by Angelina Cook
The 42nd annual Salmonid Restoration Conference took place May 1 and 2 at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, CA. The conference featured a wealth of information and broad diversity of perspectives. CSPA’s Angelina Cook co-presented with CalTrout’s Emily Maloney on developments at Battle Creek during the “dams-out” session. Angelina also joined CSPA’s Chris Shutes in displaying posters about CSPA’s work.
The Battle Creek presentation discussed collaborative efforts to accelerate Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s hydropower decommissioning process in Battle Creek. It highlighted the watershed’s potential to support endangered winter-run and threatened spring-run Chinook salmon. With agencies, Tribes, NGO’s and (hopefully) PG&E all working toward the same goal, anadromous fisheries in the Sacramento could benefit greatly as soon as the early 2030’s. Infrastructure removal would open up 46 additional miles of prime volcanic habitat with cold, clean, stable spring-fed flows. The Battle Creek Hydroelectric Project has blocked salmon from this habitat since the project was built between 1901 and 1911.
Slide from Angelina’s presentation on Battle Creek
To convey CSPA’s work in Klamath River tributaries since dam removal on the Klamath mainstem, Angelina developed a poster illustrating efforts to improve sustainable water management in the Shasta River. The poster was intended to conjure the question, “If so much money is being invested, and so many angles are being addressed, why are salmon still struggling to inhabit the watershed?” Many mechanisms offer opportunities to improve conditions for salmon in the Shasta River, ranging from transitioning waste discharge waivers to permits, implementation of a Groundwater Sustainability Plan, and an ongoing process to set minimum instream flows. CSPA’s goal is for regulatory agencies to coordinate and strengthen processes to ensure that Klamath dam removal results in salmon recovery throughout the watershed.
Angelina and Chris at the SRF poster session
Chris presented a vintage flow-chart developed by CSPA’s long-time leader Bill Jennings. This fascinating poster defined 201 steps that Bill and CSPA took from 1987 to 1994 to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the lower Mokelumne River. The poster displays fourteen legal, regulatory, and public campaign pathways that Bill followed. When one path stalled out, usually in the face of procedural roadblocks erected by his adversaries, Bill started down another path. Bill saw each new venue as an opportunity to ratchet up pressure and increase public awareness. By the end of the campaign, Bill was well on his way to mastering advocacy before regional water boards, the State Water Board, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the courts, using diverse legal and regulatory hooks.
Additional conference highlights included the presentation of the “Restorationist of the Year” award to Mort McMillan, the engineer who led the safe removal of four dams on the Klamath River. The Federation presented J.D Wikert, longtime U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in the San Joaquin River watershed, with a Lifetime Achievement award. Kellyx Nelson of San Mateo Resource Conservation District discussed the importance of holding space for vulnerability and cooperating with diverse interests to achieve large-scale restoration goals. Multiple presentations discussed process-based restoration, beaver reintroduction, and the benefits of prescribed fire to maintain healthy forests and vegetative land-cover to minimize extreme sedimentation in waterways after catastrophic fires.
Among the most memorable messages delivered was one by Frankie Myers of the Yurok Tribe, discussing how wilderness is a colonial concept, previously unknown to indigenous communities who considered humans as part of the ecosystem, not separate from it. Mr. Myers discussed how Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is intentionally taught through stories and experiences, including mistakes, immersed in the elements, passed down from generation to generation.