"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, February 22, 2010 at 10 a.m at the Domes, 175 FULWEILER AVENUE, AUBURN,CA95603. Brian Ellrott, NMF will speak on the "NOAA Salmon Recovery Plan as It Focuses on the Auburn Ravine".

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

We are seeking small donations of cash to cobble together an award to a 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.

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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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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.

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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 and efficient manner to fast track volunteer groups’ efforts towardsalmon 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, 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 can and will 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.”In a short period of time withmany individuals and groups on

board, SARSAS will reach its goals,missions and ultimately, the restoration of salmon and steelhead at a very low cost. Even if theSARSAS Plan is partially successful, salmon and steelhead will have one more river to spawn within,

and new life will abound.

An alternate plan of trucking 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?

Want to help? Contact the governor, legislators, federal

officials and local entities and ask them to grasp and support the SARSAS Plan. Then, 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

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. Volunteers, concentrating and

uniting their efforts, can workquickly enough to revive our

salmon population toward healthand well-being. 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.

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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The SARSAS Plan for Saving Salmon

in California and in the Pacific Marine Fishery

Effective: July 11, 2009

by

Jack L. Sanchez,

Volunteer Coordinator/President/Founder

501C3 EIN 80-0291680

Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS)

www.sarsas.org

P. O. Box 4269

Auburn, CA 95604

530 888 0281

Yes, the people of California, volunteering together, can save the salmon. The people must spearhead the saving of the salmon because time is critical. The salmon has little time left on the planet without the help of the people.

Salmon expert Peter B Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, University of California Davis, in

“Multiple Causes of Central Valley Chinook Salmon Decline,” Mar 31, 2008, wrote,

Ever since Euro-Americans arrived in the Central Valley, Chinook salmon populations have been in decline. Historic populations probably averaged 1.5-2.0 million (or more) adult fish per year. The high populations resulted from four distinct runs of Chinook salmon (fall, late-fall, winter, and spring runs) taking advantage of the diverse and productive freshwater habitats created by the cold rivers flowing from the Sierra Nevada. When the juveniles moved seaward, they found abundant food and good growing conditions in the wide valley floodplains and complex San Francisco Estuary, including the Delta. The sleek salmon smolt then reached the ocean, where the southward flowing, cold, California Current and coastal upwelling together created one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world, full of the small shrimp and fish that salmon require to grow rapidly to large size. In the past, salmon populations no doubt varied as droughts reduced stream habitats and as the ocean varied in its productivity, but it is highly unlikely the numbers ever even approached the low numbers we are seeing now.

This Golden Age of Salmon is long past but the people can insure at least their continued existence. California salmon were thought to be extinct as early as1865 because of the sediment that choked off the streams from hydraulic mining and strip logging. Salmon are miraculously resilient and they survived. The salmon of California are now once again nearing extinction for many reasons: global warming, pollution, upwelling of ocean currents, lack of fish passage and spawning areas. The main fix we can do quickly is not to argue about the root cause but to quickly open California streams as soon as possible for salmon spawning. Whatever the reasons, a clear, simple plan is necessary to save them. The SARSAS Plan, formulated for the Auburn Ravine, is the simplest way to save salmon from certain extinction and should be implemented on all streams in California immediately. What is the SARSAS Plan?

If every stream in California has 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 grounds, then salmon will not go extinct. The line from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you built it, they will come” can be paraphrased to be applied to anadromous fish:: “If you clear it, they will come”; that is, SARSAS with the cooperation of Governor Schwarzenegger or a federal Salmon Czar (see Sacbee editorial, “We Might need Salmon Czar, Too,” July 8 09) can encourage other groups to do with other streams, what SARSAS (www.sarsas.org) is doing with the Auburn Ravine. By providing fish passage on all the tributaries to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, salmon will have many spawning grounds currently denied them.

Will the Governor help? SARSAS is urging his staff and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his Water Czar David Hayes to help. President Obama must appoint a Salmon Czar to keep the salmon from going extinct. Only the Governor with his sweeping influence over California agencies and the Obama Administration can coordinate this program and create an incentive program to encourage other organizations to take ownership of particular streams and retrofit them completely for salmon passage so that citizens become the instruments of the salmon salvation. Salmon are moving closer to extinct while we do nothing. Acting now is imperative. Only the Governor can fast track the California 501C3 process, necessary for fundraising, and connect each group to the right agencies quickly and efficiently.

