August 2008
Studying several options is a wise approach to state's water crisis
Capitol Weekly
By Timothy Quinn
September 6, 2008
Normally at this time, a healthy Sierra snowpack means a good year is in store for local water agencies and their customers. Not so in 2008.
Despite above-normal rain and snowfall, we're facing serious water challenges that no amount of precipitation can resolve. That makes the Legislature's water debate more critical than ever.
Conflict seen in smelt rules; As water contractors join the rule-making on Delta pumping, group says 'fox is guarding the henhouse.'
Sacramento Bee
By Matt Weiser
March 3, 2008
Water users who benefit most from tapping the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have been given an unprecedented role in drafting new rules to manage water diversions.
Critics call it a "fox in the henhouse" situation that may further imperil the Delta, where experts believe water diversions have already contributed to a broad ecosystem collapse.
Commission Votes For Increased Protection Of Longfin Smelt
By Dan Bacher
February 29, 2008
The California Fish and Game Commission at its meeting in San Diego on February 7 voted 3 to 0 designate the rapidly declining longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys), a cousin of the delta smelt, as a "candidate species" for listing under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).
Agency accused of failing to protect coho
San Francisco Chronicle
By Jane Kay
February 26, 2008
The state Department of Fish and Game is failing to protect endangered coho salmon by delegating decisions over the effects of logging to a forestry agency, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco Superior Court.
A coalition of fishing and environmental groups claims the agency should be reviewing whether road building and other timber-related activities harm the coho. In December, Fish and Game agreed to give authority over possible logging-related salmon kills to the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the suit states.
Drowning California in Canals and Dams With More Bond Money
California Progress Report
By Robert Cruickshank
February 26, 2008
It may be hard to remember, but last fall the state had not one but two special sessions. The first, on health care, ended with the rejection of the flawed mandate proposal ABX1 1. The second, on water, appeared to have also ended in acrimony, as Republicans insisted on $3 billion for new dams that Democrats were unwilling to support.
Delta canal alive again? Legislative whispers suggest controversial plan might return
Stockton Record
By Hank Shaw
February 26, 2008
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may issue an executive order jump-starting a controversial plan to build a canal around the Delta, sources familiar with the matter said Monday.
Doing so would bypass the Legislature, which is divided over whether such a canal should be built.
Scientists say rules may keep timid fish
Associated Press
By Randolph Schmid
February 26, 2008
Rules that allow only the catching of larger fish may encourage their replacement with slower growing, more timid varieties. That, at least, is the concern of researchers who studied test populations in two artificial lakes and report their findings in this week's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Peter A. Biro of the department of environmental science at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, explained that it's the fast-growing more aggressive fish that tend to get caught, removing them from the breeding pool.
Move Over California Legislature: State Agency Proposes to Build Peripheral Canal By 2015
California Progress Report
By Traci Sheehan
February 24, 2008
While countless hours are being spent in the Governor's Delta Vision process and
in water bond negotiations to determine how to restore the Bay-Delta Estuary, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has apparently decided to bypass the Delta altogether.
According to a recent budget change proposal submitted to the state Legislature, DWR intends to start preparing to build a new "Alternative Delta Conveyance" facility, which would divert water directly from the Sacramento River before it enters the Delta, sending it directly to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Despite the looming budget deficit, the proposal specifically asks for authorization to hire eight new staff that would be responsible for everything from completing Environmental Impact Reports to negotiating land purchases, and constructing the new facility.
A 75-year-old promise no longer holds water; Backlog of requests for Delta water pile up as experts say system is already maxed out
By Mike Taugher
February 24, 2008
During the Great Depression, the southern and central parts of the state cut a deal with the north: Let us build big pumps and canals to take your surplus water, and we'll give it back when you need it.
The time to deliver on that promise may be nearing -- but coming through will be tough because California's water supply is already threatened by climate change, a declining Delta ecosystem and a desiccating Colorado Basin.
Reviving salmon may help solve other Calif. water problems, a key UC Davis researcher says.
Fresno Bee
By Mark Grossi
February 24, 2008
Restoration of long-dead salmon runs in the San Joaquin River near Fresno can easily be achieved, and it might help solve other California water problems, says an authority on native fish.
Biologist Peter Moyle, a University of California at Davis researcher who is known as an expert court witness on fish issues, will discuss the river at the Salmonid Restoration Conference March 5 to 8 in Lodi.
Groups suing over decline of fish; They say agencies fail to help three species coexist with Yuba River dams
Sacramento Bee
By Matt Weiser
February 21, 2008
Two old dams on the lower Yuba River don
9;t make electricity, provide a water supply or prevent floods.
They do, however, stand in the way of spawning salmon.
The Daguerre Point and Englebright dams upstream of Marysville were designed to capture sediment washed out of the Sierra Nevada by hydraulic gold mining in the early 1900s. But modern efforts to help endangered fish coexist with the dams have not gone well, according to environmental groups who last week sued the federal government and the Yuba County Water Agency.
