"Only Connect".

Please check our website at www.sarsas.org

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SARSAS IS TRYING TO DO WITH ONE STREAM, THE AUBURN RAVINE, WHAT MUST BE DONE TO ALL STREAMS AND RIVERS ON THE ENTIRE WEST COAST AND THAT IS TO MAKE THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE RAVINE NAVIGABLE FOR ANADROMOUS FISHES.

THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF SALMON IS DIRECTLY LINKED TO THAT OF PEOPLE. IF WE IMPROVE THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF SALMON, WE IMPROVE THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF MANKIND AND THEREFORE OURSELVES.

SALMON ARE AS RESILIENT AND ADAPTIVE AS HUMANS; WHEN THEY CAN NO LONGER ADAPT, NEITHER CAN MANKIND. THEY NEED OUR HELP ... NOW.

DONATIONS MAY BE MAILED TO SARSAS,

PO BOX 4269,

AUBURN, CA95604 OR BY USING PAYPAL ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.SARSAS.ORG

JACK AND VALERIE SANCHEZ,

VOLUNTEER SARSAS COORDINATORS

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"THE RIVER WAS CUT BY THE WORLD'S GREAT FLOOD AND FLOWS OVER ROCKS FROM THE BASEMENT OF TIME. ON SOME OF THE ROCKS ARE TIMELESS RAINDROPS, AND UNDER THE ROCKS ARE THE WORDS AND SOME OF THE WORDS ARE THEIRS. I AM HAUNTED BY WATER."

--NORMAN MACLEAN, "A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT"

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"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."

- Samuel Adams

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SARSAS Monthly Meetings Hosted by Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt are hosted the fourth Monday of each month at 10 a.m. at the Domes, 175 Fulweiler in Auburn. Meetings are open to the public; meetings are ONE HOUR in length.

Next meeting is Monday, June 26, 2010 at 10 a.m at the Domes, 175 FULWEILER AVENUE, AUBURN,CA95603.

Monday, July 26, Confirmed speaker is Brett Storey, Placer County Senior Management Analyst,-- “The Middle Fork and Joint Powers Authority: What They Are and How They Work”.

Monday, August 23, Confirmed speaker is Katherine Hart, Chairperson of the California Valley Water Quality Control Board -- “How the Board Protects California’s Water Quality”.

Monday, September, 27, Confirmed speaker is Mike Brenner, District Conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Service, “What NRCS Can Do for SARSAS and the General Public”.

Monday, October 25, 2010, Confirmed speaker in Robert Hane, “Creating Your Own Fish Runs and Habitat” – Robert owns and operates an environmentally friendly Christmas Tree Farm on the North Ravine, a tributary of the Auburn Ravine.

Monday, November 22, Confirmed speakers, Bernie Schroeder, City of Auburn Engineer, and Dan Rich, Nexgen Utility Management

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Ott holds key to ravine restoration

Volunteer’s research charts how salmon and steelhead may run again

Ott holds key to ravine restoration

Volunteer’s research charts how salmon and steelhead may run again

By Colin Berr Journal Staff Writer

Ben Furtado/Auburn JournalRon Ott

Ron Ott may soon hold the key to the Auburn Ravine restoration in his hands.

After months of tireless research, Ott is creating a unique book on the Auburn Ravine which lists every dam, diversion and pump from Auburn to Verona on the Sacramento River.

“Ron’s book will allow us to completely restore the Auburn Ravine to salmon and steelhead runs for spawning and return to the Pacific for maturation,” said Jack Sanchez, president of SARSAS (Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead). “His work is absolutely key to what we’re doing.”

Salmon have been a major part of Ott’s life. Growing up on the Sacramento River, Ott went on to receive three advanced degrees from Stanford, which included specialties in hydrology, hydraulics and water resources.

He has since worked nationwide on stream, river and lake restoration projects for fisheries for 43 years.

“One of the most exciting parts of my career happened when I was jogging through a neighborhood in Seattle. I turned to go by a stream that was no bigger than 6-feet-by-3-feet, and I saw hundreds of salmon thrashing and spawning,” Ott said. “It was just incredible to see nature flourishing within the confines of an urban community.”

Ott’s work seeks to counter the damage created by human diversions, such as flashboards and dams, which are set to divert water flow during certain times of the year. Salmon and steelhead are caught in the diverted water flow, and end up dying, often on the banks of farmland.

Illustrated with photographs, the book describes the maximum flows and owners of each pump, diversion and dam, cost of screening, and more extensive details.

With the information supplied by Ott, SARSAS will work to implement fish ladders and screens throughout the Ravine to divert the salmon and steelhead back along their desired route to the ocean.

“So far, SARSAS has been successful in phase one of its mission, which is to remove diversions from the Sacramento area to the city of Lincoln,” Sanchez said. “Ron’s really boosting up phase II, which runs from Auburn to the Sacramento River.”

If all goes as planned, Auburn will be one of two cities in California to see salmon spawn within city limits.

“Seeing salmon spawn and travel upstream in large numbers is very uplifting for the community,” Ott said. “In a way, the health of a salmon run can reflect the health of society.”

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Get to know

Ron Ott

Profession:

• Started his career working for the California Department of Water Resources

• Joined major international consulting firm CH2M HILL and served as Director of Environmental Sciences, followed by Director of Water Resources and lastly the Director in Integrated Water Management.

• Fish Facility Coordinator for the California Bay Delta Program (CALFED) for 12 years

• Stared his own firm, Ott Water Engineers, which specialized in anadromous fishery restoration projects, especially fish passage projects.

• Currently owns and operates a hydro-electric plant in Northern California

Resumé highlights:

• Led science and engineering studies for water supply, water quality and fisheries on major river and estuary systems in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Wisconsin and Alaska.

• Published extensively in professional journals

• A registered civil engineer in eight states

• Received several awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers for his publications on fish passage engineering.

Favorite Pastimes:

Gold prospecting while swimming in streams; also riding ATVs throughout Northern California and Nevada with his family.

Keywords

Ron Ott, Auburn Ravine, restoration, SARSAS, Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead, spawning, fisheries, Sacramento River,

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SARSAS and Calling Back the Salmon Celebration, Saturday, October 21, 2010

Posted April 6, 2010

Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead Inc. (SARSAS), an all-volunteer 501C3 Non-profit, public benefit corporation, is doing with one stream, the Auburn Ravine, what must be done to all streams and rivers on the entire West Coast and that is to make the entire thirty–three mile length of the Auburn Ravine, starting in Auburn, flowing through Ophir and Lincoln and emptying into the Sacramento River at Verona, navigable for anadromous fishes.

