Eric Stadnik is one of the owners of Green Pastures Valley, LLC, which has been fined $115,000 by Federal fisheries officials for killing endangered coho salmon by drawing water from Felta Creek during frost efforts in 2008 and 2009. Stadnick has since installed a pipe that carries well water over the creek for frost protection, at the same location that water was formerly pumped from the creek.

Feds fine Healdsburg grape grower for salmon kill

KEVIN MCCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Federal fisheries officials fined a Healdsburg grape growing family $115,500 Tuesday for frost-protection practices they say killed endangered coho salmon in 2008 and 2009.

But the vineyard owners strongly denied the charges Tuesday, insisting their modest diversion of water from Felta Creek could not have caused the sharp water level drops that stranded the young fish.

"We're very green people," said Eric Stadnik, a business instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College. "It's not like we're some corporation that doesn't care."

Stadnik and his wife Ruth, who teaches adult education for the Healdsburg School District, are owners of Green Pastures Valley, LLC, a grape growing operation on their Felta Creek Road property.

The family has drawn water legally from Felta Creek for frost protection since the 1970s by using a small seasonal flashboard dam, Eric Stadnik said. Today the family grows about 14 acres of pinot noir, chardonnay, syrah and zinfandel grapes on their 115-acre property.

On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of General Counsel for Enforcement announced the fine against the company, claiming that the diversions killed 31 fish in 2008 and five in 2009.

Felta Creek, a tributary of Dry Creek, flows into the Russian River, which is critical habitat for the endangered coho salmon.

According to the complaint, after the first stranding event, Green Pastures Valley was informed of the impact its frost protection measures were having on the watershed, but continued the practices the following year, the agency said.

"This penalty should send a strong message that we put a high priority on protecting species listed under the Endangered Species Act," said Don Masters, the agent in charge of the Southwest Division of NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement. "But make no mistake, we would much rather work with landowners to find ways to protect these fish instead of issuing penalty assessments."

The fine was calculated as $16,500 for each of seven incidents.

Farmers in Mendocino and Sonoma counties spray grapes and pears during cold spring temperatures to protect them from deadly frosts. When too many growers draw water from waterways, the level of the stream or river can be reduced dramatically, stranding young fish.

The death of the salmon in Felta Creek has reverberated throughout the North Coast's wine industry. Grape growers from Forestville to Ukiah who have historically drawn water from the Russian River watershed now face increased regulation of the practice and possibly an outright ban.

To stave off such regulation, grower groups have invested in additional water storage ponds, use more efficient irrigation methods and are coordinating their diversions to reduce the impact on the creeks.

But it hasn't been enough to prevent regulators from proposing new restrictions.

The California State Water Board has drafted regulations that require water diversions between March 15 and June 1 be managed to ensure fish are not harmed.

Coho salmon in the Russian River watershed are listed as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act. Chinook and steelhead salmon are also found in the watershed and are listed as "threatened."

It is illegal to "take" — meaning harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect — any species protected by the Endangered Species Act, according to NOAA.

The agency asserts that 316 fish were impacted by the strandings, but not all died. Many were saved when witnesses spotted "little fish flopping around" on the gravel riverbed, said David Hines, a fisheries biologist with the water policy program of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"There were people who came to the scene during the strandings and attempted to rescue as many fish as they could," Hines said.

Bob Lownes, a custodian at West Side Elementary School along the creek, said biologists from the University of California Cooperative Extension, which have a monitoring station near the confluence of Mill Creek and Felta Creek, worked furiously to rescue stranded fish by moving them off the gravel and into pools.

"The ones that were on the riffles were the ones that got trapped," said Lownes, whose home sits beside the creek near the school.

Lownes said when he saw the dry creek bed on two occasions in April of 2008, he immediately called the Stadniks and informed them of the problem, but they said water continued to flow in the creek below their diversion.

"I'm positive they weren't doing it intentionally," Lownes said, "but they didn't know what was happening at this end."

The Stadniks insist there is no evidence their diversion caused the strandings. They say their diversions were modest and legal, and the impacts of other larger grape growers with massive wells are being ignored.

The family has been drawing water from the creek for years with the full knowledge of the Department of Fish and Game officials, who have various monitoring sites along the creek.

The parents of Clinton Folger, Ruth Stadnik's cousin, purchased the property in the 1940s. At some point, Folger's father built a small cement dam into which boards could be inserted to create a pool in the creek.

To irrigate the vines for frost protection, a T-shaped pipe with two inlets covered with fish screens was inserted into the pool, and pumps pushed the water through a system of overhead sprinklers on the 4-acre chardonnay vineyard, Eric Stadnik said Tuesday during a tour of the picturesque ranch.

Oak studded hills roll down into stands of towering redwood, Douglas fir and bay trees along to creek. Cover crops reduce erosion in the vineyards, bat boxes encourage wildlife and a flock of sheep roams the ranch. The property has been certified for more than a decade by Fish Friendly Farming, an organization that works with agricultural property to restore riparian habitat for fish and wildlife.

Estimates of the volume of water diverted by the operation vary. Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, said that a typical vineyard uses about 55 gallons per minute per acre, about 13,000 gallons per hour for a 4-acre vineyard.

That draw rate was relatively low compared to the creek flow, Frey said. The strandings occurred about a mile downstream from the diversion, leaving Frey to wondering whether other uses, such as homes along the creek, had an impact.

"At the time, it seemed like that small of a vineyard that far from the stranding raised a question in my mind," Frey said.

Dan Torquemada, assistant special agent in charge of the investigation, said only that the diversion was "substantial." He agreed that the family had the right to draw water from the creek, but not with that kind of dam, which was unpermitted.

"Water rights do not exempt landowners from provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act," he said.

Eric Stadnik said permits only became required in recent years. He said the family was in the process of finding out what permits they needed and from what agencies when the strandings occurred.

They began working on a solution after the 2008 incidents but couldn't complete the changes by the springs of 2009 because red tape and funding issues held up approval, he said.

They eventually spent $20,000 to dig a well on the opposite side of the creek from the vineyard, suspending the pipe over the creek to reach the irrigation system. When legal fees are added to the fine, the total cost of the episode is a huge burden to the family, he said.

"We're not Gallo. We're not someone who has a huge number of acres," he said. "It's going to be an extreme hardship."

Ultimately, the couple feels they are being being made scapegoats by a federal agency as a warning to others.

"They were looking to beat someone up," said Ruth Stadnik.

Hines, the fisheries biologist, said the coho population is "functionally extinct" in the Russian River because the returning number of adults in recent years have been so low that a population can't sustain itself.

A recovery plan has identified agriculture, drought, roads and water diversions as main causes of the demise of the species. With such low populations, every fish is vital, he said. "The Russian River plays a central role in their survival and their recovery," he said.

Green Valley Pastures has 30 days to pay the penalty, try to have the fine modified or request a hearing to contest the charges or penalty.

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