Wild and Scenic River Project
Wet & Wild: The Wild River, Wilderness, and Watershed Connection
By Steve Evans
I know a place deep in a rugged California river canyon, framed by dark forested slopes reaching up to the sky and lava rock formations overhanging a deep pool, where spring Chinook salmon come to spawn every year.
Some people are drawn to high mountain peaks and some people love desolate desert plains. I prefer wild river canyons – always have, always will.
It’s no surprise to those familiar with California’s wild places, that some of the wildest river canyons in California also form the heart of some of the most rugged wilderness and unprotected roadless areas in the state. Wilderness and roadless areas encompass watersheds. From these watersheds flow wild rivers, which provide clean, cold water for fish, wildlife, and people alike. These river canyons also represent diverse landscapes and ecosystems, and offer refuge for sensitive, threatened, and endangered fish, wildlife, and plants. And they provide beautiful places to visit and experience the outdoors in a truly primitive setting, and renew one’s soul.
People are naturally attracted to wild river canyons. Some of the attraction is simply personal taste but government agencies have increasingly recognized the outstanding primitive outdoor recreation opportunities that wild rivers provide. The Forest Service considers unique the peace, solitude, and undeveloped setting through which flows much of southern California’s East Fork San Gabriel River, a stream just a short drive away from millions of urban residents. Another Forest Service study found the central Sierra’s Clavey River to provide a rare opportunity for solitude and non-motorized recreation. The South Fork Trinity River National Recreation Trail provides access to one of the wildest and most scenic rivers in northern California.
A number of government studies have also documented the scientific, biological, and practical value of wilderness, roadless watersheds, and wild river canyons.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, roadless areas account for more than 58 million acres or roughly a third of all National Forest lands in the United States. Roadless watersheds provide clean, fresh water to millions of people, and important habitat to numerous fish and wildlife species. Many communities depend on the clean water that originates in or flows through roadless areas. Because they are largely undisturbed, it is less likely that erosion, sedimentation, and disruption of water flows will occur in roadless watersheds and their wild river canyons.
The Forest Service also recognizes that roadless areas support a diversity of aquatic habitats and communities, including more than 280 sensitive, threatened, and endangered species. Wild river canyons often provide important upstream habitat for resident and migratory fish and wildlife species and also influence the quality of habitat in larger, downstream reaches. Roadless area streams function as biological strongholds and refuges for many fish species. Watersheds with fewer roads generally support healthier fish populations. A substantial amount of roadless areas on the west coast provide important habitat for increasingly endangered salmon and steelhead, which migrate from the Pacific Ocean, up the river valleys, and into the roadless mountain watersheds to spawn.
Biologists have found that the most important watersheds for freshwater conservation tend to occur in unprotected roadless areas. There is a remarkably high occurrence of native trout populations associated with roadless areas. Moreover, roadless lands tend to occupy middle to lower elevations compared to protected Wilderness, which means that these unprotected wild river canyons offer more diverse and often richer habitat for fish and aquatic species, as well as terrestrial species that depend on riparian and aquatic habitat. A Forest Service report found that many of the least-roaded watersheds in the National Forests of southern California have high potential for maintaining aquatic ecological integrity due to less intensive land uses and low numbers of exotic species.
“Biotic integrity” is defined by biologists and ecologists as the ability to support and maintain a balanced, integrated, adaptive community of native organisms and the natural habitat on which they depend. An index of biotic integrity was developed for the 100 major watersheds of the Sierra Nevada, as part of the 1996 Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP). The criteria used to determine the biotic integrity of Sierra watersheds included the presence and abundance of native frogs and fishes; how much of the watershed was affected by dams, reservoirs, diversions, and roads: how much of the watershed was roadless; the presence of historically fishless areas; and mean elevation.
Scientists found that all aquatic ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada have lost biotic integrity to a greater or lesser degree. The native aquatic biota of more than half of Sierra watersheds are in poor to fair condition, but there are still a few watersheds in remarkably good condition and many others that retain a good share of their original aquatic biota. The public land watersheds in the Sierra with the highest level of biotic integrity include some of the wildest river canyons in the Sierra Nevada – Mill and Deer Creeks, North Fork American River, Clavey River, and the North Fork Kern River.
The importance of roadless watersheds has led to various management efforts on public lands. In the Pacific Northwest (including northwest California), the Forest Service is implementing an Aquatic and Riparian Conservation Strategy that involves the identification of “key watersheds”, which serve as strongholds for threatened and endangered fish and other species of concern. In the Sierra Nevada, independent biologists have proposed the establishment of “aquatic diversity management areas” encompassing watersheds with high biotic integrity. Many relatively unroaded watersheds in the National Forests in southern California were identified as “areas of high ecological significance”, which offer refuge for numerous sensitive, threatened, and endangered species.
Although these administrative efforts by government agencies to protect roadless watersheds are important, only legislative protection as Wilderness or Wild & Scenic Rivers provides permanent protection for these important resource values.
It’s clear that roadless watersheds and wild river canyons provide important water quality, fish and wildlife, and recreational benefits that need to be protected. That’s why the California Wilderness Coalition and Friends of the River have joined forces to create the Wild Rivers Project. The purpose of the project is to recognize the undeniable connection between wild rivers, wilderness, and watersheds by protecting Wild & Scenic Rivers and Wilderness together.
For more information about the Wild Rivers Project and how you can help protect both wild rivers and the wilderness watersheds through which they flow, contact Steve Evans at (916) 708-3155 or email him at sevans@friendsoftheriver.org.
A Selection of Truly Wild Rivers & Wilderness
South Fork Trinity River (Shasta-Trinity National Forests) – The South Fork Trinity rises from snow-fed springs in the in the Yolly Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness in northwestern California. From there, it flows northward through more than 47,000 acres of unroaded public lands to its confluence with the Trinity River. At one point, the South Fork was one of the most important spring Chinook salmon spawning streams in the region. But road building and logging in the roaded portions of its watershed have taken a toll on the river’s once pristine water quality and salmon habitat. Senator Barbara Boxer’s California Wild Heritage Act proposed protecting 22,000 acres of this critical watershed as a “Salmon Restoration Area” in 2002. About 53 miles of the South Fork from the small town of Forest Glen to the fork’s confluence with the main Trinity was designated a federal Wild & Scenic River in 1981. Another 25 miles upstream of Forest Glen have been recommended for designation by the Forest Service. The scenic South Fork National Recreation Trail proceeds more than seven miles upstream from Forest Glen along the river segment proposed for Wild & Scenic protection.
Mill Creek (Lassen National Forest)– The source of Mill Creek are active thermal springs on Mount Lassen in Lassen Volcanic National Park. From this volcanic
