10 



the summer, 81 degrees in the South Fork of the Trinity. The Eel 

 is over 80 degrees, and that makes a very, very good environment 

 for exotic fishes that are introduced like green sunfish or the 

 squawfish in the Eel, and those now, during prolonged droughts, 

 threaten salmonids. 



The Klamath, I must mention, flows through Upper Klamath 

 Lake, and Upper Klamath Lake has not functioned as an ecosys- 

 tem for 20 years. And the short-nosed sucker and the Lost River 

 sucker are indicative of that problem, and unless the problems are 

 reversed in Upper Klamath Lake, the Klamath watershed cannot 

 be healed, and that is something I will revisit. 



What is a healthy watershed? Healthy watersheds in our area 

 stem largely from Roadless Areas on Forest Service lands or Wil- 

 derness Areas. And other than that, we don't have them. 



Riparian zones — we have spoken of riparian zones on forest 

 lands, and they are essential, and that is well-studied, but we also 

 need to have the private agricultural lands in the lower areas of 

 these rivers which were once the biological hot spots, the major 

 producers of salmon. Those riparian zones need to be restored. 

 Rivers like the Shasta now have very little vegetation on their 

 banks. They reach 90 degrees in the summer. Instead of producing 

 80,000 fish as it did in the '30's or 30,000 fish as it did in the '60's, 

 it has fewer than 500. And there are benefits to restoring riparian 

 zones for agricultural interests as well as the help of aquatic eco- 

 systems. 



Past management has failed to protect watersheds and fish, and 

 the U.S. Forest Service is showing some very, very encouraging 

 signs with their packfish program. It needs to be followed through 

 and implemented, but we need to preserve refuge areas. And I will 

 revisit that also as part of strategies, and we need also to rebuild 

 the Forest Service staff They need capable staff in fisheries and 

 watershed. That has to be expanded, and they are overstaffed in 

 timber, and there has to be some attrition. 



I would like to contrast the U.S. Forest Service actions on timber 

 harvests and private timber. Grouse Creek on the South Fork of 

 the Trinity has been locked up because of cumulative effects con- 

 cerns on Forest Service land. The California Department of Forest- 

 ry has never turned down a timber harvest permit in that water- 

 shed. 



Steep, unstable inner-gorge areas where ever5rthing goes into the 

 drink if you lose your soil, they are locked up on Six Rivers Nation- 

 al Forest. They are clear-cut on private lands. PAC fish is coming 

 along in the Forest Service. It is encouraging. Denial reins supreme 

 for the California Department of Forestry. We are losing coho 

 salmon, and yet they won't even acknowledge it as a sensitive spe- 

 cies or designate watersheds as sensitive where we have this spe- 

 cies. And it could be listed as threatened currently in California. 



Best management practices under the Clean Water Act have 

 never been certified in California and the whole change of com- 

 mand from EPA to the State Water Board to CDF, California De- 

 partment of Forestry. It is not working. EPA, when you reauthor- 

 ize the Clean Water Act, needs more direct authority in best man- 

 agement practices implementation in California. 



We also need fundamental reform of water law in California. 



