114 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



was to make tlu' lake .si'lt'-.sii.staiiiiii<:' and tliis Avas aceomplisliccl by 

 goin^ up the canyon a few miles and building an earth and rock dam 

 at the outlet of a jjroup of lakes about fifty acres in extent. The stor- 

 a<,'(' wat(M' thus impounded was am]ile to insure a prood flow of water 

 below the dam and to j)ermit the trout in the lake below to ascend the 

 stream to spawn and insure that the young fish could find their wa.y 

 back into the lake. This lake thus became self-sustaining and a move- 

 ment was started to have similar projects commenced on a more 

 elaborate scale. 



In the late summer of 1930, the writer together with F. W. Leigh- 

 ton and J. R. Hall, Supervisor of the Stanislaus National Forest, made 

 a survey to determine the feasibility of constructing similar dams near 

 the source of Cherry Creek tributaries. At this time, all of the upper 



^["mjgfi^f/^eaaai*^ 



Pig. 2 4. Cherry Creek area, Tuolumne County, showing location of (l:im.s regulating; 



stream flow. 



tributaries to Cherry Creek were dry except for pools in some of the 

 meadow sections. It was probable that even those pools would dis- 

 appear before the first fall rains. Consitlerable numbers of trout of 

 various sizes were stranded in these pools, an annual occurrence which 

 resulted in heavy losses. 



Cherry Creek divides into three main branches, the West, North 

 and East forks. As a result of the 193U survey, storage dams were 

 built on each of these branches. 



Control storage on the West Fork is accomplished l)y dams on 

 Long and Buck lakes; the water released from Long Lake passes 

 through Deer and Jewelry lakes. From Buck Lake it ])asses through 

 Wood Lake and combining with water from Long Lake, flows two 



