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HR 4408 Russian River Fisheries and Riverbed Restoration Act 



Testlmuny uf Lauitsl — Haroui, Cali forn ia S t a t e C oa st al — r.nnm+rvmnny , 

 project manager for the Russian River Resource Enhancement Plan 



The Russian River Fisheries and Riverbed Restoration Act will 

 create a partnership between the federal government , State of 

 California, local governments and community organizations in 

 restoring the Russian River watershed. This restoration project is 

 the largest effort in the State of California to restore an overall 

 river system. For the past three years the California State 

 Coastal Conservancy has led this planning effort which focuses on 

 balancing the needs of people with the need to recreate fish and 

 wildlife habitat. 



The Russian River was once a world famous steelhead fishery with 

 trophy sized fish. With the advent of large federal public works 

 projects in the 1940 's and ' 50 ' s the watershed was developed. Two 

 large reservoirs provide drinking water for a million people and 

 reduce flooding. Bank revetment was installed to stabilize the 

 river channel. Floodplain landowners were encouraged to farm 

 closer to the river and maximize agricultural land. Gravel was 

 removed from the river to build dams and roadways. 



Fifty years later the fish are mostly gone, the river has downout 

 in response to the dams, groundwater levels have dropped and 

 agricultural land is eroding as the river tries to readjust to 

 these developments. The long term effect of our attempts to 

 control and use the river has been to lose many of the benefits it 

 once provided. 



The federal government in sponsoring the damming and developing of 

 the Russian River could not have predicted the long term 

 implications of these actions. Large scale water supply systems 

 are a recent invention and have only been built in the past fifty 

 years. Only recently have the effects of these massive projects 

 come to light. 



The Russian River Enhancement program documents the long term 

 environmental and economic implications of both federal water 

 development projects and subsequent floodplain developments. The 

 program uses 40 years of detailed hydrologic, gec-morphic and 

 biological data and represents one of the best studied river 

 systems in the country. The focus of the program Is on the river's 

 processes and balancing these processes to provide for the long 

 term sustainabi 1 1 ty of water supply, fisheries and agriculture 

 within this developed watershed. The program recommends restoring 

 a river meander corridor capable of undergoing natural river 

 processes of erosion and and build-up to foster a healthy aquatic 

 ecosystem but within smaller bounds than the completely natural 



