Water Conservation

P.O. Box 160 • Petrolia, CA 95558
(707) 629-3514 Fax: (707) 629-3577
mrc@mattole.org

P.O Box 223 • Whitethorn, CA 95589
Phone and Fax: (707) 986-1078
upriver@mattole.org

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Topic: Water Conservation

Ponds for Water Storage - a few good ideas
With the new Lower Mattole Fire Safe Council getting its start, there has been a lot of talk about increasing and improving water storage for emergency use in the dry season. Options for storage are tanks of various kinds, and ponds or reservoirs. This is my personal experience with ponds, which I hope will stimulate more discussion about water issues in the Mattole. If there is enough interest in the community, the MRC could consider having a "water storage and usage" workshop. Let the office know if you're interested. (read more)

North coast water to head south
In this time when fresh water the world over is being taxed, when rivers are being altered by dams, pavement, aqueducts, and irrigation systems, a crisis of water rights looms on the horizon right in our own backyard. A private corporation, Alaska Water Exports, is seeking the rights to export water from the Albion and Gualala Rivers in Mendocino County. (read more)

Watershed Conciousness: Healing the Landscape with Water
“Watersheds come in families; nested levels of intimacy. On the grandest scale the hydrologic web is like all humanity—Serbs, Russians, Koyukon Indians, Amish, the billion lives in the People’s Republic of China—it’s broadly troubled, but it’s hard to know how to help. As you work upstream toward home, you’re more closely related. The big river is your nation, a little out of hand. The lake is your cousin. The creek is your sister. The pond is her child. And, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, you’re married to your sink.” – Michael Parfit, National Geographic (read more)

Creating Water Storage at the Skywater Center
Water abundance at the Skywater Center (read more)

Richard McGuiness on Groundwater Recharge Ponds
Richard McGuiness has contributed the following thoughts on recharge ponds: (read more)

Rain at Last
The Mattole watershed is ending one of the driest years on record. Thankfully, the rains have now arrived and adult salmon are moving up the Mattole. It’s been unusually dry since last winter. All of the Mattole Salmon Group’s work this past season has been affected by the drought. MSG’s 2000-2001 trapping efforts yielded only a few adult salmon due to low water. Not until late in the season was there enough water in the river for adult fish to reach our trap site in Ettersburg. By this time, most salmon had spawned in the lower reaches of the river leaving only the latest arrivals the opportunity to spawn in preferred headwaters reaches. This meant that the 5800 chinook fry we hatched at our Arcanum facility, located on the upper Mattole near Whitethorn, developed late and thus were too small to mark and release in the spring as we had intended. Because of this we had to move them to our rearing facility at Solitude on upper South Fork Bear Creek, and hold them through the summer for fall release. (read more)

Last modified:
14 January, 2004