Watershed Projects

Bear Creek

map of watershed showing location of dams and major roads

Watershed Information

PRODUCTION
Species	1967-1991 Baseline	Target	1992-2009 Average	Increase	Percent Change
fall-run Chinook salmon	0	0	0
WATERSHED STATISTICS		ANADROMOUS HABITAT		COORDINATORS
Watershed area: 157 square miles Watershed Priority: not designated Total storage: 0 acre-feet		Historic: 28 miles Current: 28 miles ( 100 %)		Patricia Bratcher Tricia Parker
STATUS
The 1992-2007 average escapement for fall-run is not collected in Bear Creek; the total average population estimate for Misc. small tribs above RBDD, of which Bear Creek is included, was 115 (2 years of data). AFRP staff are well integrated with local watershed efforts and are technical advisors to local groups, such as the Bear Creek Watershed Group and the Western Shasta Resource Conservation District. This includes involvement in citizen monitoring of fall-run Chinook redds, which has been implemented since 2003. The Shasta Land Trust (www.shastalandtrust.org) continues to make Bear Creek (and Cow Creek) a priority for land conservation as well via acquisition of conservation easements. Two AFRP-funded projects have implemented in these watersheds; therefore, (using AFRP-funded projects as a criteria), 5% of the work needed to address Bear Creek’s limiting factors and implement watershed actions has been completed; however, if one were to include funding from other sources, roughly 15% of the potential solutions to limiting factors have been addressed. AFRP funded a three-year study of fall-run Chinook entry into the watershed via use of a video weir; in the second year, the study was expanded in terms of time; the weir was left in place until April in order to capture steelhead movement. The fall-run portion of the study will be completed in 2009; the steelhead data collection will continue through 2010. Results show that very few fall-run entered Bear Creek to spawn, but it must be acknowledged that 2007 and 2008 were very poor years in terms of upper Sacramento adult returns. The study also identified the high potential for using video weirs to capture steelhead movement on smaller tributaries. AFRP also funded the FWS Instream Flow branch to build a hydrograph for the Bear Creek watershed by developing a flow relationship with an adjacent watershed that still has an active flow gauge (Cow Creek). This included collecting flow data for a year and developing a computer model. This model can be used to determine, with a moderate level of accuracy, real time flow information for Bear Creek. Several data gaps need to be addressed to better deal with passage, flow, and entrainment limiting factors caused by agricultural diversions, including a map and info on all diversions. Limiting factors involving habitat conditions (spawning gravel, channel structure) have not been addressed to a large extent. Information gathered by the Bear Creek Watershed Assessment and Watershed Management Plan (completed, funded by CALFED Watershed Program) could be used to help address these data gaps and better prioritize how to address the two AFPR actions in Bear Creek, one of which is ranked “High”.
RESTORATION
Projected number of restoration projects: Projected total cost of restoration: $0.00
Total invested to date: AFRP $127,000.00 other $1,078,000.00

Projects

No AFRP projects have been conducted on this Watershed.

Documents

Bear Creek Management Strategy. 2006, 1.5 mb ( 1.5 MB)

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Actions and Evaluations

Status	Description
Not Addressed	A2. Screen all diversions to protect all life history stages of anadromous fish.
Not Addressed	A1. Supplement flows with water acquired from willing sellers consistent with applicable guidelines or negotiate agreements to allow suitable passage of juvenile and adult chinook salmon and steelhead during spring and early fall.

Photos

Bear Creek downstream of Parkville

Partners

Western Shasta Watershed Information Model