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Common Sense solutions for the Klamath
from Trinity writer

 

Vicki Riley lives in Trinity County, and is actively involved in river and forest matters.

Aug 12, 2003
Last summer was long and very dry.   The bulk of winter's rain arrived before the end of March, and we had no significant rain from May 21st to November 6th.   The snow melted early off the Triniry Alps.   At the end of summer all the creeks were  low and slow, very little water hardly moving, with warm pools here and there.    I have heard "old timers" say that the Trinity River used to be like that at the end of a long summer before the dams were built.   I have heard, too, that river levels are now kept artificially high in the summer months to accommodate river recreation and tourism.   If fish were plentiful before the dams were built, and end of summer water levels were lower before the dams were built, then low water levels could hardly be the cause of last September's fish kill.  I understand that no chemical tests nor temperature readings were taken in the vicinity until a week later when conditions could well have changed, it being a very fluid situation.   Is it not just as possible that too much water had been released, inviting the fish into the lower Klamath when every tributary offered only dry beds or trickles of warm water, much too warm for ocean fish?    There is, after all, an entire system to take into consideration.   While a further release of water enabled the survivors to move out of the lower Klamath and make the journey to the hatcheries, a trip up any of the tributaries would not have been inviting.    As it turned out, the run did continue into November, and an ample number did arrive at the hatchery.

What would have happened before the dams were built?  Before we could confuse Mother Nature by dumping water in at will?   Would the chinook have waited in the ocean until November rains freshened all the streams with clean cool water?   Perhaps too much water at the wrong time sent the wrong message to the fish, luring them in far enough to trap them and create a traffic jam when they discovered the water upstream was still too warm.  If any of the tributaries are to be considered as spawning areas,  the river should be kept low enough and warm enough to keep the fish out in the ocean until those tributaries have received a good rain runoff.
Vicki Riley

 

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