Butte Creek Tour October 1
SRF is offering a full-day tour of Butte Creek spawning areas and Pacific Gas & Electric facilities that have been instrumental to increasing instream flows for salmon. Participants will visit the DeSabla and Centerville Projects. In the early 1980's as part of the project relicensing process, PG&E increased minimum streamflow levels in Butte Creek to improve summer holding habitat and fall spawning habitat for spring-run Chinook salmon. Since the early 1990's, PG&E has provided additional increases in streamflow on a voluntary basis for further improvement in spawning habitat. Other operational measures implemented by PG&E to protect anadromous salmonids include: management of storage reservoirs for downstream temperature control, ramping rates, and scheduled maintenance outages in winter/spring. All of these measures, undertaken in concert with other actions in the watershed, have contributed to greatly increased numbers of spring-run Chinook salmon. Measures implemented to improve habitat conditions for spring-run Chinook salmon have also benefited steelhead.
To register for the tour, please visit SRF's Online Registration page.
The tour will depart at 10 am from Raley's parking lot in Chico. Raley's is located at 2485 Notre Dame Blvd, Chico, CA 95929.
Please bring a lunch, water bottle, and closed-toes shoes, a long-sleeve natural fiber shirt, and long pants which are all required for the PG & E facility tour. If you want to order a sandwich at Raley's please arrive early so we can depart shortly after 10 am. Participants will be carpooling from Raley's. We anticipate that most of you will want to end the day at Allen Harthorn's magnificent salmon viewing station along the banks of Butte Creek. If you skip this portion of the tour, then you can probably return to Raley's by 4:30. With the stop, carpools can return by 5 pm. This stop is well worth the time!
Center for Watershed Protection RFP for Technical Capacity Mini-grant Program
With funding from an EPA Targeted Watershed Initiative Grant, the Center for Watershed Protection is currently inviting proposals for its Technical Capacity Mini-Grant program, awarding direct assistance and financial support to a wide range of small watershed organizations. These small watershed organizations play a key role in local watershed management and, collectively, in regional water resource protection and restoration. The goal of the mini-grant program is to strengthen the technical capacity of these watershed organizations in the areas of stormwater and watershed management.
Since watershed organizations often have little to no full-time staff, the grant application process is intended to be simple and streamlined. However, funds are limited and grants will be awarded on a rolling basis, so associations are urged to act quickly.
Download the Technical Capacity mini-grant RFP guidelines HERE. The Center for Watershed Protection Annual Report is now available.
For more info:
Center for Watershed Protection
center@cwp.org
410-461-8323
Bonneville Environmental Foundation is Hiring Director of the Willamette Model Watershed Program
The Bonneville Environmental Foundation is looking for a Director of the Willamette Model Watershed Program. Please contact the Bonneville Environmental Watershed Program to get a copy of the job description at the following address:
240 SW 1st Ave
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-248-1905
Fax: 503-248-1908
http://www.b-e-f.org/ |
In this eNewsletter you will find:
- SRF Call for 2009 Conference Presenter Abstracts
- Bioengineering Field School October 6-9
- Butte Creek Restoration Tour Oct. 1
- Center for Watershed Protection RFP for Technical Capacity Mini-grant Program
- Bonneville Environmental Foundation Hiring Director for Willamette Model Watershed Program
27th Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference 2nd Call for Abstracts
Presenter Abstracts Due November 7
The Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference, sponsored by Salmonid Restoration Federation and the California Department of Fish and Game, is the premier habitat restoration conference in the Pacific Northwest. The first two days of the conference will be filled with full-day workshops and field tours. A half-day plenary session will be followed by 1.5 days of technical, biological, and policy-related concurrent sessions. This conference focuses on a broad range of salmonid and watershed restoration topics of concern to restoration practitioners, watershed scientists, land-use planners and landowners.
Potential Workshops:
- Fish Passage Design & Implementation
- Estuary Restoration
- Coho Salmon Use and Restoration of off Channel Habitat
- Managing Large Woody Debris to Recover Habitat
Potential Field Tours:
- Carmel River Restoration
- Coho Salmon and Steelhead Enhancement Projects on Santa Cruz County's North Coast
- Coastal and Santa Clara Valley Steelhead Creeks
- Southern Coho Streams: Research and Recovery, NOAA Fisheries Lab and Broodstock Program
- The Lower San Lorenzo River: Balancing Habitat, Flood Control, and Public Use
Potential Sessions
- Dam Removal
- Water Diversions
- Central & South Coast Steelhead
- How Climate Change and Oceanic Conditions Affect Salmonids
- FERC Relicensing Restoration Opportunities
- Fluvial Geomorphology
- Fire Ecology, Forests, and Fisheries
- Hydrologic and Geomorphic Effects of Development
- Coho Salmon Recovery and Restoration Efforts
Final deadline for presenter abstracts is November 7, 2008. SRF encourages presentations on projects that have a monitoring and assessment component and/or have been completed. To see the full call for abstracts, please visit http://www.calsalmon.org/.
SRF Central Coast Bioengineering Field School, October 6-9
Eight Continuing Education Units Offered for Growers
Salmonid Restoration Federation will host a Central Coast Bioengineering Field School October 6-9, 2008 in the Santa Ynez Valley. The course will include classroom instruction with John McCullah of Salix Applied Earthcare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdcYUo1rqzc who will teach techniques to restore riparian habitat, control erosion and stabilize banks. Participants will tour projects in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and learn how to build willow matresses and live siltation baffles as well as other structures. Growers can receive eight hours of Ag Waiver Education Credits through the Central Coast Water Quality Control Board for this course.
Participants will tour Camp San Luis Obispo to see upland erosion control where roads were improved and brush check dams installed to retain sediment. We will also visit the San Luis Creek Project to view the stabilized creek channel and banks where different methods were employed included willow mattresses, coir biologs, and brush bank protection.
Participants will also visit San Luis Creek Project that was implemented in 2001 to stabilize the creek channel and banks by using a few different methods one of which was a willow mattress that did not survive but is working nicely as brush bank protection. Coir biologs were installed at the toe of one of the banks and were designed to be undercut to provide steelhead habitat. A bank failure after this project was completed was remedied using coir fabric filled with soil and stacked like burritos up the bank and integrated willows into the wall for added protection and cover. A good learn-by-doing story by Brian Stark goes along with this project. Pennington Creek Project, implemented in 2001, stabilized 150 feet of nearly vertical creek bank by installing a vegetated rock toe and willow mattress along with four rock wing deflectors and three willow baffles.
We will brainstorm with the help of the instructor a what would you do project on Acacia Creek, a small tributary to San Luis Creek that runs alongside a road that is in danger of falling in. Participants will help construct bioengineering projects at the Rancho La Vina work site.
This field school has been approved for 8 hours of Ag Waiver Education Credits by the Central Coast Water Quality Control Board. The course will be held at Camp Whittier near Santa Barbara. There are lodge accommodations with four to a room. The fees for the course are $300 which includes all instruction, materials, food and lodging. For more information, please see the registration form on the SRF website.
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