“The Klamath River, from source to mouth, is listed as water quality impaired (by both Oregon and California) under Section 303 (d) of the Federal Clean Water Act.
“In 1992 the California State Water Quality Control Board (SWQCB) proposed that the Klamath River be listed for both temperature and nutrients, requiring the development of total maximum daily load (TMDL)?limits and implementation plans.

“The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board accepted this action in 1993. The basis for listing the Klamath River as impaired was aquatic habitat degradation due to excessively warm water temperatures and algae blooms associated with high nutrient loads, water impoundments, and agricultural diversions,” states the 2008 California 303 (d) list of water quality limited segments from the SWQCB.

The list, containing “Category 5”?water body segments, pertains to water segments that are listed as impaired with a TMDL?required, but not yet completed for one or more of the pollutants listed for that segment. Five segments of the Klamath River, as well as both Copco reservoirs and Iron Gate Reservoir, are listed as Category 5 water bodies.

For the mainstem Klamath River from Oregon to Iron Gate, the list cites impairments as cyanobacteria hepatotoxic microcystins, nutrients, organic enrichment/low dissolved oxygen and water temperature. Also listed for other segments is sedimentation or siltation.

The list contains various potential sources of pollutants, including agriculture; dam construction; drainage/filling of wetlands; flow regulation/modification; habitat modification; hydromodification; unknown sources; industrial point sources; municipal point sources; natural sources; irrigation tailwater; range grazing–riparian and/or upland; and upstream impoundment, among others.

Other sources, listed as “out–of–state sources,” are explained in the list. “Klamath Falls (Oregon) municipal wastewater discharge, industrial facilities, and United States Bureau of Reclamation pumped discharge of agricultural waste are significant sources of nutrient loads to the Klamath River as it enters California.” The list also states that these are significant sources of organic enrichment/low dissolved oxygen.

The stretch of the Klamath awaiting a TMDL – along with the three reservoirs – may have implications for the current issue of dam relicensing, with the listing of dam construction as a potential source of some of the impairments.

According to Dave Clegern of the SWQCB Office of Public Affairs, the process of determining TMDLs on the Klamath stretch is operating independently of the dam process.

“The SWQCB does not have a seat at settlement negotiations, and must ultimately await an outcome of some kind there,”?Clegern said,?“For that reason, we are proceeding with our Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in a way that allows us to continue gathering material in an open–ended manner.”
Clegern stated that the EIR?is targeting the impacts of pollutants and impediments on specific species in the river, largely salmon and other fish but also various other species.

There are a number of different dates for completion of TMDLs, for example; on the stretch of the Klamath from Iron Gate Dam to the Scott River, nutrients, organic enrichment/low dissolved oxygen and temperature are set to be addressed by next year, but cyanobacteria and sediment TMDLs do not have to be completed until 2021 – one year after the target date for initiation of removal of the dams set forth in the Agreement in Principle between dam owner PacifiCorp and various governing agencies.

Other TMDLs share this decade-in-advance completion date – ranging from 2019 to 2021.

“We’re taking the EIR?one step at a time simply because we don’t know what will come out of the settlement,”?Clegern said, “we are open–ended right now, but will proceed with an eye toward having all bases covered in as timely a manner as possible.”#

Years of losing habitat to water diversions and storage in the Central Valley so weakened the fall run that it couldn't withstand two recent years of scanty food supply in the warming Pacific Ocean, said the study by federal, state and academic scientists.

"Poor ocean conditions triggered the collapse. But what primed it is the degradation of the estuary and river habitats and the heavy reliance on hatcheries over the years," said Steve Lindley, lead author and a research ecologist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Over decades, construction of dams and other barriers, reliance on hatcheries and diversion of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have changed California's chinook salmon from genetically diverse, naturally spawning wild populations to one dominated by fall chinook salmon from four large hatcheries, the study said.

When the Central Valley had many salmon runs, the fish would migrate to the ocean at different times, increasing their odds of surviving unpredictable conditions. But the biggest remaining run, the fall run, is heavy on hatchery fish that all migrate at once and can be wiped out by poor climate and sparse food.

Last year, for the first time in California history, commercial and sport fishing was banned. Two consecutive years of low returning spawners - 87,881 in 2007 and 66,286 in 2008 - indicate that the federal regulatory body, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, will set similar curbs for this year's fishing season, which begins in May.

In a surprise finding, the study concluded that the council had a hand in the fish's sharp decline by failing to curtail fishing in 2007. Assessments show the fall-run numbers were low that year but the council didn't act.

Chuck Tracy, the council's staff management officer, agreed with the statement on Wednesday, saying the council was relying on an index used by state Department of Fish and Game and National Marine Fisheries Service. The council has since adopted a new forecast method.

Here's what happened to the fish, according to the study:

Salmon hatched in the Sacramento River and its tributaries in 2004 and 2005 entered ocean feeding grounds months later in 2005 and 2006 during periods of warm sea-surface temperature.

In 2005, ocean studies found malnourished salmon, seabirds and marine mammals. Weak winds from the north and weak mixing of ocean layers quelled the upwelling of nutrients from the depths that feed the food chain, the study said.

Representatives of environmental and commercial fishing groups said the study ignored the need for freshwater flows for the fish to get through the delta to the bay and the ocean.

"We know in past years that higher levels of pumping, under below-normal or dry conditions, took a real toll on Central Valley salmon stocks, and that is exactly what we had going on in 2004 and 2005," said Zeke Grader, executive director of Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.

Tina Swanson, executive director of the Bay Institute, a Novato science center, said the scientists should call for reforms in the way water is released in the Central Valley, including requiring Shasta Dam to release cold water for salmon and the Red Bluff dam to leave its gates open for fish.

"These agencies know what needs to be done but there has been a real lack of will on their part to require and enforce these actions," she said.#

The Nature Conservancy has bought ranchland near Mount Shasta to repair a cow-ravaged tributary of Shasta River, historically one of the most productive salmon streams in California.

Restoring Big Springs Creek could be "a silver bullet" in reviving runs of salmon, steelhead and other fish throughout the Klamath Basin, said Henry Little, project director for the conservancy in California.

The conservation organization bought all but 407 acres of the 4,543- acre Shasta Big Springs Ranch in Siskiyou County, according to an announcement scheduled for release today.

The conservancy has been eyeing the creek for decades because of its potential to provide ideal spawning grounds year-round, said Peter Moyle, a UC Davis professor of fish biology.

"It has got everything a salmon could want: a year-round cold water supply, steady flows and incredible amounts of food," Moyle said.

The creek is fed by the only glaciers in the continental United States known to be growing in the face of global warming.

While warmer temperatures have caused the retreat of glaciers in the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, those flanking Mount Shasta have advanced as a result of changing weather patterns over the Pacific Ocean, glaciologists say.

A warmer Pacific means more moisture sweeping over Northern California, falling as snow on Mount Shasta, which reaches 14,162 feet above sea level at the southern end of the Cascade Range.

Most of the snowmelt runs below ground through porous volcanic rock, rather than running off in streams. The water then bubbles up from the creek bottom at about 55 degrees, just right for salmon, Moyle said.

The special hydrology makes Big Springs Creek exceptionally resilient during climate change. As other streams turn warmer and less suitable for salmon, the springs feeding the creek will remain cold in the summer, Moyle said.

The creek has warmed up, though, as cows trampled its banks and stripped streamside vegetation. The resulting erosion widened the channel, and diversions for irrigation lowered water levels.

"It's like a toaster in the summer," Little said.

All 2.2 miles of the stream flows within the ranch, which has been operating for more than a century.

The conservancy is fencing off the creek and plans to lease the land for cattle grazing so long as it's compatible with the fish restoration.

The ranch acquisition comes as Indian tribes, environmentalists and fishing interests negotiate to remove four of the Klamath's six dams.

If they succeed, the ranch also could became a natural nursery for repopulating the river system with coho and other salmon, conservancy officials said. The Klamath once produced the third largest salmon run in the continental United States, behind the Columbia and Sacramento rivers.#

The San Francisco Chronicle – 3/13/09
By Peter Fimrite

The grim reality of a devastated salmon fishery hit home Thursday when the Pacific Fishery Management Council agreed to another ban on commercial fishing of chinook in California and Oregon.

It is the second straight year that the sea salts who make their living off the fabled fall run of Sacramento River king salmon will be grounded.

None of the three options approved by the 14-member panel made up of fishing interests, tribal representatives and conservation groups from California, Oregon and Washington included any commercial fishing in the two states.

The decision came after a week of testimony in Seattle that included mounting bad news about the California fishery.

Severe restrictions and bans on sportfishing were also included in the package, which will be narrowed down to a final option early next month.

