.. Tt' r i ., Y R1 ~ [P 6A IN STATUS OF THE RESOL! [LIBRA Y .. .. TRINITY COUNTY LIBHAR ­ TRINITY RIVER BASIN WEAVERVILLE, CA l. FISH AND WILDLIFE RESTORATION PROGRAlVI OCTOBER 1992 Milc3 o 8 12 c · ----. FOR ADDmONAL INFORMATION CALL: Trinity River Basin Field Office #3 Horseshoe Square P.O. Box 1450 Weaverville, California 96093 .(916) 623-3931 Fish and Wildlife Service (916) 623-2508 Bureau of Reclamation This report has been prepared to inform the public about what has taken place during the first 7 years of the Trinity River Restoration Program. BACKGROUND: The passage of the Trinity River Basin Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act (P.L. 98-541) in October 1984 provided for a la-year program to restore fish and wildlife resources to pre-Trinity Division, Central Valley Project levels. The program is legislated to continue until 1995 and will cost over $70 million. The cost is being shared by the Federal and state governments with the Central Valley Project providing 50%. Major features include: 1. Construction of Buckhorn Dam a sediment control feature on Grass Valley Creek; 2. Purchase of about 17,000 acres of Grass Valley Creek to restore and manage for sediment reduction; 3. Modernizing the Trinity River Fish Hatchery; 4. Fish habitat improvement projects on the Trinity River and it tributaries; 5. Development and implementation of a wildlife mitigation and enhancement program; and 6. Watershed stabilization projects to reduce sedimentation of streams. The Secretary of the Interior has the ultimate responsibility for completing the program. A Field Office, operated cooperatively by the u.s. Bureau of Reclamation and the u.s. Fish and wildlife Service, has been established in Weaverville, California, to facilitate restoration work. A Task Force consisting of representatives from 14 Federal, State, and county entities as well as the Hoopa Valley Tribe has been assembled to assist and advise the Secretary. A 14-member Technical coordinating Committee has been established to assist and advise the Field Office and the Task Force. The members of the Trinity River Fish and wildlife Restoration Task Force are: California Department of Fish and Game Bureau of Indian Affairs California Department of Forestry and Bureau of Land Management Fire Protection Bureau of Reclamation California Department of Water Fish and wildlife Service Resources Forest Service Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe National Marine Fisheries Service Humboldt County Soil Conservation Service State Water Quality Control Board Trinity County 2 NEEDS: During the 1960-80 period, populations of chinook and coho salmon and steelhead in the Trinity River Basin declined to about 20 percent of historic levels. These declines resulted from a variety of human and natural events. Negative human activities included excessive harvesting; construction and operation of the Trinity Division Central Valley Project; and sedimentation due to timber harvesting, building roads, mining, and other activities that disturbed the landscape. Floods, particularly in 1964, have magnified the effects of harmful land management by resulting in landslides and raising the levels of sediment in stream channels. The combination of reduced flows accompanied by increased sedimentation has been particularly harmful to fisheries. The ongoing 6-year drought has also hurt the fishery and impaired restoration efforts. The mainstem from Lewiston Darn to the confluence of the North Fork Trinity River (about 40 river miles) is presently severely impacted having gradually lost much of its quality habitat to sediment deposition and encroachment of vegetation. Construction and operation of the Trinity Division also resulted in the loss of about 20,000 acres of deer habitat as well as adverse impacts to other riparian and upland species. GOALS: The program is designed to: 1. Improve the capability of the Trinity River Hatchery to mitigate for fishery losses which have occurred above Lewiston Darn. 2. Restore natural salmon and steelhead production in the mainstem and tributaries to pre-darn levels. 3. Recommend fish harvest management practices consistent with achieving other program goals. 4. Compensate for deer and other wildlife losses resulting from flooding of habitat and reduced streamflows. 5. Develop and implement land management activities to stabilize watersheds and reduce sediment yield to streams. ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Trinity River Salmon and Steelhead Hatchery -- Construction work was completed in the spring of 1991. The hatchery located in Lewiston, California, was completely modernized. Improvements include: 1. Water supply and aeration facilities 2. A direct fish release system to the river 3. Concrete ponds replacing gravel raceways. 