Save Our Historic Canals Nov. 2012 P. O. Box 2687, Nevada City, CA 95959 Vol. XII, No. 2 Pipeline to Begin Operation in 2013 By Susan Sanders, President, Save our Historic Canals The Banner Cascade Pipe- line, under construction for the past two years and recently com- pleted, will become operational in the summer of 2013. This new pipeline will provide a capacity of 95 cubic feet/second (cfs), and will carry most of the water now flowing in the Lower Cas- cade Canal to the Loma Rica and Elizabeth George treatment plants. When the pipeline becomes operational the flows in the Cas- cade Canal will significantly de- crease. Currently summer flows in the canal can reach a high of around 50 cfs, well above the original design capacity of 42 cfs. Summertime flows may now decrease to approximately 4 -10 cfs during the summer irri- gation season and 2 cfs during the winter. Exact flows cannot be predicted, but it is unlikely that flows would ever drop to less than 2 cfs in the canal. No one is certain what effect this dramatic drop in water lev- els might have on adjacent wells and on vegetation dependent on the canal. However, through the Mitigation Monitoring and Re- porting Program (MMRP) devel- oped as part of the Environ- mental Impact Report for the project, NID has undertaken studies to assess the affect of de- creased water levels on wells ad- jacent to the canal and will im- plement a vegetation monitoring study. (http://nidwater.com/ bannercascade/ ) On October 30, 2012, SOHC board members met with Gary King, NID’s project manager for the Banner Cascade Canal Pro- ject, and NID’s consultants from Stantec, to discuss plans for monitoring the effects of re- duced canal flows. NID is initi- ating a long-term (10-year) study to assess the effects of lower flows on vegetation that may rely on canal seepage, and will also address the potential effects on downstream aquatic habitat. Pipeline (Continued on page 5) New Address for SOHC SOHC has a new mailing address. Please direct all future mailings, including dues, to: Save Our Historic Canals P. O. Box 2687 Nevada City, CA 95959 Thank you.
Transcript
Save Our
Historic Canals Nov. 2012 P. O. Box 2687, Nevada City, CA 95959 Vol. XII, No. 2
Pipeline to Begin Operation in 2013 By Susan Sanders, President, Save our
Historic Canals
The Banner Cascade Pipe-line, under construction for the past two years and recently com-pleted, will become operational in the summer of 2013. This new pipeline will provide a capacity of 95 cubic feet/second (cfs), and will carry most of the water now flowing in the Lower Cas-cade Canal to the Loma Rica and Elizabeth George treatment plants.
When the pipeline becomes operational the flows in the Cas-cade Canal will significantly de-crease. Currently summer flows in the canal can reach a high of around 50 cfs, well above the original design capacity of 42 cfs. Summertime flows may now decrease to approximately 4 -10 cfs during the summer irri-gation season and 2 cfs during the winter. Exact flows cannot be predicted, but it is unlikely that flows would ever drop to less than 2 cfs in the canal.
No one is certain what effect
this dramatic drop in water lev-els might have on adjacent wells and on vegetation dependent on the canal. However, through the Mitigation Monitoring and Re-porting Program (MMRP) devel-oped as part of the Environ-mental Impact Report for the project, NID has undertaken studies to assess the affect of de-creased water levels on wells ad-jacent to the canal and will im-plement a vegetation monitoring study. (http://nidwater.com/bannercascade/)
On October 30, 2012, SOHC board members met with Gary King, NID’s project manager for the Banner Cascade Canal Pro-ject, and NID’s consultants from Stantec, to discuss plans for monitoring the effects of re-duced canal flows. NID is initi-ating a long-term (10-year) study to assess the effects of lower flows on vegetation that may rely on canal seepage, and will also address the potential effects on downstream aquatic habitat.
Pipeline
(Continued on page 5)
New Address for SOHC
SOHC has a new mailing address. Please direct all future mailings, including dues, to:
Save Our Historic Canals P. O. Box 2687
Nevada City, CA 95959
Thank you.
SOHC Directors President: Susan Sanders, 477-7415
Vice President: Larry Gruver, 265-8136 Treasurer: Willy Kollmeyer, 271-1378
Secretary: Cynthia Pierce, 265-9544 Newsletter Editor and Membership:
Diana Abrell, 273-3095 Publicity: Susan Luhman, 265-5234
Engineering Consultant: Ralph Hitchcock, 272-4787 Fisheries Consultant: Randy Smith, 265-5500
Director At Large: Kathie Bain, 273-7406 Director At Large: Ed Sylvester, 272-2734
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Handy Trail Map Packet Now Available The Bear Yuba Land Trust has compiled a collection of laminated trail maps for Nevada County. It includes the following trails: Rattlesnake, Narrow Gauge, Orene Wetherall, Memorial Park-Empire Mine, Loma Rica, Litton, Independence Trail, East and West, Hirschman Deer Creek Tribute Trail, East and West, Alan Thiesen, and the Lower Cascade. The maps are held to-gether with a carabiner. Cost is $10 from the Land Trust at 12183 Auburn Rd., Grass Valley or call the Land Trust at 272-5994 for more information.