"It's grim," said Dave Bitts, president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "The ocean conditions were supposed to have turned around and gotten a lot better, so I'm kind of baffled, frankly."

The blame falls directly on the Central Valley fall run of chinook. Only about 66,000 adult salmon returned to spawn last fall in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, according to biologists whose estimates are based on a count of egg nests in the riverbed. It was the lowest return on record.

The collapse forced regulators to ban ocean salmon fishing in California and most of Oregon last year, the first time that had ever been done.

Fisheries biologists are projecting that the fall run of chinook this year will be almost twice as plentiful as last year, a fact that experts characterized as a thin thread of a silver lining. Still, the numbers will barely reach the council's minimum goal of 122,000 fish even if there is no fishing, according to the projections.

The council, which was established three decades ago to manage the Pacific Coast fishery, did include a little sportfishing in California in one of the options. If that option eventually gets approved, it would mean recreational fishermen could take chinook between Aug. 29 and Sept. 7 only in an area extending from the mouth of the Klamath River to southern Oregon.

Disastrous fall run
All three options would allow some commercial and sportfishing of hatchery-raised coho salmon - identifiable because the fleshy adipose fins have been removed - in Oregon during July and August.

Chinook, or king, salmon, pass through San Francisco Bay and roam the Pacific Ocean as far away as Alaska before returning three years later to spawn where they were born in the Sacramento River and its tributaries.

The fall run - in September and October - has for decades been the backbone of the West Coast fishing industry.

At its peak, it exceeded 800,000 fish. Over the past decade, the numbers had consistently topped 250,000. Until last year, the worst run on record was in 1992, when only 81,000 chinook returned to spawn.

Various possible causes
Changing ocean conditions, diversions of freshwater in the delta to cities and farms, pumping operations and exposure to pollutants have all been trotted out as culprits in the demise of the salmon. Some fishermen believe ravenous sea lions are to blame, but most environmentalists have consistently pointed to increases in water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta as the primary reason for the decline.

Whatever the cause, more than 2,200 fishermen and fishing industry workers lost their jobs as a result of last year's ban. Fishing communities and fishing-related businesses lost more than $250 million. Indirect economic impacts were even larger, according to fishing industry representatives.

Report forthcoming
Federal fishery scientists are expected to release a report next week on possible reasons for the collapse, but it is already too late for the salmon this year.

The council will make a final recommendation to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service in early April. The final decision on the restrictions is expected to be made by May 1.

Restrictions on river fishing will be made at a later date by the California Department of Fish and Game, which allowed some 600 chinook to be caught last year, angering many commercial fishermen who felt it was wrong to allow any fishing.#

California has most of the laws and regulations it needs to protect dwindling salmon populations. What it lacks is money and willpower to do it, a panel of legal and fishery experts told legislators Tuesday.

Illegal water diversions, pollution, habitat degradation and a lack of basic data all threaten the state's salmon. The situation is so grave that two-thirds of the state's native salmon and trout species face imminent extinction threats.

One is the Central Valley fall-run chinook, which has supported the West Coast's commercial salmon fishing for decades but last year set a historic population low. As a result, all salmon fishing in California is likely to be banned for a second straight year.

A stream of legal and environmental experts told the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee at a special hearing Tuesday that California's salmon are in peril largely because state government has not had the nerve or resources to help.

"There is, indeed, a salmon crisis in California," said Holly Doremus, a UC Davis expert on state environmental laws. "We think it's important to note that this is not new. It's as if we've waited until we've had a heart attack to seek medical attention rather than take preventive action."

The reasons are not sexy and don't make good political theater. Rather, they deal with the nuts and bolts of government neglected amid budget cuts and infighting.

Doremus and Richard Frank, a UC Berkeley legal scholar, said a big problem is a starvation diet imposed on the Department of Fish and Game for nearly two decades.

The agency has about 200 field-level game wardens to police the entire state – the lowest per-capita wildlife enforcement in America. This means, for example, that hundreds of illegal stream diversions go unnoticed every year, literally depriving salmon of habitat.

Fish and Game also does not have enough technical staff to review timber harvest plans and other land-use changes. This means erosion into streams and more habitat loss.

"The bottom line is that California wildlife laws are both robust and legally adequate," said Frank, director of UC Berkeley's Center for Environmental Law and Policy. "The single largest problem with respect to fisheries is a lack of adequate fiscal and personnel resources at the Department of Fish and Game."

This shortcoming has also crippled the state's ability to gather data on its salmon.

