"In a recent piece, Michael Michalak of the Fly Shop accused American Whitewater of wanting to turn the McCloud River into an “amusement park.”

This struck me as ironic because the McCloud River is, for all intents and purposes, already an artificially created amusement park for fishermen.

Pacific Gas and Electric is currently applying for a new license for its McCloud-Pit River hydroelectric project, which will determine flows in the McCloud for the next 50 years.

American Whitewater has advocated for a flow higher than the current average of 200 cubic feet per second to make the river more attractive to kayakers, but the fishermen argue this would disrupt their world-class trout fishing.

Back when my tribe, the Winnemem Wintu, lived on the McCloud, the flows were about 1,000 cubic feet per second in the summer and 6,000 cfs in the winter, and it was truly a powerful river. Every season, the McCloud thronged with spawning salmon, and its banks were populated by bears, eagles and other animals that feasted on our sacred fish.

But now the salmon are gone, and the river has been restricted to a mere trickle for the sake of cheap electricity. The flows aren’t strong enough to properly move the gravel and stones and to keep the water clean."

Get the Story:
Caleen Sisk-Franco: McCloud River’s history didn’t start with dams (The Redding Record-Searchlight 10/17)

Related Stories:
Caleen Sisk-Franco: Don't tamper with Creator's plan for salmon (9/28)