Warm Springs Dam recreation, with Steve Phelps and Kasey Cook

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announced a tune for cinema counting the eighties with Rich McGlinchy coming up next and now the Sonoma County Public Information Office presents Cinema County in the eighties with your host rich McGlinchy. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Boys

and girls, I'm glad you could join us tonight for this edition of Sonoma Cat in the eighties because we're gonna be talking about Sonoma County's newest wonderland. Not really accounting function. You're gonna learn all about it in just a moment. The guest on our program tonight,

our park manager, Steve Phelps on the left of your screen and case to Cook Park Ranger. And what's the other title? Chief of interpretation. Chief of interpretation. Get that carefully. All right, Let's go right into it. Steve, Warm Springs Dam and Lake Sanoma are fairly well

known certainly to people in the county now, but many people don't know where it is and they don't know much about it. How about a little background about it? Okay, Rich, um, like snowmen. Warm Springs Dam is located in Northern Snow, a county approximately 11 miles

northwest of Hill Zberg. And it's run by the Army Corps of Engineers. And I'm let Casey tell us a little bit about the history of the Corps of Engineers. Okay. The Corps of Engineers is one of the oldest agencies in the nation. Um, originally responsible for

protecting our fortifications, they got into the management of our nation's waterways through the building of dams. They've been able to provide flood control, water supply, hydropower and recreation, and warm springs down like Sanoma was built for a few purposes. I think stable. Expand on that. A

little Warm Springs dam is a multipurpose project. Its main purpose is our flood control water supply in recreation, a secondary purposes. Hydropower we brought with is a slide show produced by one of our park rangers less L'Art that we use the dedication of the dam in

1982 and we'd like to show you a short segment to bring you up to date on the history of the dam itself. Yeah, that was beautiful. I start up there and OK, gentlemen, let's see a professional slideshow presentation that it really is onwards. Friends down, flowing

south out of Mendocino County into Sonoma County. The Russian River Inter specific ocean Jenner Named by the early Russian explorers, This river has been home to man for thousands of years. The peaceful promo Indians relied on the river and its tributaries for many things, such as

salmon and steelhead. They trapped during the spawning runs. Logging, fruit orchards and vineyards became important industries to the newcomers of the area. The Russian River has always been important to those living nearby, but occasionally disaster strikes in the form of droughts and floods. After a major

flood in 1937 the U. S Army Corps of Engineers was called upon to study the river basin and make recommendations. Resulting plan called for the construction of Coyote Dam on the east pork, the Russian River near UK and Warm Springs Damn on Dry Creek, 11 miles

northwest of Healdsburg. Completed in 1959 carry damn formed Blakeman Casino and provides flood control a year round water supply and recreation, Congress authorized the construction of Warm Springs Dam in 1962 and construction began five years later. Do funding problems created by the Vietnam War work was

halted for nearly two years. Road relocation and other construction activities resumed in 1970 in the spring of 1974. A citizens group opposing the damn went to court, alleging the environmental impact statement was an addict. A court injunction stopped construction in Warm Springs damn four years while

construction modifications were planned. An additional studies were conducted after satisfying all questions. Court injunction was lifted and construction resumed. In 1978 the construction contract was awarded to Auburn Constructors, a joint venture of Gordon H. Ball Incorporated, Guy F. Atkinson Company and the Arrendel Corporation. The work

on the dam was supervised by the Corps of Engineers under the watchful eyes of the San Francisco district. Damn was topped off in the fall of 1982 while work on roads, landscaping and cleanup continued into 1983. Warm Springs Dam is an earth and damn 319 feet

tall and 3/4 of a mile long. Several earthquakes safety designs were incorporated into the design of this damn. Perhaps the easiest to see is a low profile of the dam. Another feature is the very high £56,000 per square foot compaction of the soil. And damn, This

is 4.5 times greater than normal construction methods and required the development of a special piece of equipment to achieve the compaction. The Tampa rollers are not only heavy, but both drums vibrate up and down to aid in the packing of the soil. A single passed with