Oregon, Washington and Idaho all fund robust data gathering efforts so policymakers know where to spend habitat restoration and enforcement money most effectively. California has no comprehensive salmon monitoring.

"To revive this patient, we must know something about them," said Charlotte Ambrose, coastal salmon recovery coordinator at the National Marine Fisheries Service. "We desperately need statewide monitoring in place and, most critically, a statewide database for information management."

One area where more regulatory power may be needed is water resource management.

Vicky Whitney, deputy director of the state Water Resources Control Board, said officials know little about the amount of water consumed by so-called "riparian" water rights holders.

Riparian rights, usually attached to properties that border streams, are the most senior category of water entitlement in California.

Riparian rights holders must annually report to the state how much water they divert. But Whitney said only about 10 percent do so, and her agency does not have the power to enforce compliance.

The water board also has never had the power to regulate groundwater – a rarity among the 50 states

.

These loopholes exist because state leaders have never been willing to fight the political wars needed to end them.

"It indicates a general failure of management of fisheries on a large scale," said UC Davis fisheries professor Peter Moyle, who recently finished a study warning that 20 of California's 31 salmon and trout species risk extinction. "Maybe we should be surprised the salmon are here at all." #

SANTA CRUZ -- The author of last year's landmark report on California's salmon decline repeated his call or protective action Friday and said the Central Coast's coho would be among the first fish to vanish if nothing is done.

"Extinction is not an abstract thing," said Peter Moyle, speaking before hundreds of researchers at this week's Salmonid Restoration Conference, held at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.

The warning, which Moyle sounded for most of the state's 31 salmon, steelhead and trout species, comes as regulators consider closing the fishing season yet another year for the California chinook -- the state's foremost salmon fishery and a standard catch for local anglers and restaurants alike.

"This is a crisis," said Moyle, a UC Davis professor who led the research behind last year's grim California Trout report.

Moyle attributes the dwindling number of salmon, from chinook to coho, to excessive water diversions, construction of dams and other changes to the rivers where the fish spawn. Global warming, and its effect on stream temperatures and food supplies, may be another factor.

Restoring streams and rivers to their natural flows, and coming up with the money and political will to do so, would set the stage for recovery, Moyle says. Without action, he estimates, 65 percent of the state's salmon species will go extinct within 100 years.

Monterey Bay fishermen know the dim outlook all too well.

"It makes it impossible for the guys trying to hang in there and do this for a living," said Tom Canale, 62, who sold his fishing boat at the Santa Cruz harbor just a few years ago. "There really isn't much opportunity now."

The Santa Cruz Commercial Fishermen's Association counts about 70 members, according to Canale, about 40 of whom rely primarily on salmon.

This fall, the state's largest run of chinook fell short for the second straight year, numbering about 66,000 of the normal 122,000 when they returned to spawn in the Sacramento River. The figure almost certainly means federal regulators next month will curtail or cancel the salmon season, which normally begins May 1.

Last year's closure, the first in history, cost the state $255 million and 2,263 jobs, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

The Central Coast coho salmon, meanwhile, has been federally protected since 1996. While it's never had the commercial viability of the Sacramento River chinook, researchers are trying to ensure its recovery by improving the health of the local rivers and streams where the fish spawn.

A spawning pool was recently built on San Vicente Creek, and earlier this week the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors eliminated a log-removal program to increase the number of naturally forming pools so coho can thrive.#

Happy Camp, Calif. March 3, 2009 - Since the arrival of miners in the mid 1800's the Karuk Tribe has lost nearly everything. Once the lone occupants of over 1.4 million acres of the Middle Klamath Basin, the Karuk had over 100 villages and associated fishing sites. A peaceful society blessed with an abundance of acorns, fish, and game, early observers described the Karuk as the wealthiest people in North America. Today, nearly 90% of Karuks living in ancestral territory live below the poverty level and Tribal members have access to only one fishery. Yesterday, a recreational gold mining club called The New 49ers challenged the Tribe's right to fish there.

Karuk fishermen use traditional dip nets to fish for migrating salmon as they navigate the rapids at Ishi Pishi Falls near Somes Bar, California. Salmon are harvested for subsistence and ceremonial use only and the Tribe rarely harvests more than 200 fish. This falls far short of meeting the Tribes' needs as there are 4,200 members.

In a press release, the miners charge that the Karuk Tribe is guilty of "widespread and wanton" killing of salmon.

