The Salmonid Restoration Federation and Friends of Butte Creek are hosting the 8th Spring-run Chinook Symposium will take place July 26 - 28, 2016. The first day will be a full-day symposium at the Masonic Family Center in Chico, followed by two days of field tours.
The year's Symposium will highlight regional status reports on Spring-Run Chinook populations, instream flow studies and fish passage assessments, water conservation and transactions, and how to translate research and genetics into implementation and recovery actions.
Field tours will include visits to the legendary spawning grounds in Upper Butte Creek and PG&E’s hydroelectric retrofit projects; salmon and steelhead fish passage in Lower, Deer, Mill and Antelope Creek that have been prioritized for instream flow enhancement and fish passage projects; a Clear Creek Spring Chinook Restoration tour; and a tour of Lower Butte Creek Water Diversions.
Agenda - Tuesday, July 26 at Chico Masonic Lodge Main Room
8 - 9 am
Registration
9 am
Orientation Presentations
The Evolutionary Basis of Premature Migration in Pacific Salmon Provides Insights into Conservation and Restoration, Michael Miller, PhD, UC Davis
Closing the Loop: Floodplains and Full Life History Management of Spring-run Chinook, Jacob Katz, PhD, Cal Trout
10 am - noon
Monitoring and Status of Spring-run Chinook Reports
Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks Monitoring Status Reports, Matt Johnson, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Movement and Survival Rates of Wild Chinook Salmon Smolts from Mill Creek to the San Francisco Bay 2013 – 2015, Jeremy Notch, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries
Movement and Survival rates of Butte Creek spring-run Chinook Salmon Smolts from the Sutter Bypass to the San
Francisco Bay, Flora Cordonleani, Phd, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries
Clear Creek and Battle Creek Spring-run Restoration Actions and Population Status, Matt Brown, Clear Creek and Battle Creek Program, Red Bluff Fish and Wildlife Offi ce, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Spring-run Chinook Population Trends on the Upper Klamath, Trinity, and Salmon River, Mike Belchik, Yurok Tribe
Panel Discussion facilitated by Mike Berry, Department of Water Resources
Noon - 1 pm
Lunch
1 - 2:45 pm
Enhancing Instream Flows for Spring-run Chinook Presentations and Panel Discussions
Evaluating Passage Conditions and Instream Flows for Salmonids in Lower Deer and Mill Creeks, Diane Haas,
Instream Flow Program, California Department of Fish & Wildlife
Management of Storage and Instream Flow for Holding Spring-run Chinook Salmon in Butte Creek, Butte County, CA, Catalina Reyes, Pacific Gas & Electric
Managing Water for Instream Flow Enhancement, Matt Clifford, California Water Project, Trout Unlimited
Mill Creek Instream Flow Tools, Gregg Werner, The Nature Conservancy
3 - 5 pm
Translating Research & Studies Into Implementation and Recovery Actions Presentations
and Panel Discussions
Segregation and Selective Passage: an Effective but Underutilized Approach for Advancing the Recovery of Central Valley
Spring Chinook, Brad Cavallo, President, Senior Scientist, Cramer Fish Sciences
“A Call For Action” — Implementing Restoration Projects for Spring Run Chinook in the Klamath River Basin, David J. Bandrowski, Yurok Tribe
Restoration in the Sacramento Valley—Tipping the Scale toward Recovery, Eric M. Ginney, Environmental Science
Associates
6 - 7 pm
Dinner & Networking
Agenda - Wednesday, July 27 Concurrent Field Tours
Upper Butte Creek Hydroelectric and Spring Run Holding Habitat Tour
This tour of Deer Creek and Mill Creek Restoration Projects will be led by a representative of The Nature Conservancy.
The tour visited sites proposed for improvements in the Deer Creek Flood Corridor Protection Project. This project will increase floodway width through setback levees and conservation easements to improve flood protection and ecosystem
function. Increasing the floodway width in this reach would provide a number of ecological benefits, including increased area for channel migration, ability for natural sediment transport and deposition that improves channel complexity
without damaging infrastructure, and increased area for riparian vegetation growth while maintaining flood conveyance; greater channel complexity and gravel size diversity via reduced water velocities and shear stress in the reach; more
confined low flow channel to improve adult salmonid fish passage and juvenile rearing habitat; and many others.
We will also visit areas in the creek where fish passage has been an issue and discussed the Deer Creek Flow Enhancement Program (DCFEP) where local irrigators provide bypass flows for fish during low flow conditions. The DCFEP is designed
to fulfill the water needs of local agriculture and domestic water users while achieving the fisheries flow objectives in Deer Creek and the groundwater protection requirements set forth by the Tehama County AB 3030 Groundwater Management
Plan.
Field Trip Leaders:
Jay Stallman, Stillwater Sciences
Gregg Werner, The Nature Conservancy
Agenda - Thursday, July 28 Concurrent Field Tours
Clear Creek Spring Chinook Restoration Tour
Field Trip Leader:
Matt Brown, Clear Creek and Battle Creek Program, Red Bluff Fish and Wildlife Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Instream Flow Evaluation of Upstream Spring-run Chinook Salmon Passage through Lower Butte Creek
Field Trip Leaders:
Bill Cowan, State Water Planning, Instream Flow Program, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Tracy McReynolds, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Clint Garman, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
