[env-trinity] Trinity Journal- Trinity River Restoration Program and Trinity River Guides Find Common Ground

[Tom Stokely]

TRRP, guides find common ground

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/2011-12-21/Front_Page/TRRP_guides_find_common_ground.html 
BY AMY GITTELSOHN
THE TRINITY JOURNAL
There was a meeting of the minds Monday between design staff for Trinity River Restoration Program projects and fishing guides who raised concerns about those projects.

Fishing guide Travis Michel said he came out of the meeting optimistic.

“We did come up with an agreement on the 2012 projects,” he said, “and our concerns were addressed by the Trinity River restoration design team.”

Any changes to the planned Lower Steiner Flat and Upper Junction City projects still need to be approved by the Trinity Management Council which meets Jan. 4 in Weaverville. However, restoration program staff plan to redesign the projects so that smaller gravel is not used. Larger rock that is less likely to be carried downstream will be used to create habitat — a skeletal bar at Lower Steiner Flat and an island-like feature with vegetation at Upper Junction City.

The Trinity River Guide Association and California Water Impact Network had called for a moratorium on mainstem Trinity River projects until a review of earlier projects is completed. In a widely distributed letter, they said that gravel injected at project sites has filled in deep pools used by adult fish.

Michel said although the guides are not calling for a moratorium at this point, some remain leery of working with the program. He said he still is disappointed in the lengths the guides had to go to in order to be heard.

However, the project designers have agreed to avoid changes to sensitive sites identified by the guides, and “they’ve also decided not to design any more projects until the review is done,” Michel said, “which was kind of the pause we were looking for in a way.”

From the Trinity Management Council, Chairman Brian Person (also area manager for the federal Bureau of Reclamation) said he will still respond in writing to the letter from the guides and C-WIN, as well as a more recent letter from the Environmental Protection Information Center expressing concerns that injected gravel may have filled pools used by coho salmon.

Person called Monday’s meeting an effective exchange of information, adding that the design team explained why certain features of the projects are important, and the guides explained their concerns with use of gravel.

“The design team was responsive to the guides in modifying the designs,” he said.

In another of the guides’ concerns, Person said the Trinity Management Council will consider going back to remediate earlier project sites that are not performing as designed if necessary.


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