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Caples Lake, Day Four - The night and final day...

By Jerry Neuburger
August 29, 2008 -- Caples Lake CA -- Correction: In the haste to report numbers, the webmaster (me) didn't do well with the math. The problem:

1,800 fish rescued day one
3,000 fish rescued day two
4,800 ACTUAL total Fish rescued, days one and two.

The reported total on yesterday's report - 5,800... a small 1,000 fish error!

FINAL TOTAL AT THE END OF THIS REPORT

Next: Regarding the lack of "Fish Pictures" in the reporting: Joe Johnson, deputy field commander for DFG during the operation warned the volunteers early that "hero shots" of big fish were out. The stress of capturing the fish, handling them again when placing them in the pens, netting and moving them to the trucks and then transporting them to Silver and Red Lakes was enough stress to kill numbers of fish. 

Any additional handling, Holding fish up for pictures while on the E-boats or stopping the net brigade for pictures was not going to happen. It was the goal of having the fish out of water for only ten seconds from the time they were netted in the holding pen until they were released into the transport truck tank. While all of the volunteers saw some fairly large browns, rainbows, Macs, and even one 17" brookie, the "trophy" fish pictures just weren't available.

The math problem solved and the picture issue explained, we'll move on to the final 24 hours of the operation. 

The original volunteer schedule called for 21 volunteers to report for work at 2PM Thursday, however, the past two days experience showed that they would not be necessary until after 6 PM. In addition, it was further determined that the most needed would be about 14. The volunteers were thanked profusely by Joe Ferreira, DFG for their commitment and the situation explained. Those that still wanted to work were asked to report back at 6PM and the others were free to go.

The volunteers assembled again at 6PM, twelve from the two o'clock shift and another three scheduled to begin their shifts at six for a total of 15. In the mean time Joe had spoken to Stafford Lehr, Incident Commander, who had advised him that it was his decision that the boats would be staffed chiefly with DFG personnel that night and it was probable that only four volunteers would be necessary. The volunteers were invited by Joe to come to the operations site, look at the operation in process and those still wishing to go out on the boats given some additional consideration as the possible four candidates.

Twelve of the volunteers arrived on site and were addressed by Stafford Lehr. He explained it was his call to have the DFG people work the boats for the principal reason that the two and three shift volunteer exchanges of the night before had cut down fish rescue time. Since this was the last night he wanted to maximize efforts and was hoping for a total of over 5,000 fish over the night's effort given that so many boats were on site and the previous night was so successful.

While disappointed, most of the volunteers accepted the news and agreed that the rescue efforts came first and volunteer accommodation second. They were invited back in the morning to move fish from the pens to the trucks. Eventually eight left and four remained. Those four found places on boats about midnight when several DFG employees, working almost four days non-stop with very little sleep, gave up their posts.

The webmaster (me) had hoped to get out on one of the E-Boats, having surrendered his rides the previous nights to excited volunteers but since that was not going to be the case, decided to hit the sack on the bed in the back of his van parked on site.

At first light, it was time to get up and greet the last 15 volunteers, due at the check-in at 6AM to help with the last fish transfer and clean up. Two were on site at the sign up trailer at 5:45. Another six arrived in the hour between six and seven for a total of eight, seven short of the list. However that was anticipated since some people serving on previous shifts had been told that the number of volunteers necessary for the last day was overestimated. The DFG personnel did not want help loading supplies since equipment would be bound to end up at wrong operation centers in the confusion.

Some boats were already on trailers as the volunteers arrived at the site. Two were in the water and Joe Johnson, DFG deputy op. sent them out to bring in the first pen. As this was occurring, a group of El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) people arrived, hoping to take pictures of the wrap up of the operation. Some were soon identified as IED board members. They took a few pictures and thanked the volunteers for their efforts. 

While Stafford Lehr talked to several of the group at some distance, one of the ladies in the group came over to the volunteers. Her identity is unknown. No females serve on the EID Board. She asked with some authority to her voice, if we had any questions. 

Here things started going sour. 

I spoke up first, "Well, since you've asked, if EID acquired the dam in 1999 from PG&E, why did it take nine years for the defect to be discovered. Why wasn't the dam and its equipment properly inspected at the time of transfer and aren't annual inspections a part of the dam's maintenance? She replied that, "Oh yes, the dam was inspected at the time of transfer but that inspection had to do with the structure, not the working equipment. The structure had no problems and was cleared by the Division of Safety of Dams" 

She went on to explain that recent operation of the dam's release mechanism started to become difficult so, "after a huge number of permits necessary to be secured to be able to send a diver down," the dam was inspected in June and the board was "horrified" to see the videos of the conditions of the gates.

(I know of no permits or other requirements necessary to be fulfilled to send a company or contractor's diver down the face of a dam to examine its structure and fittings. However I am NOT even a novice in these affairs. If  Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director or Chris Shutes, CSPA FERC Projects Director, wish to comment on this, I'll publish their reply)

One of the other volunteers asked why didn't EID wait until 2009 to do the repairs as originally scheduled... but was cut off with, "Oh 2009 was NEVER considered. We found the parts in China and would have started repairs as soon as they arrived. But then we found some other parts in Chicago and were able to do the repairs now so we wouldn't have to draw the lake down in the spring if it took that long to get the parts." We smiled at her response.

The lady turned away and walked back towards her group and the volunteer turned to me and raised her eyebrows. I started to speak but she just said, "I know!" She made a comment about "corporate types" and then got ready to move fish.