The health and well-being of salmon and steelhead is directly linked to that of people. If we improve the health and well-being of anadromous fish, we improve the health and well-being of mankind and therefore ourselves.

Salmon are as resilient and adaptable as humans; when anadromous fishes can no longer adapt, neither can mankind. They need our help … now … and when we help them, we are really helping ourselves.

SARSAS is sponsoring the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration (CBTSC) in Lincoln, which will be held in McBean Park in the heart of Lincoln on the Auburn Ravine on Saturday, October 21, 2010. The all-day event is chaired by Stan Nader, SARSAS Board Member and former Lincoln City Councilman and School Board Member, who lives in Lincoln. To become a sponsor or a volunteer to help with CBTSC or to ask questions, contact Stan at 916 300 4335 or email him at stann@gtinternet.com. SARSAS urges local businesses and agencies to become Sponsors at any level (See CBTSC Flyer).

The mission of the SARSAS CALLING BACK THE SALMON CELEBRATION is to stimulate a collaborative relationship between our community, the Auburn Ravine Community of Auburn and Lincoln, and groups and government organizations to educate and engage all to the importance of returning the salmon and steelhead runs to the Auburn Ravine. The presence of healthy salmon and steelhead in a healthy Auburn Ravine is a nexus to a healthy community and environment.

SARSAS wishes to promote student and community Stream Teams, Salmon/steelhead and Watershed Stewards. Potential activities for these groups include tree planting, monitoring water quality, monitoring plant, survival, educational outreach such as raising anadromous fishes in the classroom and planting them in the Auburn Ravine, fish counts, observing fish morphology and other aquatic life beneficial and harmful to fishes.

Working collaboratively SARSAS wishes to develop partnerships with agencies, environmental organizations and, most of all, with individual members and groups of the Auburn Ravine community and promote Auburn Ravine community participation in local water quality and fish and wildlife enhancement and educational outreach programs.

Many activities are planned at the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration. Activities for Children include a Salmon Run(footrace), Treasure hunt Climbing Wall, Pony Rides, Face Painting, Carnival Games with a SARSAS bent, Crafts Projects (Painting, drawing, ceramics), and Watershed model interactive display.

Activities for Everyone include Multiple Musical Presentations including

Loping Wolf Flute Circle flutecircle@lopingwolf.com Dan Dicicco

http://www.lopingwolf.com/, Local Folk music performers and Commercial and non-profit vendors and informational displays. The CBTSC has something for everyone so come, learn and enjoy.

Local Indigenous People will be calling back the salmon and steelhead in numerous traditional ways throughout the day and in days leading up to the Celebration. The Auburn Ravine was the main stream for catching salmon and steelhead for Indigenous People for centuries. Salmon and steelhead were a major food source. Local Indigenous power will be added to the effort to call back salmon at the Celebration. SARSAS is delighted that Local Indigenous People are adding their strength and traditional insights and ways of returning the fishes to the Auburn Ravine. The Auburn Ravine is filled with evidence of the close relationship Indigenous People had the Auburn Ravine over the centuries.

Most important for the people of the Auburn Ravine Community is to come to the McBean Park on Saturday, October 21, 2010, and take part in the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration to learn what SARSAS is doing to return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine and to become part of that most enjoyable, uplifting and necessary local effort.

Go to callingbackthe salmoncelebration.org for more information and how to become a sponsor.

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SARSAS is a 501C3 Tax Exempt public benefit corporation so all donations are tax deductible. Our DLN (tax exempt number) is 1705 3278 348049.

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SARSAS $1,000 Award to A Graduating Senior in the Placer Union High School Distist

Money for the scholarship has been donated by Placer County Supervisors Jim Holmes and Robert Weygandt so the $1,000 will be awarded to a graduating senior in the Placer Union High School District in June of 2011.

We are still seeking small donations of cash to cobble together another award to another graduating senior in the Placer Union High School District whose research most contributes to the mission of SARSAS, which is to return anadromous fishes to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine, spawning is Auburn School Park Preserve. Send any amount and label it To Be used for Graduating Senior Award to SARSAS, P0 Bx 4269, Auburn, Ca95604. Help send a deserving student to college.

Graduating seniors should see your counselor at your high school to apply. Your project must be approved by the SARSAS Scholarship Committee before you start work on the Senior Project.

Call Jack at 530 888 0281 for approval.

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SARSAS Spring 2010 Update

March 21, 2010

Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS)

Jack L. Sanchez, President

SARSAS General Meetings, which are open to the public, are held the fourth Monday of every month at the Domes, 175 Fulweiler in Auburn at 10am and are limited to one hour. SARSAS believes that many people sitting at the same table WORKING COLLABORATIVELY in the best way to accomplish the SARSAS mission which is to return salmon and steelhead to the entire thirty-three mile length of the Auburn Ravine.

SARSAS’ next fundraising dinner will be held at Rubino’s Italian American Cuisine Restaurant at 5015 Pacific Street in Rocklin on Monday, June 7, at 5:30 pm. Wine tasting and a raffle will be included. Contact SARSAS Event Coordinator Greg Nelson at 916-663-4914 for details. Then, the Second Annual SARSAS-Pescatore Winery Wild Salmon and Tri-Tips Dinner is scheduled for two evenings: Friday and Saturday, September 24-25 at Pescatore Vineyard and Winery, 7055 Ridge Road in Newcastle. Contact owner Dave Wegner at 916-663-1422 for details.

Many good things have taken place recently. To repeat, we had a documented sighting of a salmon in the Auburn Ravine on Monday, March 23, 2009, by three reliable people: Richard Harris, Lisa Thompson, a UC Berkeley Fish Biologist, and Edmund Sullivan, Placer Legacy. While looking for spawning sites, they spotted a Chinook salmon from the Fowler Bridge a few miles upstream from Lincoln. This sighting is a defining moment for SARSAS because no salmon has recently been spotted above Lincoln in a long time. Additionally, two fishermen reported to Board Member John Rabe they had sighted two large salmon below the Hemphill Dam upstream from Lincoln at the Turkey Creek Golf Course. If one salmon is sighted, how many more were not seen … ten, fifty or a hundred?

All flashboard dams downstream from Lincoln are now in compliance with NOAA regulations for upstream fish passage. That means from November 15 through April 15, all dams are removed so fish can swim upstream to spawning grounds. The next great push will be getting screens installed on all diversions that take water out of the Ravine for irrigation. Unless screens are installed, salmon smolt and steelhead returning to the ocean to grow up for three to five years, will be entrained into rice fields and pastures and die without ever returning even to the ocean. So SARSAS is now working with landowners and especially with General Manager Brad Arnold of the South Sutter Water District, which operates five diversion dams, to get screening in place. Ron Ott, SARSAS Board Member and one of the nation’s great authorities on fish passage, is currently working with SARSAS Grant Writer Cathie DuChene, to design, plan and fund fish screenings for the Pleasant Grove Diversion Canal a few miles downstream of Lincoln, which diverts at least fifty percent of the water in the Auburn Ravine for irrigation, and the dozen or so pumps that take water for irrigation and are perilous to fishes. Once the Pleasant Grove Canal and the pumps are screened, then the Ravine will be guaranteed a viable anadromous fish run to the City of Lincoln.

