2006 Blanco Clean Water Cup Winner Jim Wilcox Plumas County California

It is with deep personal pleasure I award this years Blanco Clean Water Award to Jim Wilcox Geomorphic Restoration Specialist, Feather River Coordinated Resource Management ( CRM ) Project Manager Plumas County California.The first Blanco Clean Water Award was inspired by Berkeley California 5th grader Joel Blanco and his classmates who educated and guided community leaders to clean up a creek that ran through their Thousand Oakes Elementary School. When I read the original story in the newspaper I quickly realized this young man and his associates must be recognized! It has taken two years to find a worthy second recipient of the Blanco Clean Water Cup ( designed and hand crafted by noted San Francisco Ceramic Artist Shelly Simon ).

A few months ago I wrote two stories on my adventures fly fishing the fabled Feather River watershed which exists in the majestic Sierra Nevada Cascade Range, in a several day period I fished from Chester down through Quincy ending in the meadowed Graeagle area. During this trip I was introduced to Jim Wilcox by the highly professional ladies who run the Visitor’s Bureau for Plumas County www.plumascounty.org or Phone (800)- 326-2247 ask for Susy.

Mr. Wilcox has in my mind become a kind of Aqua Regenerating Wizard(ARW) with his ground breaking system of installing permanent dirt plugs complete with original transplanted vegetation into highly eroded stream and creek banks ( See photos before and after.). Eon’s of torrential rains, natural erosion process’s, man encouraged and sustained damage such as cattle grazing have destroyed many streams, rivers, creeks because high volume rains cut deep and wide over long periods of time and once a stream losses its natural meander or course many forces are unleashed! Water temperatures rise quickly, insects, fish, birds the entire natural order is affected. Mr. Wilcox and his teams rebuild the eroded banks and allow the waters to find their natural meander, the results in only a few years time are complete healing! Jim and his many associates begin their arduous journey toward actual project implementation with surveys, study groups, state, federal, fish & game agencies, environmental groups of every persuasion conduct scientific studies with local land owners to determine if the rejuvenation process falls within accepted guidelines. Before, during and after studies begin grant applications and funding prospects must be pursued. The totality of Jim’s bank of skill’s and responsibilities is sobering!

When the survey’s, studies, funding, sort out Jim begins the plug making healing process during summer months, projects are closely monitored year round via snow mobile. The cost of moving dirt, vegetation is controlled carefully by using dirt and materials available on sight.

Pure Water Everywhere?

In my sportsmen’s life I have been eye witness to a complete turn around in respect for and careful management of North American waters. Streams are routinely cleaned up, dams destroyed, native salmon migration waters restored here in California. In the West many counties like Plumas have begun rethinking water rejuvenation in regard to stream, river restoration. In my fly fisher life I have witnessed up close and personal cattle drinking and walking in prime river trout habitat because fences are down, I have watched many fields of Alfalfa sprayed and drowned in river water then witness that same crop dusted water pumped back into the river. The positive news is very few shopping carts, old tires, wrecked cars, rusting metal can be found in California’s’s prime wild rivers and streams. Yosemite’s pristine lakes, Sacramento River, Truckee River, American and Yuba and many other rivers run clean all the time!

Real Water History Of course anyone with a passing understanding of the real history of water here in North America would agree that it is the white Anglo Saxon good old European migrant adventurer, rancher, farmer industrialist, gold, silver miner who single handedly destroyed about 75% of all North American rivers, streams, creeks, watersheds of any significance. It was either unbridled mining, farming, burning of wild grass’s, greed, cattle grazing, arrival of vast herds of humans paving every square inch of soil they could get their K-MART Manifest Destiny grimy little white hands on their Pilgrim’s! That in fact is the real truth about North American Waters until about 25 years ago when the green revolution slowly began and gradually respect and harmony have been restored in some areas.... Respect for water goes back to pre biblical times, Mesopatainians, cave men, ( rituals) Bedouins, hunter gatherer’s, Roman’s, ( Aqueducts!) Greeks. Native aboriginal peoples world wide respected and revered water and it’s attendant gods! Native North American tribes such as the Karok, Shasta, Pomo, Maidu and Chumash all had elaborate Creation Myths in which Coyote the Trickster and water blood of Earth factor in. Natives who lived off abundant Salmon and trout and the birds that hunted these clean healthy waters allowed areas to stand idle and regenerate for years because native Americans were excellent first environmentalists who respected all creatures, natural elements and the wind and waters. The proof of their good stewardship is constantly being excavated by archeologists who uncover evidence hunting and fishing grounds rotated to allow fish and game to become wild again and unafraid. Western man seems to not covet any of the natural respect, reverence for mother nature native people have always embraced. It is no great discovery understanding western man’s rather soulless behavior in respect to the natural order and the spirits who truly rule this universe we have for so long taken for granted.... Jim Wilcox is a rare breed of modern scientist in that he is hands on goal oriented and has 16 years of success under his belt. When one meets Jim your aware he is a quiet no brag lover of nature kind of fellow. Having spent time with Mr. Wilcox on sight listening to him explain the rejuvenating dirt plug process and his humble awe at the results. One quickly realizes this man and his Plumas County team are very special indeed, they not only walk the walk Jim and his crews have completed 35 restoration projects healing over 25 miles stream channels, Mr. Wilcox you and your teams have earned the 2006 Blanco Clean water Cup!.

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“ ADVENTURES OF FLETCHER QUILL “