Court Opens Mitchell Slough in Landmark Stream Access Case: New West Missoula

With a 54-page ruling, the Supreme Court deemed the waterway a natural stream, which means access to it is protected by Montana’s stream access law, which is among the strongest in the country. The ruling has been coming for more than two years and overturns two lower-court decisions that had defined the stream the way the Bitterroot Conservation District and several high-profile landowners had advocated it be: Just a ditch.

The case, which has been watched closely across the West as a crucial test of stream access law, has been a long-running extravaganza of protests, celebrity, and political maneuvering but more than that, it has been a spur for complex and often heated discussions on water rights, landownership, what’s natural and what’s not and most of all, how to square the values of the Old West with the demands of the New.

I’m on my way to a class, but you can read the whole story here.

Mitchell slough, montana, montana stream access, stream access

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While the weather was unseasonably warm, the river had a Fall’s-over feel; most of the leaves were down or headed that way, and summer’s lush habitat is a memory.

Wally the Wonderdog is always happy to go fishing.

Despite the blanket October Caddis hatches of a month ago, the year’s best October Caddis dry fly fishing often comes later in the year - long after the river’s been largely abandoned. Some speculate it’s because the bugs are dying in greater numbers, and that trout “know” dead bugs don’t fly away at the last minute.

Others think it’s simply a matter of supply and demand; the trout are used to eating the big bugs, but fewer emergers and far fewer adults come between big trout and your fly.

Rather than enter into the debate, I simply fish a big dry, and marvel at the size of the fish I sometimes catch.

Last night, happily, was no exception.

In about two hours of fishing a relatively hard-fished stretch of the river, I hooked ten fish, the smallest of which went a foot.

The biggest was bigger than my net and both ends stuck out, and once I eased the hook out, he simply straightened out and fell into the water.

Powerless

And yes, I’d have photographic evidence, yet somehow managed to remove the good battery and insert the discharged battery into my old Pentax digital, so I fired off exactly two frames of the Wonderdog before the dreaded “battery discharged” warning popped up.

So much for the digital age.

Still, I got the important picture; when I fish with the Wonderdog and don’t post a picture of the brave-but-dumb pup, I get emails.

Irritated emails.

Thus, do I bow to the will of the people.

Trout Where They’re Supposed to Be

The best fishing wasn’t in the longer runs; it was the seams and short slots often found in rock gardens, and hooking big fish in conditions like that reminds me of the lessons I’ve already learned - but always forget.

Like - when you’re chasing a good fish downriver, you need to keep reclaiming line - or that fish will always remain the same distance away.

Or that steering fish into quieter water and running down is a hell of a lot easier than winching them through faster water. Stuff like that.

After a long stretch off the water, fly fishing the big dry was reviving: the trout were still where they were supposed to be; the 8′ Upper Sac Special bamboo fly rod cast like I was throwing darts (yet handled big fish brilliantly); and I wasn’t weighed down with any deadlines, staying and fishing exactly as long or as short as I wanted.

Winter’s approaching, and the small meadow I call “Bear Meadow” was filled with bear scat, courtesy the bears eating apples off the old, old apple trees.

I always call a warning when walking through that meadow in the late fall, and yes, I did once startle a bear (me more than him, I think).

You feel a little foolish doing it, but I’d feel a lot more foolish trying to dial 911 after having both arms pulled out of their sockets by a drooling carnivore who only wanted to eat green apples in peace.

And yes, you can’t embrace nature without arms.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

fly fishing, fishing, trout, october caddis, upper sac, upper sacramento river

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At one point, I found myself running down the middle of a four-lane road, the fire literally roaring down the brushy field to my right, shooting flame vortexes a hundred feet in the air.

Dead birds - killed by the heat and lack of oxygen - fell from the sky like hail, and I was constantly bitten by panicked insects fleeing the inferno.

It reminded me of the biblical representation of hell.

With fires again ravaging Southern California, photojournalists again are shooting these fires, some of the best photos of which are found at The Big Picture - the Boston Globe’s photoblog of breaking news stories.

