Aug 12, 2003
Last summer was long and very dry. The bulk of
winter's rain arrived before the end of March,
and we had no significant rain from May 21st to
November 6th. The snow melted early off the
Triniry Alps. At the end of summer all the
creeks were low and slow, very little water
hardly moving, with warm pools here and
there. I have heard "old timers" say that the
Trinity River used to be like that at the end of
a long summer before the dams were built. I
have heard, too, that river levels are now kept
artificially high in the summer months to
accommodate river recreation and tourism. If
fish were plentiful before the dams were built,
and end of summer water levels were lower before
the dams were built, then low water levels could
hardly be the cause of last September's fish
kill. I understand that no chemical tests nor
temperature readings were taken in the vicinity
until a week later when conditions could well
have changed, it being a very fluid situation.
Is it not just as possible that too much water
had been released, inviting the fish into the
lower Klamath when every tributary offered only
dry beds or trickles of warm water, much too
warm for ocean fish? There is, after all, an
entire system to take into consideration.
While a further release of water enabled the
survivors to move out of the lower Klamath and
make the journey to the hatcheries, a trip up
any of the tributaries would not have been
inviting. As it turned out, the run did
continue into November, and an ample number did
arrive at the hatchery.
What would have happened before the dams were
built? Before we could confuse Mother Nature by
dumping water in at will? Would the chinook
have waited in the ocean until November rains
freshened all the streams with clean cool
water? Perhaps too much water at the wrong
time sent the wrong message to the fish, luring
them in far enough to trap them and create a
traffic jam when they discovered the water
upstream was still too warm. If any of the
tributaries are to be considered as spawning
areas, the river should be kept low enough and
warm enough to keep the fish out in the ocean
until those tributaries have received a good
rain runoff.
Vicki Riley
