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California Trout

California Trout. Hat Creek Restoration Project 2014. Overview. California Trout Hat Creek background Project overview. The mission of California Trout is to protect and restore Wild Trout , Steelhead and Salmon and their waters throughout California. Mission.

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California Trout

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  1. California Trout Hat Creek Restoration Project 2014

  2. Overview • California Trout • Hat Creek background • Project overview

  3. The mission of California Trout is to protectand restore Wild Trout,Steelhead and Salmonand their waters throughoutCalifornia.

  4. Mission • Protect and restore wild trout, steelhead, and salmon, and their waters throughout California • Six strategically located regional offices • Accomplish our work through advocacy, law, and on-the-ground restoration projects • Current projects: Klamath, McCloud, Pit, Upper Sacramento, Hat, Fall, Shasta River

  5. Background: Hydrology Hat Creek originates from groundwater captured by Lassen Peak Highlands • Big Springs is largest input in upper Hat Creek: 125 cfs • Rising River contributes most of discharge in lower Hat Creek: 275-300 cfs • Summer base flows in WTA: 400-650 cfs

  6. Background: Wild Trout Area • 1972: CalTrout works with DFG to designate Hat Creek as the state’s first protected “Wild Trout Area” • Project transforms fisheries management in California by underscoring importance of managing for “wildtrout” populations • Regulations changed, fish barrier installed, chemical treatment, stocked with disease resistant Pit River strain • 1979 to 1988: Hat Creek angler satisfaction peaks

  7. Background: Timeline

  8. Background: Sediment

  9. Carbon Flat: June 1991

  10. Sediment Hypothesis • Sediment likely came from aquifer between Baum Lake and the Hat 2 Bypass Reach • Hydrologic connectivity between sinkholes near the Baum Lake Dam and the upper Hat 2 Bypass Reach • Sinkholes/lava tubes likely collapsed forcing sediment into WTA • Wave has mostly passed through upper half of project area, now located around Wood Duck Island (Cook 2000)

  11. Problem

  12. Restoration Project Overview • In-stream habitat • Riparian restoration • Recreation plan

  13. In-stream Habitat Restoration • Restore 1.5 miles of in-stream habitat with 4 structures of large woody debris • Increase in-stream habitat diversity and complexity • Provide stable substrates for aquatic plant recruitment and colonization • Replicate existing geomorphic and ecosystem processes that provide current habitat

  14. Geomorphology and Hydrology

  15. Riparian Restoration • Restore 1.5 miles of stream banks with over 5,000 native plants, trees, shrubs, and grasses • Stabilize stream banks from decades of unrestricted grazing and muskrat invasion • Restore the ecological function of the Wild Trout Area riparian corridor

  16. Recreation Improvements

  17. 5 Year Conservation Objectives • Wild trout populations: increase from 2,000 to 5,000 fish per mile with 30% > 12 inches • In-stream habitat: restore 1 mile with 4 units of large wood structures (4 logs per structure) • Riparian habitat: 85% coverage over 1.5 miles of Wild Trout Area, over 5,000 native plants with 75% survival over 5 years

  18. Common Misconceptions • Hat Creek needs to be dredged in order to fix sediment problem? • Actually not enough sediment (deep enough deposits) to make suction dredging an option • Rough sculpin (Fully Protected Species law) legally prevents dredging from being an option • Sediment has largely moved through WTA reach (although deposits still reside in certain areas), veg beginning to grow again

  19. Common Misconceptions • Flume road washout caused slug? • Flume road not the source of the slug, only produced an estimated 300 cubic yards • Sediment from this event was actually unnoticeable (less than 1% of total input) • Total sediment in system is 50,000 to 84,000 tons (40,000 to 60,000 cubic yards)

  20. Common Misconceptions • PG&E flow diversions are responsible for major erosion problems? • PG&E does not actually have tight control of stream discharge: no storage or peaking in system • What comes into the PG&E project area flows through • Agricultural diversions upstream of hydro project are not within PG&E control

  21. Common Misconceptions • Stream was deeper in the good old days? • Generally true, however, not for the reasons people think: sediment has not filled up the river • Healthy aquatic vegetation used to slow down flows and increase water depths • Aquatic vegetation has declined (likely due to mobile bedload sediment). Reduction in rooted vegetation causes water to move faster (decreased transit time), so water depth decreased

  22. Common Misconceptions • Hat Creek is a spring creek with low gradient and therefore has low sediment transport capacity? • Hat Creek sediment transport rates are actually higher than most think due to a constant high volume of water (year round rather than primarily during bankfull events) • Hat Creek watershed produces low-density, sandy volcanic sediment that is easily transported

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