An All-Volunteer Oversight Group (A-VOG) for each stream needs to have a lead person who can be connected directly to all California environmental agencies but especially with DFG, CVWQCB, DWR, and EPA. Each group must have an active Special Agent from NOAA, a federal agency, to provide access to problem areas on each stream over which only the federal government has jurisdiction. The Governor and citizens of California working together with NOAA will save the salmon. Most of the work of saving the salmon will be performed by volunteers, but they must have the coordination from the Governor to network with California government agencies to provide advice and services.

Let’s look at the SARSAS Plan for the Auburn Ravine that can serve as a model for other organizations to work on other streams. To start with, the Auburn Ravine has thirteen diversion dams on its length. SARSAS has put ten flashboard diversion dam in compliance with fish passage, two NID dams are currently being retrofitted, which leaves one dam, the Gold Hill Dam to be retrofitted. When this dam is completed, 32 of the 33 miles will be open to salmon. If we can get 2,500 egg-laying female salmon (Butte Creek near Chico had 6,000 Spring Run salmon in 2008) into this Ravine, each laying up to 8,000 eggs, the Auburn Ravine will contribute up to 20,000,000 (2,500 times 8,000) fry just in one stream, the Auburn Ravine.

If only three percent of those salmon return to the Auburn Ravine after maturing in the Pacific, that is 600,000 salmon, which is almost 10 times the total number of salmon (66, 237) that returned to the entire Sacramento River this year (2008) with fewer than 12,000 salmon making it to Coleman National Fish Hatchery near Anderson on the Sacramento River. Remember that the Auburn Ravine is just one stream in California; there are over 738 tributary to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

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 by identifying all thirteen man-made barriers and working to retrofit them. SARSAS then set about creating a network of state and federal governmental agencies, county supervisors, city councilmen, other NGO’s, landowners and individuals, all meeting once a month under the auspices of Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt. The group worked collaboratively, cooperatively, to reach its respective goals as smoothly and as quickly as possible. SARSAS recently acquired the volunteer services of a grant writer and is now applying for much needed funding. Having all principals at the same table monthly working in a non-confrontational atmosphere facilitated accomplishing much in a short time. Much progress has been made but much yet needs to be done.

Working with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Special Agent, SARSAS contacted all private owners of diversion dams on the AR. Many owners simply needed to be reminded of their specific water rights and by not observing those rights doing harm to fishes. Education was and is key. All ten flashboard dams with the cooperation of the landowners were quickly brought into compliance to make them passable for fish. The remaining three dams are owned by a water agency, Nevada Irrigation District (NID). Working with Placer Legacy, NID was able to fund and begin constructing a fish ladder and a fish channel to create fish passage over the Lincoln Gaging Station and the Hemphill Dam scheduled to be completed by the end of summer 2009.

The remaining dam is the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, which will be addressed after the other two dams are retrofitted. When the GHDD is retrofitted for fish passage, 32 of the 33 miles length of the Auburn Ravine will be ready for fish passage and much of it opened to spawning.

Is the task completed? Far from it, but the tasks completed to date will allow anadromous fishes to spawn in most of the Auburn Ravine.

The Auburn Ravine is but one stream. Gene Davis’ pesticide studies for CVWQCB Natural Streams and Aquatic Life Within the Central Valley Project Area Pesticide Basin Plan Amendment, 2007, shows a total of 738 identified creeks and possibly over 750 run into California’s two great rivers so 738 times 20,000,000 (2,500 females laying 8,000 eggs each), the potential number of salmon returning to the ocean is 14,760,000,000,000 spawned fishes. If only 3 percent, the standard for most salmon runs, of this total number survive in the ocean to return to spawn in California streams, then 44,280,000 salmon will return to spawn in California streams, up from 66,000 in 2008, and the salmon crisis is no longer a crisis and salmon will no longer be going extinct. If more than that number returns to spawn, then salmon will be with us for a long time. The numbers of salmon spawning will be influenced by whether the stream is above or below a dam on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

Are there problems with the SARSAS Plan? Definitely? Is this explanation a possible over-simplification of a very complex problem? Probably. Even if the SARSAS Plan is only partially successful, salmon will still survive. The federal government’s plan to get fish above the great dams to spawn is excellent and high tech but rather slow; the SARSAS Plan is quick, low tech and inexpensive and designed to complement not replace the federal plan.

