Category Archives: Water

Bike Trail, Rafting, safety, Water, Wildlife

Conflicts increase on busy parkway

It’s 8 a.m. on a June Saturday, and the American River Parkway is already getting crowded.

Runners Katie Tibbetts and Heather Kobza head onto the asphalt trail at Hazel Avenue, heads swiveling to watch for cyclists. Nearby, sweat-drenched Katri Kehraevuo of Citrus Heights steers her bike into the fish hatchery lot following an early-morning ride timed to beat the crowds. Farther down the trail, Heather Raitt of Carmichael sticks carefully to the shoulder as she pushes a stroller carrying her daughter Chloe, 3, on a duck-viewing expedition.

Life on the parkway has hit peak season. Sacramento County park rangers call it the “hot zone,” when portions of the region’s flowing 32-mile recreation artery can clog.

There are no solid data on how many people are flocking to Sacramento’s most popular recreation area. but many users say the numbers have risen noticeably in the past few years, prompting complaints that the parkway’s narrow trail – a 12-foot ribbon of pavement with a shoulder that varies – has become overcrowded to the point of being dangerous.

New leaders in the Sacramento County parks department agree, and have launched a series of crackdowns on some of the parkway’s most problematic activities.

This month, county rangers announced that they will, for the first time, cite some cyclists for going faster than the posted 15 mile-per-hour limit. Their focus will be on groups of riders that speed through certain crowded areas.

Officials also recently launched daily raids on homeless camps. They have begun issuing citations for off-leash dog walkers, and plan a series of restrictions on the large commercial running groups that have showed up on the trail in recent years.

“We’re talking about physics here, really,” said Chief Ranger Stan Lumsden. “The more people using the trail, the more conflict.”

Sacramento County handles the section of the parkway from Discovery Park to Hazel Avenue. The portion past Lake Natoma and Folsom Lake is managed by the state.

For the most part, parkway users follow a simple code of conduct that keeps the trail safe. Runners, walkers and stroller pushers have the right to use the paved path, but etiquette calls for them to stick to the left side and not run two abreast on the pavement. Runners in groups are encouraged to shout “bike up” as a warning when cyclists approach.

Cyclists are asked to switch to single file when other users are around, and county signs posted along the trail instruct them to call out, “On your left,” when passing other riders.

Yet on summer weekends, with families, dog walkers, rafters and others crossing the trail, the friendly shouts of hello can give way to angry cries of “watch out!”

“It’s a nightmare out there,” said cyclist Gail Hart.

Hart, who got knocked out in a high-speed bike crash involving another cyclist a few years ago, says she stops and tells others what they are doing wrong. It’s led to shouting matches.

Other users say they find the trail pleasurable and relaxing, even on summer weekends. They just have to be on good behavior and general alert.

Tibbetts says she follows etiquette by running on the left side of the trail so she can see cyclists coming toward her. She slides onto the crushed granite shoulder to give riders more room whenever possible.

“But it’s been scary when they don’t follow in single file,” she said.

More at SacBee.com >>>

 

Bike Trail, safety, Water, Wildlife

Camp Pollock keeps outdoor legacy near downtown Sacramento

As campers straighten up tents, gather firewood and rest after a day of activity, nature responds with the calming of wildlife and the quickly darkening sky.

But not all goes black in the night at Camp Pollock. The ambient glow looming like a spirit summoned by the night’s campfire tales is from downtown Sacramento, a mere two miles away.

While some Sacramento residents know of Camp Pollock’s 11 acres along the north bank of the lower American River, and former Scouts tell stories of childhood nights camping on its grounds, others cringe at the idea of pitching tents in an area with a reputation for homeless encampments and vagrant activity.

Story and Photos at SacBee.com >>>

 

Bike Trail, Events, Rafting, safety, Water, Wildlife

Public meetings on two Sacramento levee projects next week

The public is invited to meetings next week to learn about two new levee repair projects along the American River.

The first meeting will be held Tuesday concerning a plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a seepage cutoff wall 3,300 feet long in the levee on the north bank of the American River, just east of the Natomas East Main Drainage Canal, near Del Paso Road. The meeting is from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the American River Flood Control District office, 165 Commerce Circle in Sacramento.

The second project involves widening, realigning and strengthening more than 1,300 feet of levee along the north bank of the American River near William Pond Park. This meeting is Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the American River Parkway Foundation office, 5700 Arden Way, in Carmichael.

More at Sacbee.com >>>

Rafting, safety, Water

Man Rescued from American River Near Rosemont

A Sacramento Metro Fire boat squad rescued a man from a stretch of the American River rescue between Rosemont and Rancho Cordova Saturday morning, according to Metro Fire officials.

Rescue crews were called to the river in the 9000 block of Mira del Rio Dr. off Folsom Blvd. at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Metro Fire spokeswoman Michelle Eidam said. A resident reported that a man was alone and “holding on to something in the river,” Eidam said.

It took the rescue boat crew some time to find the victim, Eidam said, and once they did, they tossed him a life vest in case he let go of whatever he was holding onto, she said.

More at Patch.com >>>

Bike Trail, Rafting, safety, Water, Wildlife

Sacramento highly rated for parks

According to the Trust for Public Land’s Parkscore index, Sacramento tied for third in a rating of the nation’s top park systems with Minneapolis taking top honors.

New York came in second and joining Sacramento in the number three spot is Boston and San Francisco.

