Fly Fishers of Davis
P.O. Box 525
Davis, CA 95617
From the CONSERVATION DESK
Conservation Mailing List
List Want to keep up on conservation issues between newsletters? Join the FFD Conservation email list at http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/ffd-conservation. You won't get a lot of email - just a few important notices each month.
Water Bond in Jeopardy Governor Schwarzenegger pushed hard to get the $11 billion water bond on the November ballot. Now he's asking the legislature to pull it for a later date. The postponement requires Legislative approval. Needless to say, he fears voters won't approve it because of the state of the economy. Of course, it doesn't help that his approval ratings have fallen to the same low level that Gray Davis had just before he was recalled. And the legislature fares even worse. Saner heads in the legislature, including Senator Lois Wolk, are pushing for a complete revision of the bond rather than just a postponement. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
Committee Appointee Resigns Just a few days after Gov. Schwarzenegger called for postponement of the water bond, one of his appointees to the Delta Stewardship Council resigned in the face of opposition from some environmental groups that said he had a conflict of interest. Richard Roos-Collins, an attorney for the Natural Heritage Institute, said "it has become clear that the political controversy related to Senate confirmation of my appointment will affect the council's capacity to timely implement the Delta Reform Act," according to his resignation letter.
The council was created by the Legislature last year to oversee the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Roos-Collins was seen as the governor's pick to satisfy environmentalists. But some groups expressed concerns that he also served on the steering committee of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a government-led effort that is considering a new canal to move water around the delta southward to Valley farms and Southern California cities. The Delta Stewardship Council, by law, can incorporate the canal into its long-range plans only if it meets environmental standards and is approved by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
Sierra Club lobbyist Jim Metropulos told the Sacramento Bee earlier this year that Roos-Collins was not suited to objectively review the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. "He's not going to have an independent view," Metropulos said. Schwarzenegger's office had stood by Roos-Collins as recently as last week. The governor's office did not immediately comment on the resignation.
Lawsuit on water transfers Earlier this month AquAlliance, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and California Water Impact Network (CWIN) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). The action, filed in federal District Court, alleges the USBR failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the transfer and export of almost 400,000 acre-feet of Sacramento Valley water to subsidize urban sprawl and irrigate crops in the desert. The USBR issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and refused to conduct the required analysis under NEPA that would have analyzed and identified impacts and alternatives.
The proposed new water transfers come at a time when the fisheries and aquatic ecosystems of northern California rivers and the Delta estuary are in a state of collapse.
"The Bureau's fallacious claim that massive serial water transfers from the Sacramento Valley to irrigate the southern desert have no significant impact on the farms, communities, fish and wildlife of the Sacramento Valley and the Delta Estuary evidences either a breathtaking incompetence or a flagrant contempt for the law, the environment and the people of the Sacramento Valley and Delta," said CSPA executive director Bill Jennings. "We sue to compel compliance with that most basic of all environmental laws; i.e., the requirement to adequately analyze and disclose the impacts of a project," he said.
For more information contact Bill Jennings at the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, 209-464-506.
Where's the Salmon Industry? The Delta Stewardship Council has released its first draft of the Delta plan for the co-equal goals of a more reliable water supply and restoring the Delta ecosystem. The draft listed significant stakeholders who would be impacted by the plan but failed to include the salmon fishing industry and the boating industry. It's hard to dismiss this as an oversight - it really looks more like their bias is showing loud and clear.
Another lawsuit on water transfers A coalition of farmers, sportfishing interests and environmentalists filed suit a few weeks ago seeking to have the Kern Water Bank returned to state control. The water bank, a massive underground reservoir in Kern County built by the state's Department of Water Resources, was illegally gifted to powerful corporate agribusiness interests and real-estate speculators as part of the controversial "Monterey Plus Amendments" to the State Water Project system.
"The Kern Water Bank is an integral part of our State Water Project and crucial to the future health of our farms, our cities and our environment," said Adam Keats, urban wildlands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It was built and paid for by the people of California and should remain the property of the people of California, not handed over to a small group of powerful private interests."
