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December 7, 2011     Indian Valley Record
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December 7, 2011
 
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2A Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 Indian Valley Record In the upper reaches of Red Clover Creek, banks have eroded to 11 feet below the floodplain, or meadow. Successful restoration will cause the meadow to become wet again, nurtured with annual sediment deposits and ultimately better for grazing. Alicia Knadler Indian Valley Editor aknadler@plurnasnews.corn A controversial pond and plug project in the upper reaches of Red Clover Creek is meandering its way into the final stages before work can begin. A meeting earlier this year was conducted in Taylorsville at the request of Plumas County supervisors, who want downstream water users to be notified and included in the planning before these sorts of watershed projects hit the ground. The most recent meeting, Nov. 30, was a design discus- sion on site with the Techni- cal Advisory Committee and others, including concerned ranchers from the Genesee and Indian valleys. The Red Clover Confluence Project encompasses an al- most 1,800-acre watershed restoration effort along 12 miles of the perennial Red Clover, Dixie and Crocker creeks, as well as four miles of seasonal tributaries. Some ditches in the historic floodplain would also be treat- ed. The existing conditions in- clude eroded stream and ditch channels. "Existing conditions are most likely due to a number of factors/' according to pro- gram manager Jim Wilcox of Plumas Corporation and Feather River Coordinated Resource Management. "One of the most apparent factors is extensive irrigation manipu- lation, with new ditches often dug next to old eroded ditch- es, and ditches carrying flood flows that caused down-cut- ting and erosion." He said old railroad and modern roads have also caused serious erosion. Cattle trails are another fac- tor he mentioned, with some trails deep enough to cause even more erosion. "Grazing management will be an important component in the long-term success of re- stored channel/floodplain function in the project area," Wilcox said. The main technique will be to use ponds and plugs. Plugs will be constructed, some with material from ditch berms, in the gullies and abandoned ditches. Some of the gullies have eroded down to 11 feet below the floodplain, or meadow. Ponds will develop between these plugs during the wet season, and water will over- flow onto the meadow. This will actually restore the excellent grazing that at- tracted ranchers in the first place, if all goes according to plan. Water quality downstream should be greatly improved as well, without the sediment from annual erosion of chan- nel walls. The project will end at the boundary of Goodwin Ranch and the national forest, where a rock structure will be need- ed to step down the grade from the restored area to the still-degraded elevation on the national forest land. Ranchers' concerns include the loss of irrigation and live- stock water while the ponds are filling, and the possibility Packages Starting at For 12 months PLUS FOR LIFE" For 3 Months Chooc, e one INSTALLATION m upto 6rooms For 3 Months O~r 2o HD ChwnU Of~ r~q=res 24-mon~ Agreement I umas Serving Plumas & Lassen Counties Since 1989 NETWORK. AUTHORIZEU RETAILER Advisory committee members, ranchers and others check their maps on a tour of the upper reaches of Red Clover Creek, where restoration is being planned for more than 12 miles of eroded stream banks. Photos courtesy Plumas Corporation that late-season flows will not increase as planned, but would actually be less. Next steps will include pub- lic meetings. More analysis and re- search needs to be done first, according to project manager Leslie Mink, so the next pub- lic meeting will probably be scheduled after the new year. For more information, or to request to be contacted before the next meeting, call Mink or Wilcox at 283-3739. "tal to br'nk M. Kate West Chester Editor chesternews@plurnasnews.com The stagnant housing econ- omy, which has resulted in reassessed home values throughout Plumas County and lower property tax rev- enue, is financially distress- ing at the very least to strug- gling district hospitals. Compounded with the pro- posed reduction in MediCal re- imbursements for patient care, specifically those in dis- tinct part, skilled nursing facil- ities, this could be construed as a formula for failure. Efforts to defeat the cuts are under way on several differ- ent fronts. The Chico Rural Health Care Legislative Caucus met with 4th District California state Sen. Doug LaMalfa Nov. 30. Seneca Healthcare District Chief Executive Officer Doug Self attended the meeting. He said he was joined by other CEOs of distinct part SNFs, a pharmacist representing Cali- fornia pharmacies, represen- tatives from various North State health care clinics and the chief operating officer of a federally qualified health care center in Redding. "The~rpose of the meet- ing w./~ ~ b provide feedback to the rural caucus about the ramifications the cuts would produce," Self said. He said a very common theme voiced at the meeting is that the state is in a very difficult financial position and is looking at cuts in al- most every program govern- ment-wide. "All of the cuts at this point are difficult and ! believe the legislators are just trying