Siskiyou County — Scott Valley landowners and
agricultural water users sent a letter on Oct. 28
alleging that the California Department of Fish and Game
(DFG) had shut headgates and removed fish screens on two
diversion ditches earlier that month.
Senior Fishery Biologist Mark Pisano stated in an
interview Friday that the DFG did remove the screens,
but due to an agreement with the Department of Water
Resources, which acts as the watermaster in the Scott
Valley, has a “hands-off” policy on headgates.
Pisano said that DFG employees working in the valley
will remove the screens for annual maintenance and
cleaning on ditches that appear to have been dry or are
known to be dry during certain stretches of the year.
The letter, which was sent to a number of DFG offices in
the north state, said that the landowners affected by
the removal of the screens and the shutting of the
headgates had not been notified that the actions were
taken.
While the DFG is not responsible for the headgates,
Pisano said that the department has not had a practice
of notifying water users when it removes the screens, a
practice that will likely be reviewed in the future in
the hopes of avoiding similar situations.
Readers Comments:
punkin7
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The DFG needs to contact people and tell them what the heck they are doing. They don't live in a bubble.