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Salmon Fishing Groups and Sacramento River Settlement Contractors Bridge Group Hatchery Production Proposal

July 5, 2023

Mr. Paul Souza
Regional Director, Pacific Southwest Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
2800 Cottage Way
Sacramento, California 95825

Dear Paul,

We want to sincerely thank you for your willingness to meet with our collective groups to discuss actions that can immediately address the needs of fall run and winter run salmon with the goal of increasing populations in the near future. We have named ourselves the Bridge Group with our goal being to bridge divides and bring constructive solutions to historic problems and disagreements.

In our May 24 and June 13 meetings with you, we verbally walked through changes in hatchery practices that could benefit fall run salmon production this fall when adults come into the upper Sacramento River to spawn. Since time is of the essence, with full salmon fishery closures, we are providing you with this written proposal which needs immediate attention, discussion, and direction so it can be implemented in time.

Global Proposal: Maximize current hatchery capacity to 19-20 million eyed eggs with current infrastructure and add 6 million eyed eggs with expanded egg tray stacks.

Specific Actions:

1. Livingston Stone
a. Moveandrear1.5-2.0millionfallruneyedeggstoinsidebuildingtojuvenile

stage,
i. Rear eggs and juveniles in Sacramento River water to decrease straying

  1. With Shasta near flood stage this fall, increased winter releases will occur. Release juveniles into the Sacramento River during higher flows
  2. Expand parental based tagging (PBT) capability above and below Shasta/Keswick Dams.

2. Coleman

  1. Raise
    1. Expand usage of existing raceways
    2. Plan for Future Capacity Increases to 26 million fall chinook salmon
  2. ReleaseSchedule
    1. With Shasta near flood stage this fall, increased winter releases willoccur. Release juveniles into the Sacramento River during higher flows
    2. 2 million release/PBT button up fry
    3. Rice fields study 5 million /PBT Fry 500/lb.
    4. Remaining fry released in river side channels or tributaries
    5. CWT 12 million smolts released from Coleman
    6. CWT 2 million smolts trucked to ocean LVS hatchery
  3. Evaluate PBT capability, PBT not only allows for monitoring of adult returns and genetics but also allows for earlier release schedules concurrent with flow events and improved river conditions.

Costs: The above proposal will result in additional costs as outlined below, the Bridge group is willing to discuss cost sharing in this effort with FWS and Reclamation, but discussions need to happen immediately given equipment purchase lead times:

  1. Purchase 48 stacks of 16 trays vertical salmon egg trays $231,000 (assuming 120,000 eggs per 16 tray stack)
  2. Plumbing equipment and labor to new trays – $20,000 (FWS/USBR staff or hire contractor)
  3. Additional Coded wire tagging of 2 million smolts
  4. Trucking to release points

a. In River
b. Ocean
c. Rice Fields

e. PBTLabandStaff

We acknowledge this is a significant ask for this fall/winter but these actions should have already been occurring. We know there will be concerns about staff limitations, physical hatchery space, permitting or other agency approvals; however, interestingly we are proposing simply how the hatchery historically operated in the 1990s. Our group is ready to assist financially, with staffing, and working to get this approved with the other agencies.

an additional 5.7 million Fall Run eyed eggs
i. Will need to acquire additional stacks of egg trays to implement.

We look forward to meeting with you to discuss our proposal in more detail and implement a plan that can get this done. Please coordinate with James Stone and Thad Bettner.

Sincerely,

James Stone, Executive Director and President Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association

Roger Cornwell, Chair
Sacramento River Settlement Contractors

George Bradshaw, President
Pacific Coast Federation Fishermen’s Association

Todd Manley
Northern California Water Association

cc: Ernest Conant, David Mooney, Donald Bader, Chuck Bonham

Click HERE for PDF of the letter

Sacramento River Fall Run Salmon Report

By Tom Cannon / on behalf of NCGASA.org / 2022

The NCGASA Board of Directors hired Tom Cannon in the summer of 2022 to review the state of the Fall Run Fishery on the Sacramento River System and to publish a report with his findings. The Board was very concerned about the low returns trend from three consecutive years as well concerns of the natural spawning component being gone from the system. Click Here for full report: PDF File.

