News

Know a Woman Who Wants to Fly Fish? Fly Girls Might Be Your Answer…

May 18, 2011, by 6 comments

The Underground’s readership is overwhelmingly male, but that doesn’t mean you hairy beasts don’t know a woman who might have a good time learning to fly fish in what amounts to a supportive atmosphere (Today’s Tip: The guy who tries to teach his wife to fly fish has engaged a fool for an instructor).

Flygirls

One of the best fly fishing graphics I've ever seen (click to learn more)

 

The graphic is stunning (I’ve never been able to cast more than 2-3 letters in my loops, and never attempted a “G”), and the event — at least based on testimonials from friends attending prior sessions — is relaxed and fun.

Rolling Hills Casino is located right off I5, so it’s not a bad drive for anyone, even as far south as the South Bay or Sacramento.

I’ll leave the description of the details to the Rolling Hills Casino web page, and I won’t — even for a second — suggest that the lonely types among my readership should manage to be in the area on June 4. After all, this is the same casino that helps host the sporting clays I shoot each fall, so they’re armed and presumably ready to drive away all the slobbering wolves male fly fishers.

See you learning to cast some really impossible loops, Tom Chandler.

(full disclosure; I taught an “Online Marketing Boot Camp” for the casino’s marketing staff, but don’t have any financial arrangement with them).

Suction Dredge Mining Essentially Dead Due to State Budget Cuts

May 14, 2011, by 1 comment

A moratorium on the suction dredge mining was enacted in California while Fish & Game developed new regulations for the practice, but all that seems to have been thrown out the window by California’s legislature, which seems to continued the moratorium indefinitely because the program costs far more to administer than it raises.

From a Karuk Tribal press release:

“California is in the midst of an historic financial crisis. Taxpayers can no longer afford to subsidize this environmentally destructive hobby,” said Leaf Hillman, Director of the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources.

The move by the budget committees still has to be approved as part of the overall state budget, but reversing the proposal would require lawmakers to fight for budget increases to fund a dredge mining permit and enforcement program while they are at the same time faced with deep cuts to education, healthcare for the elderly, and law enforcement.

According to the Department of Fish and Game’s own Environmental Impact Report, the dredging program raises $373,000 a year in permit fees, but under the newly proposed regulations would spend over $1.8 million in administration and enforcement. This fails to include the cost of defending the program from lawsuits filed by Tribes, taxpayers, and fishermen.

Although the Department’s draft Environmental Impact Report found that dredging has “significant and unavoidable” impacts to water quality due to the reintroduction of mercury to the food chain, the Department claimed it had no authority to regulate the practice on those grounds. The Karuk Tribe along with a host of fishing, environmental, and Tribal groups argue that the Department’s proposed regulations would fail to protect struggling runs of salmon, steelhead, and numerous other fish species while violating clean water laws.

Yow. Going to be some unhappy miners in California.

It’s a heated issue, at least in my experience; a suction mining thread was one of only two ever shut down on the Underground after I received a slew of angry/threatening/incoherent emails.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

As We Near 20th Anniversary of Cantara Loop Spill, What’s Happening on the Upper Sacramento River?

May 12, 2011, by 6 comments

It’s been nearly twenty years since a train derailed on the Upper Sacramento River’s Cantara Loop, dropping a tanker of metam sodium into the river.

On June 4, 1991, fishermen and residents of the area saw nearly 40 miles of the Upper Sacramento River essentially sterilized, and oddly enough, we were probably lucky it was metam sodium and not something more persistent.

Luck, I guess, is relative.

An ABC TV news team did a story about the anniversary (which I’d forgotten), and if you look hard, you’ll notice Wayne Eng’s backside (probably his better side) several times in the footage.

Also, CalTrout’s Curtis Knight makes an appearance.

Since the spill, Union Pacific has replaced the wooden ties in the canyon with concrete, built that monstrous super trestle, and now uses “pusher” engines to reduce the strains on the cars in the middle of trains (which are the most likely to derail).

Still, a 2003 derailment in the Upper Sacramento River Canyon saw a tanker of hydrochloric acid come off the tracks within spitting distance (literally) of the river, suggesting that the safety of the river is largely an illusion.