Unprecedented Collapse of Central Valley Salmon Is No Surprise
By Dan Bacher
February 19, 2008
The latest federal government data on 2007's chinook salmon run on the Sacramento River points to an "unprecedented collapse" in the fishery considered for years to be one of the most healthy on the West Coast.
To anglers and environmentalists working to restore California fisheries, the collapse is no surprise, since it parallels the dramatic decline of delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, threadfin shad and other species on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Both the salmon collapse and the precipitous decline of California Delta pelagic (open water) fish species are believed to be largely the result of massive increases in state water exports since 2001. If the data is verified in upcoming meetings of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), commercial and recreational salmon fishing in California and Oregon ocean waters and recreational salmon fishing in Central Valley rivers could be closed or severely restricted in 2008. This alarming news couldn't come at a worse time, since recreational and commercial fishermen are already reeling from draconian restrictions on rockfish, lingcod and other groundfish in California.
Guest Column: What is behind the salmon decline?
San Francisco Chronicle
By Laura King Moon
February 19, 2008
California's most abundant salmon run suddenly dropped this season to an historic low. Fishing groups and many environmental organizations were quick to point the finger: The pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that move water to grow half of the nation's fruits and vegetables and provide a key water supply for two out of every three California residents. "It's proof that the operation of these water projects is harming salmon," one environmentalist told the Associated Press.
Is bass to blame for decline of smelt population?
Stockton Record
By Alex Breitler
February 17, 2008
THE DELTA - For 129 years, they've shared the Delta, swimming the same sloughs and even eating the
same food.
Can it be that the striped bass has been chowing down on its neighbor, the diminutive Delta smelt, the whole time?
So claims a coalition of farmers, which filed suit last week against the state of California for allowing and encouraging non-native striped bass to coexist with - and eat - native species like smelt.
Spawning salmon numbers dwindling in Napa River
Napa Valley Register
By Kerana Todorov
February 16, 2008
Fewer chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Napa River this season, a fact that Napa County biologists think may be linked to poor ocean conditions.
Smaller salmon runs were reported in other watersheds in the region as well, noted RCD biologists who surveyed a stretch of the Napa River in December and January.
Why fish love Yolo Bypass just as much as birds
Daily Democrat
By Ted Sommer
February 9, 2008
The recent rainy weather gives us hope that we will not have another drought year, and the sight of water in the Yolo Bypass is a reminder that in about two-thirds of years, winter and spring rains cause the Sacramento River and its tributaries to spill out into the Yolo Bypass, creating a vast inland sea.
One of the most visible changes during flood is the inundation of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, the largest area of public open space in Yolo County, and a key stop on the Pacific Flyway for migrating birds. These floods cause wildlife to flee to higher ground, and many waterfowl to seek shallower refuges. One of the great surprises, however, is that these floods represent a great windfall to fish.
Building ban proposed in Marin County to protect salmon
San Francisco Chronicle
By Jane Kay
February 7, 2008
The numbers of endangered coho salmon returning to spawn this winter in west Marin County have been low enough to persuade officials to ban streamside building in the lush San Geronimo Valley for two years.
People were disappointed this season as they lined up at the Shafter Bridge on Sir Frances Drake Boulevard to watch the olive green and red coho fight their way up the San Geronimo and Lagunitas creeks to spawn. The winter numbers declined drastically, as did the numbers of the fall run of the Sacramento River chinook salmon.
Number of returning coho salmon plummet in Marin watershed
The Associated Press
February 6, 2008
LAGUNITAS, Calif.-The number of endangered coho salmon returning to spawn in Marin County has plummeted, and scientists are trying to figure out why.
Marin's Lagunitas watershed is home to one of the state's largest remaining populations of wild coho salmon. Coho have become extinct in 90 percent of California streams that once supported the species.
Marin Coho Salmon Populations Plummet
Indybay.org
By Dan Bacher
February 4, 2008
The spawning season for endangered coho salmon of Marin is the worst recorded in 12 years, causing high levels of concern by biologists who have been working to monitor and restore the endangered populations following a decade of stable or slightly increasing spawning numbers. Marin's Lagunitas Watershed, located just 25 miles from downtown San Francisco, and one of the Bay Area's most beloved salmon runs, boasts the largest remaining population of coho salmon left in Central California and upwards of 20% of the State's total. Coho have already gone extinct in 90 percent of California streams that once supported this species.
Warmer World May Mean Less Fish
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
By Alex Fischer
February 22, 2008
MONACO/NAIROBI, 22 February 2008---Climate change is emerging as the latest
threat to the world's dwindling fish stocks, a new report by the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests.
At least three quarters of the globe's key fishing grounds may become seriously impacted by changes in circulation as a result of the ocean's natural pumping systems fading and falling, it suggests.