Conservation
Timing is Everything in California
Shareholders Advocate for Creation of Sáttítla National Monument in California
Editor’s Note: Shortly after this story was published in issue 16.2, on January 14, President Joe Biden officially designated the Sattitla Highlands National Monument, citing this region’s cultural, historic, scientific, water source, and recreational values as deserving of permanent protection as a national monument.
Less than two hours northeast of Redding, CA, the arid landscape morphs drastically into an enormous plateau surrounded by corrugated mountains interspersed with wetland clearings. Vast swaths of uncut timber stretch up the flanks of volcanoes that make up the southern reaches of the Cascades. This region between Mount Shasta (to the north) and Mount Lassen makes up the Medicine Lake Highlands, or Sáttítla, as it has always been known to the Pit River Tribe. For decades, the federally recognized Pit River Tribe, have tirelessly fought development and resource extraction in this rugged, water-rich landscape, seeking permanent protection for their ancestral homelands.The tribe, along with Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and other partners, have been working with local and state representatives to create the Sáttítla National Monument.
The Sáttítla region encompasses over 200,000 acres of remote and virtually untouched wilderness comprised of multiple national forests and other public lands. It is also the aquatic heart of Northern California, a single source of groundwater that is fed by the pulmonary vascular system of underground lava tubes left over by the eruption of North America’s largest shield volcano. Porous volcanic rock covers an area of roughly 850 square miles. This rock acts like a sponge, absorbing rainfall and snowmelt where it is funneled deep underground and stored in an aquifer estimated to hold 20-40 million acre-feet of water, equivalent to California’s 200 largest reservoirs combined. When it eventually reaches the surface, the water percolates from seeps and flows that converge into the most consistent and productive trout water found in California.
A double haul’s distance from the small communities of Burney and Fall River Mills is a collection of California’s most fabled trout rivers. Two legendary spring creeks, Fall River and Hat Creek, eventually conjoin to form the Pit River before flowing into Shasta Lake. To the north, the renowned McCloud River tumbles through a steep canyon before also merging with the turquoise water of Shasta. These rivers have formed cult-like followings among fly anglers which have existed for generations. If blanket hatches and technical trout fishing are your religion, then these waters speak to you like the word of God.
Multiple springs combine to make California’s Fall River, one of the largest spring creeks in the country. They all originate from the Medicine Lake Caldera, about 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta.
Designating Sáttítla as a National Monument is a true conservation opportunity, a rare chance to protect a pristine headwater ecosystem before degradation occurs, resulting in drawn-out and expensive restoration efforts that often get caught up in years-long legislative battles.
National monuments can be passed into law by Congress but are typically designated by the executive branch of the federal government through the use of the Antiquities Act of 1906. Areas with “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest” qualify as potential national monuments. Campaigns for designation often begin as local grassroots efforts that eventually gain enough widespread momentum to garner attention from the White House. In the case of Sáttítla, tribal efforts for protection have taken decades. This year, a joint resolution introduced in May 2024 passed in the California state legislature, officially asking President Biden to create Sáttítla National Monument.
As of August 2024, the Biden administration has created five new national monuments (most recently Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona). Implementation of the Antiquities Act means the protection of critical habitats and watersheds by opening the door for more federal funding to be used for conservation purposes through more detailed management plans. Monument designation would prevent the sale of public lands to private entities, forever cementing the public’s right to access these places for hunting and fishing, while also prohibiting future development and resource extraction.
Because of its rich cultural significance and its importance to the region’s water supply, Sáttítla is a prime candidate for monument designation. This would not be a win just for Fall River disciples and its biblical Hexagenia hatches but also for millions of Californians downstream. As climate change continues to cause unreliable snowpack, shrink snow fields and reduce water storage, having clean water free of contamination is a resource far too valuable to leave unprotected. It is estimated that groundwater now makes up close to 40 percent of California’s drinking water. In drought years that are becoming far too common, that estimate approaches upwards of 60 percent. The aquifer springs that feed the Fall and other water sources flowing into Shasta Lake generate 10-15 percent of California’s power supply through hydropower and contribute roughly half of its water storage capacity by pumping 1.1 million acre-feet of water through the reservoir annually. This is equivalent to 12 times the annual water usage for San Francisco and 1.6 times the annual usage for Los Angeles.
Contamination of the aquifer’s high-quality water would impact not just major Californian metropolitan areas but also cause detrimental harm to fish restoration efforts. For California’s imperiled salmon and steelhead, a lack of protections on aquifer groundwater from Sáttítla would increase the vulnerability of anadromous fish in the Sacramento River and its many tributaries. Cold water streams directly linked to the Sáttítla aquifer, such as the McCloud and Pit Rivers, have been recognized as high-quality spawning and rearing habitats that will continue to become increasingly important cold-water refuges in a constantly warming climate.
Contamination threats to the highlands aquifer already exist. For the past 30 years, Pit River tribal leaders have been litigating against a geothermal energy plant lease in the epicenter of Sáttítla. Medicine Lake, the caldera of the ancient shield volcano, is a culturally sensitive area known for its healing properties that has been used for thousands of years for ceremonial purposes. The proposed geothermal plant would inject pressurized liquids with an acid often used in fracking to break up rock deep within the earth, sending steam back to the surface to power turbines for energy. Heavy metals such as mercury, sulfur and arsenic, which exist naturally deep within the earth, could contaminate steam being brought back to the surface and find its way into the headwaters, eventually spreading throughout the entire system. National Monument designation alone would not stop the construction of the plant but may persuade the owners of the lease, Calpine Corporation, to stop moving forward.
According to leaders of the designation effort within the tribe, Trout Unlimited and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the Biden administration has been receptive to designating the Sáttítla National Monument. In September, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced the Sáttítla National Monument Establishment Act of 2024. If it fails to pass through Congress, President Biden has the opportunity to enact the Antiquities Act. Hearing from concerned stakeholders can only help that cause.
Opportunities to preserve pristine headwaters like Sáttítla are a rare occurrence—indeed almost mythical, like a hex hatch on a spring creek. Timing is everything. You must show up precisely at the right place at the right time. Show up late or not at all, and the opportunity passes quietly by. When it’s gone, there’s no way to predict if another chance will present itself.
To learn more and get involved,
visit: https://www.protectsattitla.org/protection
Note: This article first appeared in issue #16.2 of The Flyfish Journal. Subscribers get full access to articles online. If you’re not already, become a subscriber, and support independent media.