(David McNew/Getty Images)

Paging through a couple dozen extraordinary photographs represents a stunning way to experience a major news event - one that words may not be able to do justice.

TC

brush fire, southern california brush fire, the big picture

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And without a trout at the end of any of those drives - and all my little small streams closing as the General Trout Season ended on Saturday - you could say my “regular” season ended not with a bang, but with the whimper of tires on the highway.

Fortunately, California’s progressed to the point that they carelessly left a few places for us to fish during the winter, and yes, I damn well plan to take advantage of them (starting this afternoon).

Still, I gathered this collection of interesting bits (often Internet stories) that don’t quite fit anywhere else, and thought I’d turn you on to them, if only for the opportunity they afford to rant (never pass an opportunity like that).

Yes, my fishy friends; it’s the Monday episode of the Underground’s Internet Wrapup.

State of Our Trout by Ted Williams

While enviro writer Ted Williams doesn’t quite walk on water, nobody writes about the liquid stuff better, at least not when it comes to fish, fisheries and wildlife. Thus, when Williams starts writing about the “State of Our Trout” it’s time to start listening, and as a bonus, you don’t even have to subscribe to Fly Rod & Reel to read it.

Part I and Part II have been posted on William’s regrettably oft-broken blog, so now you can read his cut-to-the-bone accounts of the fight to save Lake Davis from pike (and potentially California’s salmon & steelhead populations along with it), plus follow along the path taken by cutthroat recovery efforts.

Williams infuses his stories with drama, and unlike so many writers seeking a non-existent “balance,” doesn’t take prisoners from either camp.

In turn, he castigatges anti-rotenone activists for blocking recovery of native species; puts a bulls-eye on the backs of “environmental” groups willing to selectively apply the Endangered Species Act; attacks those attempting to gut the ESA; and even hammers outfitters actively opposing native trout recovery.

Williams gets two fins up from the Underground.

State of Our Industry (Sorta)

In the fly fishing industry - where most of the market “leaders” can’t even get their shit together enough to send a regular email/enewsletter to their customers (the marketing equivalent of going fly fishing without knowing how to tie a fly on a leader) - this Internet Retailer article about Orvis should open a few eyes.

Orvis is plowing ahead with all sorts of interesting e-commerce moves, and you don’t need my 23 years in marketing (or read my engagement marketing white paper) to know that companies survive downturns by doing what’s smart right now instead of waiting for the next Movie to save your ass once the weather turns ugly.

And yes, I can already hear the “dog-bed” mafia getting ready to savage Orvis for their lifestyle sales, but frankly, I’m not interested. Find me someone else in the industry - outside of Green Poster Child Patagonia - who’s doing as much to restore fisheries, and I’ll spotlight them.

Underground Namesake Shoots, Scores

Many of you think you know all about me from the Underground, but I’m here to point out you don’t.

For example, most have no idea I wile away the winter hours shooting target airguns (I suck, but I do it), which is why I can’t possibly pass up an opportunity to bask in the glow of target shooting success - even if that glow is only reflected on me by Air Force Academy Student Tom Chandler, who shoots scores I never will.

You, my friends, have stumbled on the story where we name Tom Chandler (the young one with good eyesight and non-shakey hands) The Official Underground Director of Shooting Sports and Pathetic Ego-Gratification by Proxy.

You can read about Chandler’s triumph in a recent match (overall points winner with 1172: smallbore 587, air rifle 585), and yes, you can expect more reflected-glory bragging as Chandler’s competitive season progresses - despite the fact I don’t know this kid, and he sure as heck doesn’t know me.

And here you thought it couldn’t get any stranger here at the Underground.

And you were wrong.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

fly fishing, fishing, ted williams, target shooting, orvis, patagonia, wild trout recovery, native trout, wild trout

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Yesterday, fly fishing’s only atomic-powered Web-site apparently became self-aware, joined with Skynet, and attempted to eradicate the human race through repeated postings of the last two “Short Casts” segments.

Fortunately, I seem to have gotten things under control, though Wally the Wonderdog’s eyes are glowing red and he’s taken to wearing big, dark sunglasses.

