Conservation Conversation

Conservation onversation

With Julie Ruth Haselden

News from Friends of Five Creeks:

The drought is back. The Bay Area is in a state of extreme drought (red on map), and even the wettest corner is at least “abnormally dry” (yellow). EBMUD is asking for 10% reductions in water use, joining a range of other restrictions and emergency declarations in the Bay Area and statewide.

This has been the third driest “water year” on record. The state cancelled the final April 29 snow survey because so little remained. Forecasts for summer river flows are nearly all less than half of average. Reservoirs are at about three-quarters of their long-term average.

Time to dust off tips for using water responsibly long term.

Outdoors: • Plants: Choose tough, drought-tolerant plants. Convert some or all lawn to a lowwater garden. • Soil: Help your soil absorb and hold water by using mulch and compost. • Watering: Water slowly, deeply, and seldom. Make sure sprinklers aren’t

spraying up into hot air or out onto pavement. Check your water agency (EBMUD for most readers) for information and advice as well as coupons and rebates. • Cleaning: Sweep rather than hosing down sidewalks. Wash your car at a commercial car-wash -- they are required to recycle.

Indoors: • Check for and fix leaks • Appliances: Run only full loads in your washing machine and dishwasher. • Showers and faucets: Install a lower-flow shower head, as well as low-flow aerators on bath and kitchen faucets. Take short showers; turn water off while you brush your teeth, shave, or wash up. Fill a sink or pan to wash dishes. • Toilets: How often you flush is a personal decision.

The Internet offers countless tips on saving water.

From ‘Protect Hot Creek’: Stop KORE Mining

The US Forest Service is taking public comments on a proposed exploratory mining operation near the headwaters of Hot Creek in the Eastern Sierra that could lead to harmful open pit mining near this fishery. We need your help to stop it.

This project is problematic and disastrous in many ways: 1. KORE Mining wants to drill around Hot

Creek for gold with no plan or guarantee that gold exists in that area. Dredging, excavation, and hydraulic mining will cause dramatic stream degradation. 2. The proposal for the exploratory operation provides no information on how much water is needed, the depth of drilling, or

the negative impact on the wildlife and the environment. If the operation is granted, it would have long-term ramifications for one of California’s iconic wild trout fisheries and for the wildlife in the area. 3. The Hot Creek watershed is highly sensitive and has remnant impacts of historic mining and development in that area.

For more information visit CalTrout’s webpage.

Klamath Dam Updates

“After years of negotiations and agreements, roadblocks, renegotiations, and new agreements, dam removal on the Klamath River is closer than ever to becoming a reality. With almost all the bureaucratic hurdles overcome, four of the six dams on the Klamath are slated to be removed by 2024, restoring fish access to the entire river.

If carried out as planned, it will be the largest dam removal project in the history of the United States, opening up 400 river-miles of habitat to salmon, trout, and eels, for the first time in decades. The Yurok Tribe and Klamath River Renewal Corporation hope it will also mean a return to a healthy river, one without toxic algal blooms each summer and fall and a restored salmon run that can again support the tribe. After the most recent agreement in November, which grants additional funding for dam removal and irons out a legal risk technicality for the power company PacifiCorp, the Yurok and KRRC are confident that this future is possible.” - Joe Purtell (Sierra Magazine)

Klamath dam removals make national news! Check out this great news clip.

GPFF Volunteer Work PARTY!!

You are invited to join me and GPFF to MAKE A DIFFERENCE and CONTRIBUTE TO THE WELL-BEING OF FISH AND WILDLIFE!

June 13, 2021 – 10am to Noon

MLK Garretson Point

I will supply bags and litter picker-uppers plus snacks and appreciation!

Please bring your own water, gloves, sturdy shoes and a 5-gallon bucket (optional)

RSVP to me: Julie Haselden jhaselden17@ comcast.net