to make their way the best that they can. "I also believe Sen. LaMal- fa's there was to lis- ten feedback on how proposed cuts would affect the different programs of the represented entities," Self said. He said LaMalfa was look- ing to learn if the cuts would be detrimental to the pro- grams, and was looking to or- ganizations to provide hard data on how the cuts would af- fect those programs. "Sen. LaMalfa was looking for hard, objective feedback to take back to the Legislature rather than folks just talking about hardships," Self said. "He needs to be armed with data about the effect to hospi- tals and long-term care facili- ties and the residents associ- ated with those." The fight is on Self continued his efforts during a teleconference call to California Hospital Associa- tion (CHA) in Sacramento Dec. 7. He said nothing new sur- faced during the four-hour call. "We have given our feed- back to the CHA, which filed a Nov. 21 preliminary injunc- tion prohibiting the Depart- ment of Health Care Services from implementing reduc- tions to MediCal reimburse- ment for distinct-part skilled nursing facilities within acute care hospitals," he said. The court will heart the mo- tion Dec. 19. "There is tremendous un- certainty in the CHA, feed- back is neither positive or negative about the outcome of the motion," Self said. He said if the reduction is not blocked in the courts the cuts would take place imme- diately and would be retroac- tive to July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year for the health care district. The hit to the district could be seen as soon as the Decem- ber MediCal billings are turned in to the state. "We would see the rate cut effective from July 1 going forward. We would see Janu- ary rates cut and for the peri- od of time between July and December ... we would, under the reduction, owe the state a refund in the amount of $203,000," Self said. All MediCal payments to the district would be stopped until the state was repaid. "It's called 'withhold' and it is a common practice by Med- iCal and Medicare. They withhold all billing dollars due until the back balance is paid," he said. District options Self said there are no op- tions on the board at this time to overcome the possible loss of district income. He also said no discussions have been held with the Seneca board of trustees. He did say.that when dis- cussion begins there are two obvious options open to the district. "The way it stands with the loss/cut, it would wipe out any excess cash flow the dis- trict might have for capital improvements, maintenance and emergencies such as a lack of passage of the state budget, which would result in no funds to district," Self said. He said any discussion would have to come back to the position of having some cash flow. "We could maintain the ser- vice and find other cuts we could make to the district or we could discontinue the ser- vice, which is a discussion many hospitals are having all over the state, a discussion like we have seen in Eastern Plumas about Loyalton. "Not all skilled nursing fa- cilities (SNF) are the same or provide the same level of care. A lot of the free-standing SNFs do provide a lesser level of care then distinct part facil- ities. If distinct part facilities close there will be less beds providing a higher acuity (level) of care," he said. The 2009-10 audit results have revealed that Seneca Healthcare District is in a fi- nancially strong position. "Because of cash we have on hand we will be allowed to make a rational and sound de- cision as opposed to an imme- diate reaction to a cash short- . . ,; A'~.l#~,. age cms;s, ~eg sam. Distinct part facilities "Distinct part skilled nurs- ing facilit:~ means the facility is physically attached to hos- pital but (is) not licensed as part of the hospital. The facili- ty has its own billing number for MediCal, separate from that of the hospital," Self ex- plained. He said while physically at- tached they are not legally at- tached to hospital. "Attached or not attached, hospitals can run a free-stand- ing facility, such as is done in Loyalton," he added. Self said that in addition to Loyalton, Eastern Plumas Health Care also has a dis- tinct part SNF facility that is attached like the one at Seneca. How you can help "I would personally like to ask readers to contact our area senator about our long- term care facility. Your call will only take two minutes and I have heard from the California State Hospital As- sociation that your calls do matter," Self said. He said it's standard proce- dure that when you call the office of an elected official you will get an assistant. "They will ask you what your topic is and what is your concern. "If they don't get any calls on a specific topic the Legisla- ture can only assume the pro- posed legislative action is OK," Self said, He suggests concerned com- munity members call Sen. Ted Gaines. The telephone num- ber to his capitol office is (916) 651-4001. The number for his district office is (916) 783-8232, "Call Sen. Ted Gaines and tell his staff you oppose the MediCal cuts to distinct part skilled nursing facilities," said Serf. He also recommended con- tacting Congressman Tom McClintock, 4th District. Mc- Clintock's Roseville office telephone number is (916) 766- 5560. His Washington, D.C., of- fice number is (202) 225-2511. "Our community can be part of the fight to save our lo- cal long-term facility and hos- pital district," Self said.