$8 million in grants will make Tuolumne friendlier to fish, and to west Modesto folks
New state grants totaling about $8 million will enhance fish habitat on the Tuolumne River, and better connect west Modesto residents to the waterway.
The grants will continue efforts to restore spawning areas and floodplains for salmon, trout and other fish between La Grange and Modesto. This stretch often runs low and slow because of upstream diversions to local irrigation districts and the Bay Area.
The recipients include two nonprofits – the Tuolumne River Trust and the Tuolumne River Conservancy – that have long worked on behalf of the stream.
The city of Modesto is a partner on a Trust grant that will help restore floodplain at the Carpenter Road end of the Tuolumne River Regional Park. Letting high river flows spread more naturally will ease the risk of disasters, notably the 1997 flooding in the Robertson Road neighborhood.
“There was a flood back in ‘97, so this is definitely a way to protect the homes here in case of extreme flooding in the future,” said Edgar Garibay, community relations manager for the Trust, during a July 14 visit to the site.
This part of the park also will get trails for use by locals and visitors alike. The neighborhood already has Bellenita Park, including soccer fields, but it does not abut the river.
TRRP launched in the 1970s with a vision of trails, picnic spots, fishing and other recreation along seven winding miles of river between Carpenter and Mitchell roads. Much is completed on the eastern part, but the west Modesto portion still is in the works.
Drivers on the Carpenter Road Bridge might have noticed the earth-moving taking place near the river. This is part of the closure of a Modesto landfill, city spokesman Thomas Reeves said. The planners hope to blend the reclaimed landfill into the floodplain landscape.
Voters OK’d bonds that funded grants
The vast majority of the grants are from the San Joaquin Fish Population Enhancement Program. It is funded by bond sales approved by California voters in 2000.
The details:
- A $3.7 million grant went to the Trust and the the Conservancy for work in the Basso Bridge area, about two miles downstream of La Grange. They will enhance the streambed gravel where chinook salmon lay eggs each fall after returning from a few years in the Pacific Ocean. They also will create 129 acres of floodplain, which will be inundated at times and provide food-rich habitat for newly hatched fish.
- A $2.1 million grant will allow the Conservancy to continue its work in the Bobcat Flat area, about seven miles downstream of Basso Bridge. It will be the third phase of a project that started in 2005. The upcoming work includes 50 acres of floodplain. This segment also will get 2,900 feet of riffles, where the current is relatively rapid, and side channels off the main river. And the Conservancy will fill in deep pools left by past mining, where striped bass and other non-native predators can lurk.
Another $2.1 million grant will go to the Carpenter Road area in west Modesto. The initial work includes 9.5 acres of floodplain, some of it planted with native trees, and a small levee close to the Robertson Road neighborhood. The plans ultimately include a rowboat launch in addition to the trails, but further funding is needed.
Smaller grants for west Modesto
The Trust received grants from two other sources for the west Modesto river restoration and community engagement. The Water Foundation, a nonprofit based in Sacramento, provided $50,000. Another $35,000 came from the Environmental Justice Small Grants program at the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Garibay said the Trust plans to gather input from residents on what they would like to see along the river, including surveys in English and Spanish.
The Trust, based in San Francisco, looks out for a river that is renowned around the world. The fame is mainly for the undammed portion in Yosemite National Park and the whitewater rafting run near Groveland.
The part of the Tuolumne downstream from La Grange is not so famous. About half of the water is diverted just upstream by the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, key drivers of the area’s food and beverage industries. Another eighth goes into a San Francisco-owned system that helps supply about 2.5 million people in the Bay Area.
Conservancy heals battered streambed
The Conservancy was known as Friends of the Tuolumne when it undertook its work up near La Grange. This stretch still has damage from a massive dredge used in gold mining until about 1950, said Allison Boucher, the group’s secretary-treasurer.
“They turned the river upside-down,” she said, meaning that large rocks sat atop the streambed rather than the finer sediment of a natural river.
The restoration involves using heavy machinery to move the big rocks out of the way and rearranging the streambed as Mother Nature intended. More riffles and side channels will be created.
After 15 years, the effort is paying off.
“The fishermen told our biologist that we have the best trout fishing on the river,” Boucher said. “... We’re creating a lot of habitat diversity.”
Decisions ahead on river flows
All the work is taking place at the same time that state and federal regulators weigh how much water MID and TID should release for fish over the long term. The districts have argued that the releases need not be large because of nonflow measures such as gravel and floodplain restoration.
The latest round of grants from the 2000 bond measure includes $517,480 to TID to keep migrating salmon out of two irrigation drainage canals that empty into the San Joaquin River. One of the seasonal barriers will be about nine miles west of Turlock. The other will be about nine miles west of Hilmar.
The grant program also provided $2.4 million to continue salmon habitat restoration on the Merced River near Snelling. The work by the Merced Irrigation District includes removal of dredging debris and creation of 10 acres of seasonally flooded land.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 4:30 AM.
