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Lost Man Creek Dam

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Lost Man Creek Dam is located inside the Redwood National and State Parks, Humboldt Meridian, in Humboldt County, California. The dam is positioned 0.8 miles upstream from the confluence of Lost Man Creek with Prairie Creek,[1] and is 24 feet in length with a width of 75 feet.[1]  The dam extends back southwards 100 feet.[1]

History

In 1936 a dam was built in the upper limits of the Lost Man Creek; the dam was rightfully named Upper dam on Lost man Creek.  This dam was solely built to provide water to the nearby hatchery; Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery.  The Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery was built back in 1927 at the junction of Prairie Creek and Lost Man Creek to stimulate the growth of Cutthroat, Chinook, and Silverside Fish.[2] A 12 inch wide pipeline travels 3,000 feet to connect the hatchery and the Upper Dam.[3] 19 years later the Upper Dam was abandoned and left there.[1] This dam created a barrier for the Chinook salmon’s migration. The reason for this being that fish need a good flow stream and a dip in the water to gain momentum and hurdle over to the top of the stream; the stream flow that the upper dam provided was very light and there was no dip to help them gain momentum; eventually all the fish got stuck at the bottom of the dam.[1] In 1989, the Redwood National Park decided on removing the dam in all its entirety.[3][4] Much of the clean up consisted of removing fish ladders, filling the dam with sediment, and filling drying out the pond behind it, which could hold 800 feet of water. Due to flooding from 1971- 1972 much of the pipe line connecting the hatchery and the dam was lost. To take its place the Lower Dam on Lost Man Creek was built.[1] Its only job is to divert water that comes from the Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery.[1] As the upper dam was being removed proposals to remove the lower dam were already in place; but there was fear as to what would happen if it was removed and how quickly.[1] The proposed ideas were to demolish the dam within one season, the second option was to demolish the dam over the course of six seasons. The last two options were taking it apart a slowly remove part of it over one season and leave it as it.[1] These options all had scientific uncertainty most with how the wild life will react and how will sediment inflow effect vegetation.[1] In the end it was left as is because it is still around.  

National Parks are purposed for keeping and or restoring a habitat to a point in time were human had very little in pact on shaping the environment. Since the Redwood Forrest is a nation park there is controversial debate on whether to remove the dam or not. The legal issues fall upon water right, air rights, and structural design. If the dam were to be removed permits from the Department of Army permit, Department of Fish and Game Stream bed Alteration agreement permit, and a Regional Water Quality Control Board Waste Charge permit. Before any of these can be acquired the National Park needs to get permission from the state of California and the United States Fish and Wildlife for permission to alter an environment.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sacklin, Hofstra, Ozaki, Smith (August 1988). "Enviornmental Assessment: Upper Dam Removal, Lost Man Creek" (PDF). Redwood National Park: 1–31 – via Water Board.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Kirk, Susie Van (March 1994). "HISTORICAL INFORMATION on REDWOOD CREEK" (PDF): 1–33 – via Water Board. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ a b Corbett, Denise, Michael, Bradley. "Final Historic Resources Study Report for Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery Redwood National and State Parks Humboldt County, California" (PDF). National Parks Service: 1–53 – via Water Board.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Wilzbach, Margaret A. (January 28, 2016). "STATE OF THE FISHERIES & AQUATIC RESOURCES OF PRAIRIE CREEK" (PDF). Redwood National Park: 1–79 – via Humboldt state University.

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