We apologize for almost ending civilization.

Klamath, Cloud Seeding Followups

There’s certainly more to come on the Klamath River issue, and the Mt Shasta Herald has already published a follow-up to their PG&E Cloud Seeding Story.

I’ll be honest; nobody ever gets everything they want when other stakeholders and the government is involved, but the Klamath River dam removal deal is starting to smell a little - to the point it may not pass the Underground’s Sniff Test. I’ll gather a bunch of information, lace it with a little opinion, and then we’ll see what the Undergrounders - who always bring something of value to conversation - have to say.

This should prove interesting.

I’ll be back, Tom Chandler.

klamath river, klamath dam remvoal, pg&e cloud seeding, wally the wonderdog, terminator

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I’m on my way out the door, but it’s definitely the Underground’s week for breaking enviro news. First we had the Klamath River dam removal agreement (which is starting to smell a little, and may not pass the Underground’s sniff test).

Now we find that PG&E is running a controversial cloud-seeding program to generate more water (and hydro money), and apparently the residents of Siskiyou County were given late notification on the project (which begins today), and

I can’t say whether the program is good or bad, but you’ve gotta admit that mucking about with something as fundamental as the weather raises some interesting questions - none of which seem to have been answered by PG&E.

It’s important to note that Siskiyou County’s Crack Team of Knuckleheads Board of Supervisors apparently didn’t even give the project a cursory glance when it was brought to their attention in 2006.

From the Mount Shasta Herald:

The program, called the “Pit-McCloud Cloud Seeding – Ground Water Enhancement Project,” is one of several projects of its kind throughout California.

It is slated to begin on November 15 of this year and will involve “cloud seeding” over a target area “east of McCloud town, north of Burney town, south of Medicine Lake and bounded on the east by the White Horse and Big Valley mountains,” according to the NOI. The goal of the program, states PG&E, is to increase precipitation in the McCloud and Pit River watersheds in order to promote and protect the production of hydroelectric power.

Though the notice further states that “no adverse environment impacts will occur” and that “PG&E cloud seeding programs comply with all regulations,” many residents have expressed their concern over the program and want more information, including a group of citizens who held a rally in front of Mt. Shasta City Hall on October 28.

A later segment in the lengthy, well-researched story by local writer Charlie Unkefer seeming underscores the lack of real research on this subject:

PG&E representative Marler emphasized his regret that the public was not informed in a more timely manner. “We did not involve the public and that was probably an oversight on our behalf,” he said. However, he insisted that the program is safe and that the available science supports this fact.

A scant couple paragraphs below, the following information unfolds:

Though there is data to support the fact that the impacts of weather modification programs are safe and effective, there is also evidence to the contrary. The “California Water Plan Update Draft 2009” itself notes, “No complete and rigorous comprehensive study has been made of all California Precipitation Projects.”

Other research, such as a report filed by the Office of Environmental Heath and Safety at UC Berkley, rate silver iodide as a “class C non-soluble, inorganic, hazardous chemical that pollutes water and soil, and one of the key manufacturers of silver iodide, Deepwater Chemicals, warns of potential health effects of silver iodide in their Material Safety Data Sheet. The Federal Clean Water Act, regulated by the EPA, notes that “silver iodide is considered a hazardous substance, a priority pollutant, and as a toxic pollutant.”

My question is this - aren’t the folks to the east of here a little cranky that PG&E’s wringing extra water out the clouds before they head that way, presumably reducing the precipitation they receive?

Gotta run, but more on this later.

UPDATE: The Mount Shasta Herald has published a followup story, which I’ll look at after the weekend’s over.

See you in the clouds, Tom Chandler.

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The shop - which opened in 1977 - has always been a family run gig, and when a lifelong fly shop owner shuts the doors so he can go fishing, you gotta nod your head and let ‘em go gracefully. From the San Jose Mercury News:

But Kinzli’s main reason for retiring is one any avid fisherman should understand.

“We want to go do more fishing,” said Kinzli, who will turn 74 next month. “There’s a lot of places we haven’t been that we’d like to go. We have customers who every year flop to Alaska to fish for salmon and trout. It’s time for us to go before it’s too late.”

First up on the Kinzlis’ fishing tour is a trip up the Oregon coast to do some steelhead fishing in January and February. After that, they plan to take up several of their longtime customers on invitations to go fishing in Montana, Idaho, Washington and beyond.

“I think we’ll do good,” Kinzli joked. “We’ve got plenty of equipment.”

Ernie, we’ll see you somewhere, Tom Chandler.

ernie’s casting pond, cating pond, santa cruz steelhead, fly fishing, fly fishing industry

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Fortunately, that vengeful bunch at Orvis have delivered into our hands the Osprey Kite - the Underground’s Official Bird of Prey Revenge Kite.

Unfortunately, Orvis’ vision is limited; they suggest the Osprey Kite is a good way to “keep unwanted birds and pests from deck, dock, or garden.”

The Underground knows better. With a 44″ wingspan, this realistic Osprey simulation - complete with hapless trout in its claws - will cast a dark, osprey-shaped shadow on the water, sending each and every fish in the area scurrying for cover.

Those annoying fly fishermen who waded across the river ten feet above you, putting down your rising trout? They’ll never even see a fish once you’ve flown the the Revenge Kite over their water - something you can do from a nice, safe, upwind distance.

It’s the perfect gift for any fly fishermen with uncontrollable anger issues (that’s most of you), and for this priceless gift of knowledge, we ask nothing in return.

Why? It’s just what we do. We give, damnit. We give.

See you at anger management class, Tom Chandler

revenge, fly fishing gift, osprey

Will the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement Restore Salmon Populations, or Simply Benefit Upper Klamath Irrigators?

For more than a decade, Northern California/Oregon’s Klamath River has been ground zero in the salmon wars: a vicious legal and public relations battleground that’s pitted commercial fishermen, irrigators, big ag, tribal interests, environmental groups and an electrical utility against each another.

Fought amidst a volley of lawsuits, threats, PR campaigns and high-end political intervention, the results haven’t been pretty; salmon populations continue to dwindle, and in 2006 and 2007, plummeting salmon populations in the Klamath and Sacramento Rivers forced a large-scale closure of the commercial salmon fishery along the West Coast.

Against this backdrop, some of the west’s most gripping water wars have played out – largely to nobody’s advantage.

In 2001, 1/3 of the water headed for irrigators was put back in the river to protect endangered suckers, salmon and other species.

Mass protests and civil disobedience reigned in the small, largely agricultural communities along the Klamath, including threats and a largely symbolic “Bucket Brigade” that actually moved water from the river to irrigation ditches via a human chain.

An influx of extreme private property rights groups followed, and the area became the center ring in one of the biggest water circuses the west’s ever seen.

Massive Fish Kill Ignites Controversy Over Cheney’s Role, Future of Salmon

In 2002 – after direct intervention by the Bush administration and Vice President Cheney – water again flowed to irrigators, which lead to one of the biggest salmon kills in history (estimates range from 30,000 dead salmon to 80,000).

Shortly thereafter, 28 organizations came together, looking for a way out of the endless web of lawsuits. After years of negotiation – and the ejection of two of the groups who refused to sign a working framework – the group released the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement – a proposal aimed at restoring the Klamath’s troubled salmon populations and ending the Klamath’s water wars.

At stake is the future of the Klamath’s faltering salmon runs, which have been plagued by habitat loss (removing PacifiCorp’s four dams would open 300 miles of spawning habitat), agricultural water diversions, poor water quality, poor returns due to ocean conditions, and overfishing.

The agreement can’t force the removal of the lower four aging PacifiCorp dams – the dams are currently in the midst of a federal relicensing process – but it is dependent on dam removal before it’s put into effect.

After the restoration agreement was released, participants seemed stunned by the wave of protest pouring forth from groups on both sides of the issue, and PacifiCorp – the Warren Buffet-owned electrical utility who must agree to remove its four Klamath River dams or the agreement is a bust – continued playing its cards close to its chest.

