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California river restoration begins amid debate

Posted by: Maven on October 3, 2009 at 6:33 am

From the Associated Press:

“When Darrell Imperatrice was a boy, California’s San Joaquin River teemed with so many King salmon his father could catch 40-pound fish using only a pitchfork.

Then the salmon vanished from the icy river for nearly 60 years, after a collosal federal dam built to nurture the croplands below dried up their habitat.

Now, as federal officials try to bring the fish back through a sweeping restoration program of the state’s second-largest river, those who know it best are debating its value and its virtue.

“There were so many salmon back then, you could fish any way you wanted, even dynamite. But when they built that dam, thousands of fish lay dead on the banks,” said Imperatrice, who at age 82 still treasures his father’s fishing gear. “There’s no real restoration that will bring back the river I knew.”

Friends of Imperatrice’s family helped build the dam after the Great Depression, hauling sand up the channel and running cranes to build the 314-foot concrete wall that now holds back the Sierra Nevada snowmelt. …”

Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.

October 3, 2009 · Filed Under San Joaquin River Restoration

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