Upper American River Foundation formation???

[Amer. R. Watershed Coord.]

Hi to all of you fishermen who fish in the North Fork American River Watershed... that includes the Middle Fork American River and the Rubicon River...

I've been learning over the past year that there is a very nice fishery here... especially in the Middle Fork American River.

Greg Nau, Board Member for the Placer County Resource Conservation District, suggested that I see if we have enough interest in our watershed to start up our own Foundation... patterned after the Henry's Fork Foundation on the Snake River.

So, our next meeting will be on Sept. 15th at the Canyon View Community Center on Maidu Drive in Auburn, CA. We meet from 10 a.m until noon and this meeting our focus will be on the benefits of forming a Foundation for the Upper American River... probably including the South Fork American River too!

Let me know if you're interested or if you think it's not such a great idea, OK? Thanks,

Bill Templin
http://arwg.org
916-601-9954
wtemplin@surewest.net

[Ed Wahl]

My favorite waters, what would be the purpose of the foundation? Was on the 'rube last week, fishing was pretty good but not spectacular. Interesting thing going on, the alders all along the stream seem to be under a massive insect infestation, leaves are almost all eaten away and there are waves of black maggot looking larvae underneath.Every alder tree on the whole stretch I fished was affected. On the positive, eldorado natl. forest closed all un-marked roads so you can't drive down to the river at ellicots bridge. I say positive because usually by now the car campers there have left so much waste (feces) around that it's pretty much an open sewer.Now it's too much work to carry camping gear down there. It hasn't helped that much at long canyon though, the T. P. flowers are still blooming all over the campsite. Aren't people grand.

[Grub67]

I wouldn't be able to make the meeting, but I am interested in what your foundation has in mind. Keep us posted here on the board :)

[Amer. R. Watershed Coord.]

That's OK if you can't make our Watershed meeting this Thursday,
Sept. 15. We just rescheduled our meeting to focus on the formation
of an Upper American River Watershed Foundation (name still to be decided) for our October 20 meeting. I just spoke with Greg Nau and he isn't available for Sept. 15, but he is for Oct. 20. He will also just be returning from his annual trip to the Henry's Fork and their Board Meeting, so he should have lots of new information to share on how we might get a jump start on this process and learn from their experiences!

The idea of forming a foundation for the upper American River Watershed
would be to develop the information on the watershed that is now lacking and to help improve the sustainability of watershed coordination in this area. I'm finding that there seems to be a lack of informtion on the fishery in this area, including spawning habits, migration, and impacts from land uses on the fishery and their habitat. Often, when people are unaware that they have a significant and very valuable resource at their fingertips they behave differently than when they do understand, and my be more inclined to treat it with more respect.

The grants that presently support are about 1/2 through their 3 year grant period so we need to be thinking and acting proactively for the future of this great resource. We would be focusing on fund raising like they have been doing on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River.

I don't have the answer to your question on the tree infestation, but I will find out and get back to you on that.

I didn't know that the El Dorado N.F. road closure would include the Endicot Bridge camping area, but I agree, when I was last there it was a mess. Maybe we should organize a clean up event and get that mess cleaned up? We could have a BBQ, fishing outing... and clean up Do I have any takers on this? If so, when would be a good weekend to do this?

I think I've covered all of the questions and I will follow up on the tree infestation question and be back to you on that.

Thanks for your interest!

Bill Templin
N.F. American River Watershed Coordinator
http://arwg.o

[Ed Wahl]

Pick a weekend and I'll make the time. Thinking about camper education in the area, the forest service doesn't cover crapping in the woods on their boards so that would be a good spot. Just some posters on waterproof paper should work, should be light-hearted and funny so it doesn't get torn down and used for toilet paper on a trail. Anybody got any ideas? I was thinking maybe stick-men for graphics. The next month or so is usually the best time of year to be on the Rubicon, cool days, no skeeters, and October caddis all over the place.

[Amer. R. Watershed Coord.]

Hi Ed,

How does Sat. Oct. 22 sound to you?
That or Oct. 29 are the only Saturdays in October that
I have available.

I look forward to building on this and letting
others know of our plans!

I assume that the location you spoke of earlier that
had the bug infestation was near this bridge, but please
confirm for me. I just spoke with Mike Grim at the USFS
in Placerville and he hadn't heard about it. He's checking
with others in their office, but he wanted to make sure
of the location.

