Early to Present Times on the Auburn Ravine

Early to Present Times on the Auburn Ravine As a child growing up on the Auburn Ravine in Ophir, I remember waterfalls above our home on Sunset Lane before the Ravine was dredged for the Ophir Tunnel for the now-defunct Auburn Dam to transport water from the American River to Auburn Ravine. On the granite formations above the waterfalls were countless wateros, ground into the rocks over the centuries by the Native Americans grinding pine nuts and acorns into flour for food. Along the entire length of Auburn Ravine are the diverse remains that indicate how central the Auburn Ravine Watershed was to its Native peoples. When I was in second grade at Ophir Elementary in Mrs. Van Riper’s class in 1946-7, she would take her classes each year on a field trip to her orchard, located on the Auburn Ravine off Geraldson Road in Ophir. The trip’s purpose was a lesson in history involving the culture of Ophir’s earliest natives the Maidu/Miwoks. Her orchard had been disked to make harvesting the fruit easier. The loosened soil enhanced the actions of our trip. The students were turned loose to search for native beads, arrowheads, spearheads and traders’ beads and other remnants of this early civilization in what was an ancient Miwok Burial Ground, which today would probably not be lawful to explore. Barbara Van Riper, the wife of my teacher’s son, lives on the Van Riper Orchard today and is a member of Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS, Inc., 501C3 nonprofit corporation), whose mission is to return salmon and steelhead to the entire thirty-three mile length of Auburn Ravine. The entire Auburn Ravine Watershed, which includes Auburn Ravine and Coon Creek and all of their tributaries, is the ancestral homeland of the local Maidu/Miwok Tribe, currently identified as the United Auburn Indian Community (UAIC). The tribe is very tightly controlled by the company it hired to operate its Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, one of the richest and most success Gambling Casino in the US, but has not been involved with restoring its ancient tribal lands. These wateros are evidence of the centrality of the salmon and steelhead to the life of early Auburn Band of Maidu/Miwoks. They lived close to the salmon streams simply because the salmon was to the woodland people what the buffalo was to the plains Native people – the very fuel of life itself. In fact, many tribes referred to themselves simply and honestly as the “Salmon People”. SARAS will return Auburn Ravine to its former richness and abundance in fishes. When the first Calling Back the Salmon Ceremony was performed at the SARSAS’ first Calling Back the Salmon Celebration on Auburn Ravine in Lincoln by Ty Gorre and Bill Jacobson in 2011, a seemingly miraculous happening took place. One week after the Ceremony was performed, salmon reappeared in Auburn Ravine for the first time since 1989. Apparently, the Ceremony was magical. From that Ceremony, good things continue to happen on Auburn Ravine. Now that fish passage was installed by Nevada Irrigation District (NID) and Placer County, Granite Bay Flycasters and Bella Vista Foundation and others on its Lincoln Gauging Station in central Lincoln, opening up over two miles of marginal spawning gravels to NID’s Hemphill Dam, good things have happened. Two hundred and seventy-four salmon and about 80 redds were counted in these spawning gravels in 2012. In addition to the fish screen installed by rancher Albert Scheiber in 2011, in 2015 South Sutter and the Family Water Alliance have installed a Dual Cone Fish Screen on Pleasant Grove Canal, designed to keep smolt returning to the Pacific to mature from being diverted into agricultural canals and dying. Former SARSAS Board Member and Salmon Expert Ron Ott has stated, “Up to 90% of all salmon returning to the Pacific from Auburn Ravine are entrained and die in Pleasant Grove Canal.” Now salmon are no longer diverted and no longer die in agriculture fields. This is a fabulous benefit to Auburn Ravine salmon and steelhead. When fish passage projects are completed on NID’s Hemphill Dam, currently blocking upstream migration, and Gold Hill Dam, the largest blockage of fishes on Auburn Ravine, salmon and steelhead will be able to migrate eleven additional miles up Auburn Ravine to Wise Powerhouse, one mile downstream from the City of Auburn. The current good rumor is that NID has plans for fish passage over the two dams underway. Because of its abundant water flow, cool water temperatures and vibrant woodlands on its banks providing shade and habitat for aquatic life as food for fish, and the several state and federal agencies aware of efforts on Auburn Ravine, who are working to help SARSAS return fish runs, the Auburn Ravine may become one of the few success stories in returning salmon and steelhead runs to help offset Pacific Coast anadromy’s march toward extinction. The other element desperately needed is for the people of the Auburn/Lincoln communities to take become involved by writing letters, joining organizations and helping the agencies do what they are charged with doing to protect fish from extinction and return their strong runs to local small streams which will save the fish for extinction. The US Department of Commerce through its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA) is directly charged by the US government for its oversight of inland anadromy; that is, oversight for the protection, well-being, and the return of healthy runs of salmon and steelhead to inland waterways. The public must support and urge NOAA to perform its duties diligently. Jack L. Sanchez President and Founder of Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS, Inc.) nonprofit, public benefit corporation, whose mission is to return salmon and steelhead to the thirty-three mile length of Auburn Ravine.