California's state constitution expressly forbids any agency giving away or "gifting" of state assets to private interests. The current lawsuit asserts that the Kern County Water Agency gifted the Kern Water Bank to the Kern Water Bank Authority, a public-private joint powers authority controlled by Paramount Farming Company (one of the world's largest agricultural and holding companies) and Tejon Ranch Company (the massive landholding corporation seeking to develop several new cities north of Los Angeles - including the largest development ever proposed in California).
Water Bond in Jeopardy Governor Schwarzenegger pushed hard to get the $11 billion water bond on the November ballot. Now he's asking the legislature to pull it for a later date. The postponement requires Legislative approval. Needless to say, he fears voters won't approve it because of the state of the economy. Of course, it doesn't help that his approval ratings have fallen to the same low level that Gray Davis had just before he was recalled. And the legislature fares even worse. Saner heads in the legislature, including Senator Lois Wolk, are pushing for a complete revision of the bond rather than just a postponement. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
Committee Appointee Resigns Just a few days after Gov. Schwarzenegger called for postponement of the water bond, one of his appointees to the Delta Stewardship Council resigned in the face of opposition from some environmental groups that said he had a conflict of interest. Richard Roos-Collins, an attorney for the Natural Heritage Institute, said "it has become clear that the political controversy related to Senate confirmation of my appointment will affect the council's capacity to timely implement the Delta Reform Act," according to his resignation letter.
The council was created by the Legislature last year to oversee the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Roos-Collins was seen as the governor's pick to satisfy environmentalists. But some groups expressed concerns that he also served on the steering committee of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a government-led effort that is considering a new canal to move water around the delta southward to Valley farms and Southern California cities. The Delta Stewardship Council, by law, can incorporate the canal into its long-range plans only if it meets environmental standards and is approved by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
Sierra Club lobbyist Jim Metropulos told the Sacramento Bee earlier this year that Roos-Collins was not suited to objectively review the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. "He's not going to have an independent view," Metropulos said. Schwarzenegger's office had stood by Roos-Collins as recently as last week. The governor's office did not immediately comment on the resignation.
Lawsuit on water transfers Earlier this month AquAlliance, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and California Water Impact Network (CWIN) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). The action, filed in federal District Court, alleges the USBR failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the transfer and export of almost 400,000 acre-feet of Sacramento Valley water to subsidize urban sprawl and irrigate crops in the desert. The USBR issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and refused to conduct the required analysis under NEPA that would have analyzed and identified impacts and alternatives.
The proposed new water transfers come at a time when the fisheries and aquatic ecosystems of northern California rivers and the Delta estuary are in a state of collapse.
"The Bureau's fallacious claim that massive serial water transfers from the Sacramento Valley to irrigate the southern desert have no significant impact on the farms, communities, fish and wildlife of the Sacramento Valley and the Delta Estuary evidences either a breathtaking incompetence or a flagrant contempt for the law, the environment and the people of the Sacramento Valley and Delta," said CSPA executive director Bill Jennings. "We sue to compel compliance with that most basic of all environmental laws; i.e., the requirement to adequately analyze and disclose the impacts of a project," he said.
For more information contact Bill Jennings at the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, 209-464-506.
Where's the Salmon Industry? The Delta Stewardship Council has released its first draft of the Delta plan for the co-equal goals of a more reliable water supply and restoring the Delta ecosystem. The draft listed significant stakeholders who would be impacted by the plan but failed to include the salmon fishing industry and the boating industry. It's hard to dismiss this as an oversight - it really looks more like their bias is showing loud and clear.
Another lawsuit on water transfers A coalition of farmers, sportfishing interests and environmentalists filed suit a few weeks ago seeking to have the Kern Water Bank returned to state control. The water bank, a massive underground reservoir in Kern County built by the state's Department of Water Resources, was illegally gifted to powerful corporate agribusiness interests and real-estate speculators as part of the controversial "Monterey Plus Amendments" to the State Water Project system.
"The Kern Water Bank is an integral part of our State Water Project and crucial to the future health of our farms, our cities and our environment," said Adam Keats, urban wildlands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It was built and paid for by the people of California and should remain the property of the people of California, not handed over to a small group of powerful private interests."
California's state constitution expressly forbids any agency giving away or "gifting" of state assets to private interests. The current lawsuit asserts that the Kern County Water Agency gifted the Kern Water Bank to the Kern Water Bank Authority, a public-private joint powers authority controlled by Paramount Farming Company (one of the world's largest agricultural and holding companies) and Tejon Ranch Company (the massive landholding corporation seeking to develop several new cities north of Los Angeles - including the largest development ever proposed in California).
