Photo by Lisa Ross
We had a good crowd for our January 11th field trip at the Battle Creek Coleman Fish Hatchery and Coleman Powerhouse. Over 30 people attended, but that included a few children and two dogs.
As we drove to the Hatchery, there was a pickup with a large trailer parked on the bridge over the Sacramento River and a man in the back of the trailer was throwing dead salmon into the winter. As we were walking through the fish hatchery he arrived and told us he was a volunteer at the Hatchery and they throw some of the dead salmon back into the river to return the nutrients that would have been released should the fish have swam upstream.
At the fish ladder next to Battle Creek, the water was so high that some fish could make it over the top of the dam you see in the fall which prevents the fish from overtopping it and forces them to use the fish ladder to the holding tanks where they are later sacrificed and fertilized to provide fish eggs for the hatchery. Still, there were a few fish in the holding ponds.
A new bypass has been built through the hatchery that allows native fish to winter and spring run salmon to swim upstream and hopefully return the once thriving fish population there. This also keeps them away from the fish ladders.
Next, we drove upstream, parked at a locked gate, and walked up to the Coleman Powerhouse. Water for this electric powerhouse comes down a huge pipe about 6 feet wide from the Coleman Forebay some 200 feet in elevation up the hill. This water comes from the south fork of Battle Creek and is transported via canal and aqueduct across the north fork of Battle Creek to the forebay and on down to the powerhouse. We identified many native plants on the trip. This is an area of south Shasta County where there are many California juniper (Juniperis calironica), which usually grow as a shrub or a small tree.
Currently, efforts are underway to remove 5 of the small hydroelectric dams, (two of which are not working), and several diversion dams that are blocking the fish from spawning in this cold water creek. The Bureau of Reclamation is in charge of the project and many agencies and groups including SEA are involved.