State Fish and Game wants PG&E to put more water in Butte Creek for salmon

CHICO -- The state Department of Fish and Game wants PG&E to put more water in Butte Creek to benefit salmon.

The stream has one of the last remaining runs of naturally spawning spring-run salmon in California.

It's believed more water would contribute to keeping the run viable, and it might help prevent fish from being stranded downstream, said Joe Johnson, a senior environmental scientist with Fish and Game.

On Tuesday, 26 salmon were rescued by Fish and Game workers from the creek below Highway

99. The fish were caught with nets and trucked upstream.

If they had been left in the creek, they would have died once the water warmed up, Johnson said.

Spring-run salmon in Butte Creek and other waters of the Sacramento River system are classified as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Special efforts have been made to restore them, such as removing dams and increasing water flows.

These seem to have helped. The Butte Creek run, which once numbered only a few fish, has grown to several thousand in recent years.

This year, however, the numbers of salmon generally have been down. Johnson said it's impossible to say exactly why because there are so many potential factors.

PG&E, which operates the DeSabla-Centerville power project in Butte Creek Canyon, is applying for a new federal license for the operation. In connection with that application, Fish and Game has Paul Moreno, a spokesman for PG&E, said the company doesn't oppose the Fish and Game proposals.

According to a Fish and Game report, in 1992 it was agreed PG&E would release at least 40 cfs (cubic feet per second) of water into the creek between June 1 and Sept. 14.

In a new proposal, Fish and Game recommends that minimum flows vary between 40 and 100 cfs depending on the time of year and whether rainfall has been light or normal.

Clint Garman, a fisheries biologist who works out of Fish and Game's Chico office, said one pressing problem is warm water that comes into Butte Creek from DeSabla Reservoir. There are several proposals for fixing that, including piping cold water directly into the creek rather than letting it sit in the reservoir.

He said PG&E has practiced good environmental stewardship in the canyon, and that the spring run has flourished over the last decade. Changes should be made in "baby steps" to avoid causing setbacks for the run, he said.

In Tuesday's salmon rescue, tiny radio transmitters were put in the stomachs of the 26 fish. Crews from Fish and Game and UC Davis will try to track movements of the fish by the radio signals. The goal is to try to learn how many of the rescued fish survive to spawn in the fall, Johnson said. That will suggest whether such rescue operations are worth the money they cost the state.

Christin Polen, who lives near where the fish were rescued, said he's watched salmon gather in that spot in each of the last five years.

There used to be a number of deep holes, and salmon actually survived the summer in them and spawned in that section of the creek. But then a levee reconstruction project eliminated the holes, he said, and there hasn't been enough water to sustain the fish.

This year, the salmon arrived in February, he said. Each year, their arrival has been preceded by the appearance of predators that feed on the fish, such as eagles, osprey and otters.

Reprinted from the July 2, 2009 Enterprise-Record