Governor Feeds Salmon, Aids Fund-Raiser on Trip

Continuing his semipolitical swing through rural Northern California, Gov. George Deukmejian Tuesday fed salmon at a fish hatchery in the Trinity Mountains, fed himself at a picnic in the High Sierra, toured a sawmill and helped Nevada County Republicans raise money.

The cocktail party to raise money for the Nevada County Republican Central Committee was attended by more than 400 people. It was the second GOP fund-raiser attended by Deukmejian during his two-day trip, which is being paid for by the state.

Deukmejian was followed most of the day by more than a dozen reporters and photographers.

In Weaverville, the news media trailed the governor into the century-old Joss House, a temple built to keep out demons.

“It didn’t stop the press from going in there. I’m not sure how effective those barriers are,” the governor quipped.

Before visiting the Joss House State Historic Park, Deukmejian toured the Trinity Salmon and Steelhead Hatchery at Lewiston. The state and federal governments are breeding fish at the hatchery in an attempt to replace the two species that were nearly wiped out by construction of Trinity Dam in the 1960s.

For the benefit of photographers and television cameras, Deukmejian threw food to the fish in a breeding pond.

Deukmejian also heard a brief lecture describing how the salmon and steelhead almost disappeared after the dam diverted 90% of the Trinity River’s water east to the Sacramento Valley and the California Water Project.

According to Ed Barnes, a state environmental scientist, the fish were so depleted by 1977 that the entire steelhead run that year consisted of 13 fish. Since then, restoring the flow of water to 25%, reconstructing the river and breeding more fish have helped bring back the population to about 10% of its original number, Barnes said.

“I personally had not been totally aware of it,” Deukmejian told reporters. “I’m learning something new. This is a very clear demonstration of how things were done wrong in the past and how we’re working toward improvement.”

Standing on the bank of the Trinity River, the governor declined to comment on specific proposals he may be considering to increase the supply of water diverted from Northern to Southern California. His initial water plan was rejected by the Legislature last year.

At present, he said, his Administration is pushing for conservation and is studying the possibility of building new reservoirs south of the San Joaquin Delta.

Traveling by airplane, helicopter and car, Deukmejian swung back across the state to the Plumas-Eureka State Park, where he lunched with volunteers who work at the historic mining camp.

In the afternoon, the governor toured a sawmill in Loyalton and met with mill officials. Afterward, he told reporters he would seek to modify President Reagan’s tax plan so that it will not harm the timber industry.

Later, during an inspection of air tankers at a forestry station in Grass Valley, the governor said he would oppose legislation that calls for spending $10 million on two Canadian firefighting planes called superscoopers.”