Trinity River
Watershed Group
Established
A Trinity River Watershed Group is being formed to address environmental issues that exist within the Trinity River watershed. The underlying principle of the group will be to coordinate existing programs and undertake a holistic approach to resource management that will focus on the overall ecological health and economic well being of the Trinity River system.
Initial formation has begun with members of public agencies, who have been working on resource related issues along the Trinity River for over 20 years. These partner agencies include Trinity County, Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, and the RCD. Others to be included are private landowners, commercial timber operators, local community service districts and other state and federal agencies.
In the last couple of months, the watershed group has drafted a preliminary mission statement that will provide guidance for the work to be accomplished within the watershed. The goal will be to develop management objectives that complement the TRRP program, but that go beyond the scope of restoration of the naturally-spawning populations of salmon and steelhead in the mainstem of the Trinity River. It is envisioned that this watershed group will evaluate the natural processes that occur in the upslope areas of the mainstem Trinity and address the concerns of landowners and land managers in the tributaries of the watershed.
The group is currently developing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the purpose of defining the roles and responsibilities of each of the entities involved. The MOU will focus on a commitment to cooperation and common interest in gathering and sharing information, project development and implementation, and public education. One of the first objectives will be to combine existing data and reports to provide an updated assessment of the watershed conditions.
The Trinity River Watershed group would like the input, ideas and participation from the general public for projects that will contribute to the restoration of the watershed. For information on the watershed group’s next meeting (Sept. 26) or to get on the mailing list, contact the District at 623-6004.
|
District Manager's Corner
by Pat Frost
Earlier this summer the District’s Board of Directors adopted an update to its Strategic Plan. This gave me the opportunity to think about some broad themes to help light our path as we move forward. Our quarterly Conservation Almanac also is a tool. I use the articles in the newsletter to measure how we are doing right now to meet those long range goals in the Strategic Plan and, more importantly, how we are meeting the needs of all of you. This issue is about community needs – issues that you have brought to the District and asked for help. The District got involved in the Weaverville Community Forest at the request of residents in the community and BLM back in 2003. Today our community, through the Community Forest, is being used around the country as an example of locally led land management and stewardship on federal lands. Landowners along the Trinity River and on streams up and down its length call on us. Sometimes they just have a quick question that we can answer, but sometimes they have bigger concerns about their stream or their land. That has been especially true this year – a very wet year. The newly forming Trinity River Watershed “Council” is an effort to provide a forum for exchanging information, sharing concerns and offering solutions to landowners throughout the watershed.
We have just completed our second year of our very successful Summer Day Camp. The District took up the summer camp program last year, because a number of parents mentioned to us that they really needed some organized programs for their children during the summer. We scratched our heads, thought about it and came up with the idea of a camp that gave children outdoors and nature-based activities. Attendance this summer is double that of last year, but the true sign of success has been the smiling, laughing faces of children finding tree frogs on the banks of East Weaver Creek and seeing them run to the Children’s Garden to be the first ones to get dirt under their fingernails. See the photo-essay in the center of the newsletter for a sample of the fun activities the children took part in.
|
|
Trinity River Factoids
Did you know...
- The Trinity River runs for 172 river miles from the mainstem headwaters to the confluence with the Klamath River at Weitchpec. The first 60 river miles lie above
Lewiston Dam.
- The highest point in the Trinity River watershed is Mount Eddy at 9025 feet. Mt. Eddy is named for Olive Paddock Eddy, the first woman to climb Mt. Shasta.
- Construction of Trinity and Lewiston Dams/Reservoirs was completed in 1963, although flows and sediment transport were affected be the projects as early as 1961.
- The area above the Trinity Dam, often referred to as the Upper Trinity, is 443,138 acres and its largest tributary is Coffee Creek at 74,476 acres. The largest tributary to the Trinity River below the dam before the confluence with the South Fork is the North Fork Trinity. It drains an area of 67,222 acres.
|
|
|
