Hooray! The Bureau has decided not to change the Trinity River flow allocation after all (see previous post).

In an email this afternoon, the Bureau's Area Manager wrote "We have determined that the Record of Decision, augmented by the May 2006 Federal Register Notice, provide that the April 1 forecast prevails, and no subsequent adjustment is warranted.  Thus, the normal year hydrograph as recommended by the TMC and as currently implemented shall continue."

We applaud the Bureau for sticking with the Trinity restoration plan.

The federal government is considering a sharp reduction in the amount of water that is allowed to stay in the Trinity River this spring. The proposed reduction would contravene the Trinity restoration plan, co-signed by Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall and Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt in 2000,

The Trinity Plan relies on the water supply forecast as of April 1 of each year to determine how much of the river's natural flow will be left in the river, and how much will be available for diversion by the Bureau of Reclamation to California's Central Valley. On average, the plan calls for 48% of the river's natural flow (measured at Lewiston) to be left in the river.

On April 1, the water supply forecast was for a "normal" year, under which the allocation to the river would be 647,000 acre-feet. Due to lack of rain and snow in April, however, the forecast may be downgraded to a "dry" year, under which the river would be allocated only 453,000 acre-feet. It was well-known that this year-type designation can change in the spring when the plan was created. Nonetheless, Reclamation, the Hoopa Valley Tribe and others collectively decided to stick with the April 1 forecast as the triggering mechanism. Waiting until May would pose difficulties because the restoration plan calls for flows to be ramped up in late April when natural snowmelt normally occurs.

The Bureau or Reclamation points out, however, that its systemwide OCAP (Operations Criteria and Plan) allows for adjustments to be made if hydrology changes in April and May. But we note that the Bureau did not suggest an increase in flow allocation in 2005 when spring rain upgraded the Trinity basin water year-type.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe's legal opinion explains why the Trinity Plan must be followed. We agree that reducing the river flow at this time would be changing the rules in the middle of the game.

The proposal to reduce flows also comes as a wake up call as major new conveyance and storage projects are being proposed with promises of environmental benefits. Any consideration of these projects should take note of what is going on along the Trinity. How can we be sure that promises of environmental benefits will be kept?

Its time to increase releases from upstream storage at Clair Engle Reservoir in accordance with the Trinity River Restoration Plan. Of course, another way of looking at it is that less of the river's natural flow will be "diverted to storage", and more will be allowed to stay in the river.

Either way, these flows were developed by McBain and Trush as part of an overall plan to restore the river corridor and fish populations. No less an expert than famed fluvial geomorphologist Luna Leopold called the plan the best thing he had seen in three decades.

As we blogged a couple of weeks ago, the Trinity Plan is not perfect but we are pleased that the fish are getting both improvements to their riparian habitat and water for swimming.

When it comes to salmon, the Trinity River is a success story, at least in relative terms.

It is hard not to be depressed with the dismal number of salmon that returned to spawning beds in the Central Valley last fall.

In the Klamath-Trinity watershed, fall run chinook salmon are doing better. Almost three times as many adults returned in 2007 as did in 2004 (most salmon return after three years at sea). While the return rate for two-year-old jacks was disturbingly low, it was still much better than in the Central Valley. See the comparison below.

This is due in large part to a huge collaborative effort, of individuals and organizations alike, to restore the Trinity River. The channel rehabilitation projects underway are inspirational and worth checking out.

The Trinity River Restoration Program has an impressive and dedicated staff that is leading the charge on science and monitoring as well as the aforementioned rehabilitation. And of course, none of this would be possible were it not for the Hoopa Valley Tribe developing a restoration plan jointly with the federal goverment in the first place and then patiently and skillfully fending off challenges in the court system to secure increased flows to the river.

But while we are at it, let's throw a shout out to Byron Leydecker, founder of Friends of the Trinity River, for his unwavering commitment and numerous contributions to reviving "the once premier Trinity River, its entire ecosystem, and the economies of the Trinity River Basin and North Coast of California."

We at EDF are happy to have played a small part in progress to date and have written about it in our latest Solutions newsletter.

Salmon populations are still a ways off from reaching Restoration Plan targets on the Trinity. And there is a long way to go on the Klamath, where dams, flows and water quality continue to be major points of contention for tribes, conservationists, farmers, PacifiCorp and others. But at least some of the news is positive.