{"id":3420,"date":"2020-12-11T08:17:05","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T16:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/?p=3420"},"modified":"2020-12-11T08:17:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T16:17:05","slug":"scott-river-chinook-salmon-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/?p=3420","title":{"rendered":"Scott River Chinook Salmon Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Scott River Chinook salmon, a key contributor to the overall Klamath River salmon run, are in major trouble.\u00a0 In a November post<\/a>, I had a \u201cmixed\u201d prognosis for this year\u2019s fall run.\u00a0 Well the numbers are now in \u2013 a record low, bleak run of 117 spawners observed (Figure 1) at the weir downstream of Fort Jones.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. Scott River fall run salmon escapement 1978-2020. Source: CDFW unpublished data.<\/p><\/div>\n

The poor run can be directly attributed to lack of fall river flow, a fact that I had addressed in a 2017 post<\/a>.\u00a0 Salmon simply cannot ascend the lower Scott River into Scott Valley spawning grounds from the Klamath River because of lack of streamflow.\u00a0 Some may spawn in the steep canyon below the Valley (and counting weir), but poor spawning habitat and low flows in the canyon offer little solace for the salmon.<\/p>\n

Poor fall flows (Figure 2) can be directly attributed to fall groundwater extraction and surface water diversions for hay-pasture irrigation.\u00a0 The State Water Board should stop crop irrigation after October 1.\u00a0 This irrigation practice has been getting worse over the past several decades, aided by improved well extraction and sprinkler technology and greater demand and higher revenues.\u00a0 Present water use permits allow irrigation into December, which ranchers have been taking advantage of to get an extra crop of hay (with the help of climate change).<\/p>\n

Unlike 2020 (Figure 2), water use in past drought years tapered off earlier and flows increased during October (Figures 3-5). \u00a0This allowed fall-run salmon access to the Valley.\u00a0 In contrast, recent wet and normal years see a combination of precipitation and reduced water use, which enhances fall flows (Figures 6 and 7).<\/p>\n

In conclusion, the State Board should limit fall water irrigation in Scott Valley to save the salmon.\u00a0 The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in September 2014, requires local agencies to develop Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSP) that will assess and project future groundwater conditions, and provide management and monitoring activities.\u00a0 The Scott River basin is a priority basin. \u00a0Siskiyou County is required to develop and submit a GSP for the Scott River basin by January 31, 2022.\u00a0 A preliminary plan<\/a> recently developed by the advisory group suggests reducing irrigation acreage (Figure 8) to increase streamflow (Figure 9).\u00a0 That would help, but what salmon need is a cutoff of irrigation by October 1.\u00a0 An option for further augmentation is to employ unused groundwater extraction wells in the fall to add water to the river \u00a0for short periods.\u00a0 Stored water in the tailings ponds (red area in Figure 8) could also be gravity-fed or pumped into the river at critical times.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2. Scott River flow fall 2020. Water year 2000 was a drought year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 3. Scott River flow fall 2000 and winter-spring 2001. Water year 2001 was a drought year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 4. Scott River flow fall 2013 and winter-spring 2014. Water year 2014 was a dry year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 5. Scott River flow fall 2014 and winter-spring 2015. Water year 2015 was a normal year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 6. Scott River flow fall 2016 and winter-spring 2017. Water year 2017 was a wet year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 7. Scott River flow fall 2017 and winter-spring 2018. Water year 2018 was a below normal water year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 8. Baseline (present) and preliminary action alternative for Scott Valley irrigation. Source: preliminary plan<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 9. Analysis of preliminary action alternative. Source: preliminary plan<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Scott River Chinook salmon, a key contributor to the overall Klamath River salmon run, are in major trouble.\u00a0 In a November post, I had a \u201cmixed\u201d prognosis for this year\u2019s fall run.\u00a0 Well the numbers are now in \u2013 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinook","category-northern-california","category-water-quality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3432,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions\/3432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}