By John Bowman
Siskiyou Daily News
January 19, 2012

By Zeke Grader
Special to the Bee
January 17, 2012

The story of Pacific salmon has not recently been a happy one. Population declines in the West Coast's big three rivers – the Sacramento-San Joaquin, Klamath and Columbia-Snake – have meant less fishing, lost jobs, scarce fish and higher prices for consumers. Without major changes to how we manage these waterways, the beating heart of our region's salmon economy may cease.

Fortunately, there are some bright spots on the horizon. On a growing number of rivers, adversaries are opting to collaborate rather than litigate. People are starting to work together to restore rivers, recover salmon and rebuild jobs.

On the San Joaquin River, for example, city leaders, farmers, fishermen and conservationists ended decades of litigation when they sat down together to craft a plan they all could live with. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein then shepherded the plan through Congress. It has restored water – and salmon – to a 60-mile stretch of river, reconnecting it to San Francisco Bay for the first time in 70 years. Twenty exhausting years of conflict are over.

Farther north, farmers, fishermen, Native American tribes and others have made important progress working together to secure a future for farming and fishing based on a plan that will restore the Klamath River by removing four dams.

Finally, as the result of successful collaborations in Washington state, three dam removals commenced this fall on two other salmon rivers. After resolving issues such as energy and water quality, both the Elwha and White Salmon rivers will flow freely for the first time in a century and provide habitat to struggling salmon runs – benefiting our region's ecology and its economy.

Our next big opportunity to restore salmon and jobs rests on the lower Snake River in eastern Washington. The Columbia basin was once the world's most productive salmon watershed. The Columbia River's largest tributary, the Snake, once produced nearly half of this abundance. Today, thousands of miles of pristine habitat remain, much of it in the wilds of central Idaho. Unfortunately, four dams on the lower Snake make passage lethal for migrating salmon. Completed in the 1970s, these dams are the straw that broke the camel's back. After the dams' construction, all Snake River salmon populations plummeted.

The government's Columbia basin restoration efforts to date have failed both fish and fisherman. Last summer, a federal judge rejected the Obama plan – the fourth to be deemed illegal since 1995. Our government has spent $10 billion over two decades on largely ineffective measures. Faced with a court order to produce a new plan within two years, the same agencies responsible for this series of illegal plans are poised to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Following on these other restoration success stories, it's time for President Barack Obama and our elected leaders on the West Coast – including Gov. Jerry Brown and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Feinstein – to support a stakeholder process to address the needs of Columbia basin salmon and the jobs they support.

Success will require fresh ideas. The process must be guided by science and law, and engage the actual stakeholders – including farmers, fishermen, power producers and consumers – whose lives and businesses are affected by salmon restoration efforts.

Support for an approach like this for the Columbia basin is growing. Late last year, for example, more than 50 members of Congress – including 20 from California – sent a letter to the president urging him to convene a regionwide "solutions table" in order to restore salmon and meet community needs.

California will need a seat at this table. Many of our state's salmon fishermen hold licenses in states across the coast, where many Columbia/Snake River fish are harvested. Owning multiple fishing licenses is critical for businesses in an industry known for its ups and downs.

In addition, because salmon from these different rivers mix in the saltwater, fishing regulations have been set up to protect the most vulnerable runs. Therefore, in order to truly restore a vibrant commercial salmon fishing sector on the West Coast, we need to restore healthy, self-sustaining and harvestable populations on all of our "big three" rivers.

Establishing a stakeholder process to resolve the conflicts on the Columbia is the next big thing for salmon fishermen. California needs to be part of this solution. Recent history demonstrates that these processes can work, and, done right, the benefits that accrue help not only fishermen, but farmers, energy producers and local communities, too.

By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer
January 13, 2012

Baby steelhead swimming down the San Joaquin River might have a better chance of reaching the ocean this spring, after state and federal agencies agreed to install a rock barrier at the head of Old River, near Lathrop.

Typically, fish heading down the San Joaquin toward Stockton make a left turn into Old River, which draws them into the south Delta and perilously close to enormous pumps that send water to distant reaches of California.

The rock barrier will keep those fish in the San Joaquin, hopefully steering them away from the pumps.

The agreement, announced Thursday, is an admittedly "limited" truce in the ongoing legal conflict over fish protections versus water supply. It will be in effect in April and May only.

"We believe that this method of reaching an agreement will help lay the groundwork for future collaboration," said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes a fisheries agency charged with assisting oceangoing fish such as salmon and steelhead.

The agreement could help "build additional trust," added California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird.

"Rather than individual parties retreating to a courtroom, we can strive for science guiding us outside of the courtroom," he said.

In addition to the barrier, officials will put in place more flexible guidelines about the backward flow of the Old and Middle rivers. Those streams typically flow in reverse toward the pumps, sucking fish toward their demise. Limiting the degree of reverse flow can protect salmon and steelhead, but it can also limit the amount of water available for cities and farms.

With broader parameters, the experiment might actually result in a modest increase in the amount of water available for export, said Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources. At least, that is, compared with the amount of water available under a set of fish protection rules that were thrown out in September by a federal judge.

But, Cowin added, "This in no way is the ultimate answer for water supply reliability for California."

One group not consulted in the agreement was the South Delta Water Agency, including farmers in the Old River area. Blocking off the river with a rock barrier can have "serious consequences" for downstream farmers, attorney John Herrick said in an email Thursday.

But the plan does include up to eight culverts in the rock barrier to ensure there is still flow into the south Delta to maintain water quality for farmers, officials said.

Agencies have experimented with another kind of barrier on Old River: a curtain of bubbles that the fish seem to prefer to avoid. The bubble curtain still shows promise, officials said Thursday, and testing continues.