The Sacramento River Discovery Center Thursday evening program featured U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Fish Biologist Tricia Parker- Hamelberg with an update on salmon.
Sept. 30 is the benchmark for measuring water as Oct. 1 is the beginning of the new water year.
Since that time, the water storage at Shasta Dam has been high and is at 71 percent full, she said.
However, the rainfall has been low.
Redding, which normally has an average of 22 inches between Oct. 1 and Jan. 31 only received 6.6 inches for that same period this water year.
Low rainfall, combined with a reduction of water released, has left some of the salmon nests high and dry.
Redds are the nests in the gravel where salmon eggs sit under gravel between January and April. With a reduction in water released of 3,000- 7,000 cubic feet per second, there are some nests that have been left out of the water.
Water right now is very important to redds, Parker-Hamelberg said.
The frys are very fragile.
The frys, the first stages of salmon, need to stay in and be surrounded by water for a certain amount of time.
Not all eggs were laid on the same day, so how long the redds need to be covered varies, she said.
Since the rain was projected to be late in arriving, plans should have been made to take the salmon redds into consideration.
The flows of the Sacramento River were high in October and November when chinook salmon, who are in the peak of spawning season in October, were laying their eggs.
That isn’t the case now.
About 10-20 percent of the chinook redds are out of the water, Parker- Hamelberg said.
We’re especially concerned because not many came back and spawned in 2011, Parker-Hamelberg said. We are very concerned, but we know that the salmon population has fluctuations.
Frys emerge between February and June, when the flow is strong enough go downstream.
They basically go where the water takes them, Parker-Hamelberg.
Background on the Central Valley Project, which took place 1973- 1991, and the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992 was given.
The purpose of the project was to balance the needs of fish and people and focused on flood control first, irrigation second and hydropower tied for third with fish and wildlife needs.
In 1992, that priority list shifted to place fish and wildlife equal to irrigation.
Through the Central Valley Project, the Anadromous Fish Restoration Program began to work with watershed groups to restore central valley streams.
The goal, which was not met, was to double the number of natural production for anadromous, or fresh-water born, fish by 2002, she said.
The Anadromous Fish Restoration Program 2001 plan was to work toward preventing fish from accessing false habitat, like near Battle Creek where a fish screen was put up to block their entry into the PG&E Coleman powerhouse.
The goal is to keep the young fish in the water and help them safely make their way down river to the bays and eventually the ocean, she said.
In 2012, the Anadromous Fish Restoration Program began year one of its redd dewatering project, focusing on keeping the redds water during the critical stage of development for the fish.
For more information on the Central Valley Project, visit www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo.
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Staff Writer Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115, or at jzeeb@redbluffdailynews.com
Follow Julie on Twitter @DN_Zeeb
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Feb 21, 2012 
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