Three factors comprise the ratings: park access, which measures the percentage of residents within a half-mile walk of a park; park size, which is based on the community’s median park size and percentage of total city area dedicated to parks; and a category that combines number of playgrounds per 10,000 residents and per capita park spending.

The report’s profile of cities mentions Land Park (most visited) and the American River Parkway (largest) in Sacramento.

Rafting, safety, Water

Sacramento officials launch push for more life jackets on the rivers

With the Saturday drowning of a 16-year-old on the Sacramento River and record heat in the forecast, city and county leaders are pushing for a wider distribution of life vests on Sacramento’s rivers.

Supervisor Phil Serna said he asked county staff and reached out to City Councilmen Steve Cohn and Steve Hansen – both with popular swimming spots in their districts – to “do what is necessary to have life jackets available to the public ASAP.”

Serna said he’s planning to have life vests distributed at Paradise Beach and Sand Cove Park near where the 16-year-old drowned along Garden Highway.

Witnesses said the boy, whose name has not been released, was swimming with a 13-year-old friend – both without life jackets – when he went under the water and never came back up.

It was unclear whether the life jacket distribution would apply to other beaches as well, Cohn said.

In an email to The Bee, Serna said there is some urgency to getting life jackets into the hands of recreational swimmers, with temperatures expected to top 100 degrees by the end of the week. The National Weather Service predicts a high of 109 degrees on Saturday.

More at ModBee.com >>>

 

 

Fish, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Study finds unsafe mercury levels in fish from Delta watershed

The first comprehensive study of rivers and streams in California has found that sport fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed have higher concentrations of mercury and PCBs than anywhere else in the state.

The survey adds to the history of high mercury levels in sport fish in the Sacramento region and dovetails with recent research that found consumption of sport fish from certain Delta region streams remains high, despite knowledge of the high mercury levels.

The sport fish survey, conducted by the State Water Resources Control Board, surveyed 16 species from 63 locations in 2011.

“While past monitoring looked at fish contaminants in lakes, rivers and streams, it was not focused on providing a statewide picture,” said Jay Davis, senior environmental scientist with the San Francisco Estuary Institute.

The survey piggybacks on similar surveys done on lakes and reservoirs as well as coastal areas – all of which found mercury to be the most common contaminant in fish. The survey is meant to provide information for future action and monitoring.

In the river survey, the highest contamination was found in sport fish high in the food chain – such as smallmouth and largemouth bass, striped bass and the Sacramento pikeminnow.

The river sites that yielded highly contaminated fish included the American River at Discovery Park and the south fork of the American River at Coloma. Fish tested from the San Joaquin River pier at Point Antioch and at Louis Park in Stockton also showed high mercury levels.

More at The Modesto Bee >>>

Fish, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Could California’s salmon make a comeback?

Jon Rosenfield and I bushwhack through the scrubby willows that line the American River east of Sacramento. The air is crisp this October morning, and the timing of our visit should be just right to watch California’s Chinook salmon as they return to where their lives began and spawn the next generation. Rosenfield, a biologist, works for a conservation group called the Bay Institute, and he wants me to witness an annual ritual that future generations might not have the opportunity to see.

For the salmon, it’s the end of a hard journey that typically lasts three years. After hatching in the river’s gravelly bottom, the young often hang out in its shallow backwaters, developing the bulk and camouflage they need for survival. They then travel downstream toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — the tidal estuary where they start their transition from fresh to salt water — and out through San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. There the fish spend most of their lives, feasting on krill, crab larvae, herring, sardines, and anchovies. This is in preparation for the most arduous part of their life cycle: the swim upstream to close the loop. By the time the salmon reach the spot where Rosenfield and I are standing, their energy has been channeled entirely from survival toward reproduction. They’ve stopped eating. Their skin is falling off. After depositing eggs or fertilizing them, they will die. Their carcasses — “these millions of 20-, 30-, 40-pound bags of fertilizer,” says Rosenfield — will be eaten by coyotes, bears, and eagles, which in turn will spread their droppings across forest floors and agricultural fields. “In watersheds where wine grapes are grown and salmon still spawn,” he says, “you can detect the ocean-nutrient signature in the wine.”

We reach the bank and step onto some rocks. For a moment, I see nothing but the river’s flow. Then a fin pops out, followed by a splash. “You see that red?” Rosenfield asks, pointing to a flash of color. “That’s a sexual signal.” I notice one fish circling another in what the biologist identifies as courtship activity. My eyes adjust, and I realize the water is pocked with these displays of fertility.

More at Salon.com >>>

Fish, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Calififornia salmon experiment puts fish in river water

State fish and wildlife officials are studying a new way of transporting hatchery salmon that are intended to repopulate the Sacramento River system, a newspaper reported.

About 100,000 Chinook salmon have been taken to San Francisco Bay, where they were released, in water actually from the Sacramento River, The San Mateo County Times reported this week (http://bit.ly/12h3faP).

The theory being tested is that the fish will develop a memory of the water’s chemical makeup that will improve their ability to get to the river from the bay to spawn.

Fish and Wildlife biologists have raised concerns that too many hatchery fish are straying and not returning to the river.

The experiment could help boost salmon populations and impact how hatcheries release the fish, the newspaper reported.

“We’re hoping that this is the way of the future,” said Andrew Hughan, a Fish and Wildlife spokesman.

More at SFGate.com >>>