[env-trinity] Trinity Journal articles on TRRP (LTE by Jerry Payne and Public Meeting notice)

[Tom Stokely]

Beginning of the end for county’s salmon fishing industry

>From Jerry Payne Junction City
 

The Trinity River Restoration Program has cost communities millions, maybe even billions.

There will likely be no commercial salmon fishing on the North Coast or any recreational fishing in the Klamath/Trinity rivers this year as the Pacific Fisheries Management Council is set to vote to stop all fishing.

The salmon numbers are so low they fear that the endangered salmon will become extinct if they allow any type of fishing. This is the beginning of the end of the salmon fishing industry in Trinity County.

The stores, hotels and guides will all be affected in Trinity. The communities of Eureka, Crescent City and others will be impacted the most. Their livelihoods revolve around the salmon fishing industry. This closure has happened in the past and will become the norm in the future.

Ask yourself WHY? In my opinion it is the fault of the River Restoration’s activities, period. They claim it is ocean conditions and the poor seals eating the fish. The simple fact is the restoration activities of gravel augmentation and disturbing the river bed with restoration activities has caused the gravel to fill in all the cold deep pools that the adult salmon need to survive in until they spawn.

The high flows are the only thing that helps the fish. It creates deep pools and scours the sediments from spawning areas.

They need to stop working in the river and stop gravel augmentation practices immediately. This has been proposed in the past but the $15 million per year given to the restoration activities and paying all the individuals involved in the restoration creates a situation that the decisions makers vote on continuing restoration to make them pay themselves with our tax dollars. This is a conflict of interest! It is not in the best interest of the fish or the communities that are supported by the fish.

Please attend TRRP meeting at 6 p.m. April 11, at 1313 S. Main St., Weaverville, when they will announce TRRP’s Flow-Gravel augmentation schedules. Please voice your concerns with the management of TRRP to help save the fish. If we don’t speak up we will not have a viable river in the future.
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Public meeting Tuesday on Trinity River flow, gravel


Trinity Journal staff

The Trinity River Restoration Program will host a public informational meeting to present the recommended 2017 spring restoration flow releases from Lewiston Dam and gravel augmentation plans.

The meeting will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, at the restoration program office at 1313 S. Main St. in the Tops shopping center in Weaverville. Restoration program staff will be available to answer questions on the presentations.

The TRRP was established to restore the ecological function and anadromous fisheries of the Trinity River, severely degraded by dams and historic mining and logging. The 2000 Trinity River Record of Decision includes five water year types with a minimum volume of water to be released into the Trinity River for each type.

Gravel augmentation is combined with the flow releases to replace gravel trapped by the upstream dams that is necessary for salmon habitats. The gravel is locally supplied from the Trinity River Basin.

Under the five water year types that the Program operates under, ranging from “critically dry” to “extremely wet,” a “wet” or “extremely wet” water year is likely for 2017. In a “wet” water year, 701,000 acre-feet of water is allocated for restoration flows, compared to an “extremely wet” water year when 815,000 acre-feet is allocated.

The water year type is used to establish the flow release schedule. The California Department of Water Resources estimates the inflow volume to determine the water year type which will be identified on April 10. Therefore, two potential schedules have been developed until the water year type is ascertained. The actual flow schedule will be known and presented at the public meeting.

Under the two schedules, flows are expected to increase beginning on April 22 and reach their highest peaks either April 26 or May 10. The river could remain elevated as late as May 16.


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