Call to action: Attend the next Fish & Game Commission Meeting on Feb. 8-9. Click HERE for link to Cal-Span video of the meeting. James Stone’s public comment at 4:22 into the video.

2023 Fish & Game Commission Meetings, click here

February 8 & 9, 2023:
Central Valley sport fishing / Salmon presentation is on the agenda, click here, for this meeting. How to join this meeting, click here. For meeting documents, click here.

Tom Cannon is an estuarine fisheries ecologist and biostatistician and has been involved in Delta fishery issues for more than 35 years. Over that period, Tom has worked for or been a consultant to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service, State Water Contractors, CalFed Bay-Delta Program, State Water Resources Control Board, PG&E, California Striped Bass Association, Fisheries Foundation and CSPA. He has been involved in numerous habitat restoration projects. Find his reports on https://calsport.org/fisheriesblog/

Summary and Conclusions

This report focuses on the escapement failures and escapement data and factors related to escapement failures of Sacramento River Fall Run Chinook Salmon (SRFRCS). Our analysis indicates escapement (recruitment) failure can come quickly (in one year).  Recovery may take years or may not occur if stocks become too depressed.  The escapement target of 122K is not realistic because escapement can drop to that level quickly in modern times with moderate ocean and inland harvest.  Natural spawning stocks are not definable since in-river spawning stocks are predominately hatchery fish or the offspring of hatchery fish.  So, the question of what is natural-produced or hatchery-produced is moot.  The upper Sacramento in-river (naturally-spawning) stock is greatly depressed and probably headed in the direction of the upper Sacramento spring run stock – extinction at least in the “wild”-genetic stock.  Current management[1] does not work well because of the heavy hatchery influence, poor in-river natural-spawning conditions, over- and unequal-harvest, and fishable stocks operating well below their maximum sustainable yield (MSY).  Harvest in-river during the SRFR run is often poor because of poor river conditions that delay the run.  Salmon must wait to migrate up from the Bay until Delta and lower river waters cool sometime in early fall.  Spawners are unhealthy and stressed when they arrive on the spawning grounds – and Thiamine deficient – by the time they can spawn because of poor holding conditions and excessive water temperatures that delay spawning.  Summer water allocation from Shasta Reservoir for winter-run salmon leaves nothing for fall-run salmon. The HSRG and the HGMPs attempt to improve the genetics and save the few remaining near-extinct “wild”-genetic fish, and thus do not address the problem of poor stock levels, and low harvests and escapement of remaining natural-born and hatchery-produced stock elements.  It really is a “wicked” problem, virtually unsolvable under the present science and management framework.  There are so many things that can be done, but only a minimum is tried or accomplished.  Trucking hatchery smolts to the Golden Gate and coastal bays dramatically increases adult returns per smolt released but creates a complex straying “problem”.[2]  Moving fertilized eggs from Coleman-origin salmon back to Coleman seems to be a viable short-term solution if straying is considered a problem.  If there is concern that straying will reduce the run up the mainstem Sacramento River, then just fix the real problem – the water is too warm in late summer and fall – forcing delays and straying to refuge waters of the lower tributaries.

[1] The combined responsibilities of the federal and state agencies (PFMC, USFWS, NMFS, CDFW, SWRCB, CDWR, etc).

[2] Straying is only a problem if keeping separate genetic hatchery stocks is an objective and securing sufficient eggs for each hatchery is a problem.  There is little genetic difference between the various Central Valley fall run stocks because of many decades of straying and inbreeding.

CDFW Awards $11 Million For Fisheries Habitat Restoration Program Projects

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today announced the selection of 25 projects that will receive funding for the restoration, enhancement and protection of anadromous salmonid habitat in California watersheds.

The grants, which total $11 million, were awarded through CDFW’s Fisheries Restoration Grant Program (FRGP). FRGP was first established in 1981 and since 2000 has included funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, established by Congress to reverse the declines of Pacific salmon and steelhead throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.

“As California continually feels the effects of climate change, rising sea levels, prolonged drought, more extreme temperatures and extreme precipitation events, restoring degraded river ecosystems is more important than ever before,” CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham said. “These FRGP funded projects will help restore the refugia salmonids need.”

In response to the 2022 Fisheries Habitat Restoration Grant Solicitation, CDFW received 50 proposals requesting more than $38 million in funding. As a competitive grant program, proposals underwent a rigorous technical review process which included CDFW and NOAA scientists.

The 25 approved projects will further the objectives of state and federal fisheries recovery plans, including removing barriers to fish migration, restoring riparian habitat, recovering wildfire impacts detrimental to rivers, and creating a more resilient and sustainably managed water resources system (e.g., water supply, water quality and habitat) that can better withstand drought conditions. These projects further the goals of California’s Water Action Plan and CDFW’s State Wildlife Action Plan, as well as addressing limiting factors specified in state and federal recovery plans.

The list of approved projects is available on the FRGP website.

###

Media contacts:
Matt Wells, Watershed Restoration Grants Branch, (916) 216-7848
Ken Paglia, CDFW Communications, (916) 825-7120

Central Valley Hatchery Salmon Production Is Being Wasted

A Tale of Two Hatchery Salmon Smolt Release Groups

CLICK HERE to read full article.

This story relates to two common practices at state and federal salmon hatcheries in the Central Valley – releasing about half their 30 million hatchery salmon smolts at or near their production hatchery versus trucking the smolts to the Bay.  Choosing one practice over the other is a controversial subject that has received a lot of attention over the past two decades.  Rather than get into the weeds of the controversy and explain the various arguments, I will just lay out what occurred with two American River release groups after their release in May 2018 and return as adults in 2020.  Release group #061465 was 669,000 fall run smolts (3-4 inches long) that were transported 20 miles downstream from the American River (Nimbus) Hatchery and released into the mouth of the American River under the Jibboom Street Bridge.  Release group #061467 was 650,000 fall run smolts transported approximately 100 miles downstream to net pens at the Wickland Oil Terminal for release into eastern San Pablo Bay about 20 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean.  The estimated %survival based on tag recoveries was 0.04% for group #061465 and 2.20% for group #061467.  The returns by locations are shown in Figures 1 and 2.  These results are more common than not.

Future Shasta Lake bridge relocation could affect fishing in the main stem as well as boating traffic

The Pit River Bridge is the only interstate highway bridge owned by the federal government in the entire United States. The 80-year old bridge carries Interstate 5, the Union Pacific Railroad and Amtrak, over Shasta Lake north of Redding, California. The federal government wishes to relinquish ownership of the bridge beyond the year 2040. The United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), along with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) are taking the lead on replacing or rehabilitating the highway portion of the bridge before the joint agreement to use and maintain the bridge expires in 2040. Funding options are being pursued to complete needed studies.

CLICK HERE to read more.

Low flow closures on the Eel River in Humboldt County

Read NCGASA’s response letter to the CA Fish and Game Commission asking them to exempt the Eel River estuary from any low flow restrictions. Click here to read the letter.

 

Donate to the Ellis Lake fish program

NCGASA is looking for help to stock Ellis Lake Park with catfish, bluegill/sunfish and largemouth bass. Visit our donate page to input any amount. Your donation will help make the  Youth Fishing Derby a success.

Ellis Lake is an artificial lake in Marysville, named for W. T. Ellis, Jr. The park surrounding it is called Ellis Lake Park. Located in an urban park with lots of trees, a picnic area and an improved path around the lake. Accessible fishing and toilets. Located in Marysville, at the junction of Hwy 20 & 70, on West side of Hwy 70.

