Proof that we are living beyond our means? The Russian River hasn't even provided enough to satisfy. They take water from the Eel River and add it to the Russian to fill up Lake Mendocino in order to flush the toilets and water the lawns from Ukiah to the Sonoma Valley and Northern Marin. And they still want more. They've dammed up the Dry Creek watershed to fill up Lake Sonoma and are taking that, too.
Staggering amounts of water and gravel are taken from the Russian River on a daily basis for construction. At the same time that we take water out, we prevent water from coming back in. The very roads we construct with river water and gravel capture the runoff, divert the rainwater and prevent slow percolation into the ground. Rainwater used to move slowly through the hills; now it runs rapidly off the pavement, following roads to culverts and drainage ditches. Instead of creeks lined with gravel that spawn salmon, we've got roads lined with asphalt that spawn cars.
Much of the water that manages to percolate into the ground they grab, too. Mile after mile of grapes along the Russian River are irrigated by wells that draw river water even though you don't need water to grow good grapes. I still grow an excellent zinfandel on rootstock almost as old as I am without irrigation. And, by the way, without any herbicides, pesticides or any other kind of "cides." All of those chemicals eventually make their way into the groundwater which is no good for the river or the fish, or for us, for that matter.
As we draw the water out of the hills, we dry up the creeks. As the creeks dry up, the fish disappear. The fish are like the canary in the coal mine. As the fish disappear, we have to dig deeper and deeper to find water. Read the collection of writings by Jordan Basileu, former fisherman-reporter for the Sonoma Index Tribune. See the progressive drying up of Sonoma Creek and the decline of salmon and steelhead over a 50-year period.
It's simple: no water, no fish. Take heed when the canary stops singing and the salmon don't return. They're trying to tell us something. It's time to listen.
Sincerely,
Otto Teller
Founder and former President of the Sonoma Land Trust, former President of Trout Unlimited and the Trout and Salmon Foundation.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited