The face of the award  Photo by Chris Shutes

The presentation took place at the annual NCCFFF Festival of Fly Fishing banquet dinner on October 11th. The awards to the volunteers were accepted by Chris Shutes, FERC Projects Director, CSPA and Jerry Neuburger, Webmaster, CSPA, standing in for Barbara Bania, Sac-Sierra Branch, Trout Unlimited.  

The actual fish rescues took place at the end of August and mid September. The first rescue attempt took place over four days and involved over 85 volunteers and 60 DFG personnel. The total number of trout saved during that rescue totaled over 6,400. The fish were released into either Red Lake or Silver Lake depending on whether they were rainbows, brown, Macs or brook trout.

From left to right, Jerry Neuburger and Chris  Shutes, CSPA, and Bill George, EID  Photo courtesy of Corey Cate

The second rescue was a one day affair that occurred when the portion of the lake between the coffer dam and the spillway was drained. Another nine volunteers assisted DFG personnel and did the heavy lifting, carrying plastic garbage cans of fish up the steep rock dam face to a DFG tank truck for transport. The second rescue saved an additional 1,000 fish and an estimated 19,000 fingerlings of various species.

CSPA and TU arranged the volunteers in a quick 72 hour effort using the Internet as a broadcast medium. Once the volunteer list was established, Chris Shutes of CSPA and Barbara Bania of TU worked with DFG to arrange shifts and duties for the volunteers.

During the presentation, EID's Bill George stated that the volunteers saved the ratepayers of EID an estimated $100,000 as well as saving the fish themselves. It is part of EID's plans to spend over $250,000 in restocking efforts at Caples Lake in the spring, including the stocking of over 11,000 trophy sized trout during the first year. The entire cost of the rescue and restocking effort is estimated to cost over $450,000. The restocking effort will extend over the next ten years.