Proponents – including diverse groups like Trout Unlimited, CalTrout, upper Klamath irrigators and several nearby native American tribes – say the restoration agreement charts a way forward after years of lawsuits.

Steve Rothert of American Rivers said “By releasing the proposed Basin Restoration Agreement today, we’re saying that there is a better way, and that ongoing environmental degradation is no longer an option.”

Opponents Decry Pork, Priorities

Opponents point to “pork” projects unrelated to salmon recovery (the Klamath tribe wants $21 million to purchase lands for a new reservation), and Felice Pace – longtime Klamath activist, author of the Klam blog water-related Web site and critic of the agreement – argues that the flows mandated in the agreement won’t result in salmon recovery.

“According to independent scientists who have reviewed the flow plan, the flows that would result from this agreement and which would be capped by federal legislation will not lead to Salmon Recovery.”

Pace adds “there are no provisions that will make it possible to adequately address climate change impacts.”

Pace has a point; minimum flows in dry years would fall below those recommended by the biological opinion as being necessary for salmon recovery, and when I asked one of the leading figures in the negotiations about the implications of climate change, he offered a not-very-helpful response about a paragraph in the agreement “acknowledging the potential for climate change.”

Another biologist who was part of the negotiations – and supports the accord – admits to some concern about the water available to salmon in wet years, when recovery should be aided by high recruitment.

In low-flow years, salmon populations fall off, but high-flow years should allow populations to recover quickly. However, with upstream irrigators receiving a lot of water in high-flow years, populations won’t “bounce back” like they should.

Pace also suggests that this agreement – which provides guaranteed flows and heavily subsidized power to irrigators – isn’t necessary. Saying that PacifiCorp can’t meet water quality standards (the Klamath River often runs pea green due to toxic algae blooms in the summer), so they can’t relicense the dams.

Local Politics Flare Up

Meanwhile, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors held a series of public meetings, on dam removal, and with the help of a lot of questionable scare tactics via the Underground’s old friend Supervisor Marcia Armstrong – who alleged dangerous levels of dioxin in the sediment behind the dam when tests suggested only trace amounts – the Board passed a resolution opposing dam removal.

While the county has some legitimate concerns about the loss of property taxes, the heavily timber-and-extractive-industry leaning board (typically) failed to consider the economic benefits to the county of healthy salmon and steelhead fisheries.

Fisheries advocate CalTrout commissioned a study which suggested a salmon was worth $200 to the state economy, and given the Klamath’s history as the third most-productive salmon river on the West Coast, the economic benefits to sport and commercial fisheries could be substantial.

Tribes Split

While the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath tribes support the agreement, the Hoopa tribe have refused to sign.

In a Sacramento Bee opinion piece, Hoopa Reservation Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall argued that “Water rights are upside down in the agreement. The agreement guarantees water for Bureau of Reclamation project irrigators and refuge users, while Hoopa and Yurok senior fishing rights, dating back to 1855 and 1864, are not guaranteed. The agreement puts all the drought-year risks on the fish.”

Craig Tucker – the Klamath Coordinator for the Karuk tribe and longtime proponent of dam removal on the Klamath – wrote a sharply worded opinion piece in the Eureka Times-Standard.

He supported the deal with “The proposed deal addresses the need for increased river flows for fish, dependable power and irrigation diversions for agriculture, and funding to restore fish habitat,” then castigated opponents: “The reality is that many critics of the deal simply hate the other side more than they love their own self-interests.”

The estimated costs of the settlement agreement have been estimated a $1 billion (over ten years).

And frankly, all this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Before agreeing to any removal, PacifiCorp will likely insist someone else assume the risks and costs of dam removal, which would be the largest dam removal project in history [ed: this appears to be true, at least given the reports coming out about the agreement]

This stance belies the fact that the utility benefited from the power produced by the dams for decades, only to try and dump the liabilities associated with them on taxpayers.

Unresolved Water Quality Issues

A hidden issue in all this is the Klamath’s horrible water quality – the product of toxic algae blooms behind the dams in Iron Gate and Copco Lakes.