"These accusations are ridiculous," responded Leaf Hillman, Vice-chair of the Karuk Tribe. "Our fishery is gear limited. This means that because we use traditional dip nets, we can only catch a very small percentage of fish that are coming up the falls. This is by design. The creator taught us to use dip nets in order to not over harvest fish. We would not have survived here for thousands of years had we abused this privilege granted to us by the Creator."

Although many Tribes in the Pacific Northwest use gill nets that are strung across the river, the Karuk do not. Karuk fishermen stand on rocks and dip large nets on poles into the river to catch fish. Hillman noted, "Our fishery is non-lethal. This allows us to selectively harvest fish. In other words, we release ESA listed Coho and smaller chinook back into the river unharmed and we eat the rest. It also provides opportunities to tag fish for purposes of conducting scientific studies."

The New 49ers' petition to Fish and Game comes in retribution to the Tribe's recent effort to restrict suction dredge mining in areas that serve as critical habitat for ESA listed coho and other fish listed as â ˜species of special concern' under the California ESA. This includes Pacific lamprey and green sturgeon.

Suction dredges are powered by gas or diesel engines that are mounted on floating pontoons in the river. Attached to the engine is a powerful vacuum hose which the dredger uses to suction up the gravel and sand (sediment) from the bottom of the river. The material passes through a sluice box where heavier gold particles can settle into a series of riffles. The rest of the gravel is simply dumped back into the river. Often this reintroduces mercury left over from historic mining operations to the water column threatening communities downstream. Depending on size, location and density of these machines they can turn a clear running mountain stream into a murky watercourse unfit for swimming.

Suction dredging is a recreational activity that has been popularized in recent years by hobby groups and clubs such as The New 49ers.

In 2005 the Karuk Tribe sued Fish and Game for allowing the practice of suction dredge mining to occur in areas known to be critical habitat for endangered and at-risk species. At the time, Fish and Game officials submitted declarations to the Court admitting that suction dredge mining under its current regulations violates CEQA and Fish and Game Code §§5653 and 5653.9 (the statues which authorize the Department to issue permits for suction dredging under certain conditions) because the activity causes deleterious harm to fish - including endangered fish, such as the Coho salmon.

The suit ended in a court order directing Fish and Game to conduct a CEQA review and amend its regulations by June 20, 2008. Fish and Game has yet to initiate the process to change rules. Earlier this year the Tribe sued Fish and Game again in an effort to force immediate protections for fish.

The miners' suit over the Karuk fishery is retaliation for the Karuks' efforts. "Rather than address the issue head on, the miner's attorney has resorted to threats and intimidation," said Zeke Grader, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "People would not tolerate someone ripping up their yards or their crops in the field, but that's exactly what the miners are doing to the salmon the tribes and fishermen depend on. It's got to stop."

"We just want to do what we where doing when the first wave of miners showed up in 1850 - fish and feed our families. Over the last 150 years miners have taken nearly everything from the Karuk People. We will not allow them to take our last fishery," concluded Hillman.

To date, Fish and Game has made no public comment regarding the miners' petition.#

San Francisco Chronicle – 2/26/09
By Peter Fimrite, staff writer

(02-25) 20:26 PST -- Prospects are not good this year for the folks who fish for salmon off the California coast - or for the people who like to eat it.

Mission District rally for immigrant rights 02.26.09

The number of chinook in the ocean right now is barely enough to meet the minimum sustainable goal when the fish return to spawn in the Sacramento River system this fall - and that's assuming no fishing is allowed this year, according to a forecast Wednesday by a federal agency.

The ominous news, contained in the Pacific Fishery Management Council's report on ocean salmon fisheries, comes on the tail fins of last week's announcement that fewer salmon than ever recorded swam through San Francisco Bay last fall to spawn in the Sacramento River.

"This is grim news for the state of California," said Don Hansen, chairman of the council, a federal body that regulates commercial and sport fishing. "We won't be able to talk about this without using the word 'disaster.' "

Last year only 66,286 adult salmon returned to the Sacramento River to spawn, only the second time in 16 years that the number of fall run chinook failed to meet the council's goal of between 122,000 and 180,000 adult fish. Six years ago, the peak return was 13 times higher.

The dismal showing forced a ban on commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts, the first total closure in California history.

Wednesday's report projects a return of 122,196 fish next fall, assuming no salmon are hooked and reeled in for food in the meantime. The chinook that spawn in the fall are the same ones that are normally fished out of the ocean during the summer.

