fire map

it's not looking to good. Access 4 and 5 look like they are toast. I saw some news clips of access 5 burning. How bad it got I'm not sure. It's a sad day for Putah Creek. We might be looking at a long recovery if it's as bad as it looks. 

 

- Nic 

The fire seems to be headed due south towards Pleasants Valley Road.  There are a lot of homes along there.  Hope they stop it in time.

Has anybody in this forum close to Putah creek taken a ride to the area to check the damage? I wander if the large trees along the river have survived or if everything was burned.

-- Edited by Fornacino on Friday 24th of July 2015 09:51:36 AM

This looks terrible for Putah Creek! According to the latest fire map (see link below),

www.google.com/maps/d/viewer

the big island off Parking Area 5 has been completely burnt and nearly the entire south side of the creek is gone. I am afraid that the loss of streamside cover combined with the ash run-off when the Fall rains begin are going to be devastating for the Winter breeding session.

As of last night

Both 128 and Pleasant Valley Rd are both open. The fire jumped the road at #1 and #5.

Black Cloud, thanks for the pics. Looks bad, but I had even worse images in my mind.

I was at #1 yesterday and if anything the fire improved access. Most of the burn there was just west of the parking lot.

The whole south shore (far) seemed pretty scorched and if you can make it over there you would have many more options as far getting to the water and even making full false casts.

I saw only one or two burned trees, everything else was just burned grass and blackberry bushes, just cleared em all out.

Hopefully a lot of the poison oak will have been taken care of as well.

I drove up to Sacramento this morning and it looks like the fire has flared back up again. Big ploom of smoke....looks to be north of the creek...hard to tell from I80. Saw about 8 Cal Fire trucks exit at Lagoon Valley Road.

I think every Putah Creek angler is curious about the answer to this question. On another flyfishing site I posted the question of what effects a fire could have on a stream that had been engulfed by a fire. I had several informative answers which I have summarized below.

 

Potential effects of the fire:

 

- Runoff of sediment due to the loss of plant cover. Excess sediment can destroy benthic (stream bottom) insect larvae, thus reducing the food supply.

 

 

- Possible big fish kill after heavy rains. The runoff of sediment could reduce oxygen content and make the stream too alkaline

 

 

- The effects of the fire is dependent upon several factors:

- the gradient of the stream

 

- the amount of topsoil and debris washed into the river by rain

 

- the remaining cover and vegetation which could minimize the amount of runoff

 

- rain that could be heavy enough to create the runoff

 

The steeper the gradient, the thicker the soil and debris, the less intact protective cover and vegetation, and the greater the subsequent rains ==> the greater the possible negative impact of the fire

 

 

- Regarding a local stream which had experienced a fire, one person said that it experienced a fish kill after it took a direct hit from a slurry bomber. It killed many of the larger fish. He said that the stream insect life was fairly quick in its recovery, but the larger fish were slow to reappear. He also said that the stream had been closed for a year following the fire. He also mentioned the Hayman fire that burned much of the watershed of the South Platte (Colorado) river in 2002. For several years after a lot of sediment washed into the stream and lakes in the area and choked the stream’s riverbed. Some parts of the river recovered fairly quickly while other areas were very slow to recover.

 

Of course, only time will tell what the actual effects of the Wragg fire will be on Putah creek. However, judging from the answers I received, it’s pretty apparent that the effects could be quite devastating. On the positive side, I believe that Putah has been pretty resilient over the years so I’m hoping that it will withstand one more serious blow to the fishery.

 

So it sounds like you can fish from the Yolo side of Putah creek or north side when do they lower cfm has any one fished Putah in the last couple of weeks, also were would you find out about volunteer projects for this fall

Spoke too soon. Wildlife Area (South bank) is still closed. Access 1-4 open, but no comment on 5-assume it is closed and proceed at risk of citation. I'll call tomorrow to see if its in fact off limits.