a vibrant Torrey rower is not sufficient, so three or four would move in a line at 1.5 MPH to meet the stiff specifications. The soil used in a damn came from to borrow areas. Clay material for the center of the dam, called impervious core, was trucked

the damn side from the stream bed behind the dam. About 3/4 of the 30 million cubic yards of soil and a dam is called random Phil, and it was brought from the mountain top north of the dam by a 3/4 mile long conveyor belt. The moving

of this material was one of the fascinating aspects of the construction. The conveyor belt could carry up to 8500 tons per hour. And using this weight, enough electricity was generated to light up the work area so construction could continue late into the night. To make releases

of water from the dam, a complex outlets system was constructed. It includes a 10.5 foot diameter main tunnel at the bottom of the reservoir and 35 foot low flow tunnels at upper levels. These tunnels are connected together by a 300 foot deep vertical control shaft within

the hillside north of the dam. At the bottom of the control shaft, Main tunnel becomes 14.5 feet in diameter and releases water downstream of the dam near the fish hatchery Things. Complex Outlets system allows water to be taken various levels, lake and mixed to produce water

of the correct temperature and auctions and content for the fish. In Dry Creek and the fish hatchery approaching the dam on Dry Creek Road, concrete line spillway is seen. The spillway works is an overflow for the protection of the dam, but we're rarely see service. Warm

Springs Dam is now complete and will soon begin to fill when an average rainfall of 45 to 50 inches a year. Lake will fill in about two years. Lake Sonoma will be a medium sized like for California, with a surface area of 2700 acres. Steep terrain

will give the lake a 53 mile shoreline. Dry Creek arm of the lake will extend nine miles from the dam, while the warm springs creak arm will go back four miles. Lakes average depth just behind the dam will be 251 feet. Construction of a project of

this size has an effect on many things, including wildlife, native culture and even the history of the area. For three years, archaeological studies were conducted in the park. This work uncovered artifacts similar to those found elsewhere in California. An interesting fact develop from the studies was

the constant or continual presence of Indians in the area dating back 6000 years. The archaeological sites that will be covered by the lake are protected with a covering a plastic and sand and marked with a magnetic marker at some future time. If the lake level is

lowered, some of these sites could be located and reopened for further study. The Native Americans of this area known as Po Mo. Indians are world famous basket makers. One of the primary materials used informal baskets is the roots of a grass like plants called sedge that

grows along stream banks. 40,000 of these such plants were transplanted from in the area of the future lake to a downstream location along Dry Creek. To ensure a supply of basket materials, a great deal of consideration has been given to wildlife. It, like Sonoma 5000 acres,

about 1/3 of the parks land area has been set aside for wildlife management. Included is in this area is the Dry Creek Critical Habitat Zone for the peregrine falcon and dangerous species. A pair of these falcons have been successfully nesting into cliff. Some of the protective

eyes of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bird Campas, it's called, was maintained to the nesting season to make observations of peregrine behavior and provide security for the nest site, another group of animals that are being helped the warm springs damn arts, salmon and steelhead

of the Russian River. Over the past several decades, the size of the spawning runs from the Pacific Ocean have decreased with the construction of warm springs. Damn, another 13 miles of gravelly stream bottom once prime spawning area will become unusable as lakes Noma fills to replace

this loss and to enhance the salmon and steelhead in river system, a fish hatchery was built just below the dam, unable to go beyond the damn fish. Follow the ladder into the hatchery, where the eggs were taken from the fish and incubated. After hatching, the young

fish are reared and then released to journey to the sea. When fully operational, the hatchery is projected to produce 300,000 steelhead trout, 110,000 silver salmon and to start a new run, one million King salmon each year. That's a tremendous slideshow, Steve, that Joe is actually shown

at the dam to, isn't it? Yesterday, as we showed in the visitor center, Teoh are tour groups in on request. We also have other slide shows available, and, uh, they cover different subjects, such as the fish after your construction of the dam. Well, we just want

to tell all the youngsters in the audience at this time that if they do go up to Warm Springs Damn, it's quite possible that you can attend a showing of the film. The film we showed you now is not the entire field. There's a little more

to it. But if you go up there, you can see the entire thing. Now, Steve, look, let's get into the recreational facilities. Uh, let's ask you couple of questions and wonder what type of recreational facilities air planned for the week and then when will they be

completed and open for use? Okay, Rich, I'm glad you asked me that question because we have a lot of questions from the public on that. We're currently in phase one construction of our recreation facilities that, uh, like Sonoma. And we plan over the next 33 years

to build a launch ramp, which will be located at the south end of the park. It's for those of you have been up there most recently. You can see it. It's under construction Now, Um, it'll be located just at the east end of the Warm Springs