The suit is the coalition's second in the last month over the State Water Project. The first targeted the Department of Water Resources for approving the Monterey Plus Amendments - a huge set of structural changes for how the State Water Project is managed. In one of those changes, the department transferred the Kern Water Bank to an entity called the Kern County Water Agency. That agency then quickly handed over the water bank to the newly formed Kern Water Bank Authority. The latest suit seeks to bring the Kern Water Bank back into state control.
"We're not going to stand aside and allow a few very powerful and wealthy water barons to illegally privatize a publicly funded facility worth hundreds of millions of dollars so they can reap vast profits from growing nut trees in the desert and building thousands of speculative McMansions in the wilderness," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "All while our rivers and streams are dewatered, farms fallowed, and fish and wildlife plunge toward extinction."
The sportfishing and environmental groups are joined in the suit by two delta water agencies, the Central Delta Water Agency and the Southern Delta Water Agency, whose constituents are dependent on in-delta flows to irrigate their farms.
"A properly managed Kern Water Bank could benefit the entire state, providing backup water during drought years for farms and urban areas, while helping to ensure that water is available to keep the Delta ecosystem healthy," said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the California Water Impact Network. "But instead, as a result of this giveaway, both the State Water Project and the Delta ecosystem are on the brink of destruction while the water barons hoard water they don't own and use it for their own maximum profits, no matter what the consequences."
Trinity River Rehabilitation Projects to Begin The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) advise all locals and visitors that the Lowden Ranch area, Hamilton Ponds, and BLM Douglas City campground, on Steiner Flat Rd, are closed to the public for the rest of the year as a safety precaution, due to the construction of rehabilitation projects at Lowden Ranch and Reading Creek. There will be no pedestrian, vehicle or river access allowed at these sites during construction. Work is slated to begin this week (July 12) at both rehabilitation project sites.
"We're not going to stand aside and allow a few very powerful and wealthy water barons to illegally privatize a publicly funded facility worth hundreds of millions of dollars so they can reap vast profits from growing nut trees in the desert and building thousands of speculative McMansions in the wilderness," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "All while our rivers and streams are dewatered, farms fallowed, and fish and wildlife plunge toward extinction."
The sportfishing and environmental groups are joined in the suit by two delta water agencies, the Central Delta Water Agency and the Southern Delta Water Agency, whose constituents are dependent on in-delta flows to irrigate their farms.
"A properly managed Kern Water Bank could benefit the entire state, providing backup water during drought years for farms and urban areas, while helping to ensure that water is available to keep the Delta ecosystem healthy," said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the California Water Impact Network. "But instead, as a result of this giveaway, both the State Water Project and the Delta ecosystem are on the brink of destruction while the water barons hoard water they don't own and use it for their own maximum profits, no matter what the consequences."
Trinity River Rehabilitation Projects to Begin The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) advise all locals and visitors that the Lowden Ranch area, Hamilton Ponds, and BLM Douglas City campground, on Steiner Flat Rd, are closed to the public for the rest of the year as a safety precaution, due to the construction of rehabilitation projects at Lowden Ranch and Reading Creek. There will be no pedestrian, vehicle or river access allowed at these sites during construction. Work is slated to begin this week (July 12) at both rehabilitation project sites.
Boaters are cautioned to be aware of construction equipment that may be working in the river or crossing between July 15 and September 15, 2010.
They also advise the public to be careful of heavy equipment along local roads in these areas (Lewiston Rd, Browns Mt. Rd, and Steiner Flat Rd).
These projects were funded by the American Restoration and Recovery Act (ARRA) to speed recovery of Trinity River salmon and steelhead populations. The projects are built to increase shallow low-velocity areas for salmonid fry rearing and to increase fish habitat complexity in the Trinity River. In-river work will be completed by September 15, 2010 while floodplain construction activities will continue through the fall. These projects are being implemented under direction of the TRRP in cooperation with the BLM, California Department of Water Resources, and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Listening Session on America's Great Outdoors The Department of Interior held a listening session at UC Davis earlier this month to hear ideas from local groups and individuals on how to conserve America's Great Outdoors. I attended for an hour and heard some very interesting presentations on how several local groups have worked together to conserve habitat and wildlife. In the first presentation, rice growers have teamed up with Ducks Unlimited to show how they reduced the number of acres burned by ~90% and increased wetland habitat for waterfowl. The waterfowl, including geese, swans, and ducks, help by incorporating the straw that used to be burned into the ground. The second presentation was by a winery owner who talked about the importance of conservation easements in keeping his property in agriculture rather than letting it fall to development. The session was packed with people and was attended by White House staff, Department of Interior personnel, and Congressman Mike Thompson of our district.