3 4. Extensive predator exclusion fencing around the new ponds 5. Upgraded fish access 6. Water heaters for egg incubation 7. A new food storage and freezer building Cost of the improvements was about $8 million of which $3 million was from restoration funds. The additional $5 million came from Central Valley Project construction funds through the Bureau of Reclamation. Restoration of Natural Salmon and steelhead Production By the end of 1992, the following activities will be completed: 1. Side-channel habitat will be built and evaluated in 12 locations on the mainstem upstream of Junction City. Three feather edge projects will have been constructed between Douglas City and the North Fork. Lack of rearing habitat has been identified as a major factor limiting anadromous fish production. Present information indicates that juvenile salmon and steelhead are using the side-channels. Some spawning activity has also been observed. The feather edges have yet to be fully evaluated. Potential sites for other side-channels and feather edges have been located for a large-scale implementation of a habitat improvement program scheduled to begin in 1993. 2. About 30,000 square feet of spawning habitat will be restored by placing gravel in 5 sites in the mainstem between Lewiston Dam and the mouth of Grass Valley Creek. An ongoing gravel maintenance program has been established. 3. Fish habitat typing inventories necessary to design restoration work on about 250 miles of fish habitat in 35 tributary streams in the Trinity River watershed will have been completed. 4. Habitat improvement work will be completed on 9 mainstem tributaries and 4 tributaries on the South Fork tributary streams. 5. A system will be designed and tested for determining the numbers of juvenile salmon and steelhead annually migrating out of the mainstem into the Klamath River. This capability will provide baseline data and a direct means to evaluate the success of restoration measures. 6. Approximately 33,000 cubic yards of decomposed granite material will have been removed from 5 locations in the Trinity River between the lower end of Poker Bar and Lewiston. 4 7. An action plan to restore the fish habitat and population of the South Fork Trinity River will be developed and partially implemented. Harvest Management -- Annual estimates of run-size, composition, and distribution for fall chinook, spring chinook, coho, and steelhead are being developed by the California Department of Fish and Game using restoration funds. This information is made available to the Klamath Fishery Management Council and the Pacific Fishery Management Council for use in preparing ocean harvest regulations. Data is also provided to the Federal and State agencies, and Indian Tribes responsible for regulating ocean and inland harvest. Currently, harvest management is conservative making certain that enough adult spawners escape into the watershed to fully use available habitat and build up fish populations. wildlife Management -- A comprehensive wildlife restoration plan will be completed based on habitat types. Completed and ongoing projects include deer winter range improvement, migration monitoring, and vegetation conversion; identification of mainstem riparian habitat utilization by wildlife species with emphasis on threatened and endangered species; evaluation of nesting success and population monitoring of bald eagles and peregrine falcons around Lewiston and Trinity Reservoirs, and wetland and watering hole development on selected dry and upland slopes that have ecological indicator or economic value. Watershed Stabilization and Sediment Reduction 1. A sediment collection and disposal system on Grass Valley Creek and the mainstem Trinity River has been completed. Three pools with 70,000 cubic yards capacity are located on the lower end of Grass Valley Creek (the heaviest contributor of sediment to the mainstem). There are 4 pools having a capacity of about 40,000 cubic yards on the mainstem. These pools are periodically dredged and the material removed deposited in designated disposal areas. The pools also function as holding habitat for fish. Buckhorn Dam and Reservoir, completed in 1990, has a 1,000 acre-foot storage capacity sufficient to trap about 25% of the sediment originating in the Grass Valley Creek drainage for at least 50 years. 2. About 17,000 acres of privately owned extremely erodible and heavily impacted land in the Grass Valley Creek watershed will have been purchased for management by the Bureau of Land Management. A cooperative land management plan involving government and private entities will be developed. 5 3. Inventories necessary to identify sediment sources and design restoration projects will be completed for about 35 watersheds. 4. Sediment reduction activities will be carried out in 15 tributary watersheds