Salmon success: Butte Creek's spring run flourishes

Chico Enterprise Record – 8/1/06 By Larry Mitchell, staff writer

Let them eat salmon. That's the wish of Allen Harthorn, one of the directors of Friends of Butte Creek, a local conservation group. He was among 30 people who spent Thursday through Saturday crawling over the Butte Creek watershed and noting the success of efforts to restore the stream's spring-run salmon population.

One evening, in fact, the participants, most of whom camped near Butte Meadows, dined on barbecued salmon. Not Butte Creek salmon, of course.

Since 1999, the stream's spring-run salmon have been on the threatened-species list. Fishing is banned, except for a three-month period in winter when the salmon aren't around. If the day comes when this group, which plans annual symposiums, can dine on spring-run salmon from Butte Creek, organizers will know their goals have been achieved.

Twenty years ago, the spring run in Butte Creek was in trouble. In the distant past, thousands of fish came up Butte Creek to spawn each year. But with the rise of agriculture, hydroelectric projects and other human activities, the runs dwindled. Some years, only a few fish were counted. Other years, there would be a few hundred.

In the last 15 years or so, a lot of efforts have been made to improve conditions for the fish. Irrigation dams were removed. Fish passages were fixed. Irrigation canal intakes were screened so baby salmon didn't end up in farmers' fields. Recently, the run has rebounded. Year after year, thousands of salmon have returned to Butte Creek to spawn.

But there are still problems, and experts are looking at what can be done to make further improvements. That was one purpose of last week's symposium, organized by the Salmonid Restoration Federation. Its Web site (www.calsalmon.org) says it's a nonprofit organization "dedicated to the protection and restoration of California's steelhead, salmon and trout populations." The group has put on annual conferences concerning coho salmon, which are found in streams along the state's north coast.

Last week's local event was the first symposium on the spring run. Those attending included staff of state and federal agencies, members of conservation groups and interested citizens. There were tours and talks by experts.

The overall impression he got was very positive, Harthorn said Monday. "It gives me great hope the species as a whole is doing pretty good." Harthorn noted PG&E's DeSabla-Centerville power project on Butte Creek is up for relicensing by the federal government. In connection with that, government agencies and the power company are working out agreements to try to eliminate remaining problems for the salmon.

He said a talk was given during the symposium by Mark Gard of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who has studied the relationship between water flows and habitat for spawning. Gard has shown that if flows into Butte Creek are increased in the fall, much more habitat for spawning becomes available to the spring run, Harthorn said. As a result, during the last two years, PG&E has boosted its fall flows. Because of this, a record-breaking run is expected to return to the creek next year, he said.

PG&E has also gone to extra trouble to put more cold water in the creek during very hot weather. Colder water from Philbrook Lake has been directed to the creek. This should help prevent the thousands of salmon deaths that occurred from heat during the summers of 2002 and 2003, he said.

Not all of Butte Creek's problems have been solved, he added. For example, most unpaved roads in the upper watershed were not designed to minimize erosion, so significant sedimentation occurs.

The group visited a large meadow in the northeast corner of the county that at one time had been badly eroded by grazing livestock. Now, the meadow has been rehabilitated and is a marsh lush with water and native grasses. Instead of drying out, the meadow acts as a reservoir that allows water to seep gradually into the creek, enhancing summer flows, he said.

Closer to Butte Meadows is Colby Meadows, which was still used for grazing up until five years ago, and which needs rehabilitation, he said.

To a degree, the history of the spring run on Butte Creek over the last century matches that of the spring run around California. Once these fish were plentiful in streams and rivers throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. But dams cut them off from their natural spawning grounds. Harthorn said Butte Creek stands out as an example of how a naturally spawning salmon run can be enhanced. And, in fact, stray salmon from the Butte Creek run have been found in some other north-state streams, he said. Mill Creek and Deer Creek, which run through Tehama County, have significant runs of spring-run salmon.

Harthorn said efforts are being made to improve or establish self-sustaining runs on Big Chico Creek, Battle Creek, the Feather River, Cottonwood Creek, Antelope Creek and Clear Creek. There is even an effort to restore a spring run on the San Joaquin River, he said. Possibly, that could involve transplanting salmon from Butte Creek to the central valley waterway.