North Trinity Hiking Trail PDFs...
Last modified on: Thursday, 19-Apr-2018 11:02:56 EDT
CRITICALLY DRY YEAR !!
Trinity Lake Report
4/19/18 - The lake is up over 2,336', which is 34' below the spillway. We are getting
a little rain, but the snowpack is pretty thin up at 5,000'. The Trinity Journal reported
that the Alps snowpack is only 23% of normal. And they have begun dumping the lake down the river.
The Bureau has proclaimed this year a Critically Dry year. That is the lowest category
in terms of water release. In a Critically Dry year, they take
389,000 acre-feet, or about 32 feet of lake elevation, and dump it down the river.
Of course, the water down the river could be only half of what they take — the
rest goes over the hill to the Central Valley. But since one turbine is down on Trinity
Dam, they will be reluctant to release more to the valley.
The lake is reported to be up a tad to 98% of normal for this date. This is not bad
looking right now, but with a very thin snowpack, the percent of "normal"
will drop faster than is typical this spring. In normal snowfall years, the river flows
in May are backfilled by snowmelt.
Here is a graph
of historic lake elevation (updated 4/14) showing spillway and Trinity Center ramp elevations.
(The gaps in the line on the graph are due to missing or bad data in the state's database.)
California Boating and Waterways Commission
Approved Our Boat Ramp Project!
At the Feb 8, 2017 meeting of the state Boating and Waterways commission in Weaverville,
approval was granted for the $1.64 million improvement project for the Trinity Center
launching facility. The grant will be given to the USFS to do the work since they manage
the National Recreation Area that controls recreation on Trinity Lake.
The USFS has applied for a $1.64 million grant to improve the parking, restroom and launch
facilities at our boat ramp. The plan is to extend and re-pave the double-lane ramp down to
the bottom of the current single-lane, put in a new floating courtesy dock, install
all-new restrooms, and more! The details are in
this document.
The day before the meeting, on Feb 7, the commission toured the Trinity Center ramp and concluded
that this is a very valuable resource for our community in need of overhaul.
A strong showing of local support both at the ramp tour and at the meeting in Weaverville went
a long way toward convincing commission members of the need. They said multiple times that they
were impressed with the public show of support for the project.
The work will need to be done at a lower lake level, and the end of the drought this year is
ironic timing, but the project is approved and actually includes funding for a small cofferdam
to allow work even if the ramp is not fully exposed.
A big Thank You to California Department of Boating and Waterways, the USFS NRA team, the Trinity Collaborative,
and, of course, a small, tireless group of locals who fought to keep this project on the radar and moving forward!
Trinity County Code Enforcement
Here are a few quick links to documents on the Trinity County website:
Bay Delta Conservation Plan and Delta Tunnels
Controversy continues
as more people become aware of the Governor's proposal to divert Northern Calif water south through
two 32-foot diameter tunnels under the Delta. You can read much about this plan on our Stop
the Tunnels page. Below are some recent articles and news:
