Check out the latest video from our friends at CBEC! Learn about the functionality of the Fremont Weir and the Yolo Bypass.
Thank you Chris Bowles and staff for your great work on this video.
Winter Run Salmon Rescue
Featured in the Davis Enterprise this week, Knaggs Ranch and the incredible rescue efforts to help prevent stranding of adult winter run salmon in the Knights Landing Ridge Cut and Colusa Drain.
Read about the incremental and highly-beneficial solutions that have been proposed to avoid future stranding and to improve the efficiency of the Yolo Bypass.
Check out the full story: HERE
Flows for Thought...
Over the last two weeks, Northern California has finally seen it's first significant rainfall in almost a year. While we are still in need of a lot more rain and snow pack, the Sacramento River system has risen 10-12ft overnight!
Here is a diagram of the Fremont Weir and how the water flowed during a high river event. In this photo you can see the inflow from the Sacramento River, the existing fish ladder and the scour channel that connects the river to the Tule Canal (eventually leading back down to the Delta).
Photo taken on the Fremont Weir. The bend is a superficial byproduct of panoramic view; the weir is straight.
On Wednesday, December 17th, the Sacramento River at the Fremont Weir was at an elevation of 31 ft. water passively flowed through the existing fish ladder notch in the Fremont Weir, filled the stilling basin, and flowed into the scour channels that lead to Tule Canal.
Without any over-Fremont spilling, juvenile fish moved onto thousand of acres of shallowly-flooded Yolo Byapss floodplain habitat inundated by western tributaries. Nobody was monitoring.
If we had an operational Wallace Weir today, adult winter-run salmon would be swimming upstream through the notch (passing down-stream bound juveniles) and back into the river instead of up the Knights Landing Ridge Cut to their death.
The Take Home: River connectivity is essential. It is beneficial to young juvenile salmon that gain access to the great plethora of naturally produced food on the shallow-flooded bypass and adult salmon, migrating north to spawn, avoid getting trapped in dead end drainage canals. This connectivity is a win for both fish and farms!
Fremont Weir at the north end of the Yolo Bypass
Filmed by John Brennan and Uploaded by Jacob Katz on 2014-12-18
Salmon Rescue at Knaggs Ranch in Yolo Bypass
- Click on pictures to see the slideshow! -
Photos Compliments of Jacob Katz, CalTrout
On a very wet Wednesday morning last week, John Brennan, a partner in RRC and landowner, was out to see the incredible efforts that are being made to save migrating salmon.
Check out these links for more on the story!
WATCH:
CBS SF Bay Area: Drought: All This Rain Is Confusing NorCal Salmon - They Keep Getting Lost
KCRA 3 Reports: Fish and Wildlife Officials Hope For Salmon Solution
READ:
Sacramento Bee: California Rescues Salmon Trapped in the Yolo Bypass
LISTEN:
Capitol Public Radio: California Fish and Wildlife Rescue Salmon In Yolo Bypass
Rotarians and Fish - Quite the Combo
(T): Feather River Juvenile Chinook salmon
(B): Nigiri Project Juvenile Chinook salmon
The Nigiri Project is of the most exciting conservation projects that Robbins Rice growers take part in; raising juvenile chinook salmon on flooded rice fields during the winter (post-harvest).
One of RRC's owners, John Brennan, gave a presentation on the project's concept at a Woodland Rotary Club meeting. John was joined by UC Davis scientist, Carson Jeffres, who is one of the main researchers looking at the multiple benefits that floodplains (both natural and managed) provide young salmon on their way down to the Delta.
For more on their presentation and the Nigiri Project please click here.
Other articles featuring the Nigiri Project and the on-going science:
- SF Chronicle: Chinook salmon thrive in flooded-field experiment
- LA Times: Can the Yolo Bypass floodplain be managed to nurture salmon?
- KQED: Young Salmon Get Boost in Delta Rice Fields
- Sac Bee: Flooded rice field tested as salmon nursery in Yolo Bypass
- Davis Enterprise: For fish and rice to thrive in the Yolo Bypass, "just add water"