Land Trust Completes Orene Wetherall Loop Trail
A few months ago the Bear Yuba Land Trust, under the direc-tion of Trails Coordina-tor Bill Haire, com-pleted a loop at the foot of the Orene Wetherall Trail. The second half of the loop was dedi-cated to the memory of Noel Carter. Noel was a long-time Banner Mountain resident. He walked, biked, and fished the local trails and canals.
It is now possible to go downhill to near the DS Canal, and then loop back up, for a total of about 1.5 miles.
The Orene Wether-all Trail takes off from the Lower Cascade Ca-nal Trail three quarters of a mile from the Gra-cie/Banner intersection.
Thanks go to Bill and those who helped him with this extension of our beloved Lower Cascade Canal trail net-work.
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While I’ve spent most of my 60+ years enjoying the outdoors, usually carrying binoculars, I’ve never seen a mountain lion (Puma
concolor). However, I suspect that quite a few have seen me inspecting their recent deer kills and following their fresh tracks. There have been several sightings of mountain lions on the Cascade Canal, and numer-ous reports of their tracks and scat there.
Mountain lions, or “pumas,” “cougars,” or “panthers” as they are sometimes called, are secretive predators that mostly hunt at night or dawn or dusk—the primary rea-son that most, like me, have never seen one in the wild. They are the largest wildcats in North America, and mature males weigh up to 165 pounds and grow to more than eight feet in length--females weigh about 100 pounds (bobcats average about one-quarter of this size). These powerful cats can leap as high as 15 feet and as far as 40 feet.
A mountain lion's life span is estimated at 12 years in the wild, although captive animals have lived up to 25 years. Female lions gener-ally first reproduce at about two and one half years of age and usually produce two or three young (kittens) which they raise alone. Young mountain lions have spots, but adults do not. The kittens nurse for two months, and then start to travel with their mother at which time she teaches them to hunt. They will remain with their mother from 1 ½ - 2 years. Males that enter an-other male’s territory have been known to kill the kittens so that fe-males will be more willing to mate.
There are an estimated 30,000 mountain lions in the western
United States including about 5,000 in Califor-nia. They are highly ter-ritorial, solitary animals that actively avoid other cats except during court-ship. Their home ranges can vary in size from 10 square miles to around 370 square miles; fe-males tend to have smaller ranges than males. Mountain lions are active hunters and may travel long dis-tances in search of food. These cats employ a blend of stealth and power, stalking their prey until an opportunity arrives to pounce, then going for the back of the neck with a fatal bite. After killing their prey, they will bury it and leave it, com-ing back to feed on it for several days—half-buried deer carcasses
Mountain Lions — in our Backyard By Ted Beedy
with the entrails removed are a sure sign a mountain lion is nearby. In addition to deer, their preferred prey, lions also hunt for smaller mammals such as mice, squirrels, porcupines, raccoons, rabbits, bea-vers, and coyotes.
While they are dangerous and successful predators of large mam-mals, attacks on humans are rare. According to the California Depart-ment of Fish and Game’s website, there have only been 16 docu-mented human attacks in the state since 1890, and only four were fa-tal. Should you encounter a moun-tain lion on the canal, or anywhere else, this website recommends:
1 Do not run. 2 Instead, face the animal,
make noise and try to look bigger by waving your arms.
3 Throw rocks or other ob- jects.
4 Pick-up small children.
5 If attacked, fight back.
Mountain Lion
Don Getty, c. 2011
Mountain Lion
Gerald & Buff Corsi, c.1999
California Academy
Of Sciences
Mountain Lion Track
Ben Blue
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One of the special pleasures of living here is the ability in a short time to be in the outdoors in special places like the Cas-cade Canal trail.
My wife Bernadette and I have lived in Nevada County since 1962 and moved to Banner Mountain about 24 years ago.
I was introduced to the canal trail by a fellow runner shortly after we came to the neighbor hood and it has been a source of inspiration and perspiration ever since.