Game Warden Nate Stebbins of the California Department of Fish and Game said fishing in Ellis Lake is subject to the same rules that apply to any other freshwater body. That means you need a license if you’re 16 or older, and there’s a limit on how many fish you can catch in a day.

Fishing is year round. Best time to fish:

Videos on the fishing: Click Here for Stacy Visits Ellis Lake, 2020

 

Central Valley Enhanced Acoustic Tagging Project

Track the hatchery Fall-run Chinook salmon paired releases from the 2021-2022 Season (provisional data). See real time fish detections.

Click on link to find out more or email: sarah_austing@fws.gov (https://oceanview.pfeg.noaa.gov/CalF…/pageSLPRFR_2022.html)

Read an article by Western Outdoor News about this project: CLICK HERE

615,000 fall Chinook fry released into the Sacramento River

 

NCGASA has been on the front line for over five years advocating for the Fry program to be reinstated on Sacramento River and we’re very happy to announce that the Department of U.S. Fish and Wildlife at Coleman National Fish Hatchery is leading the way! We have discussed the Fry program with two different Hatchery managers, three different supervisors, and many biologists & two directors over this timeline. Our group believes in planting fish in the river to RETURN to their home waters.

Trucking salmon from Coleman leads to a 98+% percent stray rate, (never returning to Sac River) and that’s the number one reason we advocate for in river releases to protect the INLAND fishery and returning adult salmon for escapement.

Last week Coleman released approximately 615,000 fall Chinook fry into the Sacramento River. This was the first of three fry releases that will occur this season.  These experimental releases are being done to study the possibility of increasing adult returns to the main stem Sacramento River. 

“This project will allow us to study the potential of generating additional adult returns to spawn naturally in the Sacramento River by releasing fry. We’re excited to provide these additional salmon to increase recreational opportunities for fishermen and women here in California.” – Paul Souza, the regional director who covers the California – Great Basin Region.
More: http://ow.ly/h2CO50Hg4cw

Watch a video of small fish swimming underwater with some plants visible in the foreground on the Coleman Hatchery’s Facebook page.

Sediment removal projects planned for the Feather River

Photo Caption:  An amphibious excavator is positioned near the confluence of the Yuba River and Feather River ahead of a dredging project being overseen by the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency. 

By David Wilson, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville on June 1, 2021

Jun. 1 — The Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency has two sediment removal projects scheduled to begin this summer on the Feather River.

SBFCA Executive Director Michael Bessette said work is scheduled to take place at the Live Oak Boat Ramp as well as the Yuba City Boat Ramp. Both projects have been awarded to Dixon Marine Services, Inc and construction will begin at the Yuba City ramp in late June and at the Live Oak site in July.

Bessette said the Yuba City ramp will be open for the public between July 2 and July 18.

“The SBFCA team applied for a $5 million grant through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in February,” Bessette said. “This grant, if awarded, would provide additional funding to supplement the work currently planned at the Yuba City site.”

The Yuba City boat ramp is located along the Feather River at the confluence with the Yuba River. The project will remove approximately 65,000 cubic yards of accumulated deposits and sand, soil, and gravel that reduces channel capacity and limits access to the river, according to SBFCA.

The Oroville Dam Spillway incident of 2017 has exacerbated sediment buildup in the river, SBFCA said. The agency worked with the nonprofit Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association to obtain funding for this summer’s projects and for future projects.

Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association (www.ncgasa.org) is a local organization that works to improve fisheries in the region, according to President James Stone.

“Our rivers are so full of sediment right now,” Stone said.

Stone said the Oroville incident in 2017 and general waterways mismanagement have been major contributors to the sediment level increasing in the Yuba and Feather rivers. He said it’s been over a year since people have been able to access the rivers from Yuba City or Marysville boat ramps.

“No one can go on the river in those areas … it is so clogged with sediment. There needs to be a massive clean up of this sediment,” Stone said.

He said sediment and debris from the Yuba River ends up in the Feather River.

Yuba Water Agency Communications Manager DeDe Cordell said sediment has been a significant issue in the Yuba River watershed since the days of hydraulic mining during the Gold Rush.

The discharge of an estimated 684 million cubic yards of gravel and debris from hydraulic mining into the Yuba River system has continued to impact the river and fish habitat, according to Cordell.

Chuck Smith, Sutter County public information officer, said the county maintains three boat ramps on the Feather River and one on the Sacramento River. Sediment has been dredged from the ramps in the past but it is a continuous issue. Sediment removal projects require permitting from the state and federal government, Smith said.

He said the county supports efforts to obtain funding to remove sediment and make the navigability of the area’s waterways better for residents.

“The commercial fishing industry and recreational industry is all very important to the economy,” Smith said.

 

Sediment removal begins at confluence
By Jake Abbott,  jabbott@appealdemocrat.com Appeal-Democrat, Marysville on July 23, 2021

Work began Friday to remove nearly 66,000 cubic yards of sediment situated at the confluence of the Yuba and Feather rivers and Yuba City boat ramp.

The project, which covers an area of approximately 14 acres, is being overseen by the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency and carried out by Dixon Marine Services, Inc. Permits were issued for the project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday, and work must be completed by mid-October.

Acoustic Smolt Tagging Project for Fall-Run Salmon and Butte City Release Point

In an effort to turn the tide of vastly decreased river salmon runs, the Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association (NCGASA) has collaborated with the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA) along with government agencies to increase future river salmon runs by means of a three-year experiment.

James Stone, president of the NCGASA, was on scene at the Butte Creek launch ramp on Friday afternoon to observe the release of 186,000 salmon smolts in the 3 to 4-inch range. He was accompanied by several members of the Golden State Salmon Association including President John McManus and Secretary and Executive Committee member, Dick Pool. He said, “We had originally planned to release the smolts 29 miles upriver at Scotty’s Landing near Chico at mile marker 195, but the water was only 2 feet deep, and we were unable to utilize our net pens with the flows at merely 4100 cfs.  As a result, we pivoted to move the release downstream to mile marker 169 which is just above the Butte City Bridge. This release was our variable group of smolts since a control group of 187,000 smolts was released at Battle Creek near the Coleman Hatchery on Wednesday. 25 percent of both groups of smolts are outfitted with wire-code tags, and an equal number of smolts in each group are outfitted with a $300 acoustical tag provided by the Bureau of Reclamation.”

NCGASA president James Stone (left to right) stands with project advocates and principals, CDFW employee and Mokelumne Hatchery Manager Bill Smith, President of Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA) John McManus and GSSA Secretary and Executive Committee member Dick Pool. Due to heavy losses, Pool advocated for years before the release project and study came into reality.

The project was the brainchild of Pool who said, “I proposed this project eight years ago, and although it took five years to make it happen, we are trying to test the survival rate of Coleman Hatchery smolts if they are released further downstream. A survey by the Santa Cruz Science Center in 2007 demonstrated that only 37 percent of the smolts made it from Coleman to the Butte City Bridge and during low water years such as 2007-09, the loss of smolts was 70 percent in the first 100 miles of the release. When the river is running high and fast, the predators don’t have much of a shot, and the smolt survival rate is much higher. It is extremely important to release the smolts in the upper river as we have discovered that smolts released in San Pablo Bay and beyond don’t track back to the streams of origin, becoming lost in various waterways in their attempt to spawn. Thanks to the cooperation of several agencies including the US Fish and Wildlife Department and the Bureau of Reclamation, we were able to set up this project. It occurred first during a high-water year in 2019, and many of the smolts were washed out. The 2020 project was postponed due to COVID, and this is the first year we have completed the releases during a low water year.”

To follow these smolts as they migrate to the ocean. You can go to the CalFishTrack website and watch them “pin” in at various locations in real-time during their life cycle. Click on the LINK at the end of this article.