So while UP has taken steps, it still could improve the way it builds the trains headed up and down the canyon (the spill was caused — in part — by empty cars in the middle of the train, which can be more easily pulled off the tracks when loaded cars are attached to the front and back of the train).

More derailments are inevitable. What they mean to the river so many of us have come to love as our own? That one’s largely up to lady luck.

See you holding my breath every time a train passes through the canyon, Tom Chandler.

Cool Photos: Salmon Released Into American River

May 10, 2011, by 1 comment

I’m not exactly a fan of hatchery salmon, but the Sacramento Bee’s Randall Benton crafted some cool images of the salmon fry release into the American River (you’re just wasting your time anyway, right).

Sacramento Bee: salmon release

Sacramento Bee publishes cool photos on the Salmon Release on American River (click image to see them all)

Cheaper to Remove Klamath Dams Than Keep Them

May 5, 2011, by 6 comments

The California Public Utilities Commission ruled that it’s actually cheaper for Pacific Power and its ratepayers to remove the four Klamath Dams choking the life out of the Klamath’s salmon runs which block access to several hundred miles of spawning habitat — and do nasty things to the Klamath’s water quality to boot.

After retrofitting the aging dams, the CPUC noted they’d run at a $20 million annual net loss. (Details at the CalTrout site.)

I could go on and on about Siskiyou County’s willingness to hold its breath and stomp its feet over dam removal, but it’s a beautiful day outside (the first day of the year we’ve opened all the windows), and in that environment, political temper tantrums hold little allure.

They aren’t coming down anytime soon — and funding for the project is suddenly in question — but at least we’re heading in the right direction.

Save a Salmon. Eat a Dam.

McCloud Starts Spilling Today…

April 26, 2011, by 1 comment

Update: PG&E’s managing a “spill release,” which isn’t coming over the dam, but would if they didn’t dramatically increase flows…

According to PG&E, water started spilling over the McCloud Dam at 4:30 this afternoon.

Thus, the book closes on opening day for one of the state’s most-loved rivers (unless you’re willing to pound it out at high flows).

See you muttering “damn dams,” Tom Chandler.

Thinking About Fly Fishing the McCloud River on Opening Day? (or, Think Again…)

April 25, 2011, by 8 comments

This in from PG&E (who operate the McCloud Hydropower facility):

PG&E is observing rapidly increasing inflows into McCloud Reservoir and anticipates that McCloud Dam will begin to spill earlier than previously forecasted. The reservoir has increased approximately 4.7 feet in the past 72 hours and continues a rapid ascent.

PG&E has taken careful steps to manage the increasing inflow into McCloud Reservoir by monitoring reservoir level, maintaining a low water surface elevation in Iron Canyon Reservoir, and diverting water through James B. Black Powerhouse to maintain the maximum amount of storage capacity. Despite these efforts, deep snow pack and increasing spring snowmelt means that the capacity of the McCloud Reservoir will fill and water will spill over the dam spillway.

Based on the current increasing inflow conditions into McCloud Reservoir, PG&E anticipated that McCloud Dam will begin spilling on Wednesday evening/Thursday morning (April 27 / 28, 2011).

At this time PG&E is unable to accurately provide an estimate of the anticipated spill magnitude, as inflow to the reservoir continues to increase hourly. However, based on inflow trends as of this notification, initial spill flow from McCloud Dam may be approximately 500 to 600 cubic feet per second with regular increases likely until inflows subside.

Amusingly, my very recent post about the season opener suggests the McCloud will offer good fly fishing.

Once again, the illusion of omnipotence is shattered…

See you eating blackbird, Tom Chandler.

Good News From Montana: HB 306 is Dead

April 14, 2011, by 4 comments

Governor Vetoes Cyanide Leach Mining Bill

In what you’d have to describe as a strong political statement, Montana’s Governor Schweitzer applied a hot branding iron “veto” to some of the Montana State Legislature’s nuttier legislation, including SB 306 — the cyanide leach mining bill which had been largely rejected by voters twice before.

It’s gratifying to see him apply the veto he promised, but then you realize he had to apply the veto, and you wonder how things got that far out of hand.

