The All-Outdoors Whitewater Rafting California River Blog

Senator Doolittle has lately been making attempts to put the Auburn Dam back on the table in national legislation. (The Auburn Dam would drown most of the Middle Fork American River canyon and half of the North Fork American.) Lending impetus to this idea is recent “That Could Happen To Us!” speculation that has followed the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Although certainly not of the teenage-esque mindset that we are immune to natural catastrophe, I can’t help but notice elements of ignored common sense and hysteria within these recent warnings that Sacramento is doomed for the same fate as New Orleans.

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Boaters in Colorado staged a protest recently in order to preserve their right to freely float down the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. A property owner alongside the river has filed a lawsuit against the recreation community, claiming that the public has no right to float by his property. He is basically claiming that the water running in front of his house belongs solely to him.

Sound familiar?

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I recently wrote a post referring to a short story from the LA Times about what the process would be like if Congress ever decided to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley. (See Restoring Hetch Hetchy and the Tuolumne River) This would mean removing the dam and a free-flowing Tuolumne River.

After writing the post I started wondering about the effect this would have, if any, on the state of things a little further downstream; on Cherry Creek and the lower section of the Tuolumne that so many people raft on every year.

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I just found this really interesting short story titled After The Fall from the Los Angeles Times– musings about what it would be like should Congress decide to restore Hetch Hetchy valley in Yosemite.

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The Auburn Dam has been the subject of heated debate for too many years. Now, with the river scheduled to be re-routed back to its natural course within the next couple years and the diversion tunnel set to be re-filled, proponents of the dam still won’t give up.

In a surge of protest and in the spirit of self-preservation, the river took matters into its own hands last week as it spilled over the coffer dam built to divert its waters towards the tunnel and away from the Auburn Dam site, reclaiming its natural course all on its own. The above picture was provided by Protect American River Canyons, a grassroots educational group dedicated to preserving the North and Middle Forks of the American River.
For more complete coverage on the event, go to http://www.auburnjournal.com/articles/2006/01/04/news/
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