Low Flows, High Stakes: Lessons from Fisheries Management on Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks during California's Historic Drought
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Low Flows, High Stakes: Lessons from Fisheries Management
on Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks During California's
Historic Drought
Elizabeth Vissers*
* Stanford Law School, J.D. expected June 2017, Stanford University,
M.S. Environment and Resources expected June 2017. Many thanks to the
stakeholders who took the time to share their thoughts with me in interviews
and to Leon Szeptycki, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Molly Melius, Ellen Hanak,
Ted Grantham, Caitlin Chappelle, John Ugai, and Philip Womble for their
feedback and support.
This publication was developed with partial support from Assistance
Agreement No.83586701 awarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency
to the Public Policy Institute of California. It has not been formally reviewed
by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of the agency. EPA does not endorse any
products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.
Introduction
From fall 2011 through fall 2015, the state of California suffered through
a severe drought-that four-year period was the driest in California's history
since record keeping began in 18951-resulting in impacts on water right
holders and species alike, and creating complex management problems for
the State Water Resources Control Board, the state agency tasked with
allocating waters to achieve the optimum balance of beneficial uses. For
example, Deer, Mill, and Antelope Creeks are eastside tributaries of the
Sacramento River that provide critical migration, spawning, and rearing
habitat for wild California Central Valley steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
populations and for the last remaining naturally-produced Central Valley
spring-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) populations.2 These fish
species are federally listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act
because of substantial declines in their populations resulting in part from the
1. Ellen Hanak et al., just the Facts: California's Latest Drought, PUB. PoL. INST. CAL.
(Jul. 2016), http://www.ppic.org/main/publicationshow.asp?i=1087.
2. NAT'L MARINE FISHERIES SERV. & CAL. DEP'T OF FISH AND WILDLIFE, CALIFORNIA
VOLUNTARY DROUGHT INITIATIVE 3 (2014) [hereinafter VOLUNTARY INITIATIVE], http://www.
westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/publications/protected-species/salmonsteelhead/drou
ght_2014/voluntary-drought initiative_051414.pdf.
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