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New Fish Screen Projects Identified - Phase 8 Sacramento-Central Valley Fish Screen Program

The Family Water Alliance, Inc. (FWA) Sacramento Valley Fish Screen Program (FSP) has successfully worked to secure grant funding to continue the screen program on diversions located throughout California.

Phase 8 of the FWA FSP is aptly named the Sacramento-Central Valley Fish Screen Program, and involves the installation of fish screens on various diversions on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

Projects under this grant will be sites that do not currently fit into the scope of work for Phase 7 of the FSP. The benefits to the fishery resources by screening multiple sites is extremely complimentary to current efforts to restore salmon populations in the California Central Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The work under this grant will occur with oversight by the Anadromous Fish Screen Program (AFSP), which is a U.S. Department of the Interior fish screening program jointly administered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Bureau of Reclamation, and the California Dept. of Fish and Game. Funding for the collective projects is a 50/50 cost share of State and Federal funding.

FWA along with our program partners, have been working closely to visit, rank and select project sites. Many have environmental issues or are considered high-priority for fisheries restoration and screening.

The following four sites have been identified and selected to-date: Bella Vista Water District Wintu Pumping Plant; Feather Water District North Diversion; Feather Water District South Diversion; and South Sutter Water District Pleasant Grove Canal diversion. FWA will be working to install at least two of the projects in the fall of 2011 or early 2012. The remaining projects are tentatively set to be installed by fall 2012.

FWA is eager to continue working towards assisting in the restoration of the fisheries resources, but more importantly protecting our state’s agricultural resources, diverters’ water rights, and our rural communities. FWA will continue to pursue funding to keep the Program going, so if you are interested in signing up your diversion in the fish screen program, please contact FWA at (530) 438-2026, fwa@frontiernet.net or online at http://www.fwafishforum.com.

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Fish Friendly Agriculture

The Family Water Alliance, Inc. (FWA) Sacramento Valley Fish Screen Program (FSP) is very excited to have completed the first three fish screen projects under Phase 7 of the Sacramento Valley/Delta Fish Screen Program, which were the Sutter Mutual Water Company’s (SMWC) State Ranch Bend Pumping Plant, Sycamore Mutual Water Company’s Davis Ranches Site 2 and River Garden Farms Missouri Bend pumping station.

With the installation of the Sutter Mutual fish screen, which is sized to screen 154 cubic-feet-per second (CFS), it became the largest fish screen system installed under the FWA fish screen program to-date, second only to the Reclamation District No. 999 screen, which is 100 CFS.

FWA staff and directors, along with our program partners, the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, California Dept. of Fish and Game, and MBK Engineers, watched as the massive fish screens for the SMWC State Ranch Bend diversion were lifted by crane off of a flat-bed semi-truck and carefully placed upon the system.

Upon completion of the three 2010 fish screen projects, the FSP has successfully screen 27 diversions located throughout the Valley, cumulatively screened 787.9 CFS of California waters and helped to protect over 27,787 acres of productive agricultural lands.

Phase 7, Stage 2 Construction projects will continue with biological assessments throughout their irrigation season, and upon completion of diverting are tentatively scheduled to be screened in early fall of this year. Stage 3 Construction sites will start their first year of assessments this spring with tentative installation taking place in the fall of 2012.

FWA and our program partners have worked very long and hard to get this program up and running, so to see these projects go online makes our efforts very rewarding and closer to our goal of assuring fish friendly agriculture continues throughout the Sacramento and Central Valley of California.

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Outreach and Education Activities - 2011

The FWA Sacramento Valley Fish Screen Program (FSP) staff has been very busy in the last three months preparing our attendance at several venues to promote not only our proactive approach to assisting farmers and keeping agriculture viable throughout California, but also the importance and economic benefits of protecting our valuable fishery resources.

FWA hosted the 3rd Annual “Ag Perspectives” forum held during the 3-day Colusa County Farm Show. and also manned a booth at the 44th Annual World Ag Expo held every year in Tulare, California. FWA was busy handing out fish screen program materials and answering questions on endangered fish, with the emphasis being the Delta smelt.
Our outreach and education activities not only focus on adults, but FWA believes that educating our youths about the importance of fish and farming is a vital part of our activities.

On April 1st, FWA attended the Farm Day in Colusa with over 200 school age children attending the one day event. FWA was very pleased to give each child a special bag filled with “Farmers Feed America” rulers and stickers, “Fish Friendly Ag” pencils, and educational coloring books.

As you can see, our commitment to education is at all levels of our rural communities and we look forward to doing these kind of activities throughout the life of our program.

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