PROJECTS; Updated November 2, 2011

Integrated Regional Watershed Management Planning Project: The River Exchange has been awarded $590,000 in new grant funding to oversee the development of an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) for the Upper Sacramento Region. The grant is funded by voter-approved Proposition 84, and will be administered by the state Department of Water Resources (DWR). To view a map of the region, click here.

Our region includes the watersheds of the Upper Sacramento and McCloud Rivers from their headwaters to Shasta Lake, as well as the Lower Pit River. The region intentionally crosses geographic and political boundaries, bringing together stakeholders of differing perspectives to reach mutually beneficial solutions. The purpose of the plan is to cooperatively develop projects that address the watershed goals and objectives of multiple stakeholders in the region, while maximizing the use of limited financial resources. An additional benefit of this integrated approach is an increased awareness of how changes in the management of one aspect of water resources can affect others, such as water supply and quality.

The two-year planning process will be guided by a Regional Water Management Group (RWMG) with representatives from federal, state, and local agencies, non-profit organizations, private industry, and Native American tribes, among others. It will be the largest and most comprehensive watershed planning effort undertaken in our region to date, and development of the cooperative network necessary to complete the work will provide benefits to our region’s watersheds for years to come.

Nov. 2011 Update: The first stakeholder meeting was held in June of 2011; people from various organizations, agencies and the general public participated to give their input toward the development of a steering committee charter that will guide the planning group's activities for the next two years and beyond. The completion of the charter will be the focus of the next meeting, wehich will take place in January of 2012. The grant agreement between the River Exchange and the California Dept. of Water Resources has been finalized, and we expect to hire a Projext Director, Lead Consultant and facilitator by the end of the year. We will beannouncing these developments in the Mt. Shasta Herald and through our IRWMP group contact list. Call our office at (530) 235-2012 with questions or comments about this planning process.

Sacramento Headwaters Project: If you have been to the gorgeous Sacramento River Headwaters site in Mt. Shasta City Park since the summer of 2010, we hope you noticed some changes! We have been completing improvements to the Headwaters site, in a partnership with the Mount Shasta Recreation & Parks District. The grant to fund the improvements was provided by the California Natural Resources Agency River Parkways Program (Prop 50).

The project included restoration of the riparian area and stabilization of the degraded spring wall. The viewing platform was also improved, and a wheelchair-accessible, paved trail has been completed from the playground parking lot to the viewing platform. An additional trail meanders downstream from the Headwaters to the southern parking lot, and a new interpretive sign has been installed near the viewing platform. We completed all of this work without needing extra contingency funds, so the California Natural Resources Agency granted permission to use those funds to complete additional improvements. As a result, additional old park furniture has been replaced with new, recycled-content benches and picnic tables. Also, additional plants have been placed at the spring outlet to further stabilize the area and to re-establish native species that once flourished there. We ask visitors to please stay off the rocks above the spring outlets so the plants can thrive.

We thank Marrone Construction, Alan Pardee Landscape Architect, Tracy Tuttle, Sousa Ready Mix and the Mt. Shasta Recreation and Parks District for making this project a success!

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Sisson Museum Exhibit: The Sisson Museum in Mt. Shasta opened a “Mt. Shasta H2O” exhibit in April 2011, as a two-year exhibit focused on water. The exhibit includes work from a diverse range of stakeholders with our most critical resource -water -as the central theme.

The River Exchange had previously facilitated the completion of a Watershed Assessment of the Upper Sacramento River. One of the focus areas of the assessment was the response of the watershed to the Cantara Spill, and specifically the watershed’s recovery post-spill as an indicator of watershed health and resilience. With the 20th anniversary of the Cantara spill in 2011, the River Exchange developed a water exhibit entry focused on the spill for the Museum.

Our installation includes a brief history of the spill, an interactive key to the present animal species where visitors can learn about the effects of the Cantara spill on each species, and the degree to which that species has recovered in the twenty years since the spill. You can view the exhibit in person at the Sisson Museum, located at 1 N. Old Stage Road in Mt. Shasta, or visit our Museum Exhibit page here.

Upper McCloud Watershed:

Phase Three; Design of 2 Spring Restoration Projects

The springs of the Upper McCloud Watershed are essential to the diverse ecosystems within the region, as well as many further downstream. The River Exchange’s work to promote the health and resilience of springs necessitates a pro-active approach to spring stewardship. Towards this end, we have been working on a collaborative effort to design two pilot restoration and enhancement projects for springs in the Upper McCloud Region, using funds provided by the Bella Vista Foundation. The pilot projects are the beginnings of what we hope will be an ongoing effort to maintain and protect spring sites across the region, in a “go to the source” approach to watershed care.

The first project, designed in cooperation with the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, is a restoration plan for Bear Springs (west of Forest Road 15, near Oso Butte). Thanks to a recent grant award from the Siskiyou County Resource Advisory Committee (RAC), the work at Bear Springs will be completed during the summer and fall of 2012. The project will restore perennial* Bear Springs and its wet meadow complex, in order to improve habitat conditions for wildlife, promote groundwater retention, prevent impacts from surrounding land use and promote ecosystem health and resilience. Education and monitoring elements will ensure that this pivotal project provides an ongoing learning opportunity not only for land managers, but also for community volunteers.