Stone added, “The goal is to have both the control group and the variable group released on Friday meet close to each other and travel towards the Golden Gate and into the ocean. As each group has members rigged with the acoustical tags, we can monitor their arrival at various locations along the journey including the Butte City Bridge, Tower Bridge in Sacramento, and finally, the Benicia Bridge in Suisun Bay. These are fall-run salmon, and they will be returning to the river in 2023, allowing for a three-year study to determine what is occurring with our river salmon. The health of the upper river is in obvious jeopardy, and this study will help provide answers as to why this is occurring, whether it is a matter of not enough nutrients available for the smolts or other factors. In 1996/97, salmon were released as fry which amounted to 200 to 300 percent more salmon, but the survival rate was extremely low as the smolts were sucked up into pumps along the gauntlet. Our release was planned for the evening resulting in far less predation from birds who key on the releases. Another aspect of Butte City was the deep water access adjacent to the launch ramp.”

According to Stone, the approximately 400,000 smolts were enhancement fish and not included in the normal mitigation releases as the goal of the Coleman Hatchery is to raise plus or minus 15 percent of 12 million smolts annually for the general hatchery management plan.

The ‘conveyor belt’ of the primary river for California’s salmon population is currently ‘broken’ as evidenced by the poor returns over the past several years, and collaborations such as this are essential to keep salmon a viable species within our state. Fortunately, due to the efforts of dedicated individuals within organizations desperately attempting to save California’s salmon from extinction, a collaboration with government agencies is in process.

Click Here for CalFishTrack real time information on this hatchery fall-run Chinook salmon acoustic tagging project for the 2020-2021 Season.

Donate to Ellis Lake

 

Help us stock Ellis Lake in Marysville, CA. Donate via PayPal to NCGASA530@gmail.com or mail check to PO Box 111, Sutter, CA 95982

Coleman National Fish Hatchery Project

NCGASA began engaging with Coleman National Fish Hatchery after hearing about an excess of adult steelhead filling the raceways at the facility. These fish came into the hatchery in an overabundance. The plan was to hold them in captivity due to wild population influence and salmon smolt predation. The fish had been put into a holding pond after hatchery mitigation numbers were reached and the fish began to die at an alarming rate. These fish arrived at the hatchery as a result of a rain filled winter in 2017 and positive hatchery results. We have worked with the hatchery and government officials to make sure sportsmen, guides, and the fly fishing community have an ample opportunity to catch, harvest, and release these fish for future generations.

Potter Valley Project – Eel River

The Potter Valley Project is a small hydropower project in the headwaters of the Eel River. It consists of two dams, a mile-long diversion tunnel, and a powerhouse with a 9.4 mw capacity. The project is located in the Eel River headwaters and diverts water out of the watershed into the Russian River. Removing this project is the necessary first step to fisheries recovery on the Eel River. Learn more about dam impacts to fisheries habitat & flow, local economy, energy production, and downstream safety here.

For more information click here: https://eelriver.org/about-us/potter-valley-project/

PROJECT TWO: 2008 Commercial and Recreational Salmon Fisheries Disaster Program

The California Salmon Council (CSC) under the direction of the California Department of Fish & Game (DFG) assembled an Advisory Committee to develop a first draft recommendation for the 2008 Commercial and Recreational Salmon Fisheries Disaster Program. The DFG took the Council’s recommendations and worked with the governments of Oregon and Washington to create a uniform set of criteria for the three impacted states. The following California plan is posted here for public view.

Project One: 2008 Commercial and Recreational Salmon Fisheries Disaster Program

The California Salmon Council (CSC) under the direction of the California Department of Fish & Game (DFG) assembled an Advisory Committee to develop a first draft recommendation for the 2008 Commercial and Recreational Salmon Fisheries Disaster Program. The DFG took the Council’s recommendations and worked with the governments of Oregon and Washington to create a uniform set of criteria for the three impacted states. The following California plan is posted here for public view.
The CSC will assist the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) to distribute the 2008 disaster funds in accordance with the plan when it is officially approved by the Federal Government.

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