Farewell to Senator Byron Sher, a Fierce and Longstanding River Hero

Retired State Senator Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), a law professor and longtime champion of California’s rivers, died last month at the age of 98. His accomplishments as a state assemblyman and state senator were extensive. Read his full history here in the Sacramento Bee and San Jose Mercury News.

But Byron, as so many of us in the river community fondly called him, holds a special place in the history of Friends of the River, in the protection of the state’s wild and scenic rivers and in all of our hearts. 

Building the Case to Protect California’s Rivers 

Sher excelled at moving policy proposals with on-the-ground efforts. In 1985, during the early years of Friends of the River’s efforts to build its advocacy program and protect California’s rivers, Sher held a hearing to publicize and amplify the California Department of Water Resource’s (DWR) report on the supposed need for big dams on the Eel River for the State Water Project. 

At the time, the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act (CAWSRA) required a report. The DWR report concluded that the dams were not needed at that time and that other water projects, such as the Glenn Reservoir Complex (a precursor to the current Sites Project proposal) offered easier alternatives.  

These pivotal findings gave FOR and water policy advocates greater credibility to fight against the dams and defend the north coast rivers recently included in the state and federal wild & scenic river systems, designations that were still being challenged by many of the state’s big irrigators and water developers. 

Protecting the McCloud, East Fork Carson, and West Walker Rivers 

The next year Sher moved a bill sponsored by Friends of the River (shepherded by FOR’s Steve Evans) and CalTrout (AB-1301) to repeal that “obsolete” portion of the CAWSRA — and create a study provision of the CAWSRA and naming free-flowing reaches of the McCloud, East Fork Carson, the West Walker Rivers as the initial rivers for studies. 

The California Resources Agency (now the Natural Resources Agency, a part of the Governor’s cabinet) consultant’s study report would prove to be favorable. 

In 1989, Friends of the River and CalTrout sponsored a Sher bill (AB 1200) signed by GOP Governor George Deukmejian to protect important segments of the McCloud River from dams and inundation by reservoirs under the CAWSRA and add the East Fork Carson and West Walker Rivers to the state’s wild & scenic river system. 

Yes, sir, it was neatly done — a Democratic legislature and a Republican governor finding agreement. 

A McCloud River Victory with Lasting Consequences 

The McCloud bill's language was carefully crafted to get around the Hearst Corporation’s concerns about the bill and their historic Wyntoon Bavarian-style family resort designed by architect Julia Morgan and located along the upper McCloud River. The bill McCloud language, however, in 2019 would go on to stall Westlands’ effort to partner with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to expand Shasta Reservoir. 

AB 1200 provided the first additions to the CA W&S River System since its inception with the enactment of Sen. Peter Behr’s 1972 bill that was signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan and stopped DWR’s Dos Rios Dam project on the Eel River. AB 1200 protected McCloud River segments located outside his Assembly district, all represented by GOP Assembly Members and State Senators, yet none of whom were opposed. Along the East Fork Carson and West Walker Rivers, local county supervisors supported Byron’s bill, including the Alpine and Mono County boards. AB 1200 effectively stopped the Watasheamu Dam project on the East Fork Carson authorized by the Congress in 1956and small hydro projects proposed for the West Walker and a tributary. 

It did not take long for Sher to follow the McCloud River legislative pattern of passing a study bill (AB-653) in 1993 for Chico-area Mill, Deer, Antelope, and Big Chico Creeks followed in 1995 by a no-dam CAWSRA bill (AB-1413) for Mill & Deer Creeks signed by Republican Governor Pete Wilson (R-San Diego). Neatly done once again. 

The South Yuba: A Hard-Fought Legislative Victory 

Byron got big majorities for these bills in the legislature. But as a newly minted state senator, Sher took on an even more challenging wild & scenic river bill — the South Yuba. Aided by the right constellation of members of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors — the county would go on to sponsor the bill — and State Senator President Pro Tempore John Burton D-(San Francisco) and Assembly Speaker Antonio Viaragosa (D-Los Angeles) in the Assembly (and without the support of the local state legislators), Sher authored the South Yuba bill (SB 496).

It passed by only one vote in the Assembly. It was signed by Governor Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles) in 1999. As part of the understandings surrounding the bill (flood control had been an issue), the Governor and Yuba County Water Agency got some commitments of support from Friends of the River and the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) for a ballot measure that would provide bond money for flood control work affecting the Yuba River. The bond passed, and over the years there has been substantial downstream flood-control work, work that continues. 

A Legacy That Continued Beyond Sher’s Retirement 

Sher served in the legislature until the end of 2004. His state wild & scenic river work proved infectious. Between the South Fork Yuba bill and his retirement, two other amendments to the CAWSRA were made — bills by Patty Berg (signed by Governor Davis) protected segments of the Gualala and Albion Rivers, and Wes Chesbro (signed by Governor Schwarzenegger) expanded logging river protections and agency accountabilities to protect wild and scenic values. 

The Work That Doesn't Always Make the Headlines 

Not all the work of a good legislator makes the news. Sher also helped FOR and PARC put one more nail in the coffin for the Auburn Dam project on the North Fork American.  

Then Attorney General Bill Lockyer, FOR, and PARC got the Auburn Dam diversion tunnel closed and river flow restored to the original river channel. As chair of a Senate Budget Committee subcommittee, Sher augmented the Budget Bill that year to add last-minute funding to finance DWR’s engineering and construction costs to keep the early momentum to close the tunnel and restore the original river channel.  

Today, that stretch is once again a navigable reach of river, offering a powerful, living lesson for today's and tomorrow's boaters about the importance of protecting free-flowing rivers. 

It’s not a bad legacy.