Carlo Bongio, Steelhead Master, to speak at October 21, 2009 RETU Meeting in Santa Rosa
Steelhead season is fast approaching. Join us to hear Carlo's entertaining presentation on Steelhead fishing tactics and techniques. Carlo will start with the Klamath and Trinity Rivers and then cover Winter Steelheading on the Russian, Gualala, Eel and some of our smaller coastal streams. Get ready to follow your bliss.
Wednesday October 21st
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Sonoma County Central Library
Third and E
street, Santa Rosa
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Speaking of the Klamath...
Progress on Klamath dam removal was welcome news recently when Pacificorp agreed to the removal of their 4 dams on the Klamath River. Removal of these 4 dams will reconnect 300 miles of salmon habitat with the Pacific Ocean.
Trout Unlimited's California staff was a key player in the negotiations. Hats off to Chuck Bonham, TU California Director for his years of work in this collaborative process that involved 28 stakeholders.
Next steps are the signature of the 28 parties, approval of the U.S. Department of Interior and bond funding from the State of California. The target date for facilities removal is December 31, 2020.
Iron Gate THEN
 
Iron Gate AFTER TU This will be the largest dam removal project in history helping restore one of the world's greatest salmon and steelhead fisheries.
Read the TU Press Release here:
TU Klamath Agreement Press Release
Read the September 2009 Agreement and Summary here:
Klamath Agreement
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Board Retreat makes progress on Strategic Plan. Committees established to help achieve our goals.
RETU Board of Director members met September 18 in Graeagle at the Chapter's first retreat. With the experienced facilitation of Jerry Arrigoni, the Chapter's Top Ten goals were reviewed and expanded upon. Five committees were formed to help achieve our goals.
These committees are:
Education
Fundraising
Russian River Estuary/Willow Creek
Aggregate/Sediment
Clean Water
Which committee would you be interested in joining? We have a lot of work to do:
DRAFT RETU Top Ten Long Term Watershed Policy Goals
1) Reestablish a run of 50,000 wild Steelhead and 5,000 wild Coho in the Russian
by 2040.
2) Establish enforceable water budgets for the River's tributaries. Determine water inflow minus diversions and
amount left over for in stream flow for wildlife to insure restoration flows
for the tributary salmonid fishery.
3) Manage
releases from Warm Springs and Coyote Dams according to the natural hydrograph
in the winter months.
4) Establish 100-foot setbacks from the watershed's blue line streams and 200-foot
setback from the main stem as recommended by Sonoma County Planning and the
Citizen Advisory Committee in the General Plan 2020 process.
5) Development of a Foss Creek Master Plan in the City of Healdsburg which will be part of a comprehensive Dry Creek Watershed wild salmonid restoration plan.
6) Accelerate the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process on the Russian River to eliminate it's 7 impairments
using the Garcia River TMDL as a model: sediment, temperature, nutrients,
conductivity, pathogens, low DO and mercury.
7) Develop a Sediment Budget for the Russian River watershed and eliminate in-
stream gravel mining in the Russian River in Critical Habitat within the 200
foot riparian zone setback from the Main Stem and 100 foot setback zone in the
tributaries.
8) Eliminate direct and indirect wastewater
discharges to the Russian River main stem and tributary Critical Habitat in
favor of conservation and reuse.
9) Manage
the Willow Creek watershed as a wild Coho Salmon sanctuary to eventually
provide wild brood stock to reseed other restored Russian River tributaries
using hatch boxes.
10) Develop an Estuary Management Plan from Austin Creek downstream including the
tributary watersheds in this reach and eliminate artificial breaching of the
Russian River Estuary by elevating the 8 properties that "flood".
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 We want YOU, to get more involved!
Attend a meeting and find out what you can do to help RETU conserve,
protect, and restore our Russian River steelhead fishery.Nominations are now open for the RETU Board of Directors and officers for 2009. The election will be held at the October 21 Annual Meeting. If you would like to get more involved, join one of our new committees or become a member of the Board of Directors.
The Healdsburg Wild Steelhead Festival will be here before we know it. It will be February 5 and 6, 2010. Would you like to help us do the planning or on the day of the event? More volunteers are always welcome! We would especially like to involve more high school anglers to help at the Trout Pond. Give us a call to sign up. This is your big chance to be a part a great event. Be sure Trout Unlimited National has your email address if you want to receive these Redwood Empire Chapter newsletters. We have 570 members in our roster but only 302 email addresses. For information on how you can get more involved with RETU please contact us through our website REDWOODEMPIRETU.ORG or call 877-TUOFCA.
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