The council will discuss another possible ban during its annual meeting March 7-13 in Seattle, and things aren't looking good, said Chuck Tracy, a staff officer for the council.

"Certainly fisheries are going to be very restricted at the best," he said.

One positive sign in the council report is that the number of salmon returning to the Klamath River is expected to exceed the council's goal. Chinook and coho salmon runs in the Columbia River, which empties into the ocean on the Oregon-Washington border, are expected to be strong this year, meaning fishing restrictions there are likely to be less severe.

Chinook, also known as king salmon, are the prized fish of Northern California. They were once abundant in the ocean and in almost every river and stream along the coast throughout the year.

They have struggled for centuries against the powerful currents of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, laying eggs in the gravel. Their young would hatch in the rivers, swim out the bay and live in the ocean, returning to their birthplace three years later.

The mighty fish, which was the primary food of many Native American communities, are now worth millions of dollars to the economies of fishing communities up and down the coast.

Scientists believe warmer ocean conditions have reduced the food supply for the fish, while record exports of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta coincided with major declines in chinook.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to make a final decision on fishing quotas by May 1, when California's salmon fishing season begins. #

In 2002, 800,000 Chinook salmon passed through San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River to their ancestral spawning grounds in the Upper Sacramento and its tributaries. Those were the "good old days" for party boats out of the Bay, plying the ocean. Limits around with big lugs to 40, even 50 pounds as the rule, not the exception. Same for guides fishing the big river.

The Kenai River may have some bigger Kings, up to 90 lbs. and more. And the Columbia and Fraser Rivers certainly have decent runs, but historically the Chinook salmon run up the Sacramento River has been the largest on the West Coast, and that has meant big business for commercial fishermen, restaurants, party boats in the ocean, guides along the Sacramento and Feather Rivers, and sport fishermen, as well as a lot of prime salmon on the table.

In 2007, only 80,000 Chinooks made their final run up the Sacramento River. As a result, the Fall Run of Chinooks, which has always been the biggest, in April, 2008 was declared off-limits to fishermen by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council — no fishing in the ocean or the Sacramento River and tributaries — with only a Winter Run fishery in the river for about a month remaining. Silver salmon fishing had already been banned and sockeyes and pinks don't get down this far south, so in effect there was virtually no salmon fishery in California last year, except for the Klamath River run. And that meant thousands of people out of work and several hundred million dollars in lost income.

According to a meeting between National Marine Fisheries and a coalition of stakeholder groups held last week in Sacramento between National Marine Fisheries and a coalition of stakeholder groups, it's likely that there will be no ocean or fall run salmon fishery this year, also. According to Pro-Troll tackle manufacturer Dick Pool, from Water4Fish, "The primary indicator of catchable salmon in the ocean is the number of 2 year-old jacks that return to the rivers. The jack count in 2008 was at or near an all time low. This means the numbers of mature fish that will return in 2009 will be very low."

Pool is predicting there will be no season this year, but that decision is yet to be made as it rests with the California Fish and Game Commission and National Marine Fisheries. However, it looks like Pool's forecast will be right. On February 18, the Pacific Fishery Management Council reported that last year only 66,264 natural and hatchery adult fall chinook salmon were estimated to have returned to the Sacramento River basin for spawning.

When the bad news came out last spring, fingers were pointing everywhere to look for reasons for the rapid decline in salmon. Some immediately said it was more example of global warming. Global warming may be a factor in salmon populations, but for such a dramatic decline in five years, it would signal that in five more we should all be frying in triple-digit winters. And beside, the Columbia River and Klamath River runs seem to be doing quite well. (Incidentally, it's in the 30's today on the Coast, with a snow level at 2000' and the road to Tahoe has been blocked most of the day by snow and ice.)

Warming is involved in the sorry state of the Sacramento salmon, but it's not the ocean waters so much as those in the river. It's the summer water temperatures upstream in the Sacramento River and in the tributaries, which NMF says is a major problem. Warmer water, associated with dams, water diversions, and drought conditions for the last several years, is killing off eggs and small fish, killing off 10% of the eggs.

But that's just the beginning. An even bigger factor for the young fish in the Upper Sacramento is decreased water levels, stress passing through dams, and increased predation, which collectively mean that only 20% of the young fish leaving Red Bluff make it to the Delta.

Then when they get to the Delta, pumps, predation and water chemistry kill 65% of the young fish.