These projects were funded by the American Restoration and Recovery Act (ARRA) to speed recovery of Trinity River salmon and steelhead populations. The projects are built to increase shallow low-velocity areas for salmonid fry rearing and to increase fish habitat complexity in the Trinity River. In-river work will be completed by September 15, 2010 while floodplain construction activities will continue through the fall. These projects are being implemented under direction of the TRRP in cooperation with the BLM, California Department of Water Resources, and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Listening Session on America's Great Outdoors The Department of Interior held a listening session at UC Davis earlier this month to hear ideas from local groups and individuals on how to conserve America's Great Outdoors. I attended for an hour and heard some very interesting presentations on how several local groups have worked together to conserve habitat and wildlife. In the first presentation, rice growers have teamed up with Ducks Unlimited to show how they reduced the number of acres burned by ~90% and increased wetland habitat for waterfowl. The waterfowl, including geese, swans, and ducks, help by incorporating the straw that used to be burned into the ground. The second presentation was by a winery owner who talked about the importance of conservation easements in keeping his property in agriculture rather than letting it fall to development. The session was packed with people and was attended by White House staff, Department of Interior personnel, and Congressman Mike Thompson of our district.
News from NCCFFF
Klamath River update The Klamath River restoration project has a new website at
http://klamathrestoration.gov/home
that you can access for up-to-date information on the project. You should be aware that the water bond includes funding for dam removal on the Klamath. The NCCFFF board voted last year to oppose any attempt to tie Klamath funding to the Central Valley projects.
Earlier this month the economic and environmental review process of the pending Klamath Restoration Agreements began with a series of public scoping meetings in the Klamath Basin. In recent years a large number of affected parties successfully negotiated a pair of Settlement Agreements aimed at resolving many Klamath River conflicts. The Klamath Agreements were signed February 18, 2010 by Governors Schwarzenegger and Kulongoski (Oregon), Secretary of Interior Salazar, leaders of the Karuk, Yurok, and Klamath Tribes, and a host of local irrigation districts, local governments and conservation organizations.
The Agreements lay out a process for removing Klamath dams and other restoration measures aimed at recovering the Klamath salmon fishery, but they also address the water and power needs of agricultural communities as well. Heralded as the "Fish and Chips Agreement" (potatoes are a popular crop in the Upper Basin), the plan offers tangible benefits for both fishermen and farmers. In addition, the agreements ensure that utility customers pay less than they otherwise would to retrofit the aging dams in order to comply with modern environmental standards.
Take a look at the website listed above and become knowledgeable about what these agreements do and help us restore the vitality of the Klamath Basin.
Earlier this month the economic and environmental review process of the pending Klamath Restoration Agreements began with a series of public scoping meetings in the Klamath Basin. In recent years a large number of affected parties successfully negotiated a pair of Settlement Agreements aimed at resolving many Klamath River conflicts. The Klamath Agreements were signed February 18, 2010 by Governors Schwarzenegger and Kulongoski (Oregon), Secretary of Interior Salazar, leaders of the Karuk, Yurok, and Klamath Tribes, and a host of local irrigation districts, local governments and conservation organizations.
The Agreements lay out a process for removing Klamath dams and other restoration measures aimed at recovering the Klamath salmon fishery, but they also address the water and power needs of agricultural communities as well. Heralded as the "Fish and Chips Agreement" (potatoes are a popular crop in the Upper Basin), the plan offers tangible benefits for both fishermen and farmers. In addition, the agreements ensure that utility customers pay less than they otherwise would to retrofit the aging dams in order to comply with modern environmental standards.
Take a look at the website listed above and become knowledgeable about what these agreements do and help us restore the vitality of the Klamath Basin.