The Sonoma County Salmon Coalition

By Nick Frey

The goal of the Sonoma County Salmon Coalition is to maximize positive conservation outcomes for salmon and Steelhead and provide regulatory certainty and ongoing water supplies for landowners.This effort began with the 2005 listing of critical habitat for Steelhead and Chinook populations in the Sonoma County valleys of Alexander, Dry Creek and Knights. The ongoing participation from private property owners is crucial to successful conservation as over 90 percent of the valleys’ uplands and riparian zones are privately owned.

The Coalition’s efforts are focused on actions necessary: 1) to improve conditions for fish and 2) to assure landowners adequate water supplies in the future. Activities include working with National Marine Fisheries Service to identify projects that will improve habitat in the tributaries. In addition, the Coalition has worked with UC Berkeley research team headed by Dr. Adina Merenlender to model stream flows in the Russian River watershed. This watershed approach is being proposed to the state water board with the goal of streamlining approval of off-stream storage and changes to existing diversions within these managed watersheds.

The Coalition includes many different stakeholders, all of whom are committed to improving habitat for salmonids, gaining regulatory certainty for landowners and securing water supplies necessary to support agricultural production. The Coalition includes state and federal regulatory agencies, local public agencies, private landowner groups, agricultural organizations, and conservation organizations (for a full listing of those involved, go to www.sonomawinegrape.org.)

The Coalition will be reaching out to landowners to cooperate in these efforts. Recently, the Russian River Property Owners received a federal grant to support landowner education on habitat improvement for salmonids. The Sonoma County Water Agency is funding habitat restoration projects on tributaries to Dry Creek with the support of local landowners. Discussions are ongoing with the state water board to seek their approval of a watershed approach to manage diversions and in-stream flows.

The Coalition’s work is important to every landowner on salmon or steelhead bearing streams in Sonoma County. The Coalition’s efforts to secure water supplies and to provide greater regulatory certainty for landowners provide proactive responses to critical habitat designation and to conserving these threatened or endangered fish species.

Salmon Coalition Members:

Local public agencies

  • Sonoma County Water Agency
  • Water Advisory Committee
  • Santa Rosa Subregional Water Reuse System

Private landowners

  • Russian River Property Owners
  • Dry Creek Valley Agriculture Water Users
  • Jackson Family Wines
  • Syar Industries, Inc.

Private Landowner Associations

  • United Winegrowers for Sonoma County
  • Sonoma County Winegrape Commission
  • Sonoma County Farm Bureau
  • Northern California Homebuilders

Observers:

  • Russian River Watershed Council

NGO Conservation Participant:

  • Trout Unlimited

Technical Advisors and Regulatory Agencies:

  • National Marine Fisheries Service
  • United States Fish & Wildlife Service
  • Natural Resource Conservation Service
  • United States Army Corps of Engineers
  • Sotoyome Resource Conservation District
  • North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
  • California Department of Fish & Game
  • Fish Net 4 (c)
  • University of California Cooperative Extension