Water Will Flow From the River to the Sea, Forever
Hester Patrick was 90 years old when she sold the Butte Creek water to the Resource Renewal Institute. Her parents had homesteaded the land where the water rights predated the state water laws established in 1914. Those new water rights divided all flowing water between development and agriculture which essentially made it illegal for a duck to be on the water or for a fish to live in its stream. The rights also neglected any allocation for the watershed environment or wildlife. Through Public Trust laws the public owned, and still does own, the water and the fish in Butte Creek.
California’s Butte Creek is the first stream in which we have acquired perpetual flow water. Scientists view Butte Creek as a priority for endangered species because it has the largest spring run of salmon in California. The salmon enter the stream in spring. They rest through summer in deep shaded pools found upstream east of Chico, in wild Ishi country, until they spawn in fall. The Butte Creek salmon and steelhead come up in fall and winter.
The oldest rights get first claim during drought periods. Salmon need to be guaranteed their rights which is why we have established Water Heritage Trust.
In appreciation of her seeing the importance of permanent flow and making this land available at a fair price, we have placed the First Memorial to Hester Patrick in our Flow Forever Memorial.
"In the West whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting."
-Mark Twain
Welcome to water politics in California and the arid West.
About WHT...
WHT as seen in The Nation and High Country News
