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SACRAMENTO RIVER BASIN Rock-hopping along Olney Creek reveals a contrast of beauty versus blight. Minnows dart through deep, green pools. Bugs skitter on the water's surface. And every few steps seem to pass by some discarded piece of junk. Perhaps the ugliest is a rusted metal shell that John Ribinsky somehow recognizes as a refrigerator door, evidently dumped in the water months or years ago. "People say, 'Aw, there's no fish in this creek,' so they come out here and throw their refrigerators in it," said Ribinsky, projects manager for the Western Shasta Resource Conservation District. What they don't realize, Ribinsky and others say, is the importance of the creeks that feed the Sacramento River from the brush-swept hills west of Redding. Packaged together, those channels form the Shasta West watershed, which is the focus of an intensive three-year study underway by the Anderson-based conservation district. On paper, the goal is to identify areas that need rehabilitation and to prioritize the watershed's needs. But the district hopes for more. It wants community members to chime in with their concerns, recognizing they're part of the watershed in which they live. After all, it might be easy to forget that some of these creeks funnel through Redding itself, in some cases underground, in many cases forgotten. "A lot of people might not even know they're in a watershed," said Leslie Bryan, the district's watershed coordinator. What makes the Shasta West watershed so important is its proximity to Keswick and Shasta dams. Spawning fish tend to concentrate below those massive barriers. The juvenile fish produced by the adults then live in the smaller tributaries until spring, when lower flows and warmer temperatures give them a natural cue to move downstream. On Olney Creek, which runs along Texas Springs Road in southwest Redding, steelhead and Chinook salmon are blocked by the remnants of a concrete dam that the district hopes to remove. It's problems like the Olney Creek blockage that the district hopes to resolve through its studies. The watershed assessment, funded by a $131,600 grant from the joint state-federal agency CALFED, should be finished in two years. Experts are accumulating data on all kinds of topics geology, soil, water quality, botany, wildlife and more. Major channels in the watershed include Olney, Canyon, Salt, Jenny, Rock and Middle creeks. "It's an exciting time for Shasta West, I think," said Michael Harris, projects manager for the district. "It's got the potential to just be a beautiful area." Mining operations decades ago damaged some waterways. Others are mutilated by off-highway vehicle roads. Erosion threatens still more. As people build in remote areas outside Redding, the need to educate them about the watershed grows, Bryan said. "It's the perfect time," she said. The district, a state-chartered agency, is funded entirely by grants and contracts. Last year it had a budget of $2 million and employed 16 people. Residents should feel an ownership and a stewardship toward their watershed, Bryan said. "You're part of it," she said. # Chico Enterprise Record - Copyright Policy
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