Salmonid Restoration Federation

SRF Conference Hotel Group Rates Expire Feb. 10
Reserve Now!
For information about the SRF Host Hotels click here

Restoration Photos and Award Nominations Due Feb. 10
SRF and the Department of Fish and Game are putting together a commemorative restoration slideshow to celebrate a generation of salmonid restoration. Please send photos, captions, and credits to: srf@calsalmon.organd cc: cramsey@dfg.ca.gov

SRF Presents Awards for Outstanding Achievements in the Salmonid Restoration Field. If you would like to nominate someone for the Restorationist of the Year award, the Lifetime Achievement award or the Golden Pipe award, please submit 200 words describing the accomplishments of the nominee by February 10, 2007.

SRF Poster Session Info
Please sign up for the "Restoration Recruitment Center"being held in the atrium of the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts on Friday March 9, 2007. The Poster Session is a great event to share information about your work, company, or agency and to collaborate with your peers. We encourage posters, pamphlet distribution, software exhibits and multimedia (video) presentations. For more info about the poster session and how to sign up, Click Here.

Sanctuary Forest Seeking Conservation Hydrologist
Sanctuary Forest is seeking a Conservation Hydrologist to provide technical expertise in implementation of our Mattole Flow Program of seasonal water management. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the growing role that land trusts are playing in conserving water flows to benefit wildlife. Click Here for more information.

In this eNewsletter you will find:

Poster Session Info

Deadline for Group Rate and Award Nominations is Feb. 10

Sanctuary Forest Hiring Conservation Hydrologist

SRF Conference Workshop and Field Tours

Federal Agencies Issue Final Mandates for Klamath Dams

SRF Conference Workshop
and Field Tours

Wed., March 7 Field Tours and Workshops

Sustainable Winegrape Growing Practices along the Northcoast
http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2007/FT_winegrowing.htm
For this field trip on Wednesday, March 7th participants will visit three vineyards and a winery that are involved in sustainable winegrape growing practices in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Fetzer and Bonterra vineyards have two major projects with the RCD and NRCS to restore watersheds, mainly for the purpose of salmonid habitat enhancement and restoration. We will visit these sites as well as Preston vineyards in Sonoma county, which features hedgerow plantings and creek protection practices. After the tour we will have an opportunity to taste wines at the Fetzer Winery in Hopland. Participants can receive 6 Continuing Education Credits for this tour.

Fish Passage Barrier Removal Tours
http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2007/W_FishPass.htm
The array of fish passage barrier removal tools is constantly changing. This workshop will highlight developments in website databases, fish passage design innovations, barrier assessments, and unique implementation tolls that can help you in your own projects as well as tour some local fish passage projects and share experience in tailgate discussions.

Sonoma Creek Restoration Tour
http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2007/FT_sonoma.htm
This field trip will guide participants to a series of large woody debris and boulder installation sites in Sonoma Valley located on two major tributaries of Sonoma Creek. These projects were installed based on CDFG protocol with the aim of enhancing pool habitat. Participants will have the opportunity to see how these projects performed under the pressure of a rare flood event. These projects also display innovative approaches to enhancing the aesthetics of installations.

In-stream Restoration and Bioengineering Practices
http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2007/FT_bioengineering.htm
Learn about and tour local in-stream restoration and bioengineering projects with staff from Prunuske Chatham, Inc.; Bioengineering Associates; and The Bay Institute’s “Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW) Project”. This full day event will start with a slideshow of the project sites and an overview of project considerations and design details. Afterwards we will tour each project.

Thurs., March 8 Field Tours and Workshops

Estuary and Lagoon Restoration Workshop
http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2007/W_Lagoon.htm
The Estuary and Lagoon workshop is an all-day workshop on Thursday, March 8 that will bring together researchers, planners and restoration practitioners to discuss estuarine restoration at an ecosystem level as it specifically relates to Salmonid restoration and recovery. Speakers will cover a variety of topics including research, planning, implementation, and post-project monitoring.

Dam Removal and FERC Relicensing
http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2007/W_Dam_Removal.htm
This workshop will feature prominent speakers who will address the benefits of dam removal from an economic, political, biological, fishery, and tribal perspective. The workshop will include media and grassroots outreach training with Craig Tucker from the Karuk tribe, interactive models to visualize the effects of dam removal, exemplary case studies, and training in stakeholder conflict. This workshop is designed to empower and activate citizens to engage in the process of dam removal and FERC relicensing.

