Our Habitats

Chapter 2 of Our Watershed Stories is a journey up the Dry Creek Valley to Warm Springs Dam and Lake Sonoma.

Photo of Peter LaCivita of the US Army Corps of Engineers“This dam was put here to alleviate severe flooding on dry creek,” says Peter LaCivita, a Fisheries Biologist with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, “and to provide water supply, recreation, and conservation opportunities.”

As a result, Dry Creek is wet year-round!  You might think that the native fish would love having a dam.  To understand why they don’t, you first have to understand wild salmon.

Photo of Brett Wilson of the California Department of Fish & Game“The adults will run upstream to where they were born,” explains Brett Wilson, the Senior Hatchery Supervisor for the California Department of Fish & Game.  “They’re imprinted on that stream because they reared on that stream as juveniles, and now they’re coming back from the ocean.  And they will pair up.  They will find mates.”

Photo of Lake SonomaBut not if they can’t find their way home in the first place.

“In 2008, our agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Sonoma County Water Agency generated a Biological Opinion that addressed water supply and flood control.”

Photo of Don Wallace of Dry Creek Vineyard“They’re ultimately going to have 6 miles returned to it’s natural habitat,” adds Don Wallace, a partner in Dry Creek Vineyard & Winery, says, “I think that’s a great legacy.”  Among Wallis’s accolades, he was awarded a 2011 “Leadership in Sustainability Award” through the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy.

Photo of man examining microscope at the Warm Springs HatcheryMeanwhile, the Warm Springs Hatchery is helping the Coho Salmon population come back.

“I’ll raise from 100,000 to 250,000 fish,” says Ben White, a Biologist at the US Army Corps of Engineers who works at the Warm Springs Hatchery’s Captive Breeding Program.  “Our goal is for those Photo of biologist Ben Whitefish to return to these streams as spawning adults, and to re-establish a self-sustaining run of coho salmon.”

A lifetime resident of the bucolic Dry Creek Valley, Don Wallis recalls “My grandfather told me one time when I was very young:  My job in this life is to turn this land over to my kids in better condition than I got it.

“And that’s really what I am after.”


 

Original Website

Our Watershed Stories: Chapter 2 of 9
GetSimple CMS
Sonoma County Water Agency

Credits

My Credits: Senior Producer, Writer, Editor, Graphic Designer, Website Designer
© 2012 KRCB – North Bay Public Media. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Technical

Cameras: JVC GY-HM700 with Fujinon 18x lens; and  JVC GY-HM100
Camera Format: XDcam EX (1920x1080i)
Master Format: ProRes 422(HQ) at 1920×1080 Interlaced
Post Production: Final Cut Pro
Graphic Design: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Apple Motion
Length: 1 minute, 30 seconds

Accessibility Features

Captioning: Closed captions

Coming Together

Don McInHillChapter 1 of “Our Watershed Stories,” begins in Sonoma County, where we’ll meet Don McInhill, the Russian Riverkeeper. “No matter where you live, you’re connected to a river or a lake or the ocean, and what you do at your house affects those water bodies because of the way we built our cities,” McInhill says.

It makes sense that the riverkeeper knows a thing or two about watersheds: but why are they so important?

Kate Wilson“Before I started getting involved with water issues, I didn’t even know where my water came from,” notes Kate Wilson, a Sonoma County resident who works with McInhill on river issues.  “Like many people, you just turn on the tap and there’s the water and you don’t think much about it.

“The Russian River provides drinking water for over 600,000 people, all the way down into Marin.”

“It looks like a highly natural river,” McInhill adds.  “The reality is we have two major dams on this river.  We also have water that’s diverted from the watershed north of us in the Eel River into the Russian to augment our water supplies.”

Fish Biologist Bill Hearn of the National Marine Fisheries Service, says, “The Russian River is a major watershed and it historically supported Chinook salmon, Coho salmon and Steelhead.  Their numbers were dramatically reduced because of all kinds of impacts.”

Now, we’re finally learning to celebrate the Russian as a resource: both for nature, and for recreation!  Points out McInhill, “If the Russian River wasn’t here, we would not have this community that we do today.”

Original Website

Our Watershed Stories: Chapter 1 of 9
GetSimple CMS
Sonoma County Water Agency

Credits

My Credits: Senior Producer, Writer, Editor, Graphic Designer, Website Designer
© 2012 KRCB – North Bay Public Media. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Technical

Cameras: JVC GY-HM700 with Fujinon 18x lens; and  JVC GY-HM100
Camera Format: XDcam EX (1920x1080i)
Master Format: ProRes 422(HQ) at 1920×1080 Interlaced
Post Production: Final Cut Pro
Graphic Design: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Apple Motion
Length: 1 minute, 30 seconds

Napa 9/11 Memorial

Gordon Huether is an artist based in the Napa Valley. He is creating a 9/11 memorial, constructed of steel from the Twin Towers, that will stand in downtown Napa, California. Narrated by Michelle Olivera. Produced independently for KRCB Public Media’s “North Bay Voice.”


 

Credits

My Credits: Producer, Photographer / Videographer, Writer, Editor, Graphic Designer
© 2011 KRCB – North Bay Public Media. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Technical

Cameras: JVC GY-HM700 with Fujinon 18x lens; and  JVC GY-HM100
Camera Format: XDcam EX (1920x1080i)
Master Format: ProRes 422(HQ) at 1920×1080 Interlaced
Post Production: Final Cut Pro
Graphic Design: Adobe Photoshop

KRCB Celebrates our LGBT Communities

This content is coming soon.

 

A Fundraiser for

KRCB North Bay Public Media

Credits

My Credits: Senior Producer, Write, Editor, Graphic Designer
© 2011 KRCB – North Bay Public Media. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Technical

Cameras: 3-camera shoot: Sony TV Studio cameras with Canon lenses
Camera / Master Format: NTSC Standard Definition
Post Production: None (live broadcast)
Graphic Design: Adobe Photoshop
Length: 00 minutes, 00 seconds (highlights only)