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Marilyn Whitney and John Fawcett spotted three salmon in a gravel riffle in Putah Creek near their rural home near Davis, California. These salmon were observed spawning in the creek adjacent to the Whitney/Fawcett property just downstream of the Stevenson Road Bridge on December 2931, 1997. Marilyn and John videotaped some of the spawning behavior. They also retrieved two of the fish after they died. One female weighed 16.5 lbs. and measured 34 inches in length. Peter Moyle (UC Davis, pbmoyle@ucdavis.edu) identified the retrieved fish as Chinook salmon. The 16.5 pound fish can clearly be identified as one of the spawners due to distinctive marks on its body and tail. The Putah Creek Council is extremely interested in this well documented sighting, and is taking steps to preserve the exact details.
Let me tell you just how amazing this is. Here's a fish eyes view of their route. Leave the Pacific Ocean. Enter San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate Bridge and turn left. Continue upstream through San Pablo, Carquinez Strait and Suisun Bay to the Delta. Go around the north side of Sherman and Brannan Islands and under the Highway 12 bridge at Rio Vista. Now you're in the Sacramento River. Caution, now it gets really tricky. Upstream from Rio Vista, you'll see the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel on your left. Take this "exit." Swim parallel to the Ship Channel up the Yolo Bypass. Be careful not to get lost in the many connecting sloughs that go nowhere. When you get to West Sacramento, swim east across the Yolo Bypass and through the Yolo Wetlands Preserve, the new preserve that President Clinton came out to dedicate last fall. Find the gap in the west bypass levee where Putah Creek enters the reserve/bypass. Enter and start making your way upstream. You've got about 12 or 15 miles to go now. Swim through the City of Davis Preserve. Cross under Mace Blvd. Swim through the southern agricultural portion of the UC Davis campus, no previous schooling required. Pass under massive Interstate 80/Highway 113 Interchange. Pass through UC Davis Putah Creek Reserve. Stop just before you get to the Stevenson Bridge and there you are.
The salmons' offspring will hopefully be enjoying the recently established minimum instream flows established for Putah Creek. Headwaters of the Putah Creek watershed are in Lake County. Putah Creek and its tributaries then flow into Napa County. After passing through Lake Berryessa the creek flows east towards the Sacramento River, forming most of the boundary between Yolo and Solano Counties, but ends in the Yolo Bypass.
Since the completion of Lake Berryessa in 1957 and the Putah South Canal in 1959, most of the flow of Putah Creek has been diverted south to Solano County, leaving the lower creek with little or no flow especially during the dry season. Judge Park's 1996 judgment changed that. The decision is now under appeal by the Solano Irrigation District, while outside the court multi-party mediation sessions continue.
This sighting is further indication that, with sufficient flows, Putah Creek will attract Chinook salmon as it has in the pastand will provide salmon with much needed additional spawning habitat. By its cross appeal to Solano's appeal of the judgment, the Council is seeking changes to the judgment that will assure that salmon will be able to make it into the creek to spawn every year.
One member of the Putah Creek Council has often said his goal is to "re-enchant the place." Certainly sighting spawning salmon in Putah Creek provided some enchanted evenings. Let's strive for more. It is amazing what a modest amount of re-watering will do for de-watered streams.
Speaking of native species finding their way back home, Neil Berg migrated back to California after a stint in Washington, D.C. Neil is still with the USDA Forest Service and is now back where he started over twenty years ago, at the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station. Neil starts his new position with dual duties: 1) develop improved methods for assessment of cumulative watershed effects, and 2) function as liaison between the three regions of the Forest Service and US EPA's Region 9, headquartered in San Francisco. Non-doubt, Neil will be immersed in the current tidal wave of TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) activity, a hot topic on US EPA Region 9's agenda. Neil's new e-mail address is: nberg/psw@fs.fed.us, and his new phone number is 510/559-6426. To gain the broadest perspec tive possible, from both research and management, Neil wants to talk with anyone interested in cumulative watershed effects. Give Neil a call or drop him an e-mail.
Mike Powers writes: "Just wanted to let you know that I'm into my third month as the North Coast Basin Water Quality Planner for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. My challenge is to put together the Agriculture Water Quality Management Area Plan for the North Coast, utilizing a Local Advisory Committee that I'm forming. It is part of the Oregon Plan to address potential listing of Chinook, Coho, and Chum salmon, Steelhead too. 303(d) stuff too. I'm pretty damn excited about it." We're pretty darned excited about your good fortune too, Mike. Congratulations! Mike's work e-mail is: mpowers@oda.state.or.us.-
Remember, if you've reached a watershed in your career or have an interesting tidbit of watershed news, let your colleagues know about it. Drop a line to Name Stream & Tributaries, c/o Clay Brandow, 1528 Brown Drive, Davis, CA 95616, or call me at 916/227-2663. It is best to e-mail me at: clay_brandow@fire.ca.gov