Thanks,

Bill

[Ed Wahl]

It's at Ellicotts bridge on Eleven pines road. I fished from the bottom of the slide point trail up to the bridge. The forest service guys will know exactly where that is. Oct. 22nd it is. That's in the middle of the salmon run on the American but the cause is worth it. At least it's also the best time to be on the Rube. It's a very small area to clean on the rubicon, do you want to try a couple more streams in the area?Long canyon and no-fish creek are also in the immediate vicinity and are having litter problems.Let's get some more bodies before we decide.I'll be making some calls myself, my family and friends have been fishing the area for years, I think I can scrounge up some volunteers.

[Amer. R. Watershed Coord.]

Rubicon River Clean Up Notice
Where: Ellicot Bridge on the Rubicon River
When: Saturday, Oct. 22, 8:00 a.m.
Who: Anyone interested in helping to improve the watershed and fishery

Contact: Bill Templin, N.F. American River Watershed Coordinator
916-601-9954 wtemplin@surewest.net http://arwg.org

[Ben Fishin]

I'm interested in learning more about your proposed foundation. The MFA is one of my favorite destinations and I would like to see that river reach it's potential or at least get a little more protection. Please keep me posted on your meetings, I can even post the meeting dates & time on the FlyFishNorCal site.

Thanks

Ben

[Ed Wahl]

It's kind of funny, as wild and hard to access as the streams in this watershed are you can fish them for years thinking you are the only one using them, then it turns out they are actually quite popular, at least with flyfishers.On a normal weekend on the Rubicon I consider it crowded when I run into just one other fisherman.Clean up on the Rube shouldn't take very long as it's not a very long stretch of easy access and John Q. Public generally doesn't like to work very hard. It would help if we can get permission from the usfs to drive down the access road, it's off limits otherwise. Looking forward to sharing my favorite stream with some new faces.

[Amer. R. Watershed Coord.]

Thanks for your support Ben.

Please do help us get the word out to others who may be interested in
helping.

The proposal is to apply the Henry's Fork Foundation model to the Upper
American River. If you visit their website at http://www.henrysfork.com
you will read that their mission statement says that they are "A nonprofit, member-based organization founded in 1984 to preserve and protect the unique qualities of the Henry’s Fork watershed located in eastern Idaho." They are "Very active in regional decision-making and policy. Working collaboratively with local, state and federal agencies toward better management of the watershed."

They are an angler based group and have been very effective in generating support for scientific studies to help better understand and protect their fishery for present and future generations to appreciate and enjoy.

Part of the work plan that I was assigned when I was selected for this
position of "Watershed Coordinator" states that "Developing sustainable funding for watershed coordination in this watershed" is one of my primary work elements. This 3 year grant is from the California Department of Conservation and is administered locally by the Placer County Resource Conservation District. Similar grants are administered by the El Dorado County RCD and the El Dorado I.D. for the South Fork American River watershed. These grants started in 2004 and are about 1/2 done at this point so we need to get serious about future funding, if we think that this coordination effort is worthwhile.

This proposal to apply the Henry's Fork model came from one of the Placer County RCD Board Members, Greg Nau, and I'm working to determine if we have enough support to make it happen. One of the first issues is to verify that we have a "Blue Ribbon Trout Stream" worthy of protecting. My "research" with rod and reel indicates that we do, but I need others who feel similarly to take a role in making this happen, if they
see the need to "preserve and protect" this resource.

Our American River Watershed Group meets monthly on the 3rd Thursday of each month at the Canyon View Community Center in Auburn (see link to map at our website http://arwg.org). Our next meeting is this Thursday, Sept. 15 and our meetings run from 10 a.m. till noon. I will be speaking this week about a new "Rainbow Trout Genetics" study that California Fish and Game and others are starting on rivers draining the Sierra Nevada from the Kings River on the south to the Feather River on the north, including the Middle Fork American River.

At our meeting next month we will focus on the Upper American River Foundation formation at our meeting on Oct. 20 and we may have evening meetings, or talk about this at other groups meetings before and after our Oct. 20 meeting, if anyone wants to hear more about it.

Thanks again for your interest.

Bill Templin
916-601-9954