Protect, conserve, and restore the McCloud River watershed.
Source of the Sacramento
The McCloud River is a highly revered, blue ribbon trout stream and historic salmon spawning habitat. Emerging from the Mount Shasta volcano in the southern Cascades, McCloud River supplies vast quantities of cold, clean spring water to the Shasta Reservoir, and Sacramento River, which feed California’s Central Valley and State Water Projects.
Conserving water, while restoring healthy forests and rivers upstream are cost-effective ways to promote climate preparedness in California. By investing in headwater stewardship, government and business can sequester carbon, replenish waterways, sustain biodiversity, generate jobs, and minimize risk of catastrophic wildfire.
Mount Shasta: a sacred site and strategic aquifer.
Mount Shasta is the largest volcano by circumference in the Cascade Ring of Fire, and northern most mountain in California. Rising over 14,000 ft. Mount Shasta provides pristine gravity-fed water to two of the top three most productive salmon rearing rivers in the contiguous United States; the Sacramento and Klamath Rivers. Unlike the Trinity and Sierra Nevada Mountain Ranges, Mount Shasta has glaciers, and a vast network of volcanic aquifers that store untold amounts of pristine water. Mount Shasta, and nearby Medicine Lake, are among California’s most strategic sources of freshwater, because volcanic spring productivity tends to be more stable amidst fluctuating snowpack, and other threats of rising temperatures.
Long before trappers, miners and loggers built a rail road and settled in McCloud, the majestic watershed was home to the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. The ecological impacts of colonization were intensified by construction of Shasta Reservoir in the 1940’s, inundating sacred sites, and denying salmon access to their native spawning habitat. Shasta Dam has devastated indigenous people, and decimated Sacramento salmon runs to a tiny fraction of their historic population. The Tribe is working to bring their salmon home through a prayerful journey called Run for Salmon. Today, the State of California recognizes sovereignty of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, but the United States Federal Government, does not.