Creek Bridge, which is located on Rock Pile Road. Also, we'll be constructing a vehicle access campground. It'll be approximately 100 to 120 site campground. We also currently have under construction 40 miles of equestrian and hiking trails, which we hope to open to the public later this

summer. And, uh, the trails will connect into a number of primitive campsites, which will be accessible by boating or by hiking. At the north end of the park, which is accessible via Cloverdale on Hot Springs Road will be constructing a day use picnic area and a

car top launching area. It's going to be an absolute wonder, man. What's true? There's gonna be just about every type of recreation that you could possibly want up there, isn't it? Well, we hope so. Everything you know, you told me you do this frequently. Only had

a chance to do it once, going real, back up this dream up there, there's some of the most beautiful unspoilt land I've ever seen. Yes, there's some beautiful areas in the upper reaches of the park that, as you mentioned, are on disturbed. Okay, um, Katie, question

for you. Is there a fee for launching the boat up there and and also, what about the marina? Yes, there is a fee for launching your boat, and it's the only launching that is available is at the marina right now. As Steve mentioned, our public boat

ramp that the Corps of Engineers is building will be completed the end of June. At that time, there will not be a fee at that boat ramp. The Marina boat ramp is there, allowing car top boats to be launched there right now. The reason for that

is that the Lakers at a level that has inundated the ramp that they used last summer. But it's not yet to the level of the new boat ramp that will be used when the lake is filled. So that's basically the only launching. Their allowing is the

car top launching. The marina was leased to private concessionaire, and they have 300 acres of leased property, and it was leased to three partners. Ken Wilson, Wally Lord. Oh, and, um, see the other Rick Herbert, right? Rick Herbert. And they are running the marina facilities. All

right, Steve, Will there be hunting allowed on the park grounds? That's another question. That way with you, we are working right now with the State of California Department Efficient game to establish a special program to help deal with our our populations of feral pigs. A feral

pig is a domesticated pig that's gone wild two years and we've had quite a problem with the pigs out of the car park. But before we could really implement this hunting program, we, first of all, have Teoh complete our part boundary fencing, which we're currently working

on, and work out all the all the details with the state to implement the program. We're looking at a table implication of this program for the stunning program in probably the fall of 88. Okay, now you have a lot of trails up there when we're trail

system be completed and who will be able to use the trails? Well, the the trails are under construction now, as I mentioned earlier, uh, and we're using a several means to construct the trails. California Conservation Corps are involved in the construction that trails, uh, Sonoma County

Conservation for sponsored by circuit rider production out of Windsor are involved, and we have a contractor rich triplet that uses a small trail cat in construction, the trails and they will be open for use. Hopefully, the latter part of this summer will have 40 miles completed,

and they will be available for use by equestrian folks, horseback riders and hikers. And we are currently working on a policy Teoh, maybe even allow bicycles pedaled bicycles on some portions of the trails. We've been working with the Sonoma County Trails Council on development of this

policy. And by the time we open the major portion, the trails who will have our policy established, Uh, how many anchors air in the whole park? The whole, uh, park it comes is about 18,000 acres. 18,000. Right spring. That's nice point. Yes, it is. Park, uh,

the dam itself was completed. What was what was it? And we present a film that would actually compete. Dedicate the dam itself was talked out in 1982. Okay. And then we dedicated that about 2 83 way dedicated that the summer of 84 83 23. We didn't

get the dam and the Congressman Don Clawson tonight at the same time. Because a member of the dedication ceremony up there that was almost 1000 people out there. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to pause for just a moment and just a moment We'll be back with