I was a fair weather runner until I started training for the first ever Antarctic Marathon in 1995. Forced to train in rain and snow I found a whole new world. I still remember the first time running on the trail with a couple of inches of snow--magical! It was evident that the trail has special qualities all year. Every time we travel the trail it is different. The volume of water, the color of the trees, and the changing sun and shad-ows.
When I finished the Antarc-tic Marathon the opportunity then opened to run a marathon on all the continents. That meant more miles on the canal in every weather. In 2000 having finished the Millennium Marathon I be-came the 14th person in the world to complete a marathon on all seven continents. My log
What the Lower Cascade Canal Means To Me:
By Ed Sylvester by engaging property owners and sharing the value of the trail -- success has followed.
Waste Management is pro-viding pickup of animal waste on a regular basis and the Ne-vada County Contractors Asso-ciation is providing the boxes and the bags for pickup. With this support the trail is 100% cleaner than before and the water source is protected. The support of so many community members by dues paid has made a tremen-dous difference.
When I was afforded the op-portunity to join Susan Sanders and the rest of this dedicated SOHC Board, it was a great privilege. I look forward to help-ing to protect this wonderful neighborhood amenity.
We are entering a critical time as NID converts to a piped system. SOHC has been on the forefront in working with the District to maintain a level of water flow in the canal not only for the preservation of down-stream wells but also for the am-biance the water creates along the canal.
My wife and I have traveled to many parts of the world and been in most of the great cathe-drals, mosques, and temples but none can compare to the trail and the inspiration that it im-parts.
Please join SOHC in pre-serving this special place.
book chronicles about 1800 miles on the canal during train-ing for that effort.
Having lived in Nevada County all these years and in my professional career as a civil en-gineer I have seen many oppor-tunities for trail preservation lost through lack of foresight in land use planning.
When I became aware of the efforts of the dedicated individu-als who formed Save Our His-
toric Canals I was skeptical at first as I had seen several such efforts fail in neighborhoods due to confrontational ap-proaches to developing trails. I soon saw that SOHC was not a confrontational organization but a group who loves the trail and
Inspiration and Perspiration
Ed Sylvester at the Madagascar Marathon
in 2008. Ed reported that many local run-
ners prefer to run with no shoes.
New SOHC Members and Renewals These folks have joined SOHC or renewed their membership since our last
newsletter in April 2012. Thank you so much!!
If your name does NOT appear here, it is probably time for you to renew.
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continue to keep SOHC mem-bers informed of the status of mitigation compliance.
The project, originally pro-posed in 2000, called for com-plete dewatering of the Cascade Canal, but thanks to the efforts of SOHC and many others, NID
Pipeline
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In addition, NID agreed to soon provide an update on the status of compliance with the MMRP on their web page, to add more information about the well moni-toring, and to maintain good communication with the public and SOHC as they put their pipe-line into operation and continue with the monitoring studies.
SOHC is encouraged by NID’s interest in keeping the public involved in their monitor-ing efforts, and will continue to work collaboratively with NID to make sure mitigation meas-ures are implemented as de-scribed in the MMRP, and will
Abrell, Joe & Diana Beesley, Louise & David Bergen, Geri Boivin, Sharon & Joseph Bollinger, Bruce Bryars, Raymond & Pamela Burbridge, Dennis Connell, Dianna & David Cooper, Beverly Emberton, Hilary & Donald Feil Gould, Frank Hitchcock, Ralph & Dorothy Hopkins, Susan Howard, Barry & Bonnie
James, Joyce Lang, Larry & Lisa LaPlante, Barbara & Alton Polonsky, Bari Schwilke, Joyce Slyker, Robert & Peggy Snider, Susan & Michael Percy Uchibori, Kim Unter, Brian & Joan Van Vliet, Blair & Marie Joe Van Wagner, Ginger & Tom Willis, Glee Woerner, Sarah &Tony Norskog Wright, Gale
committed to providing suffi-cient flows in the Lower Cas-cade Canal to supply raw water to existing customers along the canal, which will help to main-tain it as a historical, scenic and recreational amenity.
If it is time to renew your membership in SOHC or if you would like to become an official member of SOHC, please fill out this form and send it with your check to: Save Our Historic Canals, P. O. Box 2687, Nevada City, CA 95959. For information call (530) 477-7415. Dues are $15 per year. SOHC is in need of funds to cover ex-penses such as newsletters, postage, trail projects, and support for easement acquisition efforts. Dues and additional donations are tax-exempt and appreciated. Donors in 2012 will receive an acknowledgement letter in early 2013 for tax purposes. Name Dues ($15) $ Street City, State, ZIP Phone Email
