Auburn Ravine Salmon Have Reached the City of Lincoln, Califronia, Some 22 Miles Upstream from the Mouth at Verona on Sacramento River

In October of this year, Salmon reached Auburn Ravine Park in Lincoln, California, and started dying banging themselves to death trying to negotiate the Nevada Irrigation District's Lincoln Gauging Station, a quarter mile downstream from Highway 65 that passes through the heart of Lincoln. They are still dying as we write. Ron Nelson, General Manager of NID, assures critics that the LGS will be retrofitted for fish passage with a fish ladder by Fall of 2011, which does little to pacify the angry many who cannot understand why fish who have swum thousands of miles in the Pacific Ocean, grown to maturity over three to five years and then returned to Auburn Ravine to complete their Salmon Life Cycle are being treated to the ignoble death of dying trying to get over this manmade barrier,the Lincoln Gauging Station Dam and concrete apron, after completing their miraculous journey.

SARSAS has worked with NOAA Special Agent Don Tanner, to see that all flashboard dams downstream of the City of Lincoln are in compliance with NOAA regs; that is, the dams are removed from October 15 through April 15 to accommodate returning salmon returning to spawn. As a result salmon have clear passage to the city of Lincoln, Why is NID surprised that their three barriers, the Lincoln Gauging Station, the Hemphill Dam, and the Gold Hill Diversion Dams are the only unretrofitted barriers left on the Auburn Ravine preventing fish from reaching Wise Powerhouse, one mile downstream from the City of Auburn ... why is NID surprised when public outrage and anger are directed at them. The knew the salmon were coming since at least 2008 and yet the barriers still exist and still kill salmon. So the salmon run in Auburn Ravine is forced to die while NID works to provide passage for fish over its three remaining barriers in the Auburn Ravine.
Auburn Ravine will become a major spawning tributary for Fall Run Chinook when NID provides fish passage over its three remaining barriers.