KR3 MAKES ANGLING UNENJOYABLE
The KR3 diversion of water out of the North Fork Kern narrows the river, lowers pool depths, exposes rocks that would otherwise be submerged, and stagnates flows — all of which make angling unenjoyable
ISSUE: KR3 takes so much water out of the North Fork Kern that it makes angling unenjoyable.
OUR TAKE: Edison should be required to leave much more water in the river to promote enjoyable angling.
SPECIFICS:
Nature almost always (98% of the time) provides at least 100 cfs of natural flow in the North Fork Kern, and usually much more.
The current license authorizes KR3 to divert water out of the river at Fairview Dam, leaving flows below 100 cfs more than half the time, and pushing flows below 50 cfs about one-third of the time.
Fish flows below Fairview Dam are 100 cfs or less 10 months a year, every year — and only 40 cfs for one-third of each year.
These artificially low flows have devastating consequences for the fishery and riverine ecosystem below Fairview Dam. In essence, KR3 kills all the trout below Fairview Dam in all but the wettest of years.
The Kern River Fly Fishers (KRFF) is the oldest organization based around fishing on the Kern.
KRFF members unanimously agree that fishing below Fairview Dam is generally unenjoyable.
KRFF blogger Rich Arner — a past president of the organization and its most technical analyst — has repeatedly explained that fishing below Fairview Dam is plainly unenjoyable at flows under 100 cfs due to stagnant water, decreased pool depths, and predation.
Edison’s Response: “There is no evidence of a problem.”
How to Help: Tell FERC and USFS (click the links for instructions),
Who you are and how much you care about the North Fork Kern;
That fishing below Fairview Dam is unenjoyable at the unnaturally low flows caused by the KR3 hydroproject;
You support radically increased minimum flows for the health of the natural fishery and the benefit of the angling community.
Go Deeper: Read our Enjoyable Angling Flows Study Proposal.
We also have teed up information about five other areas in which KR3 harms our river, the natural environment, and the human environment:
Aesthetics ºº Environment ºº Health ºº Whitewater ºº Safety
Please have a look at these resource topics and send your views on them issues to FERC and other managing agencies. Do not simply assume the agencies will resolve these issues in the public’s favor; they have failed in the past and Edison is well funded and politically connected. Speak up now for yourselves and the future. And please consider following our Free The Kern Facebook campaign page. Together, we can Free The Kern.