By Todd Manley, NCWA Director of Government Relations
As part of our five-year strategic priorities, the Northern California Water Association is taking a closer look at how local actions throughout the Sacramento River Basin bring these priorities to life. One of our central goals—Vitalizing Healthy Rivers, Landscapes and Communities: Ridgetop to River Mouth Water Management—is being advanced through the sub-priority Energizing our Rivers and Creeks.
A promising example of this work is underway, a collaborative effort in lower Butte Creek. This local initiative reflects a broader commitment in the Sacramento River Basin to improve conditions for native fish, particularly spring-run Chinook salmon, by enhancing flows, habitat, and fish passage in a way that integrates community values and landscape needs.
Our healthy rivers and creeks depend upon a sufficient volume of water interacting with a healthy landscape at the right time and place to deliver water for multiple benefits and approximate the habitat patters to which the native flora and fauna are adapted. To energize our rivers and creeks the leaders living and working in the Sacramento River Basin are embarking on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance a holistic and comprehensive approach for fisheries by aligning the current leadership, science, available funding, and a devotion to “give salmon a chance” by improving freshwater conditions for salmon throughout the Sacramento River Basin from ridgetop to river mouth.
Contributing to this Holistic Approach is an effort underway in Butte Creek to foster collaboration among landowners, water managers, state and federal agencies, conservation organizations and other interested parties to benefit spring-run Chinook salmon in the creek. The Butte-Sutter Bypass Coordinated Operations Group (BSBCOG) is building upon the most successful suite of spring-run restoration actions in the Sacramento River Basin by advancing a series of projects to improve water quality, enhance spring-run habitat and reduce fish kills.
These projects include:
- Passage improvement projects at Weir 1, Guisti Weir, and the Lahar Formation
- A long-term program to address invasive aquatic weeds in the Sutter Bypass
- A program to voluntarily coordinate diversions to enhance fish passage
This effort, which is facilitated with a grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has been instrumental in providing a forum to share information and coordinate support for projects contributing to salmon recovery in the creek. CDFW staff have also used the BSBCOG to organize outreach to landowners along the creek and seek input on actions and projects. As work continues to advance through the BSBCOG over the next several years, funding will be needed to continue facilitation as well as complete the habitat projects mentioned above.
