Progress Report

By

William E. Templin Jr.

North Fork American River

Watershed Coordinator

http://arwg.net

May 15, 2007

Since my progress report on April 18 to May 15, 2007:

Objective 1: Coordinating Collaboration:

• Participated in a PCWA Aquatics TWG meeting on 04.18.07 at the Canyon View Community Center in Auburn, CA continuing to review project plans for about 10 studies in and near the Middle Fork American River.
• Attended Granite Bay Flycasters Board of Directors meeting on 04.19.07 at the request of Heath Wakely (Conservation Director) with Shaney Emerson (Foresthill High School) and presented a proposal to initiate the “Watershed Education Summit – North” with Placer County High Schools and other specialists from government and non-profit interests (in the likeness of the successful 8 year WES in Eldorado County) resulting in a Pledge of $3,000 from their “Scholarship Fund” to help get our first event held this September 2007.
• Participated (along with about 200 other volunteers) in the “Spring Clean Up at the Confluence” on 04.21.07 organized by Protect American River Canyons (Eric Peach), Auburn State Recreation Area (Bill Deitchman) and Pacific Gas & Electric Company (Clay Schmidt) with a crew (Doug Masterson, Ed Wahl, and Vicki Fenner) that cleaned up along Highway 49 where we met Auburn Journal writer Gus Thomson who took photos and wrote an article on the event that appeared in the Auburn Journal on 04.23.07. I also helped coordinate the removal of several patches of invasive “Giant Reed” (a.k.a. Arundo) and French Broom by the Sacramento Weed Warriors and other volunteers lead by Frank Wallace, Connor Dupre & Gena Lasko.
• Organized a “Clean Up at Ralston Afterbay Reservoir” as part of the (Placer Creek Week events) on 04.22.07 with 12 volunteers from the Upper American River Foundation, Granite Bay Flycasters, and the U.S. Forest Service, resulting in a pickup load of litter, trash and various electrical debris.
• Participated in a Foothills Water Network meeting coordinated by Julie Leimbach on 04.23.07 at the Sierra Nevada Conservancy office in Auburn, CA and discussed recreation interest group plans and strategies for the PCWA Middle Fork American River FERC relicensing issues and projects.
• Met Kevin Goishi (Pacific Gas & Electric Company) in his office in Auburn, CA on 04.23.07 to discuss hydroelectric power plant operation options, especially in the “Peaking Reach” below Oxbow Powerhouse on the Middle Fork American River and available information on the impacts of peaking flows on fisheries and commercial white-water rafters.
• Coordinated a meeting of the Upper American River Foundation (UARF) http://groups.msn.com/uarf on 04.26.07 at the Baker’s Square Restaurant in Auburn where much of the meeting included discussions of the impacts of gold dredging in the North Fork American River between Yankee Jims Road and Ponderosa Way. New attendees included Allison Harvey (private land owner on the North Fork American River) and Jeff Shellito (California Trout).
• Lead a Clean Up at Arcade Creek at American River College on 04.28.07 that was attended by 43 volunteers from throughout the area (and resulted in a stack of litter, garbage & debris that was about 30 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4 feet high). After the clean up I co-staffed a display of “Upper American River Watershed” to help the visitors answer the questions “What Watershed are we in now, & what watershed do you live in?” and “Keep California Beautiful” information with Christine Flowers-Ewing (Executive Director), at the Sacramento Creek Week Celebration at the Sacramento Science Museum.
• Participated in a morning PCWA Plenary Meeting on 05.08.07 at the Canyon View Community Center where studies were discussed cross-cutting issues and projects from the Cultural, Aquatics, Terrestrial, and Recreational Technical Working Groups. This meeting was followed by an afternoon meeting of the Terrestrial TWG, and more project reviews and discussions.
• Participated in a workgroup (with Jan Cutts (USFS), Marie Davis (PCWA) and Rich Gresham (Placer County R.C.D) on the evening of 05.09.07 where we began the process of expanding our $575,000 “Sediment Study: Next Steps: Vegetation Management Concept Proposal” to a Full Proposal as requested by the CALFED Watershed Program for proposals due 06.01.07. (The Good News is we got requested to take our Concept Proposal to the Full Proposal level, so we’re still in the running to get this grant! The bad news is they requested Full Proposals from about $17,000,000 worth of grants and they only have $10,000,000 available, so the competition is getting keener. The other bad news was that our Watershed Assessment $400,000 grant didn’t make it to this level. )
• Participated in a workgroup meeting on 05.14.07 at Folsom State Park Headquarters in Folsom, CA with Auburn State Recreation area interests to discuss issues related to flow studies, recreational rafting and fishing in the Auburn State Recreation area below Oxbow Powerhouse.

  Objective 2: Implementing Education and Outreach

• Set up displays at the Earth Day Celebration at Sierra College on 04.18 & 19.07 with the help of volunteers from “Keep California Beautiful” (Christine Flowers-Ewing), Granite Bay Flycasters (Vicki Fenner) and American River Watershed Group (Caroline Hickson).
• Presented a talk on the “Conservation Opportunities for Volunteers in the North Fork American River Watershed” at the Trout Unlimited Sac-Sierra Region Meeting in Sacramento on 05.03.07.
• Toured the lower North & Middle Fork American River Watersheds on 05.11.07 with Scott Harvey, Placer County Resource Conservation District (Board Member). We started at the PCWA Pump station and continued upstream to the Auburn State Recreation Area Headquarters, introducing him to Bill Deitchman (State Park Ranger) to review illegal waste dump & vehicles sites in their area. We continued up to Ralston Powerhouse and introduced him to the lower reaches of the PCWA Middle Fork Project and the various studies and issues that are being proposed to provide information that will be needed in the FERC relicensing.

  Objective 3: Fostering Opportunities for Collaboration among Stakeholders:

• Attended a Board Meeting of the Trout Unlimited Sac/Sierra Chapter presided over by Barbara Bania in Sacramento on 04.18.07 and shared information on current activities that their members could help with as part of Earth Day and Creek Week activities locally and in the Upper American River Watershed.

  Objective 4: Informing and Educating Landowners on Water Quality Issues:

• Monitored the health of the watershed at Mammoth Bar Off Road Vehicle Park on the Middle Fork American River on 04.16.07 with Randy Pench (Photographer, Sacramento Bee) for a Feature Article titled “Pleasant Streams” by Jim Jones (Save American River Association) that appeared in the Sacramento Bee on 04.26.07.