On October 23rd, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission(FERC) voted to accept the settlement agreement and issued the new license for Rock Creek – Cresta.
American Whitewater, led by Conservation Director John Gangemi, along with board members Dave Steindorf and Kevin Lewis, spent the last five years working to return precious flows to the North Fork Feather River. Allied with other conservation groups(California Trout, Friends of the River, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance) and government agencies, this settlement returns much-needed instream flows to help rebuild the once world-famous trout fisherey, and provides one weekend of whitewater releases per month from June through October. Furthermore, the settlement creates a committee to oversee the restoration of the river by implementing "adaptive management". The ERC (Ecological Resources Committee) has already begun meeting to implement the terms of the settlement and designing the monitoring programs to assess the effects of instream flow increases and recreational releases.
This settlement is a major victory for American Whitewater in restoring recreational and environmental flow improvements in California.