Notes & photos on SYRCL's Greater Yuba River Cleanup and aftermath

Saturday was SYRCL's 14th annual Greater Yuba River Cleanup and restoration. Some photos and notes:
(Also hear Catherine Stifter's Skipping Stones Across the Yuba River, on KQED's California Report)

Tue Sept 20 update - SYRCL's Miriam Limov confirmed that the Broad St exit trash pile pictured below *is* from the river cleanup, saying it's just from two sites, & overall, 600+ volunteers collected 10 to 11,000 pounds of trash from 35 sites over 90 miles of waterway, with sites along the N., middle & S. Forks of the Yuba, Wolf & Deer Creeks, and more. The Donner Summit cleanup crew alone pulled out 600+ pounds of trash.

Trash collection adjoining Deer Creek, at Broad St. exit. People had told me there hadn't been much to clean up, but this does look substantial.
(Photo taken Monday) (*)


Post-cleanup celebration at Bridgeport. After the music & fashion show came 30+ minutes of SYRCL folk past and present speaking to the assembled lunchers & recounting SYRCL's successes - the river is much cleaner now, and has Wild&Scenic status.

(FYI, there were lots more people than these photos show; but as we were spread out, on multiple levels, I couldn't include the whole gathering.)
But...
...while SYRCL is working to bring salmon back to the upper Yuba, I didn't notice the climate threat to salmon mentioned (though perhaps I missed it) - that (according to UC Davis & other researchers) warming streams could spell the end of spring-run Chinook salmon in California.




But that shortfall may change - I got a chance to talk to brand new SYRCL head Caleb Dardick, and came away favorably impressed with his interest in working with other groups to address this.


The gathering ended with a stone-skipping contest, which was fun to watch and profoundly educational - did you know it was possible to skip a stone 20 times?

The shirt (and that SYRCL spirit)


It sure is a fine river.