SARSAS’ current focus is to raise money to install these fish screens.

To get fish above the city of Lincoln, SARSAS is working with Placer Legacy and NID to create fish passage around the Lincoln Gaging Station, half mile downstream of Highway 65 in the center of Lincoln; the Hemphill Dam, adjacent to the Turkey Creek Gold Course two miles upstream from Lincoln; and finally the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, a mile upstream from Gold Hill Road in Newcastle. Ron Nelson, General Manager of NID, had planned to have these retrofitted for fish passage last summer but funding dried up. He is currently working for a fall 2010 target date. Once fish can pass these barriers, they can swim to the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, an NID Diversion Dam upstream from Gold Hill Road. This is the largest dam and diversion on the Auburn Ravine and has not yet been addressed for fish passage. Once Gold Hill Dam is retrofitted, fish can swim upstream through Ophir, up the Ophir Cataract, a half mile upstream from the Lozanos Bridge to Wise Powerhouse. Once salmon and steelhead reach Wise Powerhouse, one mile from the city of Auburn and the real work begins to get the salmon to Auburn School Park Preserve, behind Auburn City Hall to spawn.

NOAA Special Agent Don Tanner continues his low key, collaborative approach working with landowners to secure fish passage by comply with regulations that provide passage for the fishes to get to spawning gravels and are able to return to the Pacific. Don is currently working on identifying the owners of the pumping stations on the Cross Canal, the last four miles of the Auburn Ravine before it empties into the Sacramento River at the City of Verona.

SARSAS Board member and former Lincoln City Councilman and Lincoln School Board member Stan Nader has been methodically connecting us with the local fathers in Lincoln and plans are underway for a SARSAS-Lincoln Calling Back the Salmon Celebration to be held in Lincoln all day on Saturday, October 21, 2010, at McBean Park on the Auburn Ravine. Stan is the CBTSC Chairperson and if you would like to be a part of the Celebration call Stan at home at 916-645-1149 or his cell at 916-300-4335. The Celebration will include the Native American sacred and religious celebration Calling Back the Salmon conducted by Bill Jacobson, who was taught the ceremony by Pacific Northwest tribes. Ty Gorre is working with Bill on the Celebration.

Businesses can sponsor the Celebration by donating amounts from $25 to $2,500 with listings of the company logos and other benefits listed on the brochure on the callingbackthesalmoncelebration.org.

Speaking of Native Americans, SARSAS has finalized an Alliance with the Washoe Tribes of Nevada and California to mutually work to return anadromous fish to the Auburn Ravine. SARSAS is pleased that Darrel Cruz and the Washoe, headquartered in Gardnerville, NV, have joined us in our work on the Auburn Ravine.

The City of Auburn is still being penalized for its discharge from the Auburn Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Auburn Ravine, and Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln has been granted the right to triple its discharge into Orchard Creek, a tributary of the Auburn Ravine, but the decision by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board is being appealed to the State Water Board.

SARSAS Grant Writer Cathie DuChene has secured a five thousand dollar grant from the Tides Foundation to help return salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine, the SARSAS mission.

Scott Johnson has secured grants of about fifteen hundred dollars for educational outreach to children in our local schools. And $1,000 has been donated by PC Supervisors Jim Holmes and Robert Weygandt for educational outreach.

A $5,000 grant has been made by PGE to be used to fund the CBTSC on October 21, 2011 at McBean Park in LIncoln, CA.

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The outpouring of community support such as Ken Clark offering the equipment of his excavating company is solidifying the realization of the SARSAS mission. If the entire communities of Lincoln and Auburn support SARSAS’ effort, the return of salmon and steelhead in the Ravine will quickly become a reality.

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You can help return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine by sending donations to SARSAS, PO Box 4269, Auburn, CA 95604, or by volunteering to write grants, operate a SARSAS booth at local festivals, represent SARSAS at other functions, coordinate an activity, monitor a section of the Auburn Ravine, perform water quality tests, speak to service and other clubs on behalf of SARSAS, do clerical work or research on fishes, or just find a way to contribute what you do best to SARSAS, all by calling 530-888-0281.

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Panel sets fishing seasons for West Coast salmon

Monday, April 19, 2010

By ABBY HAIGHT Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — For the first time since 2007, commercial and recreational fishermen will be able to cast their lines for ocean salmon from the Canadian border to Mexico.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council approved seasons and quotas for chinook and coho salmon off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California on Thursday, as it completed a weeklong session establishing policy and seasons for ocean fisheries. The coast off California and much of Oregon has been closed to commercial fishing the last two seasons because of declining salmon runs.

The council's decision should bring some relief to an industry knocked down by the one-two punch of a dismal economy and dramatic losses in the once-healthy runs of Sacramento River Basin fall chinook — the large, flavor-rich salmon that is the cornerstone of Oregon and California coastal fisheries.

"This is nothing more than a token," said Zeke Grader, director of the San Francisco-based Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents about 1,500 individual members.

Coastal communities rocked by two years of closures to commercial salmon fishing have received $170 million in federal disaster relief to help deal with the losses.

"Fishing is a gamble," said Jeff Reeves, a fisherman from Charleston, Ore., and a member of the Oregon Salmon Commission, speaking by cell phone as he pulled in crab pots. "But this is as bad as it's gotten."

The most dramatic losses have been in the Sacramento River Basin, which has seen its numbers plummet from 769,868 returning chinook in 2002 to a record-low 39,500 fall chinook last year. The management council predicts 245,000 fall-run chinook will return this year.

Many in the fishing industry blame the diversion of the Sacramento River to irrigate the San Joaquin Valley.

"California and Oregon fishing jobs are just as important as those agricultural jobs," said Paul Johnson, president of the Monterey Fish Market, a wholesale and retail seafood company in San Francisco and Berkeley. "It would be criminal to lose something that is as spectacular as a wild chinook salmon to flood a cotton crop in the desert."

Despite the reduced numbers, commercial and recreational salmon fishing contributed $17 million to the West Coast economy in 2009, according to the council.

The commercial and recreational seasons for northern Oregon and Washington, which depend on Columbia River chinook stocks, will generally run from June to late September.

The recreational season for southern Oregon and California will run from April through early September.

Oregon's commercial chinook season will run limited days from May through the end of August and include a quota of 3,000 chinook from July 1 to Aug. 31 in southern Oregon.

California's commercial season opens coastwide for eight days in July. After that, it is limited through August to the Mendocino County area and carries a 27,000-fish quota.

Getting a chance to catch chinook again has raised hopes, especially in the small fishing community of Fort Bragg, Calif. For 40 years, the town of 6,000 has celebrated July 4 with the World's Largest Salmon Barbeque, a tourist draw that benefits salmon restoration projects. It has had to buy Oregon- and Washington-caught chinook the last two years.

This year, the 400 salmon will be locally caught, organizer Jim Martin said.

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Feinstein: Wasted Time, Wasted Money?

January 29, 2010

The SacBee’s 1 23 10 editorial on “Feinstein’s $1.5 Million Review” concludes with “if the academy’s review only reaffirms the current science, then Feinstein will need to be held accountable.” She is a politician and must support her donors, but to do support one donor at the expenses of a species so vital to the economy of California and the West Coast and such a miracle of the animal kingdom as the two runs of salmon and steelhead, and at the expense of her other supporters, is really unforgivable and injudicious politically. Her attempt to delay a decision already confirmed by time and science is really indefensible and appears to be nothing more than “an effort to shore up her support among farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, an area in which farmers are already on government welfare and an area in which needless crops are grown for profit in toxic, alkaline lands mainly in the western San Joaquin Valley at the expense of fishes and the environment as the catastrophic Kesterson Reservoir toxic mess still unaddressed is the result. No amount of political will can return the salmon and steelhead once they are extinct … extinction is forever and extinction caused by a political quid pro quo to one donor, Stewart Resnick, is unconscionable.

The cost of the National Academy of Science five day conference at UCDavis, which Feinstein financed, would do much for fishes if used differently. The $1.5 million would do much for a specific stream, the Auburn Ravine, the stream Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS, a non-profit whose mission is to return salmon and steelhead to the entire lengthe of the Auburn Ravine, has worked diligently on for the last year and a half to make it a salmon/steelhead spawning tributary of the Sacramento River. The Auburn Ravine originates in Auburn, thirty five mile east of Sacramento on Hwy 80. SARSAS, working with NOAA, has made the Auburn Ravine navigable for fishes to the city of Lincoln, about an 18 mile reach. Anadromous fishes may now spawn in the Auburn Ravine, historically a rich anadromous spawning stream before the thirteen diversions dams were built to divert water to farms. These flashboard dams are now in compliance for upstream fish passage, removed October 15 and installed again in April 15, to allow fish to spawn; the problem is SARSAS has not been able to fund the screening of the thirteen diversions canals on the Auburn Ravine so even though the anadromous fishes may reach spawning beds, spawn and become smolt, when they return to the Pacific to mature for three to five years, most, if not all, will be entrained in rice fields and pastures and die because SARSAS has been unable to raise the $1.5 -3 million necessary to screen these diversions.

$1.5 million definitely would have saved countless anadromous fishes if spent for fish screens on the Auburn Ravine, which is one of the richest, if not the richest fishery in Northern California with the 2004-5 FG Fish Count Survey documenting 7,000 salmonids per mile.

Auburn Ravine is one of at least 738 tributaries to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers. If SARSAS can return the Auburn Ravine to spawning viability, then countless other tributaries will have a model to follow. The SARSAS Plan (www.sarsas.org) outlines this plan in detail. Imagine if the Auburn Ravine had one thousand females spawn this year, each laying 8,000 eggs. If only three percent of the 80,000 fishes return after maturing in the Pacific, one stream, the Auburn Ravine, would be enriched by 2,400 fish reproducing and sending smolt to the Pacific. Numbers increase geometrically over time. If over the next few years, only ten other streams were opened for spawning, then immediately 24,000 females would be laying eggs and sending thousands of smolt to the Pacific to mature and this small change would go a long way toward returning anadromous fishes to help reopen the $3 billion commercial fishing industry and the season to sports fishermen. Farmers wins; fish supporters win.

Salmon and steelhead become strays if their native spawning stream is blocked so strays spawn any place available. Like the mantra in Field of Dreams, “Build it, they will come”: for fishes it is referring to the stream, “Open it, they will come and spawn?”

So Feinsteins’s $1.5 million could have been spent to create harmony between farmers and environmentalists by providing fish screens so farmers would get their water uninterruptedly and environmentalists would help anadromous fishes. If Feinstein could have created a win-win for herself and her constituents. Her current decision is dubious at best.

It is not too late for Feinstein to do good for all. She can stop this waste of money after five days and create a win/win options by funding fish screens on the Auburn Ravine. Feinstein still needs to be held accountable to her constiuents and to salmon and steelhead, whose only voice is the people.

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CALLING BACK THE SALMON CELEBRATION

The Celebration will be held in McBean Park in the heart of Lincoln on the Auburn Ravine on Saturday, October 23, 2010. The all-day event is chaired by SARSAS Board Member Stan Nader of Lincoln. If you would like to help, contact Stan at 916 300 4335 or email him at stann@gtcinternet.com.

The Celebration will include a Native American Calling Back the Salmon Ceremony, food, music and many other activities.

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The Next Step November 8, 2009

Now that salmon can pretty much get to Lincoln, the next step is to get them back to the Pacific if and when they spawn. Between the Sac River and Lincoln, starting at the lower end moving upstream, the Auburn Ravine contains eight diversion dams: 1)Coppin, 2)Davis, 3)Tom Glenn, 4)Lincoln Ranch Duck Club, 5)Aitken Ranch, 6)Moore, 7)Nelson Dams and the 8)Lincoln Gaging Station. Please memorize these eight names.

In order for the fish returning to the Pacific to spend 3-5 years maturing, they must not be entrained into rice fields, pastures and other ag fields through the canals that divert water. Without screens on these diversions, the fish will end up in fields and die. These diversion canals must be screened so that the fish can stay in the Auburn Ravine to reach the Sac River and continue their odyssey to SF Bay and the open waters of the Pacific.

I am asking for your thinking and input on this plan. We are working with Brad Arnold of South Sutter Water District to get his Board’s commitment to begin screening the Coppin, Tom Glenn, and Aitken Ranch dams. We are working with Rich Arruda on the Lincoln Ranch Duck Club Dam. I will work with Don Tanner to gain access to the Moore and Nelson dams to contact the owners. Most of the eight dams have one diversion canal with the Davis Dam having three. So we are probably talking about at least ten screens needed and there may be multiple diversions on the Moore and Nelson Dams.

What I am thinking about is creating a community outreach program that secures one business in Auburn and/or Lincoln to adopt a diversion canal and raise money to pay for one screen. SARSAS will not ask the business to contribute any money itself but to find a way to raise money. The average cost Tim Buller told me would be $300,000 per screen, but Ron Ott believes many would cost much less. We would need at least ten businesses, each adopting a screen to make the plan work. How can businesses raise funds?

Ron Ott will be giving his presentation on Friday, November 13, at 9a.m. at John Rabe’s home, 980 Stonewood, Newcastle, CA 95658, to help us decide what type of screen is best for each diversion canal and what each screen costs. Please try to attend because our next major task is to become knowledgeable about screens and their costs. Then we can implement this plan.

What we need now is a name for the plan, i.e. Invite a Salmon to the Pacific, Send a Salmon Home, This is My Salmon … some name we all agree on. Then how do we do outreach to the communities to secure business sponsors, and what will SARSAS’ role be? Board Member Kathleen Harris of Harris Industrial Gasses likes the idea and is already working on some details.

No idea is too outlandish. We are brainstorming now so send me all your ideas.

Thanks, Jack

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HOW YOU CAN HELP WITH SARSAS ACTIVITIES AND BECOME PART OF THE SARSAS MOVEMENT

Dear Members of SARSAS and Our Mailing List Members,

The SARSAS organization (Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead) has just completed an ambitious and very successful year and a half. We have made significant enough progress that there is a high likelihood of salmon and steelhead returning in numbers that will bring back a positive spawn in the Auburn Ravine. That's great news, but with success comes additional work. If we were a business we would be at that point where the business would now begin hiring employees in larger numbers. SARSAS is an all-volunteer organization; therefore, it is time for us to reach out and call for you to volunteer. Your skill, knowledge and motivation to work on behalf of salmon restoration will move SARSAS forward and at a faster pace.

There is a niche just right for you. You may have lots of time to provide or you may have a very limited amount but all assistance is welcome and will be appreciated. How can you help? Well, take a look at some of the needs and see if you might be just the right person for the job. Don't see the right job? Just contact us and let us know what you see as your skill or desire and we will work with you to find a way for you to succeed and at the same time make a valuable contribution to SARSAS. Here is a partial list of some needs we currently have:

1. clerical; 2. various computer skills such as word processing, building graphs and charts using excel, power point projects, development of data bases, web site marketing using twitter, Facebook and other online uses, or other services you can provide with technology; 3. fisheries expertise; 4. marketing skills; 5.sales skills; 6. engineering/ especially those related to hydrology or civil; 7. expertise in stream bed and bank restoration; 8. labor of all sorts; 8. und raising skills; 9. grant writing skills or assistance in application writing;. 10. education expertise especially developing curriculum and lessons related to k-12 programs about salmon and restoration of salmon; 11. telephoning 12 artistic skills; 13. how about wandering up the middle of the Auburn Ravine counting salmon and other in stream activities? 14. assisting SARSAS in the development of a salmon festival in Lincoln in October of 2010; 15. have another idea or role you would like to volunteer in? Just let us know. There are many other ways you can provide help so just contact us and we will find the right fit for you. Please contact me or Scott Johnson at scott@johnsonpianoservice.com.

We at SARSAS look forward to working with you as we all work to bring salmon and steelhead back to the Auburn Ravine.

Sincerely,

Jack Sanchez

Founder and Board President

SARSAS

jlsanchez39@gmail.com

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SARSAS UPDATE NOVEMBER 7, 2009

Many accomplishments have been made recently. The Healthy Auburn Ravine Workshop in Lincoln was a success with many local attendees learning what to do to help return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine. We had a documented sighting of a salmon in the Auburn Ravine on Monday, March 23, 2009, by three reliable people, Richard Harris and Lisa Thompson, UCBerkeley and Edmund Sullivan, Placer Legacy, looking for sites on the Auburn Ravine to take attendees to during our May 2 workshop in Lincoln. They spotted a Chinook salmon from the Fowler Bridge a few miles upstream from Lincoln. This sighting is a defining moment for SARSAS because no salmon has recently been spotted above Lincoln. Two fishermen reported to Board Member John Rabe they sighted two large salmon below the Hemphill Dam upstream from Lincoln. If one salmon is sighted, how many more were not seen … ten, fifty or a hundred?

All flashboard dams downstream from Lincoln are now in compliance with NOAA regulations for upstream fish passage. What the next great push will be is getting screens installed on all diversions canals that takes water our of the Ravine for irrigation. Unless screens are installed, salmon smolt and steelhead returning to the ocean to grow up will be entrained into rice fields and pastures and die without ever returning even to the ocean. So SARSAS is now working with landowners and especially with General Manager Brad Arnold of the South Sutter Water District which operates five diversion dams to get screening in place. Once the diversions are screened, then the Ravine will be guaranteed a viable anadromous fish run.

To get fish above the city of Lincoln, SARSAS is working with Placer Legacy and NID to create fish passage around the Lincoln Gaging Station, half mile downstream of Highway 65 in the center of Lincoln, the Hemphill Dam, adjacent to the Turkey Creek Gold Course two miles upstream from Lincoln and finally the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, a mile upstream from Gold Hill Road in Newcastle. Once fish can pass these barriers, they can swim to Wise Powerhouse, one mile from the city of Auburn and then the real work begins to get the salmon to Auburn School Park Preserve, behind Auburn City Hall to spawn.

NOAA Special Agent Don Tanner continues his low key, collaborative approach to working with landowner to secure fish passage by compliance with regulations that provide passage for the fishes to get to spawning gravels and are able to return to the Pacific form up to five years on maturing before they return to the Ravine to spawn, die and start the cycle all over again.

Board member Stan Nader has been methodically connecting us with the local fathers in Lincoln and plans are underway for a SARSAS-Lincoln Salmon Festival to be held in Lincoln on October 23, 2010, at McBean Park on the Auburn Ravine. We have made countless beneficial connections and have talked with many groups in the Lincoln area, all of whom are supportive of SARSAS. Plans are in the germinal stage for a Salmon Festival in Auburn. Both will include the Native American sacred and religious ceremony Calling Back the Salmon conducted by Bill Jacobson, who was taught the ceremony by Pacific Northwest tribes.

SARSAS has finalized an Alliance with the Washoe Tribes of Nevada and California to mutually work to return anadromous fish to the Auburn Ravine. SARSAS is pleased that Darrel Cruz and the Washoes, headquartered in Gardnerville, NV, have joined us in our work on the Auburn Ravine.

Unfortunately, there has been another sewage spill into the Auburn Ravine in the city of Auburn on November 3. The city of Auburn responded quickly to stop the leak and clean up the sewage.