Wayne at the WillFishForWork blog offers a Montanan’s perspective on the whole sordid affair, and I suspect — given the volume of nutjob legislation coming out of the state — we’ll be hearing more from Big Sky Country soon.

See you at the capital, Tom Chandler.

More On Montana’s HB 306 Legislation (or, Let’s Make a Mess of Things & Let The Taxpayers Pick Up The Tab)

April 4, 2011, by 8 comments

The story about Montana’s legislators running roughshod over two public votes against cyanide leach mining (SB 306) gains an interesting twist (this courtesy the Button Valley Bugle) — the appallingly “real life” story of a “model” Montana mining concern from the 90s:

In 1996, Beal Mountain was touted as one of the most environmentally friendly hardrock gold mines in the U.S. That didn’t last long. By 1998, mine owner Pegasus Gold had declared bankruptcy, shuttered the mine and forfeited their reclamation bond of $6.2 million. By 2006, the U.S. Forest Service (read taxpayers) had incurred cleanup costs of more than $14 million. They have removed and treated millions of gallons of contaminated water and will continue to do so for many years into the future.The new pond liner will cost millions more.

“If nothing else that we’ve found out over the last 30 years, cyanide heap leach liners always leak,” said [Clark Fork] coalition attorney Matt Clifford. “It’s going to be expensive to find that leak and fix it.”

HB 306 isn’t a “jobs” bill. It’s a “get the taxpayers to foot the bill after someone makes a big mess and walks away” bill.

If you haven’t yet, write Montana’s governor and tell him you’re tired of footing the bill for this bullshit:

email: governor@mt.gov

Montana Legislature Passes New Cyanide Leach Mining Law (Against the Wishes of the Public): You Gotta Send an Email To Stop It…

April 4, 2011, by 1 comment

The Horror that is the Montana Legislature has apparently voted the new cyanide leach mining bill (SB 306) through to the governor — despite the fact the state’s voters had twice specifically voted to do away with new cyanide leach mining operations (which are notorious for springing leaks and leaving messes for the taxpayers to clean up).

Wayne at Willfishforwork.com lays out all the murky details and ugly bedfellows, and if you don’t want to stare into that dark too long, simply do this:

Write Montana’s governor and tell him you’re tired of the taxpayers being put on the hook for operations which diminish the state’s recreational value to anglers and cause job losses when anglers stay home.

email: governor@mt.gov

Now, more from Willfishforwork:

What they don’t tell you is that the Golden Sunlight operation has already puked 19 million gallons (yeah, whoa! I didn’t even remember it being that big and that’s just what the legislature was probably hoping) on the surrounding landscape already (yes, that would be the Jefferson river very nearby). That whole fiasco was promptly cleaned up by the last republican led legislature, and I believe the governor at the time was republican Marc Racicot. Not that I’m implicating anyone, just sayin’.

But that’s all in the past right? WRONG!

….

And of course there is the issue of all the mines that might utilize this new cyanide leach for hire operation. Of course these will need to be new permitted operations. Currently there is only one possible customer for such an operation and that would be Dutch Gold Resources that is currently confirming test holes on a claim at the upper end of Rock Creek.[ed: emphasis mine] Life is full of coincidences isn’t it. But that doesn’t mean it would be limited to just that claim of course, it’s highly probable that in the current gold market that there might be many more claims that could be permitted if there is the potential to turn a profit. Basically, the potential gold bearing areas of Montana could end up looking like a maze with little blocks of Swiss cheese at their centers.

Wayne comes to what is not a surprising conclusion:

Now if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Montana SB 306 looks like a full blown mining bill that leaves the taxpayers in the same place with mining operations that they have always been- picking up the tab. Jobs? There are no jobs here, just a huge liability for more mining cleanups, legal litigation, infrastructure liabilities and a tortured landscape that taxpayers will have to live in and pay for while the mining companies take the profit elsewhere.

Those directions again?

Write Montana’s governor and tell him you’re tired of the taxpayers being put on the hook for operations which diminish the state’s recreational value to anglers and cause job losses when anglers stay home.

email: governor@mt.gov

See you online, Tom Chandler