Steve Phelps and Casey Cook. We'll talk more about warm springs damn and the magnificent recreational area that it is and will be as they finish all the things up there. But first, these important messages, excessive drinking and alcoholism are problems of major magnitude throughout our country,

state, nation and the world. Yet if you a member of your family or someone you know and care about has a drinking problem, help is his near as your telephone. Theoren Dah Center is a comprehensive programme, providing services for persons with alcoholism and alcohol related problems

and their families. Services include outpatient counseling, inpatient residential treatment, detoxification and educational programs that are open to the public at no charge. For further information, contact Horrendous center at 5 to 84141 Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls were glad to have you

all with us tonight. We're talking to Steve Phelps. He's the park manager and Casey's cooking cases, a park ranger and in charge of the interpretive center. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah, all right. I didn't think I could Okay, uh, Steve, there's a riot. Property it there.

You just said there's an 18,000 acre park. Imagine that 18,000 acres will be waterfront property for sale over. That's a question that a lot of the developers in our area ask off a bit. They are, and unfortunately, there will not be there. Will not will not

be any waterfront park. Still, it'll all be managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. The land it immediately adjacent to the lake. Yeah, there's most of that land is accessible, his knitter, or is it all accessible? Well, a little of it probably isn't. There's. There's an

awful lot of rugged train in the park, and the areas that will be accessible will be accessible by trails or or by body in different areas. But I won't ask you in a moment. One of things I want to ask before we are through is about

the Overlook up there and places like that for the kids and their families to go up to later. Casey. What kind of fish have been or ruby planted at Lixian over? Well, the California Department of Fish and Game has planted steelhead or your resident rainbow trout

in the lake. Um, your Sacramento perch, your small and large mouth bass and you're ready or sunfish. So in the future, they plan on planting additional plants of you're smallmouth bass and also channel catfish. Is there a tremendous amount of fish being planted there? Um, there's

been a substantial amount of tremendous. Their luck is out there. People are having good luck catching fish. They're catching trout right now, about four feet under, with worms and the best places to fish or back on the the dry creek arms where the trees have been

left left for habitat. So we're having quite good success. That's that's gonna be a fisherman's paradise. I think it's gonna be a boater's paradise. It's gonna be a hiker's paradise. I mean, we're talking about 18,000 acres of ah, beautiful terrain and beautiful hills and the lake

going of all the different directions and Dry Creek. It's just a fantastic area, and I sincerely hope that all of you who are in our audience tonight will make it a point to go to Warm Springs. Damning, like Sonoma is now and in the future. We're

talking really live it later this year, and certainly in the years ahead, because it's gonna be a magnificent place. Uh, one of the question has there been many fish returning to the fish hatchery? We have had a lot of fish returning to the hatchery. It's in

relation to the dry creek, the water that's in Dry Creek and in the Russian River. The success has been related to that. The second year in operation, we had approximately 1000 silver salmon come back in the year after that, about 2000 steel hit, and this year

we haven't had as many, probably because of the late rains and not as much rain that we need toe make the run successful. Um, we've had about 100 and 70 steelhead return this year. We're in the middle of their runs, so we expect more and we've

had 54 King Sam and they were all male returned this year, and we didn't have any silver salmon again. This is probably related to the amount of water that's in Dry Creek and the Russian River. Did we have we talked about everyone? The question ask you,

Steve, uh, maybe we should get this out right now. Read. Agencies were involved in enforcement of the regulations on the lake. Well, there's there's number agencies that you might see when you visit our park on the lake service itself. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department is responsible

for the water enforcement they enforce the California State voting laws. We do have a sheriff's department office in the park and there in the park seven days a week. This this past summer, we were very fortunate in hit to have, uh, five excellent deputies in the

park, and they were responsible for the enforcement of not only the water program, but also the assistant is our rager shift. And enforcing the resource is, uh, code of federal regulations. We were one of the few lakes in the state this past summer that did not

have a major boating accident or death, and we hope to keep that record. I sincerely hope so, too. You know, when I have got up there in the past, been of the Visitor center, which is the visitor center is a fabulous place. You can you can