SARSAS Grant Writer Cathie DuChene has secured a five thousand dollar grant from the Tides Foundation to help return salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine, the SARSAS mission. Scott Johnson, SARSAS Event Coordinator, has secured grants of about fifteen hundred dollars for educational outreach.

This weekend the Pescatore Winery and Vineyards on Ridge Road in Newcastle is hosting a Wild Salmon and Tri-tip Fundraising Dinner on Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7, 2009. The tickets are all sold.

The outpouring of community support such as Ken Clark offering the equipment of his excavating company is solidifying the realization of the SARSAS mission. If the entire communities of Lincoln and Auburn support SARSAS’ effort, the salmon in the Ravine will quickly become a reality.

On October 23, 2010, the SARSAS Lincoln Salmon Festival will take place in beautiful McBean Park on the Auburn Ravine in Lincoln. The Festival will include a Calling Back the Salmon Ceremony organized and conducted by Bill Jacobsen and Ty Gorre. SARSAS Lincoln Outreach Coordinator Stan Nader is the Festival Chairman.

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You can help return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine by sending donations to SARSAS, PO Box 4269, Auburn, California, or by volunteering to write grants, operate a SARSAS booth at local festivals, represent SARSAS at other functions, coordinate an activity, monitor a section of the Auburn Ravine, perform water quality tests, speak to service and other clubs on behalf of SARSAS, do clerical work or research on fishes, find a way to contribute what you do best, write for SARSAS, all by calling 530 888 0281.Many accomplishments have been made recently. The Healthy Auburn Ravine Workshop in Lincoln was a success with many local attendees learning what to do to help return salmon ___________________________________________________

The Next Step

November 8, 2009

Now that salmon can pretty much get to Lincoln, the next step is to get them back to the Pacific if and when they spawn. Between the Sac River and Lincoln, starting at the lower end moving upstream, the Auburn Ravine contains eight diversion dams: 1)Coppin, 2)Davis, 3)Tom Glenn, 4)Lincoln Ranch Duck Club, 5)Aitken Ranch, 6)Moore, 7)Nelson Dams and the 8)Lincoln Gaging Station. Please memorize these eight names.

In order for the fish returning to the Pacific to spend 3-5 years maturing, they must not be entrained into rice fields, pastures and other ag fields through the canals that divert water. Without screens on these diversions, the fish will end up in fields and die. These diversion canals must be screened so that the fish can stay in the Auburn Ravine to reach the Sac River and continue their odyssey to SF Bay and the open waters of the Pacific.

I am asking for your thinking and input on this plan. We are working with Brad Arnold of South Sutter Water District to get his Board’s commitment to begin screening the Coppin, Tom Glenn, and Aitken Ranch dams. We are working with Rich Arruda on the Lincoln Ranch Duck Club Dam. I will work with Don Tanner to gain access to the Moore and Nelson dams to contact the owners. Most of the eight dams have one diversion canal with the Davis Dam having three. So we are probably talking about at least ten screens needed and there may be multiple diversions on the Moore and Nelson Dams.

What I am thinking about is creating a community outreach program that secures one business in Auburn and/or Lincoln to adopt a diversion canal and raise money to pay for one screen. SARSAS will not ask the business to contribute any money itself but to find a way to raise money. The average cost Tim Buller told me would be $3k per screen, but Ron Ott believes many would cost much less. We would need at least ten businesses, each adopting a screen to make the plan work. How can businesses raise funds?

Ron Ott will be giving his presentation on Friday, November 13, at 9a.m. at John Rabe’s home, 980 Stonewood, Newcastle, CA 95658, to help us decide what type of screen is best for each diversion canal and what each screen costs. Please try to attend because our next major task is to become knowledgeable about screens and their costs. Then we can implement this plan.

What we need now is a name for the plan, i.e. Invite a Salmon to the Pacific, Send a Salmon Home, This is My Salmon … some name we all agree on. Then how do we do outreach to the communities to secure business sponsors, and what will SARSAS’ role be? Board Member Kathleen Harris of Harris Industrial Gasses likes the idea and is already working on some details.

No idea is too outlandish. We are brainstorming now so send me all your ideas.

Please contact us at P O Bx 4269, Auburn CA95604, jlsanchez39@gmail.com or 530 888 0281.

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"Salmon at the Heart of Nature"

Placer Nature Center’s 4th Friday Lecture - September 25, 2009

Get tickets Now! Season Passes available!

Sweeping changes are coming for endangered populations of winter and spring run Salmon. Dams built decades ago without fish ladders and creating still waters that block access to hundreds of miles of historic spawning grounds must be adapted to ensure species survival under a ruling by the National Marine Fisheries Service. At the State level – Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation banning dredge mining in California rivers. Have these rulings come too late? Is the situation for Salmon so dire that we’ve passed the tipping point?

We’ll find out on Friday, September 25th at Placer Nature Center’s 4th Friday Lecture Series. The 5th season of the popular Lecture series makes a splashing opening with Dr. Tim Horner, Internationally recognized expert on the salmon species, fish ecology and habitat issues. While Dr. Horner will discuss broader issues of fish populations globally, he will concentrate his comments on our local fisheries and the American River.

“Best news of all.” According to Leslie Warren, Executive Director of Placer Nature Center, “is that two of Auburn’s finest restaurants are creating special meals for 4th Friday Lecture goers and 20% of the meal proceeds will be donated to Placer Nature Center to support environmental learning projects.” “Dine at 5:00 PM at Tsuda’s or Latitudes – enjoying a special themed menu and delight in science learning at 7:00 P.M.! What a great night out! It is an easy walk between the restaurants and our venue at 1212 High Street too,” Warren said.

“It is kind of ironic that our restaurants cannot serve local wild salmon because our species are so depleted. We’ll see what creative menu is offered even as we bemoan the disappearance of our favorite entre!”

“Salmon have long been considered a key indicator species. It is almost as if the salmon swims at the heart of the web of life on earth. Orca whales’ survival, maintenance of nutrient rich soils in the northwest, sustaining Native American and Inuit culture – the salmon is critical to these and so much more,” Warren explained. “We are so very pleased to kick off our Lecture series with such an esteemed scientist and educator!”

The American river has changed significantly in the past 150 years, and salmon and steelhead populations have decreased and whole seasonal runs have disappeared. This decrease could be related to ocean conditions, global warming, commercial or recreational fishing, delta water demands, mining, sediment input, water diversions, water quality, dams and water releases, water temperature, hatchery practices or habitat reduction. All of these issues will be reviewed to help put the problem in context for the American River, and identify the stressors that are responsible for the population decline.

