Salmon need water. Salmon grow where rivers flow. Salmon in California have been forced to try and survive on less and less water. Much of their population decline is directly related to insufficient flow and resulting warmer water. In the late 1990’s, Huey Johnson of the Resource Renewal Institute, purchased a water right that was no longer utilized by the Hester/Patrick Ranch in Durham. Huey and the team at RRI, pioneered the process of dedicating the water right to fish, or “instream flow”.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has a water code section, “1707”, that provides for dedicating water to remain in the stream rather than being diverted for other uses. The CDFW awarded the Friends of Butte Creek a grant to purchase the water right in 2021. The water was formally diverted at Diversion 54, shown here. Gayland Taylor, FBC, Tom Hicks, Hicks Law, and Allen Harthorn, FBC, celebrate the transfer of ownership in March 2023. The FBC water right is for 5 cubic feet per second from April 15 – October 15, and 1.5 cfs the rest of the year. This amounts to 2340 acre-feet per year of water that remains in the stream all the way to the Sacramento River.
FBC is vigorously searching for funding opportunities to purchase more water. We need an additional 20-40 cfs during critical migration periods to ensure the survival of the Butte Creek Spring Run Chinook Salmon population, the “Last Best Run of Wild Spring Run in California”.
