100 Years Later… Napa Wants its Steelhead Back

york creek

The town of St. Helena, CA is seeking an additional $800,000 to remove the Upper York Creek Dam, which has been blocking steelhead migration for more than a hundred years. In 2000, NOAA determined that the dam violated the Endangered Species Act and earlier in 1993 a court ordered the dam be removed. In 2010 the city agreed to the $5.6 million project, which is advancing thanks to local, state, and federal funds.

Public Works director Steve Palmer is optimistic they’ll find the remaining cash, “We’re actively searching for other ways to get that money, but in the meantime we need to move forward, get the environmental report adopted, and start working through our permits,” he said. “The more shovel-ready your project is, the more opportunities there are for funding.”

Parties involved hope the project will commence next summer, with a two-year timeline.

Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily DrakeBy Tom Bie April 6, 2015

Tags: Daily Fly Fishing News Permit

Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply