In short, 70% of their projects fail, fill in, blow out or just plan dont work.
The river at fall 300cfs minimum flows is shallower now after the projects than it was at the previous minimum flow of 150cfs before the projects. How is the river getting shallower, the rock isn't magically falling from the sky, it's due to their poor placed rock, and horrible project structure. But they wont tell you that.
Look at the Lower Sac project above cypress bridge. If you didn't know that they did work there you would never know. Big rip rap at the front of the islands, they left all the vegetation on the islands including trees. That's how a project should look.
You cant completely rip the vegetation and trees off the areas that you are going to work, place rock in these areas and expect anything to hold. Not gonna happen.
This river is designated wild and scenic, sure doesnt look it with all their projects. You are trying to recreate a river predam, you cant do this when the max flow that can be pushed out of Lewiston is 14,500. Even with the max push, you are now putting people's homes in danger as some homes are close to flood stage at 14,500. 6k coming out of the dam doesnt push rock around and blow things out, it moves rock around and fills in holding water.
Holes like indian creek hole, cemetary hole, rush creek hole, grass valley creek hole all use to be much deeper and longer. Now pretty much filled in from their projects. You can put rock into a river and expect it to not move and travel. But again with a dam, we aren't seeing the flows of 50,60,100k like the river use to see predam. If we did, maybe these projects could work, but we dont, all it's doing is moving their placed rock and filling in all the holding water and making the river shallower. Shallower river, warmer river, unhealthy river and no habitat for spawning or rearing.
They have stated they will sacrifice spawning habitat for rearing habitat. We have seen that first hand with the last project above sky ranch. They said they would never mess with Sheridan riffle, one of the best natural spawning areas in the upper river. They have to drill pilot holes to see the substrate, of course all came back good with good river cobble. Well they start digging and it's all of a sudden all sand. You would think they would stop the project cuz of this find. Nope they have been paid so they have to keep going. Instead of fixing it properly with big rip rap so this sand doesnt erode, they cover their mistake up with more loose rock. I saw this first hand with my own eyes. Now this riffle has 75% less spawning salmon than it did before because this sand/rock covered 90deg wall is eroding into and over the riffle. Yes I said a 90deg curve in the river that they created, it wasn't there before the project. Who in their right mind builds a 90deg turn in a river and not expect it to fail, oh ya it was built by a computer. Ruin the best natural spawning habitat in the upper river for what, a few hundred yards of rearing habitat, bullshit. Oh forgot to mention the hole at the bottom of this riffle where fish would hold and rest while spawning used to be much deeper and a lot bigger, its has filled in 50% since this project in 2017. But again they wont admit it.
They do these projects as the spring run salmon are migrating up the river. The turbidity levels are hideous, sometimes less than 1" viz bit they will tell you they never go over their 20 ntu numbers, again bs.
They have answers for every question we have, they say all their projects are not hurting the river, the river isn't getting shallower, not getting warmer and these issues aren't because of their projects. They did admit the cemetary hole project was a bust, but they cant go back in and fix it, why? Did you spend all the money and have none left allocated for repair a fixed project, is it because you dont want to admit these projects the majority of the time don't work, nope its cuz they supposedly cant get a permit to go back in, bullshit.
There are supposed to be 3 phases to these projects, phase 1, implement project, phase 2 study so called project, phase 3 R&R so called project if needed. All they do is Phase 1 phase 1 phase 1 and phase 1. You need to study these projects, learn from your mistakes and fix them if needed.
These projects were suppose to be started in the secondaries where the majority of our wild winter fish spawn. But instead they are not working on the tribs, but the mainstem instead. Tribs of the trinity are a very important part of this ecosystem and need just as much if not more help that the mainstem.
Over the past 12years of fishing this river I have seen this upper river become a raceway for fish. Getting shallower each year, projects becoming filled in, dry with no flow and the rock placed in them gone. Where does that rock go, fills in all neccessary holding water needed for proper spawning. You cant float Bucktail to Steel bridge in the fall without banging the crap out of your boat and to some even getting stuck. Never was like that when I first started fishing and floating this river.
Complete waste of money and there are no checks and balances put in place for this project. No one will touch it with a 10ft pool, but I wont mention why, but deals with those that live at the mouth of the trinity and in that general area. 9 different agencies and they have figured out the loop holes to do these projects. They even pay off land owners to access the river from their private property to do these projects. How is that legal.
A little more long winded than I wanted to be, but it sad to see what is happening to this river in the upper stretch. Do yourself a favor and float it and see what I'm talking about. Hate to see this river destroyed, it's a phenomenal fishery and ecosystem and dont want to see it destroyed.
It would be nice if they had a few non trrp paid employees out there helping them and giving advise, but that will never happen. Oh ya and these projects use to be bidded out, not anymore. Now its given thos the indians to do the work. Who knows their qualifications behind heavy equipment.
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