, including trail restoration, parking area re-location, replacement of the historic Carbon Bridge, and interpretive sign plan.
• Began phase 1 of riparian restoration and native plant re-vegetation.
• Launched the Hat Creek Muskrat Control Program to
reduce populations.
• Re-introduced large woody debris structure to the Carbon
reach (phase 1).
• Continued year two of the Hat Creek Youth Initiative and
launched Pit River Tribe workforce training and jobs program.
WHAT WE WILL ACHIEVE IN 2015-16
• Complete second year (phase 2) of riparian restoration and planting.
• Finalize construction of all recreation components: trails, signs,
parking area, pedestrian bridge.
• Monitor all restoration components: measure plant survival rates,
re-plant where necessary, monitor trail erosion and sustainability.
• Monitor in-stream habitat restoration impact, measure
geomorphic response to in-stream structure, monitor bank
stability, muskrat population.
• Utilize adaptive management to improve in-stream habitat
strategy based on year one observations.
• Partner with DFW on wild trout population estimates to measure
success of project over time.
Shasta Dam Raise and Salmon Re-introduction
LONG-TERM GOAL
Protect the world-famous McCloud River from plans to raise Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet, inundating over three miles of the Upper Sac and McCloud Rivers. Inform and direct policy and management decisions associated with salmon re-introduction. Protect existing state law declaring that the McCloud River possesses extraordinary fishery resources and that existing natural and free-flowing conditions are the highest and most beneficial use of the water.
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• SubmittedfinalcommentsandadvocacyonMcCloud-PitFERCproject. • Opposed Shasta Dam raise and protected Wild and Scenic status.
WHAT WE WILL ACHIEVE IN 2015-16
• Establish and disseminated policy positions by CalTrout on Shasta Dam raise, feasibility of “trap and haul” method of salmonid re-introduction, and McCloud-Pit FERC hydro re-licensing project.
• Protect McCloud River’s legal status as wild trout waters.
• Present cost-effective and feasible alternatives to NMFS and
BOR addressing Central Valley winter and spring-run Chinook salmonid recovery: direct existing state human and financial resources towards more cost-effective restoration efforts including floodplain restoration and central valley fish passage projects.
KEYSTONE INITIATIVE
Mount Shasta-Cascade Spring Systems and Source Waters
Mt. Shasta Region’s Springs Systems Fuel California’s Water Supply Even During Extreme Drought.
Mount Shasta is a stratovolcano located in the heart of the Klamath- Cascade Region in far northern California (about 50 miles south of the Oregon border). Its sizable snowpack and glacial meltwater percolate through its porous volcanic geology, eventually emerging as hundreds of springs which feed cold, clear water into the Shasta River, the McCloud River and the Upper Sacramento River. Mount Shasta’s cold, clean spring waters also feed critical municipal water supplies for the towns of Weed, Mount Shasta, Dunsmuir and McCloud and provide critical inflow into Shasta Reservoir, which is vital to the state’s agricultural, hydropower, municipal and industrial water supplies.
Mount Shasta-Cascade Regional Spring Sources Assessment
LONG-TERM GOAL
Protect Shasta-Cascade cold-water spring sources from overdraft, pollution, and long-term variability in regional climate. Abate threats posed by geothermal fracking, water bottling, and on- going hydropower operations.
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Provided the public with reliable spring water monitoring data and policy analysis regarding the proposed Crystal Geyser bottling facility.
• Engaged Crystal Geyser and recommended necessary steps for installing a groundwater monitoring system for Big Springs on the Upper Sacramento River.
• Updated and expanded the Mt. Shasta Spring Waters Study and continued to monitor the 22 spring systems identified in the report for a full suite of water quality and geochemical parameters.
WHAT WE WILL ACHIEVE IN 2015-16
• Build a region-wide source water monitoring and assessment program to understand aquifer vulnerability in the context of climate change and historic drought.
• Catalog major regional spring systems, identify monitoring sites, collect data, establish real-time monitoring systems.
• Design and fund a monitoring system to measure any future impact of Crystal Geyser operations on groundwater aquifers and spring sources.
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