BOAT LAUNCHES, CAMPS OPEN AS WATER RISES
Portions of two hiking trails closed
OROVILLE >> California State Parks has closed portions of two trails around Lake Oroville and part of a campground, but other trails, campsites and launch ramps are open as the lake slowly fills.
A one-mile stretch of the Roy Rogers Trail is closed Monday through Friday through the end of April, according to a news release from the state Department of Water Resources. The entire four-mile hiking and horse trail is fully open on Saturdays and Sundays.
DWR says the closure is to clear hazardous trees and fire-prone underbrush from the North Complex burn scar in the Loafer Creek Recreation Area. Cal Fire work crews will hand cut and use heavy equipment in the northeastern part of Loafer Creek.
In addition, a portion of the Brad Freeman Trail near the Thermalito Diversion
Pool across from the Oroville Dam spillway is closed today through Thursday for electrical work in the area. Signs direct hikers to a temporary detour trail, according to DWR.
Camping
Bidwell Canyon, Loafer Creek and Lime Saddle campgrounds are all open at Lake Oroville.
However, group camping, floating campgrounds and boat-in campsites are closed.
Reservations for camp sites are not open until April — until then, all sites are first come, first served at the lake.
Eaglet
While most of the Wyandotte Campground in the Plumas National Forest northeast of Oroville is open, a section of the camping area is closed because a bald eagle nesting site is being protected.
The territory in the vicinity of the Little Grass Valley Reservoir has been protected for two decades, DWR said in the release, and the closure has helped a pair of eagles nest and raise their young.
More information about the closure can be found on the U.S. Forest Service website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/plumas/alertsnotices.
Boat launches
Lime Saddle, Bidwell Canyon and the Spillway launch ramps are all open for use at Lake Oroville.
The boat launch at Loafer Creek is under construction, out of the water and not available, according to DWR. The other boat launches are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
Lake levels
Lake Oroville was at 718 feet elevation Monday afternoon.
That’s an increase of more than eight feet over the last 30 days as the Feather River slowly fills the lake with little water being released from the dam.
The total releases to the Feather River below the dam were 1,050 cubic feet per second to conserve storage in Lake Oroville, DWR said Friday. The Feather River flows will consist of 800 cfs down the Low Flow Channel through Oroville, and 250 cfs from the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet for a total of 1,050 cfs for the Feather River’s high flow channel downstream of the outlet.
The lake is holding just over 1.4 million acres of water as of Monday, which is about 40 percent of capacity. The historic average for this time of year is 53 percent, according to the state Data Exchange Center.
Although it fluctuates, state data showed between 3,000 and 4,000 cfs coming into the lake from the Feather River most of Monday, with inflow as low as 1,948 cfs at noon and peaking at 4,566 cfs at 2 p.m.