In the mean time, Stafford Lehr, DFG, had recruited the two male members of the IED party to assist in the net emptying operation. They joined in the effort and were obviously enjoying the hands on experience, admitting that they, "rarely get opportunities to do things like this." They quickly fit in and became just regular members of the volunteer effort.

Almost 700 fish were emptied from the first pen including many more large fish, both rainbows and browns, than the previous evening. In addition, five large Macs were moved, the largest about 15 pounds. One Mac, about six pounds died in the net. A lot of Ohing and Ahing was heard by everyone, even the DFG guys helping one of the EID members scoop fish.

That net emptied, the second pen was brought to the shore and another 300 or so fish emptied, again, rainbows and browns but no Macs. The EID people said they wanted to drive over to Silver Lake to watch and photograph the release. The truck pulled out and the IED people followed.

Two boats were sent out and the third pen, the brook trout pen, was brought to the shore to be emptied. The new truck was moved in place and then the whole operation stopped. The volunteers shuffled around waiting, wondering why the pen wasn't being emptied into the truck. Forty minutes went by. Finally one asked one of the DFG people what the hold up was and was told that DFG was waiting for the EID people to return from the Silver Lake photo op to help with the Brook Trout pen and then accompany the transfer truck to Red Lake. Another twenty minutes went by. Most of the volunteers were fine with the wait but two asked me to go up to Stafford Lehr and ask that the operation continue without further wait for the EID people.

Joe Johnson, deputy ops, who had been sitting down on the ground, tired and leaning up against a support stood up just as I was going to walk over to Lehr and said, "Let's get this operation started." At the same time, the EID people arrived back on site. The whole discussion was dropped and the final fish, about 400 brook trout, were transferred quickly, the volunteers thanked profusely by Lehr and the other DFG people as well as the EID people,  and were asked to follow the truck to Red Lake for the transfer. After that, they were released and could go on their way.

As the volunteers left,  I privately mentioned the discontent about the waiting situation to Lehr. He apologized and, with a frustrated look, said, "Politics!" No further answer was necessary. As he did so, two of the late leaving volunteers happened to walk by. Lehr gracefully walked over and apologized to them, again thanking them profusely for their efforts and asked that he hoped they understood the situation and reason for the delay. These two replied, "No problem, we were just happy to be here to help. If you need us again, just let us know. We'd be happy to come back any time."

I asked if DFG would be back at the end of September to attempt a further rescue when the lake was at its final drawdown. Lehr was honest. The question remains unanswered. DFG has no budget for the operation. EID picked up the tab for the rescue effort and though Lehr did not reveal the cost, the number of $100,000 had been tossed around by a number of people. He promised a final report on DFG's assessment of the operation as well as a better count of the number of fish rescued. 

The final "estimate" was about 6,200 to 6,400 fish rescued. What percentage of the lake, Who knows? No one was even able to guess. Why was the count so low on the last night compared to the second night? Even with the greater effort expended. No one was prepared to say that it was because a significant number of fish had previously been removed. How many fish were left? Is their death assured because of winter kill? No one can say for sure.

Final observations on volunteers, DFG personnel and operations of this type:

The volunteers without exception were extremely impressed with the professionalism of the DFG staff from the young guys and girls doing the heavy work to the senior people running the operation, including Joe Johnson, deputy chief of operations and Stafford Lehr, Senior Biologist and Incident Commander, the man where the buck stopped when the operation was done. The volunteers mentioned many of the DFG folks by name when talking. It reminded me of the same type of talk you hear from fishermen at a travel lodge  when talking about the guides, who was good and who was bad. In this case, every "guide" got a triple AAA rating.

I also asked a few of the DFG field personnel if the volunteers were really helpful in the field or, in reality, just obstacles in getting the job done. I was overwhelmed with the positive response. They were as enthusiastic about the volunteers as were the volunteers about them. I'm sure that they were happy to have committed people helping them in the work that they obviously love doing. That certainly included Joe Johnson, deputy commander, who easily integrated volunteers and professionals into teams capable of handling the assigned tasks.

Joe Ferreira, DFG person who works with the public fishing program was in charge of the volunteer effort. He tried hard to give every volunteer some real hands on experience in fish rescue operations. He constantly was looking for feedback, making sure there were no problems.

Finally, Stafford Lehr's position of , Incident Commander, was one where so much could have gone wrong and everything would have to be done perfectly to be done right. He was under the microscope from the time when the the rescue attempt started and probably will still be, long after the operation is over.  He had to answer to reporters, some not friendly to him at the site or in the press, to resort owners and residents disgruntled with the threat of loss of business, to his own crew working long hours with little sleep, to the volunteers willing to help but needing direction, to the political elements of IED and county supervisors expecting preferential attention and treatment, to Chris Shutes and I, friendly but still providing oversight for CSPA, and finally to his own bosses who would take the heat if the operation turned into a fiasco.

He made it clear early that he had two objectives in the operation. The first to be as open and as truthful as he could as the operation progressed and the second, to focus on the prime objective which was to rescue as many fish as possible.

He honestly explained that what we all, both DFG and volunteers, were doing was out on the edge of what was known, "You throw things at the wall and see what sticks!" An operation of this size, with so many citizen helpers, was something new for DFG and for him. His decisions would be made on what was best for the fish.

He walked a narrow path through a difficult maze in the rescue attempt and ended up with  about 6,400 fish rescued. In doing so, it appears he earned a great deal of respect for his department and his leadership.

When I last saw him he was still standing on two legs and although some close misses, it appears he avoided all the land mines.