CALIFORNIA’S FINEST SPRING CREEK: THE FALL RIVER
Southeast of Mount Shasta, between the Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, a series of fresh-water springs rise year-round from ancient lava beds to form one of the largest spring-fed rivers in the country: California’s Fall River. The Fall is by far one of the most important rivers in California, with cold, clean water, legendary fly fishing, healthy trout populations and outstanding habitat for a wealth of birds, including some of the largest duck populations in the state. Western Rivers Conservancy has the rare opportunity to protect a critical reach of the Fall while setting the stage for restoration of nearly 135 acres of freshwater wetlands.
In the heart of the Fall River valley, we are working to conserve the 270-acre Pope Jensen Ranch, which contains nearly three miles of the Fall. This stretch of the river supports native fish like rainbow trout and bigeye marbled sculpin, a California Fish Species of Special Concern. Half of the ranch is classified as a wetland and conserving it will enable the Pit River Tribe to begin critically-needed restoration efforts, using Traditional Ecological Knowledge, to bring back native plants and keep invasive species down.
A HAVEN FOR MIGRATORY BIRDS
Among the primary beneficiaries of our efforts to conserve Pope Jensen Ranch will be the thousands of migratory birds that move through the Fall River valley every year. The Fall and its tributaries form a mosaic of sloughs, ponds and wetlands that make the valley a critical resting point on the Pacific Flyway, one of the Americas’ major north-south flyways for migratory birds. In the southern Cascades, wet meadow and wetland habitats, including those at Pope-Jensen Ranch, together support over six million birds, including more than 60 percent of the threatened greater sandhill crane breeding population. With its grasslands and healthy riparian vegetation, the ranch also provides habitat for wildlife like mule deer, beaver and muskrat.
RETURNING ANCESTRAL LANDS TO THE PIT RIVER TRIBE
WRC’s goal is to purchase Pope Jensen Ranch and then secure funding to convey it to the Pit River Tribe, which already manages several thousand acres of conservation and agricultural lands in the area. Conserving the ranch represents another outstanding opportunity for WRC and a Tribal Nation partner to work together to deliver not only a win for fish, wildlife and people, but a win for tribal resiliency by returning ancestral lands to their original stewards. And in the end, the Fall River system will be better off for all.
