The Color of Victory is not Always Clear
Robert Brothers shared a photo to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.
THE_COLOR_OF_VICTORY_IS_NOT_ALWAYS_CLEARFloods clean rivers like fires clean forests. The tan silt that you see in this photo mixing with clear blue water of a tributary is the Trinity River doing its job of washing silt out of the river’s salmon spawning gravels — the result of an artificial flood mandated by a court victory of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes in 2004, enforcing 20-year old legislation by the U.S. Congress.On May 5th, releases from the Lewiston dam were increased from 500 to 8,500 cfs and will not return to 500 cfs until the end of June.Major floods in the Trinity River were reduced by the Lewiston Dam in 1964, and 90% of the river’s flow was diverted to irrigate farms in the Central Valley. The result was an 85 percent drop in salmon, a prime food source for native peoples.In 2000 the tribes negotiated a plan with federal and state agencies to help restore the Trinity River fishery by reducing the amount of water diverted to 50 percent. Normal flows are restored to the river by the current release, mimicking spring flooding, and by releases during the summer to keep water temperature cool enough to support salmon survival.This is a long, complex, and on-going story of a battle to keep a river alive.The tributary shown here is the South Fork of the Trinity River. A victim of corporatel clearcutting on highly erosive soils, the South Fork usually shows noticeably more sediment than the mainstem. It is only clear in this photo because of the lack of recent rain. For a larger view of the confluence at this time, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204406210655599&set=a.1052779839997.2009051.1240817813&type=1&theater
THE_COLOR_OF_VICTORY_IS_NOT_ALWAYS_CLEAR
Floods clean rivers like fires clean forests. The tan silt that you see in this photo mixing with clear blue water of a tributary is the Trinity River doing its job of washing silt out of the river’s salmon spawning gravels — the result of an artificial flood mandated by a court victory of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes in 2004, enforcing 20-year old legislation by the U.S. Congress.
On May 5th, releases from the Lewiston dam were increased from 500 to 8,500 cfs and will not return to 500 cfs until the end of June.
Major floods in the Trinity River were reduced by the Lewiston Dam in 1964, and 90% of the river’s flow was diverted to irrigate farms in the Central Valley. The result was an 85 percent drop in salmon, a prime food source for native peoples.
In 2000 the tribes negotiated a plan with federal and state agencies to help restore the Trinity River fishery by reducing the amount of water diverted to 50 percent. Normal flows are restored to the river by the current release, mimicking spring flooding, and by releases during the summer to keep water temperature cool enough to support salmon survival.
This is a long, complex, and on-going story of a battle to keep a river alive. The tributary shown here is the South Fork of the Trinity River. A victim of corporatel clearcutting on highly erosive soils, the South Fork usually shows noticeably more sediment than the mainstem. It is only clear in this photo because of the lack of recent rain. For a larger view of the confluence at this time, see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204406210655599&set=a.1052779839997.2009051.1240817813&type=1&theater
February 7, 2014, 