Design of a spring enhancement project on private land is also underway. The River Exchange has performed outreach to several private landowners to discuss their willingness to participate in this pilot effort and to determine what springs would be most appropriate. One of the goals of this collaborative approach to stewardship is creating a precedent for project design that benefits landowners as well as the spring site -- promoting ecosystem health while simultaneously supporting existing land use. Once the design is complete, the River Exchange will seek funding to complete the on-the-ground work, while initiating discussions around a new set of projects based on this cooperative model.

* runs year-round

Phase Two; Springs Mapping of the Upper McCloud Watershed: Thanks to renewed support from the San Francisco-based Bella Vista Foundation, the River Exchange has completed a three-part conservation project in the Upper MCcloud River Basin based on information gathered in our “Basin Roadmap” project that was completed in 2008. The first phase of the project involved identifying, categorizing and mapping all of the springs in the upper watershed, with particular emphasis on the Squaw Valley Creek drainage. The eventual goal of this phase of the project is to work with willing landowners to undertake spring restoration projects in areas where spring activity and adjacent meadows have been altered by human activity. A second element of the project, also aimed at maintaining the health of the Squaw Valley Creek drainage, is the design of an outreach program to encourage landowners in the area to reduce the use of manmade fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides on their properties that are then carried by runoff into the creek, while suggesting the use of less environmentally harmful alternatives. Squaw Valley Creek is the largest tributary to the McCloud River, and its health is essential to the health of the entire waterway. Finally, we also used the grant funds to create a GIS-based land use and management database for the Upper McCloud watershed, which is now available to any interested users, and will help provide important information about future conservation opportunities in the area.

To view the Upper McCloud River Springs Mapping project results, see our project page by clicking here.

Phase One; Upper McCloud River Basin Roadmap: The “Upper McCloud River Watershed: A Basin Roadmap” project was started in 2007, made possible by funding from the Bella Vista Foundation. This project was designed to be a comprehensive summary of existing research on the Upper McCloud Watershed, spanning a range of subject areas related to the landscape and ecosystem, and including a summary of the associated data gaps. The “roadmap” also includes recommended measures for filling data gaps, perspectives from interviews with watershed landowners, and suggested next steps in the areas of assessment, research, restoration, and education.

You can view the Roadmap document in pdf format by clicking here, or you can request a CD copy from the River Exchange office by calling (530) 235-2012.

Upper Sacramento Watershed Assessment: After several years of hard work by a diverse and dedicated Steering Committee of watershed stakeholders, The River Exchange is pleased to announce the completion of the Upper Sacramento Watershed Assessment (USWA). Begun in 2008, the USWA compiled existing information on the physical, biological and ecological state of the watershed including its human communities, dominant land uses, and condition of its resources and ecosystems. Additionally, the USWA incorporates some analysis of existing data as well as some geospatial modeling to help identify and prioritize key areas of interest and potential future issues in the watershed. The assessment was compiled with help from consulting firms North State Resources, Lee Benda and Associates, and ICF Jones and Stokes. The project was funded by a grant through the DWR California Bay-Delta Program. Digital copies of the Watershed Assessment are available on CD by calling the River Exchange office, or by downloading the report in pdf format here.

Tauhindauli River Trail Extension: The half mile trail between Dunsmuir City Park and Tauhindauli Park is unstable in sections, due to soils that easily erode. Construction of the trail was halted in the fall of 2009, where large roots of a tree posed an obstacle for trail completion. Other parts of the trail did not weather well during the 2009/10 winter. The hazardous segment of the trail is currently barricaded as the trail is not safe to use. The project is on Department of Fish & Game (DFG) property and was funded by a grant from the Cantara Trustee Council. Unfortunately, the initial grant funds that helped to install the trail have been exhausted, and there are no DFG grants available to cover the additional construction costs to permanently remedy the erosion and tree root issues.

Nov. 2011 Update: The condition of the half mile trail between Dunsmuir City Park and Tauhindauli Park has not changed since our spring update. The middle section of the trail that traverses steep terrain above the Sacramento River remains closed. The Department of Fish & Game (DFG) advises the public to avoid using this hazardous segment of the trail as it is not safe. The initial grant funds that helped to install the trail have been exhausted, and there are no DFG grants available at this time to cover the additional construction costs to permanently remedy problems with unstable soils, erosion, and threats to the large Douglas fir tree that stabilizes a very steep region of the trail. DFG staff surveyed the trail in May, and have been evaluating various options for the trail that will provide the best stability for the site and maintain the trees and vegetation, while not presenting a safety risk to trail users. Due to DFG availability of staff, budget considerations, and uncertainty in contracting options, this section of the trail will remain closed into spring of 2012, and perhaps longer. DFG is keeping us informed as they work to find a solution, and we will continue to inform the public with updates as we receive them.

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