Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008

Knights Ferry blocks river habitat project

Maybe the David and Goliath thing isn't so far-fetched.

The town of Knights Ferry, population 98, has fended off a plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to build a side channel and install gravel processing equipment on the Stanislaus River bank opposite the town.

The side channel was to have provided new habitat for young chinook salmon and steelhead trout to grow and be better able to survive the trip to the ocean. The salmon runs in the Central Valley have declined by 88 percent in the past five years.

But residents of the town and the Knights Ferry Municipal Advisory Council opposed the project because they believe it would disrupt the nature of the community. Knights Ferry is zoned as a historic district and is on the county, state and federal historic registers.

The project would include heavy equipment to dredge and grade the land and equipment to sort and clean gravel to restore the riverbed.

Residents recruited county Supervisor Bill O'Brien and U.S. Rep. George Radan- ovich, R-Mariposa, to convince the federal agency that Knights Ferry wasn't the right place for the work.

"The whole plan came forward without getting Knights Ferry involved," O'Brien said. "They want to keep the historic portion of Knights Ferry intact."

Radanovich got involved to confirm that there had been an agreement between then-Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres, and the Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the 20-acre site along the river. The two had agreed in 1998 that the property would be kept in a natural state, O'Brien said.

There are alternative sites for the fish habitat, O'Brien added. "The salmon still get the attention they need without damaging Knights Ferry," he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is considering nearby locations up and down the stream from Knights Ferry, O'Brien said.

Sally Goehring, who lives along the river opposite the proposed site, said the decision was "just common sense."

"Everyone is anxious to see the salmon survive," she said. "But the Knights Ferry historical district is not the place to put that kind of project."

Bee staff writer Tim Moran can be reached at tmoran@modbee.com or 578-2349.