Rivermouth to Ridgeline Tour of Dutch Bill Creek Watershed Restoration Projects
This field tour will focus on the Dutch Bill Watershed, a tributary of the lower Rusian River where participants will see applied watershed restoration techniques, from instream structures, fish passage, dam removal, advanced road reshaping, upland headcut and fuel load mitigation, stormwater recharge, wildlife habitat enhancement, and community education and organizing. Dutch Bill is considered to be one of the most critical watersheds for the recovery of endangered coho salmon and steelhead in the Russian River.

Using Planned Grazing in the Management of Native Grasslands and Riparian Areas
This tour will visit three sites to view grazing management practices that benefit native grasslands, riparian areas, and ultimately fish and wildlife. Participants will visit the Walker Creek and McDonald Ranches in western Marin County that was featured in the publication Grazing for Change and the Point Reyes National Seashore and the range management program that includes livestock and reintroduced tule elk.

Austin Creek Watershed Tour
The Austin Creek watershed harbors some of the best habitat in the Russian River basin, and is home to a number of federally-listed threatened and endangered species including coho salmon, steelhead trout, and freshwater shrimp. This field tour will visit recently completed restoration projects ranging from upslope sediment reduction and native riparian re-vegetation projects to the "Lower Austin Creek Migration Improvement Project" near the confluence with the Russian River.

Prince Memorial Greenway Tour
In this walking tour of Santa Rosa Creek participants will discover how citizens sparked the transformation of a concrete lined channel into an awrd-winning greenway that provides environmental, social, and economic benefits to the community. Participants and presenters will discuss contaminated soils, flood protection, limited right-of-way, funding, and other obstacles to creek restoration in the urban environment.

For more info about the field tours, please visit:
http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2007/FT_planned.htm

Federal Agencies Issue Final Mandates for Klamath Dams
Feds mandate ladders; costs officially favor dam removal

Happy Camp, CA – Today, the Department of Interior and Commerce filed the final mandatory terms and conditions that must be met in order for PacifiCorp to relicense the Klamath Dams. Although the agencies do not have the authority under the Federal Power Act to mandate dam removal, they can and did mandate fishways and ladders. Klamath Basin Tribes and other dam removal advocates are pleased since the cost of the prescribed ladders and fishways makes dam removal an economically favorable alternative to relicensing.

“We applaud the Departments of Commerce and Interior for fulfilling their obligation to protect and restore the Klamath River,” said Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman of the Karuk Tribe. “Now it’s time for PacifiCorp President Bill Fehrman to make good on his commitment to protect his ratepayers from higher costs and simply remove these fish killing dams.”

Last August as members of the Karuk, Hoopa, Yurok and Klamath Tribes protested the international hydropower industry’s symposium in Portland, PacifiCorp President William Fehrman released a statement that concluded with, “We have heard the Tribes’ concerns. We are not opposed to dam removal or other settlement opportunities as long as our customers are not harmed and our property rights are respected.”

In December the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Interior filed an economic report with the Federal Energy Relicensing Commission which concluded that dam removal would be cheaper, by $100 million, than relicensing. The analysis included the cost of replacing the electricity the dams generate with other currently available sources.

Last month PacifiCorp filed an alternative to the draft prescriptions in an effort to water down the Department of Interior and Commerce’s final mandates. According to Hillman, “PacifiCorp’s trap and haul alternative was another attempt to duck their social responsibilities. I commend Secretaries Kempthorne and Guiterrez for seeing through their charade.” Hillman concludes, “If Bill Fehrman still refuses to remove the dams, he will be guilty of gouging ratepayers to the benefit of Warren Buffett and other wealthy investors. He will also be complicit in the genocide of the Native People of the Klamath Basin.”

Capital improvement costs to power projects such as dams are often billed to ratepayers with a regulated rate of return for investors. “Even though the cost of ladders exceeds the cost of dam removal, PacifiCorp may attempt to bill ratepayers for the added cost and at the same time earn a rate of return for investors,” according to Craig Tucker, Ph.D., Relicensing Coordinator for the Karuk Tribe. The Public Utility Commissions of California and Oregon would have to approve such a move.

Historically, the Klamath River was one of the three most productive salmon rivers in America. Today, dams and diversions have decimated salmon populations leading to strict limits on commercial salmon fishing up and down the west coast in 2006. Tribes, fishermen, and environmentalists see dam removal as a fundamental step towards restoring the Klamath’s fishery.

Governors Schwarzenegger and Kulongoski plan to host a Dam Removal Summit in early March to discuss how the dam removal factors in a basin wide agreement to address the concerns of Tribes, fishermen, and irrigators.

SRF February, 2007 Enewsletter

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