This summer, DWR and the Department of Fish and Game teamed up on an ambitious, $2 million project to recondition a mile-long stretch of the Merced River and reestablish its once-excellent salmon spawning conditions.

Over the years, canals and dams have been constructed along the river to divert and store water, as well as to provide power, flood protection, and recreational opportunities. Mining activity has also influenced the river significantly. Large pits and tailing piles are numerous along its San Joaquin Valley corridor.

These and other influences have led to habitat changes that have severely impacted the river’s chinook salmon. Downstream, altered riverbed flows have diminished the quantity and quality of salmon habitat and underscored the need for river restoration. Upstream, dams have blocked the salmon’s access to historic spawning grounds.

Project Goals and Support

“Our main goal is to improve downstream spawning habitat for the salmon,” says Kevin Faulkenberry, the DWR associate engineer directing this restoration effort. “We’re also trying to improve river and floodplain hydraulics and enhance the river’s riparian corridor.”

Financial support for these improvements comes from a variety of State and federal sources. Moral support is also broad-based. It includes active involvement by members of California’s Miwuk Indian tribe who were so enthused by the project’s potential that they blessed the reconstruction site before reconstruction began (see “A Miwuk Blessing”). The stretch of the Merced River being restored is part of the Miwuks’ ancestral fishing area. Tribal members are confident that the project will help replenish salmon and wildlife that have declined in this area over the years.

Project Site: First Phase

The project site is located west of Highway 59, about 6 miles southwest of the town of Snelling (see inset map). Reconstruction is occurring alongside a levee road owned by Calaveras Materials Company, whose company’s owners are cooperating with the restoration effort.
The project is the first step in a three-phase effort to fill gravel pits dug and abandoned over the past 40 years. The pits are 15-20 feet deep and about 10 feet below the current low water level. Years ago, this reach of the river had a berm at its upstream end. When that berm failed during heavy runoff in 1983, the river changed course and began flowing in and over these pits, widening the river and slowing its velocity.
These impacts were bad news for the salmon, as well as some elements of the surrounding environment. Lower streamflow velocities along a wider and shallower water surface raised the river’s temperature, which in turn helped generate favorable habitat for warmwater species that feed on young salmon.
The shallow depths of warm water also promoted algae growth that inhibited salmon spawning. What’s more, the pits in the river acted as traps that disrupted sediment transport and reduced habitat diversity that is necessary to support salmon at various stages of their lives.
“Spreading 300,000 tons of gravel tailings in the riverbed and reconfiguring the channel's hydraulics should go a long way toward improving spawning conditions,” says Faulkenberry. “If all goes well, in a few years the salmon will be back in this stretch of the Merced in good numbers.”
The first phase of reconstruction was completed in October 1999. Phases two and three will commence in 2001 and should be finished by 2002.

A Miwuk Blessing

With pleasure, and without fanfare, seven Miwuk Indians gathered onJune 9, 1999, to bless the site of the joint DWR-Department of Fish and Game restoration project along the Merced River.

The Miwuks began their blessing by individually purifying the 13 people in attendance with smoke from burning coastal sage plants. “Sage purifies participants and prepares them to receive the good medicine to come,” according to tribal member and DWR employee, Ron Wermuth.

Next, Jay Johnson, of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Tribe, sang a gentle song to Mother Earth, while fellow tribe members Lois Martin and Bill Leonard clambered down a steep embankment and sprinkled crushed acorns and tobacco leaves on the water, as offerings to the River Spirit.

After a short pause, Wermuth offered a spoken prayer to the Creator -- or “Grandfather” -- and Johnson blessed the river in high-pitched song. Johnson’s singing was accompanied by the sounds of frogs, birds, insects, and rustling cottonwood trees that are abundant along the road to the project site.

Following Johnson, Sandra Vasquez of the Mariposa Indian Council joined Frannie Gann, Lois Martin, and Sandra Chapman of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Tribe in a lilting song-blessing to the Salmon Spirit. Miwuks believe that salmon carry this blessing up and downstream, extending its influence to the mountains and the sea. Leonard and Johnson also appealed in song to the Eagle Spirit and the Bear Spirit -- asking them to spread the blessing across the land.

Wermuth sang the last song of the day—to the Water Spirit. Johnson accompanied him on an instrument called a clapstick (made from a split and dried elderberry branch), while everyone else gazed across the rippling water at two egrets stretching their wings near the far shore.

After the ceremony, the Miwuks joined four DWR staff members and two Department of Fish and Game employees on a walk along the levee. Conversation was easy, with topics ranging from the power of blessings, to the multiple uses of whiteroot plant (plentiful near the river), to the importance of beginning projects “the right way.”

“Getting off to a good start means so much,” commented Kevin Faulkenberry, the DWR associate engineer who’s directing this restoration effort. “I can’t imagine a better start than this, and it’s great to have the Miwuks’ support for what we’re doing . . . I think everyone involved will be happy with the results when we’re through.”