Will Governor Schwarzenegger provide the leadership and support to coordinate the activities needed? Will the Obama administration step up? Will enough volunteer groups take charge of each of the 738 plus creeks to restore salmon? Will the SARSAS Plan be implemented in time to prevent the salmon from going extinct? The SARSAS Plan has a possible successful outcome for anadromous fishes that will cost only thousands not billions of dollars. The SARSAS Plan is a simple inexpensive plan that may go a long way toward alleviating the salmon march to extinction especially when it is effected in conjunction with the federal NOAA plan.

But even without the Governor’s, the SARSAS Plan can be implemented by the people of California working collaboratively, but not as quickly, and but perhaps quickly enough to save one of the most magnificent creatures in the entire animal kingdom, Chinook Salmon. To hasten the process, please write a letter/email urging the Governor to support the SARSAS Plan.

By rescuing one stream, the Auburn Ravine, the people of California may be rescuing the entire Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery and, in addition, providing food for the endangered orca population that usually lives in the Puget Sound region but has come to within one hundred miles of San Francisco looking for salmon, their only food. This orca pod, which currently numbers 84, must reach 125 animals in order to survive.

Since most tributaries to the Sacramento/San Joaquin Rivers are blocked by diversion dams for irrigation, the salmon cannot currently spawn in numbers large enough to prevent extinction. Using the SARSAS Plan as a model for saving salmon in the Auburn Ravine MAY be enough to save the entire Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery and put thousands of unemployed fishermen back into their boats, free sports fisherman to follow their passion, and help Californians feel good about themselves because they did something to help themselves, the fishes and nature and for their children.

SARSAS needs help, political will and public support to finish our work on the Auburn Ravine so please contact us at www.sarsas.org. Only volunteers, focusing together, can work quickly enough to revive our salmon population to health and well-being. If salmon are saved by the people of California working cooperatively, not only will the gift to our fellowmen be significant, but the gift to our children will be of historic magnitude and nothing less than heroic. “Finally, all things merge into one and a river runs through it. I am haunted by water (with salmon in it).”

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This story is taken from Sacbee / Our Region / Environment

"Restoring fisheries above Folsom, Shasta dams faces high hurdles'

mweiser@sacbee.com

Published Monday, Jun. 22, 2009

The American River once hosted thousands of steelhead migrating upstream from the ocean in three separate runs. Today it's down to just two runs of a few hundred fish.

The Sacramento was the only river in western North America with four salmon runs. They numbered in the millions – so numerous that American Indians and settlers could catch a salmon dinner with their bare hands. Now one run is gone, and two are endangered. The fourth could join them soon.

Restoring a fragment of that spectacle to the Central Valley is the goal of rules proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The service wants, among other things, restoration of winter- and spring-run salmon above Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River, and steelhead above Folsom Dam on the American River.

Combined, the fish transit order is considered the biggest of its kind in U.S. history.

Making it happen presents huge financial and engineering challenges. Costs could exceed $1 billion at a minimum – more than 10 times the original construction cost of both dams.

"It's pretty substantial, the amount of work that's required," said Mike Chotkowski, regional environmental officer at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dams. "We still haven't even determined whether it's feasible."

The fisheries service says that without restoring access upstream, it's likely the three fish species will go extinct. Climate change means it will be harder to maintain cold-water habitat below the dams, so they must have access to better habitat.

"The fish are at that jeopardy point where it's important for us to take immediate steps," said Howard Brown, Sacramento River basin chief for the fisheries service.

The rules proposed this month, called a biological opinion, were developed in response to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups. Federal Judge Oliver Wanger agreed with their claim that prior rules, which had no fish passage requirement, did not prevent extinction.

The ruling raised anxiety among California water managers. Thirty agencies sued last week, alleging that the fisheries service didn't follow procedure in adopting the rules.

Other experts argue there are cheaper ways to rescue the salmon populations.

Among them is the volunteer group Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead. It has worked quietly over the past year to remove small obstructions on Auburn Ravine, a little-known tributary of the Sacramento River.

The natural ravine flows with spring water and sewage treatment outflows starting in Auburn.

Accounts as recent as the 1960s show that the ravine once hosted robust fish runs, said John Rabe, a member of the group's board.

Four adult salmon were observed in the ravine last winter. The group expects hundreds next winter and plans a salmon festival in Lincoln to welcome them back.

Rabe said 600 small creeks between Modesto and Redding also could be restored – at far less cost than fixing the big dams.

"Don't waste time and money on the dams. Spend it on the creeks," he said. "That would open literally thousands of miles of spawning, which would make a huge, huge difference."

