River Issues

Eight Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in southern India returned to our coastal communities for the fourth time in May, 2011. The monks are from one of three Tibetan refugee resettlement communities which were set up in India to accept refugees who were fleeing Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1959, where over one million Tibetans were …

by FELICITY BARRINGER © New York Times February 3, 2011 [Excerpt:] “An article published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters this week describes a new and simple way of measuring groundwater’s contribution to small streams on the surface. . . Groundwater, they found, tends to be cooler than surface water in summer and warmer in winter; the infrared devices record …

A fish and wildlife biologist, retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has been conducting systematic studies of the population status of steelhead in the Gualala River since 2001. Annual spawning surveys focus on an 18 mile reach of the Wheatfield Fork selected as a population-indexing reach. Gualala River Steelhead Studies Over the years, he has compiled a wealth …

Federal Agency Cancels Permits to Study Wave Energy on the Sonoma Coast The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has canceled permits issued to the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) to study power generation from wave energy at three coastal sites on the Sonoma coast. SCWA was unable to raise the millions of dollars needed to study the sites, including one …

The Legislature has given the California State Lands Commission authority over California’s sovereign lands – lands under navigable waters. These are lands to which California received title upon its admission to the Union and that are held by virtue of its sovereignty. These lands are also known as public trust lands. The Commission administers public trust lands pursuant to statute …

Update: June, 2010 The California Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction over coastal fireworks, in a case involving the Gualala Festivals Committee (GFC). In 2008, the California Coastal Commission told the GFC that they would need to apply for a permit to set off fireworks over the Gualala River estuary. Gualala Point Island The …

River otter in the Gualala River Short video taken by a friend of the Gualala River, just west of the Green Bridge, near the confluence of the North & South Forks, in July 2009.

Despite protections in our system of laws, rivers and streams on California’s north coast being progressively de-watered with disastrous impacts to fisheries, aquatic ecosystems, recreational opportunities and the regional economy. The North Coast Stream Flow Campaign is a movement to get water back in northern California rivers. Mighty rivers that once teamed with fish and provided countless hours of recreation …

Settlement Agreement between State Water Resources Control Board and North Gualala Water Company The Water Company will pay a fine of $11,600, avoid making new service connections until it has submitted a revised water supply contingency plan and a revised streamflow measurement plan, and petition for change in the existing bypass term or apply for additional water appropriation. The North …

A Documentary narrated by Tom Skerritt Rivers of a Lost Coast extended trailer Rivers of a Lost Coast is a new documentary that looks at our relationship to nature through the eyes of the most fabled angling community in American history. This surprisingly touching film was recently labeled a must see by the San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Times. Monday, …

Update, June, 2009: Sonoma County has issued a Notice of Determination for gravel extraction from 12 gravel bars in the South Fork and Wheatfield Fork of the Gualala River, installation of summer crossings to access the mining sites, processing gravel at a plant adjacent to the river, and maintenance of a diversion sump and the diversion of water from the …

The low flow winter drought conditions that prevailed on the Gualala River were erased by late April rainfalls that scoured the gravel beds and flooded bars and floodplains. Aquatic wildlife that breed in well-oxygenated flowing water on coarse gravel and cobbles, like foothill yellow-legged frogs, got a reprieve. So did recreational users of the river. Whether this year will be …

Cattle from the upper watershed (Wheatfield Fork) annually move down from the dry hillslopes in August and September to graze and loaf in the cool, moist riparian zone of the Gualala River. This year, their hoofprints and manure could be found around Valley Crossing. One of the many small herds of cattle (shown below) was found on the Wheatfield Fork …

For information on more recent events, see: Fireworks over the Gualala River estuary? Update: June 25, 2008 Today, the 1st District Court of Appeals rejected the appeal by the Gualala Festivals Committee. The Coastal Commission’s order stands: no fireworks over the Gualala River estuary without a permit. Update: June 19, 2008 The Gualala Festivals Committee canceled their controversial plans to …

by Peter Baye This letter was published in the Independent Coast Observer on January 25, 2008. Editor: What’s in a name? Will something called a “soil retention system” rather than a “retaining wall” conserve the natural, mature coastal bluff vegetation along the river bank? In a word, no. Regardless of whether the scenic coastal bluffs along the Gualala River bank …

by Britt Bailey, Director Environmental Commons This Open Space article was published in the Independent Coast Observer on January 25, 2008. There are a myriad of opinions with respect to Mr. John Bower’s proposal to build a retaining wall or retaining structure on the bluff in Gualala. Speaking for Environmental Commons, I’d like to clarify our reasons for opposing and …

by Peter Baye This letter was published in the Independent Coast Observer on February 22, 2008. Editor: The ICO’s editorial on “The Surf project” (February 15, 2008) is right about the benefits of a new downtown building layout that opens up coastal views. But it misses the point entirely about the nature and problems of “piecemealing” the bluff project ahead …

by Karl Anderson This letter was published in the Independent Coast Observer on January 25, 2008. Editor: With his new proposal John Bower would seem to acknowledge that a large concrete wall in the Gualala River estuary would be an eyesore. But his “soil retention wall” ignores the fact that the bluff is stable and does not need to be …

Letter to the editor published in the Independent Coast Observer November 2, 2007 Editor: Early in September, Friends of the Gualala River asked hydrologist Dennis Jackson to analyze the impacts of in-stream gravel mining in the Gualala River and to comment on the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) for the Gualala Redwoods gravel mining permit renewal that is being considered by …

Supervisors give planners more time to weigh hydrologist’s report on Gualala River by Bleys Rose, The Press Democrat, October 24, 2007 [excerpt:] Build-up of gravel in the Gualala River is reigniting familiar debate in Sonoma County over whether riverbed mining helps or hinders the health of waterways. For more than a decade, county supervisors have been discouraging mining of gravel …