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Bring Salmon Back to Auburn Ravine |
SARSAS is an acronym for Save Auburn Ravine Salmon And Steelhead. The organization’s mission is to restore, protect, and improve the habitat and runs of salmon and steelhead in the Auburn Ravine by providing a navigable waterway from the Sacramento River to the city of Auburn.
SARSAS is a part of the Dry Creek Conservancy, a non-profit, non-governmental organization, and our goal is to modify the 10 man-made barriers on the Auburn Ravine and the six or more beaver dams, making them passable for fishes. This undertaking will have a lasting effect on the quality of all our lives. We have an opportunity to create something no other town in California has, which is an anadromous (migrating up rivers from the sea to breed in fresh waters) fish run with salmon spawning in the center of the Auburn. So doing this is not only “possible,” but highly “doable.”
Since I was born in Ophir and spent my childhood exploring the Auburn Ravine (AR), and Valerie and I lived in Ophir before moving to Auburn, we have an intimate knowledge of the AR. We first saw the incredible beauty of a city with salmon spawning in its center in Juneau, Alaska, and got the idea to reproduce that beauty in Auburn.
SARSAS is a project that must be led by individuals in the community,
not by our government agencies or by federal grants. People must stop
talking about today and do something today that will create our
tomorrow. The American Frontier Spirit of working together for the
common good has never left us. We must reignite that spirit with each
of us finding a way to contribute to the common goal. If each person
will take charge of his own will to achieve our collective goal and
contribute in his own way, then it will happen and people will enjoy
the collective euphoria of winning.
We know that feeling of
euphoria. We have 67 years of combined teaching and coaching experience
at Del Oro High School. As coaches, we won 12 Cross Country and Track
and Field Championships in six years of coaching and, as an aside, sent
many athletes to the California State Track and Field Championships,
including Sheriff Ed Bonner twice. We coached the Del Oro Academic
Decathlon Team to three consecutive California Academic Decathlon State
Championships, the only competitive high school team in the history of
our area to do so. We raised thousands of dollars to support our
Academic Decathlon Team and to arrange for American and foreign
exchange students to study here and abroad while we were advisors for
the international American Field Service.
The dream comes first,
then the strategy to achieve the dream. The only limitations are the
limitations people place on themselves. Some people will say our goal
is impossible and list a hundred reasons why. All we need is to find
one successful formula and the dream is achieved. Robert Kennedy said,
“Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never
were and say ‘Why not?’”
We can only do it if many people find
their own way to contribute. It cannot be done by one or two people, it
must be done by our whole community. Individuals can donate in-kind
services i.e. a lawyer can donate a certificate of four hours work that
we can trade to a contractor for four hours of backhoe work.
Individuals can volunteer their labor and skills to work on
retrofitting a man-made barrier making it suitable for fish passage.
Individuals and businesses can donate money, which is tax deductible.
We are currently working with several individuals and agencies to
realize SARSAS’ goal. We are working with Placer County Supervisor
Robert Weygandt and Loren Clark and Edmund Sullivan from Placer Legacy.
We have the support of Janice Forbes and her committee, which
spearheaded the daylighting of the South Fork of the Auburn Ravine and
the creation of the Auburn School Park Preserve. Property owners along
the Auburn Ravine have given students access to their property to
complete their Placer Union High School District Senior Projects on
salmon.
Placer Legacy is working with NID to modify the Hemphill Dam below Gold
Hill Road, which is only one of the ten man-made barriers that must be
dealt with to provide fish passage on the Auburn Ravine. Ron Nelson,
the Nevada Irrigation District General Manager, plans to continue
working with SARSAS to modify other dams and gauging stations.
Our plan will get fish to the Wise Powerhouse although currently the
water flow/habitat in the Auburn Ravine between the Powerhouse and
Auburn Park Preserve is not adequate to support salmon. The City
Council of Auburn and the Auburn Park Preserve Committee are working to
address the lack of water flow/habitat and will consider contacting the
Placer County Water Agency to possibly secure additional water in that
section of the Auburn Ravine.
These agencies are helping; the people of SARSAS, however, must lead
and do and finish the work. We have the knowledge, expertise and
financial ability to make this dream a reality if we work together. An
idea whose time has come is the most powerful force on earth; this
project’s time has come.
SARSAS needs the help, expertise and financial backing of the entire community.
Questions, volunteering in-kind certificates and expertise, labor and
monetary donations, which are tax deductible, can be directed to Jack
and Valerie Sanchez, coordinators of SARSAS, at 3675 Larkin Lane
Auburn, CA 95602 or 530-888-0281. They may be reached by e-mail at
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