Tickets are available securely on line at www.placernaturecenter.org, by calling 530-878-6053 or at the following businesses Tsuda’s Café, Latitudes Restaurant and Newcastle Produce. Tickets are $10 general, $8 for members and $5 for full time students. Season tickets are only $55 for the general public and $45 for members – making one Lecture in the 6 Lecture Series FREE!

About the Speaker:

Dr. Tim Horner graduated from The Ohio State University in 1992, and joined the Geology Department at CSU Sacramento in Fall 1993. He specializes in groundwater/surface water interaction, and teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in sedimentology, field geology and hydrogeology.

He received the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008. Much of Tim's time is devoted to habitat assessment and in-stream monitoring work on local rivers, with special emphasis on salmon and steelhead spawning gravels.

Tim and his students are frequent partners on local stream restoration projects, and have collected information about the health and habitat suitability of the American River system. CSUS faculty and students have helped to characterize the physical conditions that are ideal for salmon and steelhead spawning. This set of physical conditions can then be used as a target to guide restoration projects. Several restoration projects have addressed the problem by creating more habitat or restoring degraded parts of the river.

Leslie Warren

Executive Director, Placer Nature Center

Leslie@placernaturecenter.org

Placer Nature Center

530-878-6053

www.placernaturecenter.org

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The SARSAS PLAN FOR SAVING SALMON IN CALIFORNIA AND IN THE PACIFIC MARINE FISHERY:

the Urgency of Saving the Salmon WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM GOVERNMENT AND CALIFORNIANS!

Jack L.Sanchez

Volunteer Coordinator/President/Founder

530 888 0281/jlsanchez39@gmail.com

The people of California are overwhelmingly frustrated because they have justifiably lost confidence in government and large corporations because they are self-serving at the expense of the people, the environment, other living things and the planet. We must now rely almost exclusively upon individuals and group initiative in order to take charge of our own destiny. What does this dilemma mean for the people of California? What it means really is a New Manifest Destiny for Californians. Therefore let’s focus on one piece of the big puzzle: the restoration of salmon in California.

When salmon can no longer survive on this planet, can

humanity be far behind?

But a solution is possible. Yes, the people of California, volunteering together can save salmon and steelhead. People must ask themselves whether or not salmon and steelhead have any time left on the planet without the help of the people.

The Golden Age of Salmon and Steelhead is likely long past, but the people working together can ensure at least their continued existence. California salmon were thought to be extinct as early as 1865 as a result of sediment that choked the streams from hydraulic mining and clear cut logging. The salmon of California are now once again in danger for many reasons:

global warming, pollution, poisons, man-made drugs,

lack of fish passage and an overall degradation of spawning

beds.

Part of the solution is not to argue for years but to open up California streams as soon as possible for salmon spawning. The SARSAS Plan (see www.sarsas.org), formulated for the Auburn Ravine, is the simplest way to save salmon and should be implemented on all streams within our state immediately. If every stream were to have a volunteer group working to do what SARSAS is doing with the Auburn Ravine, that is, to return salmon and steelhead to its entire length and secure fish passage, adequate water and spawning beds, then salmon can once again thrive in significant numbers.

The line from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it,

they will come” can be paraphrased and applied to all

salmon: “If you clear it, they will come.” SARSAS and other volunteer groups with the assistance of the governor, legislators and the federal Water Czar can encourage and help other groups do with other streams what SARSAS is accomplishing with the Auburn Ravine.

Will the governor and the legislators help? SARSAS

urges the Governor’s staff, both houses of California government and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as well as his water Czar, David Hayes, to help. The governor and legislators can provide incentives to encourage other organizations to take ownership of particular streams and make them suitable for salmon passage. They could help streamline the 501c3 process and perhaps add small incentives to volunteer groups once they have a strong strategic plan in place. Salmon are at considerable risk and the governor and legislators have the ability to connect each group to the right agencies in a quick and efficient manner to fast track volunteer groups’ efforts toward salmon restoration.

The SARSAS Plan for the Auburn Ravine can serve as a model for other organizations to work on other streams. It is a simple but effective plan easily adaptable by any group. Additionally, some SARSAS board members are available to assist other groups in implementing the SARSAS plan. Imagine the impact of a thousand salmon in the Auburn Ravine and then multiply that by several hundred streams or perhaps all 738 streams that enter the San Joaquin, Sacramento and American River watersheds. Salmon and steelhead numbers certainly will and can thrive in this environment. If only three percent of the smolt return to each of these streams, the

result will be tremendous. “Clear it (stream) and they will come.”

PART II

When SARSAS became an all-volunteer 501c3, public benefit corporation with officers and a nine-person Board of Directors, it was able to more seriously work on the Auburn Ravine to identify the barriers to salmon and work collaboratively to retrofit them. SARSAS then set about creating a working network of state, local and federal agencies, county supervisors, city councilmen, other non-governmental organizations, landowners and individuals, all meeting once a month under the auspices of Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt. The group works collaboratively, cooperatively, to reach its goals as smoothly and as quickly as possible. Additionally, SARSAS recently acquired the volunteer services of a grant writer and is now applying for funding.

Is the task completed? Of course not, but, in a short period of time with many individuals and groups on board, SARSAS will reach its goals, missions and ultimately, the restoration of salmon and steelhead at a very low cost. Are there problems with the SARSAS Plan? Perhaps, and if there are, they are very minor. Is this explanation an over-simplification of a very complex problem? Not at all. Even if the SARSAS Plan is partially successful, salmon and steelhead will have one more river to spawn within, and new life will abound. An alternate plan to truck salmon above and around dams is feasible and SARSAS wholeheartedly supports it, but it is very expensive. Our plan costs thousands of dollars, the alternative, billions of dollars. Both can help the salmon, but at what cost in

time and real dollars?

What can you do to assist SARSAS? First and foremost, you can contact the governor, legislators, federal

officials and local entities and ask them to grasp and support the SARSAS Plan. Then, please contact Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and California Water Czar David Hayes and ask them to work with SARSAS.

Let them know that the SARSAS Plan will provide successful outcomes for salmon and steelhead and, if adopted for a significant number of streams in central and northern California, the plan can

assist in the restoration of the Pacific commercial fishery.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful outcome … being both a benefit to mankind and to the fish at the same time? Since many tributaries to the

Sacramento/San Joaquin Rivers are blocked by minor diversion

dams, salmon cannot currently spawn in numbers large enough

to prevent a decrease in their number.

Using the SARSAS Plan as a model for saving salmon in the Auburn Ravine may be enough to begin the restoration of the Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery and put thousands of unemployed fisherman back into their boats, free sport fisherman to follow their passion and help Californians feel good about themselves because they did something to help themselves, their children, and the fishes

SARSAS needs your help, political will and public support to finish its work on the Auburn Ravine and to provide assistance to others who may wish to develop their streams.

