The Redwood Empire Chapter was originally founded by members who were getting tired of driving all the way to Marin County to attend meetings of the North Bay Chapter. Rich McGowan and Dick Behrens were the main leaders that took the initiative to form the chapter in 1989 and Rich McGowan is still active today as coordinator of our Steelhead in the Classroom program.
STEELHEAD IN THE CLASSROOM was first introduced to California from Canada as a result of RETU's early work. Over 70 classrooms participate in the North Bay, and most are using an innovative classroom incubator developed by RETU. This year's teacher training for new teachers to the program will be held January 9 at the Warm Springs Visitor Center at Lake Sonoma. Contact Rich McGowan for more information or to sign up. Rich can be reached at 887-1378 or at rjmcgowan@earthlink.net.
WILLOW CREEK, the first large Russian River tributary near Bridgehaven was an early focus of RETU because of its reputation of one of the most productive small watersheds on the North Coast for Coho Salmon. It was one of those streams where at one time the number of salmon were said to scare horses attempting to ford the stream! RETU pioneered some of the first "habitat typing" in Willow Creek in the early 1990s which set the stage for California DF&G to eventually habitat-type and produce Stream Inventory Reports for almost all of the Russian River's 100+ salmonid bearing tributary watersheds. It was a case of TU volunteers getting out there and doing the work and inspiring the resource agency to get it done for the whole watershed. Watershed restoration leadership has proven to be a grassroots, bottom up phenomenon which emphasizes the importance of RETU's work.
In 1994, RETU produced one of the best fishery conferences ever held locally on
"The Russian River Tributaries" at the Sportsman's Club in Duncan Mills. RETU also held outdoor education days in the Willow Creek watershed that included some volunteer work projects demonstrating "bio-engineering" and habitat structures. RETU also sponsored a sedimentation study and large erosion control project where volunteers applied bio-engineered solutions to upslope erosion sites.
GREEN VALLEY CREEK, is still considered one of the Russian River's most important Coho and Steelhead tributaries and was a focus of RETU's early in-stream restoration efforts. These efforts including pioneering some of the first bio-engineered restoration work in the Russian River watershed. Instream log weirs, erosion control bank stabilization with bio-engineering, and even a solar irrigation system for revegetation were pioneered in Green Valley Creek by RETU.
DUTCH BILL CREEK was the site of one of RETU's most successful projects, the rebuilding of the 1930s fishway below Westminster Woods. The fishway's concrete weirs were in serious need of rebuilding. RETU volunteers got it done for a ridiculously small budget in 1998. The following Winter, Coho salmon were found above the fishway for the first time in 50 years. This summer's removal of the dam at Camp Meeker was a result of the dedicated work of the Dutch Bill Creek Watershed Group which RETU help found after completion of the fishway. Removal of these migration barriers will help the Coho return to Dutch Bill Creek in historic numbers some day. What an eco-tourism boost these restored Coho runs could be for West Sonoma County!
IN-STEAM GRAVEL MINING and its impacts on the Middle Reach of the Russian River were an early concern of RETU and our opposition to such mining in critical habitat for Coho, Chinook and Steelhead continues on as projects loom on the horizon in the recovering Chinook spawning areas of Alexander Valley. Massive rock rip-rap projects such as the 1200' foot long proposal below the mouth of Dry Creek were successfully opposed by RETU with scientific presentations made to the Board of Supervisors. One Supervisor called an RETU presentation one of the most effective riparian protection presentations he had ever seen.
WASTE WATER DISCHARGE to waters that are Critical Habitat for Coho, Chinook and Steelhead have also been opposed strongly by RETU over the years. As a result of this opposition, the City of Santa Rosa is now winning awards for achieving Zero Discharge to the Russian River recently. Other discharge sites of waste water that contains what are called "emerging contaminants" will continue to receive RETU opposition until Zero Discharge to waters that are Critical Habitat are achieved.
The
HEALDSBURG WILD STEELHEAD FESTIVAL which will be 3 years old this year is the Chapter's most recent achievement. The festival has drawn 3,000 people to the Healdsburg Plaza to learn about wild fishery restoration, Steelhead sport fishing and to sample sustainable seafood culinary delights by world class chefs and the Russian River valley's world class wine. The festival supports the restoration of Foss Creek in downtown Healdsburg which still supports a run of wild steelhead. The Festival also advocates for restoring a run of 50,000 wild Steelhead in the Russian River and returning the fishery to the world class status it had a short 40 years ago. A world class steelhead fishery to match our world class wines is the long range goal.
