An initial report on restoration and conservation of the Eel River lays out the complexities of the watershed and future efforts to rehabilitate it. The report, funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, was prepared by CalTrout and scientists working with Stillwater Sciences, Applied River Sciences, and UC Berkeley. While the upcoming removal of the Potter Valley Project is expected to restore habitat above Scott Dam, the report focuses mainly on the many other factors that have degraded the river over the last two hundred years.
Unregulated logging and fishing are historical impairments, as are the two massive floods of 1955 and 1964, which were intensified by the degradation of the forest around the river.
The plan is not a roadmap to re-establishing the historic bounty of the Eel, which is the third-largest watershed in the state. Rather, it’s a plan to prioritize and restore a diversity of habitat, so that focal species like salmon, lamprey and green sturgeon have an appropriate environment for each stage of their lives. Restoring the hydrological connections between the river and the wetlands is part of that, and the report notes that stronger environmental regulations have had promising results. Tribes, non-profit organizations and grassroots efforts have carried out restoration projects the report characterizes as “game-changing.” But the pikeminnow, an invasive species in the Eel, present a persistent challenge, outcompeting, eating, and harrying young salmon as they try to bulk up for their voyage to the ocean.
The Eel River has seven sub-watersheds that course through a wide range of climatic conditions. Fifty-seven percent of the watershed is under private ownership. The 43% that is public is owned by a variety of agencies, making it impossible to come up with one approach to managing the efforts to restore and monitor the vast terrain.
Christine Davis, a project manager with CalTrout, says she expects Phase II of the planning project to start next year. The next phase is not yet funded, and the report estimates that maintaining a staff of ten would cost about $1.7 million a year.
Davis says “The first piece of the framework is identifying that project area, which, for freshwater species, is the riparian corridor, the estuary,” core places where freshwater species need the habitat restored most. The next step is identifying big chunks of land where restoration work can be most useful, and building a network of willing landowners or agencies that control large pieces of prime ecological real estate. Davis said the Great Redwood Trail is among the organizations that are interested in allowing restoration work on their property.
For people who live in the watershed and want to find out what’s going on or how they can get involved, she suggested signing up for the Eel River Forum mailing list and joining the quarterly meetings. In April, she reported, about 50 people attended a meeting at the public library in Covelo for a presentation from the Round Valley Fisheries Department. “And everyone did small working groups to decide on the program goals and objectives, which went into the first chapter of this plan,” she concluded.
The report offers examples of various river restoration projects and how they are structured, but none of them, even the Klamath, is completely analogous to the Eel River, because most of the land along the Eel is privately owned. “So that process for rolling out a restoration program would need to have those good parts of the Klamath plan,” like public engagement, Davis said. “But it would also need to integrate what actually goes on in each of those larger sub-watersheds of the Eel. That would take a lot of community outreach. Those kind of decisions would be made by the future Eel River Program governance board, which would be made up of different agencies and nonprofits and representatives from the communities…kind of a similar process to the Eel River Forum in the past, but applied to the needs that are really on the ground.”
The Eel River has played an important role in the lives of the people who live near it as long as people have lived on the banks of the river. That includes Davis.
“I am a project manager, but I grew up right on the Eel River in Ferndale, California,” she said. “So I grew up driving over the Fern Bridge and watching the sediment change over time, and I didn’t know what that meant. I just thought, wow, the river there’s totally different than it was last year…Later in life, I learned that rivers are dynamic. They have not just one place they go or one thing they do, but many.” She’s confident that many of the people working on the project share her awe of the river. “So we’re all excited to get this work moving forward.”
I would like to see a public post here about the potential for flood with that Dam removed. Where can I find those studies? … and what future records for yearly rains will be set with Global Climatic Shifts? Do the take down the Dam folks have these ducks in order?
If you’re worried about flooding, maybe we shouldn’t fill the river with water from another river.
And the pre dam flooding is what makes Ukiah Valley fertile.
Rainfall is declining so the records set will be low
There’s no old growth trees to slow evaporarion
And for the 100th time, everything will be ok
Once Lake Pillsbury fills in the winter, which it generally does pretty early, the water just spills over the top. So, the dam doesnt do anything for flood control on the eel except maybe for the first couple of rains. It’s a relatively small reservoir.
Salmon go upstream to same place to spawn. They thrive in many tributaries including the Russian River up to creeks throughout Healdsburg up to Ukiah. The 5 years of drought. And and the new cannabis industry is what has devastated the salmon late summer pools, plus the migration up stream. I know. I’ve seen pumps along tributaries taking water for grows. Seriously that is what should be stopped…not destroying Lake Pillsbury. So what will Stop that on private property going up the EEL? That’s what this water grab is about. Look at Satalite image. Everyone is focusing on a distraction. The real issue is growing drug for money at Salmons exspense. Stop the lie.
Pillsbury is large and is a water source thru hot summers. In my lifetime I never thought I’d see such greed and such neglect by PG&E of a system put in 1922.
And forget the bears otters eagles Deer and Elk…they use that lake for survival. Pot rules. 496 grows in Mendo county. Where is that water coming from? Seriously the crime is environmental disasters are not just drought or big oil. It’s human addiction. Buy no one buy myself will say it.
There used to be more than 8000 illegal grows, but you’re feeling the 400 or so legal ones (who aren’t allowed to pump out of the river) are the problem? That’s… interesting math.
Google satellite…then do the math. If you have time to count hoop houses and outside. Not counting inside. Look at Susanville or further north… satellite of lands outside towns. Seriouly messed up water usage. Just minimizing or maximizing legal or illegal weed dosen’t answer my question? The government right now has a 5,000,000 grant for hydrology entrepreneurs? Where? Do they want to maintain green energy or just new green spending sprees?
Can anyone point to any studies or environmental impact reports that have evaluated the potential for down stream flooding if that Lake Pillsbury Dam is removed ??? Somehow, the posts like Don’t Worry for the hundredth time, does not make sense to me, nor that dam fills early, then spills over. Can we get any professional commenting on my question?