"We really are not trying to replace the big idea of retrofitting all the dams on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, we want to supplement that effort. We, on the other hand, can do for thousands of dollars, what the Big Idea can do for billions of dollars so we want to replicate the SARSAS model with the SARSAS Plan which we are present to the Governor's office in the near future," said SARSAS founder and President Jack Sanchez "Let's focus on the creeks where the salmon spawn and improve fish passage and spawning areas. If we clear the streams for fish passage and provide the water, they will come. ".

The federal rules don't specify how salmon and steelhead should be moved around the dams. Instead they require studies, starting in December, to find the best solution that can be in place by 2020.

By March 2012, water agencies must begin moving fish around the dams on a trial basis. This will probably be done by loading fish into trucks.

Experts say moving fish around Folsom and Shasta dams is a job as big as the dams themselves. Shasta, completed in 1945, stands 602 feet high. Folsom was finished in 1956 and soars to 340 feet tall.

They were built without any means to pass fish upstream, and each has a smaller dam downstream to regulate flows: Nimbus on the American, Keswick on the Sacramento.

Distance and elevation required to move fish upstream may eliminate the option of a traditional fish ladder at both dams, said Alex Haro, a research ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey fish laboratory in Turners Falls, Mass.

Fish might not be able to cover the distances up and around the dams in a single day. As night falls, if fish are partway up a ladder, their instinct is to stop and rest, so they give up and turn around.

An alternative is a fish lift – essentially an elevator to raise fish straight up the face of the dam in a container. But like a fish ladder, it has limitations. One is that the fish then are released in a stagnant reservoir, without flows to guide them to spawning habitat.

Because of this, trucking and hauling fish could become the permanent solution.

In short, salmon and steelhead blocked from their historic habitat for decades instead could be driven home like commuters on a bus.

Fishery managers typically don't like truck-and-haul operations because fish survival in the past has been poor: Roughly half of the fish sometimes die from stress, oxygen loss or high temperatures.

But Kozmo Bates, a fish passage expert in Olympia, Wash., said survival is typically better than 90 percent in modern trap-and-haul operations.

"There's a certain protocol that makes it safe for the fish," he said. "I can't say it's 100 percent, but in new, contemporary facilities I've rarely heard of any problems with the fish, and when there are problems they get fixed quickly."

Sounds easy, but it is wrong to assume trucking fish is a cheap fix, experts said.

One reason: The collection facility at the base of the dam is essentially the same whether it serves a fish ladder or a trucking operation.

The fish must be directed from the river below the dam into a confined space. It's against their nature to do that, so they must be tricked with precise flows and temperatures, and a perfectly designed containment space.

This comes with a cost to water supplies. Dam operators must give up 3 percent to 5 percent of the water stored in the reservoir to create flows for fish passage through the containment structure, Haro said.

Also, juvenile fish have to be moved back below the dam after they've spawned. This requires a different collection system above the dam, one that ensures young salmon or steelhead don't get lost in the massive reservoir or eaten by predators such as bass.

One example of a modern downstream passage structure was built at Baker Lake in Washington state in 2008. It consists of nets spanning the reservoir near the dam, which direct fish into channels, and then mobile tanks mounted on floating barges.

Tanks are hoisted onto trucks, which deliver fish to ponds below the dam, where they acclimate to downstream conditions for a day or two before being released.

Bates estimates both upstream and downstream passage for truck-and-haul systems could cost $500 million each for Shasta and Folsom.

That's conservative, because each lake may need multiple downstream collection facilities, since each has multiple tributaries feeding the lake that may hold spawning fish.

"You have high dams, you've got predators in the reservoirs, you've got reservoirs that fluctuate greatly, and you have big rivers, too," Bates said. "You have four things there, and each one quadruples whatever price you start with."

The new rules, however, do provide something of an escape clause.

If a panel of water agencies and fish experts decides fish passage around the dams isn't feasible, salmon and steelhead must be restored elsewhere. That would turn the focus back to the Central Valley's many neglected creeks.

That's what John Rabe and the Auburn Ravine group are working on – a solution he said is "more realistic and a lot less expensive."

Call The Bee's Matt Weiser,

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REASONS WHY SARSAS MUST MEET WITH GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

1) SARSAS has a simple plan that can drastically increase the returning Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River and help alleviate the current Salmon Crisis and put thousands of fishing boats back in the water and increase the fishing season for sportsmen and do something positive to save the Pacific Marine Fishery;

2) SARSAS needs the leadership of the Governor who is the only person in state government who can coordinate the needed changes to realize its plan because leadership is needed in many agencies including DFG, Central Valley Water Qua