The Williamson is rising!

I noticed the Williamson River is up about 5 or 6 inches more today.The river is still below average for this time of year. There is an exaggerated delay in runoff reaching us here at the Lonesome Duck due to the baffling effect of the several canyons upstream on the Sprague River as well as the effects of Klamath Marsh on the Williamson proper.

The Sprague, which has a large watershed, both watersheds reaching to the Great Basin, joins the Williamson at Chiloquin. Chiloquin is about 5 river miles above us. The Sprague is also very important in the life history of the Redband Rainbow trout that Klamath Lake and the rivers flowing into it are famous for producing. Furthermore, the Sprague River is one of the principal breeding streams of the endangered Lost River Sucker (Deltistes luxatus) and Shortnose Sucker (Chasmistes brevirostris), once extremely abundant and still important to the Klamath Tribes. In fact, a small diversion dam for irrigation that blocked the Sprague at Chiloquin was taken out in 2008. An important reason was to allow the passage and breeding of the endangered suckers. More evidence is building that the dam removal is also benefiting the Redband Rainbows which are known to migrate well over 100 miles above the dam site to spawn. Without the dam they now have much less inhibited access to this large watershed.

For more background, Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name Chaloquin, which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time of the treaty of 1864. Some say Chiloquin also means two, or twin, rivers.

A little more of the history can be found at http://www.chiloquin.us/History.htmhttp://www.chiloquin.us/History.htm