Please contact us at www.sarsas.org. Volunteers, concentrating and uniting their efforts, can work quickly enough to revive our salmon population toward health and well being.

In the final analysis, “all things merge into one and a river runs through it. We are ALL HAUNTED BY WATER”(and the salmon in it). The SARSAS Plan allows people to do something about the destiny of salmon, and thereby do something about their own destinies.

Again, when salmon can’t make it in our world, neither can

people.

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Dr. Stacy Li’s Sac-Joaquin Delta Plan Prepared for SARSAS

September 13, 2009

Aquatic Systems Research

National Marine Fisheries Service - retired

I provide the following list of components that should be included in any Delta water solution:

1) Outflow to San Francisco Bay has been reduced by 50% of historical levels. Not only should Delta outflow not be reduced any further, it should be increased. This is a key design control consideration.

2) The design functions of the two rivers should be switched. The original fundamental design of the CVP (Central Valley Project) was to use San Joaquin River as water supply and the Sacramento River for water quality. The Sacramento River should be used as water supply because it is more than three times more abundant than the San Joaquin River. The Sacramento River should also provide flows to resist salt intrusion into the Delta, add to Delta outflow and be used to dilute pesticide and fertilizer residues in the agriculture return water in the San Joaquin River. I can’t think of another way to get water from the Sacramento River to the California Aqueduct other than a Peripheral Canal.

3) San Joaquin River should be switched from water supply to being used primarily to resist salt intrusion into the Delta. None of this water should be used as water export. If this action is adopted, there will be no flow reversals in either the Sacramento River or the San Joaquin River. Sacramento River salmonids would be unaffected because the river’s momentum and inertia would prevent flow reversals by pumping. San Joaquin salmon and steelhead smolt would finally be able to find their way to the ocean and returning adults would finally be able to find their natal streams. The San Joaquin Delta would become more of a backwater habitat as it was historically. That would benefit Delta smelt and longfin smelt. Water residence time in the Delta would also be longer, allowing plankton communities to develop that would benefit threadfin shad and young-of-the-year striped bass populations. Finally, importation of 1 million tons of salt into the San Joaquin Valley would stop by not exporting San Joaquin River water.

4) The Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River do not mix downstream of Sherman Island because of differences in many physical and water quality parameters. Therefore, through Delta water conveyance is impossible. The SWP (State Water Project) assumes through Delta conveyance. Refurbishing the present water export facilities would be a big waste of money because not only are they extremely susceptible to levee failure, but water supply capacity of the San Joaquin River is near exhaustion.

5) Present fish protection and fish salvage facilities are woefully inadequate. The present fish louvers do not work. Fish screens are needed because they are state of the art.

6) More dams are not needed at this time. Besides flows from the proposed Temperance Flat Dam would not flow north to the Delta to restore Delta health, but be exported at Friant Dam and sent south to Kern County via the Friant-Kern Canal.

7) Remember that California is a major world economy, estimates ranging from 4th to 9th largest in the world. This important world economy is dependent upon a secure water supply. Without it there will be severe economic disruptions. This is would be a consequence if political inertia continues.

8) Remember that two-thirds of the California population depends upon CVP/SWP water. If the water system fails, it will cause a negative economic ripple throughout the world. So even if you live in a California community not dependent upon CVP/SWP water, you will be adversely affected. The world will be affected.

9) Remember that the California population is still growing at a rate of about 1 million new residents a year. The State water system must account for this increase.

10) Water Rights in California need to be revised. State Water Resources Control Board has identified about 300 million acre-feet per annum of authorized consumptive water rights of different types (pre-1914, appropriative, riparian, federal reserve and pueblo). California receives only about 73 million acre-feet of runoff each year.

11) The new water system must not only function to provide water supply, improve habitat and ecological conditions, control salt intrusion, and account for climate change, it must also be compatible and integrated within the state’s flood control system.

12) Let us justify repair of Delta levees based upon public safety concerns rather than defending the state's water supply. There are 1100 miles of Delta Levee. There are 5280 feet in a mile. Current levee construction is running around $8,000/foot. Operations and maintenance budgets for levees should be 3% of the initial construction cost each year. Levees are not assets. They are liabilities.

13) Those who use the water system must pay for its use. They are the ones that should provide the revenue stream for construction, and operations and maintenance costs. No more freeloaders!

A warning: Now is the time for action. We can’t wait for the system to fail or to build something that doesn’t work. The time needed to recover from those mistakes will be too long to avoid worldwide depression caused by lack of water availability in California. Now is the time for decision based upon physics, biology, hydrology, ecology and plans that benefit the entire state not just parts of it.

A final aside: Since the vast majority of water used as water supply originates from the San Joaquin River, Southern California has not stolen water from Northern California. If they have been stealing water, they have been stealing it from themselves. The vast majority of Sacramento River water ends up in the Pacific Ocean.

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SARSAS Article in Placer Sentinel

A New Manifest Destiny for Californians

When Salmon Can No Longer Survive on This

Planet, Can Humanity Be Far Behind?

by Jack L. Sanchez

The people of California, volunteering together, can save

salmon and steelhead. People mustask themselves whether or not salmon and steelhead have any time left on the planet without the help of the people.The Golden Age of Salmon and Steelhead is likely long past, but people working together can ensure at least their continued existence. California salmon were thought to be extinct as early as1865 as a result of sediment that choked the streams from hydraulic mining and clear-cut logging. The

salmon of California are now once again in danger for many

reasons: global warming, pollution, poisons, man-made drugs, lack of fish passage and an overall degradation

of spawning beds.

Part of the solution is not to argue for years but to open up

California streams as soon as possible for salmon spawning. The SARSAS Plan (see www.sarsas.org), formulated for the Auburn Ravine, is the simplest

way to save salmon and should be implemented on all streams within our state immediately. If every stream were to have a volunteer group working to do what SARSAS is doing with the Auburn Ravine, (that is, to return salmon and steelhead to its entire length and secure fish passage,

adequate water and spawning beds) then salmon could once again thrive in significant numbers. The line from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come,” can be paraphrased and applied to all salmon: “If you clear

it, they will come.”

SARSAS urges the Governor’s staff, both houses of California government and Interior Secretary

Ken Salazar as well as his water Czar, David Hayes, to help. The governor and legislators can provide incentives to encourage other organizations to take ownership of particular streams and make them suitable for salmon

passage. They could help streamline the 501c3 process and perhaps add small incentives to volunteer groups once they have a strong strategic plan in place. Salmon are at considerable risk, and the governor and legislators have the

ability to connect each group to the right agencies in a quick a