Interests Clash on River Program

Efforts to expand California’s Wild and Scenic River program for the first time since it began in 1972 have become snared in controversies over logging and water management issues.

State Resources Agency Secretary Gordon K. Van Vleck has been peppered with dozens of letters on whether to support adding three rivers to the state program, which was modeled on a more stringent federal system. The state program, however, only limits dam building.

Van Vleck is required to advise the Legislature whether sections of the McCloud, Walker and Carson rivers merit inclusion in the state program. Legislators may ignore his advice.

The secretary’s recommendations are due by Dec. 31, but his staff said they will not be ready before Jan. 3 and possibly later. His recommendations will be based on hearings held last August near the three rivers--the McCloud in Shasta and Siskiyou counties, the Walker in Mono County and the Carson in Alpine County.

Advocates of the proposal, introduced in 1986 by Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto), argue that the rivers possess environmental and recreational features worth protecting from proposed reservoir and hydroelectric projects.

‘Trophy Trout Stream’

“The McCloud is probably the premier trophy trout stream in the state . . . and one of the best in the West,” said Steve Evans, associate conservation director of Friends of the River. The McCloud, he added, has its own fish species, the red-banded trout.

Rafting and canoeing are also available on the McCloud, Evans said, as they are on the East Fork of the Carson and West Fork of the Walker, each of which provides a different experience. “The Carson is gentler . . . (and) canoeable, for example, so it is accessible by handicapped people,” he said.

Opponents, however, agreed with the Hearst Corp., a large landholder along the McCloud, when it said that expanding the state wild rivers program would, among other things, “constitute an unnecessary infringement and a violation of adjacent owners’ property rights.”

In particular, timber owners along the McCloud River are “raising a stink now because they’re afraid that the wild and scenic designation will severely restrict logging,” said Jeff Showalter, an aide to Sher.

That fear grows out of a recent federal court ruling that blocked a logging operation along the South Fork of the Trinity River, which is protected by the more stringent federal wild rivers program. Although the state program is less restrictive, timber interests worry that a river included in the state program eventually will be added to the stricter federal program.

Daniel J. Tomascheski of Sierra Pacific Industries, a timber company with forest holdings near the McCloud, wrote to Van Vleck that “in a ‘reasonable’ world, designation could be a benefit to the public.”

‘Special Interests’

“In our polarized world,” he added, “where the appropriation of natural resources by special interest groups continues with the goal of asset control, it may not be to the public’s benefit.”

The Carson River has also proved controversial because Nevada wishes to dam the river to provide water for Carson City. Most of the design options should fit within Nevada, but the most ambitious one could push a reservoir over the border into California and thus be affected by the state wild rivers program.

Began With 6 Rivers

California’s Wild and Scenic River program began 16 years ago by protecting six rivers--the Smith, Klamath, Eel, Trinity, North Fork of the American and Lower American rivers. No other effort has been made since then to expand the system, Evans said.

The state wild rivers program was begun primarily to save those North Coast rivers, particularly the winding, unpredictable Eel River, from being diverted to provide water for Central California farms and Southern California cities.

It was modeled after the similarly named federal program, which was started four years earlier and--unlike the state program--also protects wild rivers’ watersheds and “viewsheds”--the adjacent lands that drain water into rivers and are seen from them.