learn more about that particular area Warm Springs Dam in the visitor center. Probably then you can accept by actually walking every part of it, and that is a magnificent thing, then going up to the Overlook. Now you just, you know, directions to get up there. Explain

that a little bit. That's that's located. Where and what can they see? Their okay, Three Overlook is located on top of hell, a hell that overlooks the lake and also dry Creek Valley. And if you look across the valley, you could see the guys. Er's, um,

you overlook is a day use facility, so it's only open during daylight hours. We have some picnic tables available. Um, it's accessible off of stories Point Road, and it's about four miles from the visitor center. Yeah, it's a fantastic thing, so be sure toe go there

when you're here. Casey, do you allow the public to cut firewood in the park for home use? Well, all the wood that needed to be cut for the reservoir was cut by contract. We After the campsites are open, we will allow people to collect the downed

and dead wood for use in the designated campfire grill. So that's the only word that we allow people to collect. You can't go up there, load up and take a look right? Would has been cut. That needs to be cash deal, But you can't do it.

No, uh, run final question here that were wrecked receptor. We're hydropower be produced a warm springs. Damn, Steve. And if so, how extensive will that be? And and when will you build a plant for? Okay, well, the actual construction of the hydropower, uh, planets is ongoing

right now that's being overseen by the Sonoma County Water Agency. The construction in the dam itself will take place. Uh, probably this summer. Uh, the power plant will not be a large power plant. It'll be small in relationship to other power plants in the state, but

it should be large enough to furnish power for a small city. Maybe the size of hills Berg or, uh, Cloverdale can be fascinating. Alright, We're just about to the end of our time here and a couple of things I want o turned out for the youngsters

that are in the audience tonight. If you haven't been to warm springs. Damn, it's something you really should do. You should go up there because it's a beautiful place. It's easily accessible from Santa Rosa. I'll have Steve give you the exact route here in a moment,

but you can go up there. You could go into this, I said earlier, the visitor center. That's beautiful and grew up the Overlook. That's beautiful. You can go into lakes a Newman. That's fantastic. There's fish all over the place on the other thing. I mentioned to

Steve earlier these to ask him about, Take a boat and go back up the creek, and you can see some of the most idyllic country that I think that we still remains in this part of the United States. And I think that anyone who has the

opportunity to go to warm springs damn with your family kids on an outing should do so. Do you have any final remarks? You want to make a profit? Well, I would like to encourage everyone to, As Rich said, come visit us. But if you have a

large group and you'd like a tour, please call us two weeks in advance and you can reaches at area code 707 4339483 And as for Casey isn't set yet. Before you heard it, Casey didn't let us know what you'd like. A program on and we can

accommodate you, I'm sure. And you take care of you have the head of the interpretive center. Basically, you take care of these things, Don't you? Apartment? You conduct the tour, I try Teoh. That's one part of my job that I don't want to leave. I have

a staff that's very good and leading tours and and they do the majority of the tours. I would say, Well, it's been a real pleasure. I was hoping to get you down here for a long time. Tell everybody about working. Damn and cases you're you're an

added bonus. The personnel center. It's nice to have you up there. Know that Europe there, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, We've been talking to you. Steve Phelps, the park manager. Casey Cook Park Rangers. He's also in charge of the interpretive center, and we've been talking

about, as we told you before, Sonoma County's newest Wonderland, Warm Springs Damn Park Recreational area. And it is fantastic, and I do sincerely recommend that if you haven't been there, go there soon. My name fits McGlinchey. I'll be back with you next week for another edition

of Soma Canyon eighties we'll talk to another county, government agency or related agencies such as the Park Ranger and the park manager for war Springs. Damn well, let a little bit more about this county. We live in the county. We all know until it's so long.

A lot of it left each and every one of you. Sonoma County in the eighties is a production of the Sonoma County Public Information Office. This program is being produced as a public service by Total Television of Santa Rosa for Channel 22. Be sure to join

us next week. Same time, same channel for another edition of Sonoma County in the eighties.