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<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Additional observations:<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Based upon information indicating the highest
probability being a "dry water-type year" the Trinity Adaptive
Management Working Group (TAMWG) (3/19/09) and Trinity Management Council (TMC)
(4/2/09) made recommendations to implement a dry water-type year hydrograph
with minor alterations. The Regional Directors of the Bureau of
Reclamation and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (BOR/USFWS) will make the
final call. It is to be made as of April 1. The recommendations are
predicated upon the April forecast remaining a dry year. It appears we
are solidly in a dry year but have a higher probability of a normal year than a
critically </span>dry year.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p><b>Additionally, both TAMWG and TMC are very concerned about lake levels and
the cold water supply and have requested BOR Central Valley Operations (CVO) to
adjust operations and/or explain how they plan to comply with Water Right Order
90-05. In short, there are concerns that CVO and diversions to the
Sacramento side, which are not clearly explained anywhere, may deplete cold water
resources in Trinity Lake and violate 90-05. CVO currently makes annual
plans without adequate concern for the future and often exports too much water
betting that the reservoir will be full at the beginning of next year (an
extremely low probability this year).<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Byron<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>Trinity Lake level low, but
resorts and Forest Service optimistic<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:black'>The Eureka Times-Standard – 4/5/09<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:black'>By John Driscoll</span></b><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#000088'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><br>
The state's system of reservoirs is trending toward bone dry, and the popular
Northern California summer-time haunt of Trinity Lake is no exception. </span><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Trinity Lake is 94 feet below high water -- 61 percent of the
average since 1962. Going into a warm season following last year's
wildfire-smoke choked summer with one of the most refreshing assets of the
region so depleted has some people worried. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>”People are just not booking because of that,” said
Amy Kasper at Trinity Lake Resorts and Marina. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>But even with the lake as low as it is, the Trinity County reservoir
is still huge. Full, it can store 2.4 million acre feet -- enough water to
cover 2.4 million acres one foot deep. At its current level, it is holding 1.2
million acre feet. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>That means that six of seven boat ramps on the lake are well out
of water and are likely to stay that way this season. The Minersville boat ramp
has plenty of leeway, usable to about 200 feet below high water, said
Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area Recreation Resource Officer Mary Ellen
Grigsby. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Grigsby added that the 17,000-acre lake still has 8,000 to 10,000
acres of surface water even at its low stage -- plenty to fish, swim and boat. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>”Once you get out on it, it's still a big lake,”
Grigsby said. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Those concerned about
Trinity Lake's levels can also hit the smaller Lewiston and Whiskytown lakes,
Grigsby said, both of which are kept full to serve hydropower operations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>The state Department of Water Resources last week released the
results of its snowpack surveys, which found California little better off than
when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a drought state of emergency at the
end of February. The snowpack average is 81 percent of normal, not nearly
enough to replenish the state's reservoirs after two years of drought. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Some of those storage facilities are perilously low, like Lake
Oroville at 56 percent capacity, which has prompted water conservation measures
in many areas. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>While the Trinity River watershed's snowpack measurements were
being completed Friday, it appears that they will come in at between 75 and 80
percent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>”It's certainly in that ballpark,” said Frank Gehrke,
chief of California's Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>Gehrke said that up to 10 percent of the runoff from that snowmelt
will likely be absorbed by soils parched from the dry fall. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>That means less water to fill the lake. While the forecast used to
determine how releases from Lewiston Dam into the Trinity River will be managed
is still being drawn up, the amount of water sent to the river for salmon --
and how much is diverted to the Sacramento River for Central Valley farms --
can also affect the level of Trinity Lake. That schedule should be finalized in
mid-April. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>The year is so far being considered “critically dry,”
in which the least water is let down the river, said Pete Lucero, spokesman for
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. But the river flows and diversion to the
Sacramento could also draw down the reservoir to some 720,000 acre feet,
dropping the elevation of the lake even farther. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>However, Lucero said, February and March wet weather may push that
to a slightly damper forecast which would come close to maintaining the lake
level through the season. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>”Things could change if April brings us major weather
events,” Lucero said. “I've looked at the long-term forecast and I
haven't seen anything like that.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>It's almost certain that, barring big storms, Trinity Lake will
remain low. Grigsby said, however, that she expects campgrounds to be more full
than they were during last year's smoky summer. Without wildfires, and with gas
prices far below last year's, Grigsby said, people will undoubtedly show up. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
color:black'>”We still have plenty of water to go boating and all that
other stuff,” Kasper said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
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