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The Slab Creek run on the South Fork American River passes through scenic granite canyons in the western slopes of the Sierra.<\/p>\n
Darin McQuoid Photography<\/p>\n
The disappointing news came last week: A whitewater trip I\u2019d been looking forward to\u00a0\u2014 that winds through gorgeous and seldom-paddled granite canyons in the Sierra foothills\u00a0\u2014 had been abruptly canceled.<\/p>\n
Dozens of kayakers and rafters like me had been eager to get on the South Fork American River\u2019s Slab Creek run, a remote stretch of water north of Placerville that\u2019s only recently become a viable paddling destination. Last Sunday was supposed to be one of the few days of the year when a reservoir there releases flows that transform the mellow river corridor into a 5-mile whitewater party of huge rapids that attract paddlers from around the state.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen it goes off, it\u2019s a really special, spectacular run,\u201d said Trevor Croft, the editor of Rafting Magazine who grew up paddling the Sierra and has run Slab Creek many times. \u201cIt\u2019s a harder section of whitewater with bigger rapids than what you find in other places around here.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had to cancel or postpone outdoor trips for a lot of reasons, usually having to do with weather or wildfire. But the reason this time surprised me: The record-setting March heat wave that obliterated the Sierra snowpack also triggered an early mating season for the foothill yellow-legged frog, an endemic species of cute amphibian with olive coloring and nubbly skin that emerges each spring to breed along the riverbanks when it warms up.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The frog is found in mountain ranges across the state but is listed as endangered or threatened in several regions. Discharging torrents of whitewater out of the Slab Creek Reservoir dam would risk blasting the frogs and their egg masses downstream.<\/p>\n I assumed we\u2019d have to delay the trip for a few weeks, but a representative from the national nonprofit advocacy group American Whitewater corrected me: The frogs\u2019 larvae need months to mature. The whole Slab Creek season was kaput<\/a>, over before it began.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Balancing the sometimes competing priorities of wildlife protection and public recreation\u00a0\u2014 and in this instance, water storage and hydropower as well\u00a0\u2014 is part of California\u2019s endless effort to appropriately manage its most precious natural resource. This situation was a small case study: The South Fork American holds some of the best whitewater runs in the country, and they in turn support the tourism economies of rural mountain communities. Also, like a lot of the Sierra\u2019s dammed and altered waterways, the river props up a massive hydropower system engineered to serve 900 square miles of the Greater Sacramento area. And then it\u2019s the home turf of threatened species of frogs, turtles, and other creatures and plants.<\/p>\n I called Scott Harding, American Whitewater\u2019s stewardship associate and an expert on Northern California river politics and paddling. The organization was key in advocating for recreational flow releases<\/a> out of the Slab Creek Reservoir, which began a decade ago under a 50-year license order between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the dam operator, the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been engaged in that process for 20 years and then bird-dogging the implementation of the whitewater releases,\u201d Harding said. \u201cNow there\u2019s an opportunity for people to go and enjoy that stretch of river, and it\u2019s starting to gain popularity.\u201d<\/p>\n For a long time, the Slab Creek run only got going periodically during big storm surges when the dam cut water from its spillway. It was kind of a local secret, enjoyed by a cohort of expert paddlers who monitor Sierra river flows the way most people check the weather forecast.<\/p>\n American Whitewater sought to carve out a schedule of reliable releases so more paddlers could enjoy it. Per a settlement agreement, SMUD is obligated to issue up to 12 releases for paddlers in spring during a typical water year. But many years since have been anything but typical \u2014 with seasons of heavy precipitation intermixed with extremely dry periods \u2014 so paddling opportunities at Slab Creek have\u00a0proved to be infrequent and elusive. Recreational flows have been released in only five of the past 11 years.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Paddlers, including Croft, had planned to take advantage of the flow initially scheduled for last Sunday\u00a0\u2014 which was to be the second release of the season ahead of several more in April. But amid one of the hottest March months on record, frog mating season came early.<\/p>\n A foothill yellow-legged frog is seen along the banks of the Feather River in Northern California.<\/p>\n Rebecca Fabbri \/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<\/p>\n The foothill yellow-legged frog \u201chas disappeared from more than 50% of its historic habitat\u201d here, a fate attributed to a slew of forces including \u201cdams, water diversions, logging, mining, livestock grazing, climate change, pesticides, off-road vehicles, disease, urban and agricultural expansion and marijuana cultivation,\u201d\u00a0according to the Center for Biological Diversity<\/a>.<\/p>\n The creatures need warmer, slow-moving water to thrive. Their \u201cbreeding stream habitat is typically shallow, rocky and at least partially exposed to direct sunlight,\u201d according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n