During the late summer, the Klamath actually turns green, and in places human and pet contact with the river is discouraged. Residents and tribal members offer up stories of rashes that won’t go away after contact with water, and that level of water quality has to have an effect on endangered species.

Felice Pace suggests that these water quality issues mean PacifiCorp can’t get their dams relicensed, and thus, a sweetheart deal for irrigators (the settlement agreement) isn’t necessary.

With rumors of federal/state/PacifiCorp negotiations in the works, the next chapter in the Klamath’s history remains to be written.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The Bush administration has announced a nonbinding agreement for removing four dams along the Klamath River, a key to resolving the basin’s long-standing trouble balancing the water needs of farms and fish.

While not a final answer, the deal represents a milestone toward what would become the biggest dam removal project in U.S. history.

It also would help resolve issues at the root of the 2001 shut-off of irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland under enforcement by U.S. marshals and the 2002 deaths of 70,000 adult salmon in the river after irrigation water was restored.

The agreement in principle reached in Sacramento, Calif., was to be signed Thursday by the U.S. Department of Interior, the utility PacifiCorp and the governors of Oregon and California.

The non-binding agreement apparently endorses the controversial Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which doesn’t enjoy universal support among stakeholders, but might represent our single best chance to get dams removed.

My concerns?

• Removal isn’t slated to begin until 2020, and a lot can happen before then - including an ongoing dwindling of the already-endangered salmon runs
• By then, the costs of dam removal will have skyrocketed (projected $450 million), and the agreement removes PacifiCorp from liability and limits ratepayer (I am one) liability to $200 million

There’s plenty more to be said on this issue, which I’ve admittedly done a poor job covering (a guy’s only got so much time).

For a fairly skeptical perspective on the whole Klamath Dam issue, visit Felice Pace’s excellent-if-high-voltage Klamblog.

[UPDATE: I just posted a brief history of the very, very contentious Klamath River salmon/dams/irrigators issue here. Worth ten minutes of your day if you're not wholly up to speed on the Klamath.]

What’s a Healthy Klamath Mean?

A healthy Klamath would likely turn into a sustainable economic bonanza for an economically despressed Sisikiyou County (home of the Trout Underground), though that reality didn’t stop our largely anti-environment, anti-sustainable-anything Board of Supervisors from fighting dam removal, often through scare tactics and lies about toxins in sediment loads.

Healthy salmon & steelhead runs on the Klamath River would likely see a mirror of the crowds of people fishing the Trinity River (now that a little water’s been put back in). Simply put, Northwest-based Undergrounders may soon have a whole new river to fish.

See you on the Klamath, Tom Chandler.

klamath, klamath river, dam removal, klamath salmon, pacificorp

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I’m popping Vitamin C’s and “Wellness” pills like they were M&Ms, and I expect to become human again tomorrow.

In my ongoing efforts to make lemonade out of lemons, I can say I’ve stumbled on the Perfect Holiday Gift for the Underground: A Functioning Immune System.

See you at the medicine cabinet, Tom Chandler.

sick, disease

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And because I’m teaching another marketing class tonight (this one on email/e-newsletter marketing for small business), I’m on yet another treadmill, where I work a lot and think about fly fishing instead of actually doing it.

Still, tomorrow beckons, and I expect to finally fish a little, if only because if I grow any pastier, I’ll be accused of wearing my Casper the Ghost costume long after Halloween ends.

It’s a far cry from the bad old days, when winter meant damned little fishing was available up here. Now the Upper Sac and Pit Rivers are open for winter fishing, and on November 15, it’s no longer necessary to confiscate kitchen knives from morose fly fishers.

The Linkmeister Cometh

It’s a time of year when I don’t post a report about every fishing trip I take, but to feed the hungry maw of the Underground’s readership, I have added a few helpful local links to my Links page:

• Upper Sacramento flows
• McCloud River flows (& turbidity)
• Where to find CDEC flows for all California Rivers
• Local weather (Shasta, Dunsmuir, Redding)
• CalTrans NorCal freeway cameras

What else would the Undergrounders find useful?

See you on the river (eventually), Tom Chandler.

fly fishing, upper sacramento, season’s end

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