Take Action! Support BLM’s recommendation to designate Butte Creek and 56 other suitable river segments as Wild and Scenic Rivers – Protecting Spring-Run, Winter-Run and Fall-Run Chinook Salmon.
Background
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is recommending 5.7 miles of Butte Creek be officially designated as a National Wild and Scenic River. The recommendation is included in the agency’s draft Northwest California Integrated Plan (NCIP), which is the first major update to this area in 30 years. The draft plan gives options for management of “areas of critical environmental concern” and recommends protection status for rivers.
Sign the Below Letter to BLM in Support of Butte Creek and Chinook Salmon by December 21
BLM will continue to take comments on the NCIP, which includes protections for Butte Creek and numerous other streams flowing through public lands managed by BLM in northern and northwestern California until December 28, 2023. The designation would apply to federal lands and would not affect existing private property, land use, or zoning.
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act protections would prohibit the federal government from permitting, licensing and funding new dams or diversions on the designated stream segments. The Act declared that “certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.”
In October 2023, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries announced an emergency action plan to capture Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon juveniles in a move to prevent extinction of the threatened species. During the last few years, spring-run Chinook have continued to be exposed to harmful water temperatures and dangerously low water flows in our rivers, including the Sacramento.
Letter to BLM in Support of Their Recommendation to Designate Butte Creek as a Wild and Scenic River