According to the report, "Overall, when the Sacramento survival of 20% is combined with the Delta survival of 40%, only 8% of the smolts make it to the West Delta," (which connects with San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay).

You also have to factor in a problem for returning spawners, poaching, which because of the game warden shortage in California has become very significant. In 2007 game wardens cited over 400 people for snagging salmon in and around the state capitol, Sacramento. And the wardens believe they are only able to catch about 10% of the violators as California has the worst per capita wardens of any state or Canadian province.

As a result of the studies reported at the meeting, "NMFS currently concludes jeopardy for all salmon species, green sturgeon, and the southern resident killer whale species." In addition, in the San Joaquin River, a tributary of the Sacramento that once had a salmon run approaching 300,000 fish a year, due to low flows and predation, "endangered steelhead survival out of the San Joaquin is near zero." Without drastic measures, the report finds: "there is no question that several runs are now headed to extinction."

Problems with dams, diversions, water temperatures and poaching, have made the future of Sacramento River salmon heavily tied to hatcheries. This increases costs, but it does result in some control that can be helpful to circumvent the gauntlet of problems salmon face currently in the Sacramento River. One strategy that offers some hope is carrying smolts from the hatcheries in tank trucks to holding pens in San Francisco Bay, thus avoiding contact with the Delta, and its hungry stripers and diversion pumps. And then when the young salmon are ready to be released into the wild, they are released in deeper water offshore, which minimizes feeding frenzies by sea birds and seals.

To be a fisherman is to always cultivate hope. With salmon runs, you always have to think 2-3 years ahead of time. Dick Pool observes wistfully, "We are hoping for a 2010 season based on the 23 million smolts that were trucked around the delta in 2008."

To keep abreast of developments in the California salmon struggle, visit the websites for Water4Fish, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, and the National Marine Fisheries Pacific Northwest Division. A copy of a recent presentation by NMFS to CAL-FED with many graphic charts and graphs describing the salmon situation in California, can also be viewed online.#

SACRAMENTO -- California water regulators on Tuesday allowed state and federal agencies to escape penalties after they failed to release water earlier this month to improve quality in the delta.

The State Water Resources Control Board said late February storms had provided the natural water flows needed for fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The decision by the board does not require any changes in the way the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation or state Department of Water Resources operate their dams. The board also excused the agencies for violating water quality standards when they failed to release water into the delta as required.

Board spokesman Dave Clegern said nature resolved the very "dire circumstances" that water managers were facing in early February when river flows were low and California's major reservoirs were well below capacity.

"Basically, the waiver request was rejected because mother nature took care of it," Clegern said.

When river flows are low, the Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Water Resources are required by state law to release water from their reservoirs to help protect delta fish such as the longfin smelt.

That was the case at the beginning of February when the agencies sought relief from the standards in a bid to retain their scarce water supplies.

The agencies had argued that they needed to store as much water as possible behind their dams this winter to ensure they have enough water for salmon, cities and farmers later this year.

The reservoirs are critical to the water supply of two-thirds of the state's residents and millions of acres of farmland.

During a Feb. 17 hearing, state water officials agreed that the state and federal agencies had violated the standards requiring them to release water into the delta. But the water board ultimately decided not to recommend any enforcement action.

"They did at the time the only thing they knew what they had to do," Clegern said. "It was an honest attempt to maintain their resources." #

A judge in California on Monday gave the federal government three more months to finish a new set of rules to protect endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, spring-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead.

Environmentalists didn't object to the extension, though they did express concern that three more months would pass with the fish species - who they said are struggling for survival - being managed under a plan that U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger has already said is flawed.

They also reserved the right to change their minds and seek additional court action if necessary.

Increasingly pessimistic farmers and ranchers on California's central San Joaquin Valley's west side figured Monday's delay means another three months of waiting for another hit to their dwindling water supplies.

"It almost doesn't make a difference to us one way or the other," said Sarah Woolf, a spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District, which is the second-largest consumer of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Wanger agreed to the request by the federal government during a hearing - in which all the attorneys participated by telephone - because both sides said more time is needed to get the management plan right.

The winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon spawn mainly on the Sacramento River and some of its Northern California tributaries. That river system is key to the federal Central Valley Project.

Michael Sherwood, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice, said the situation is changing daily, but for the salmon that spawn on the Sacramento River, "it's going to be a bad year."

That Sacramento River water flows into the delta, where some of its water is then pumped out and sent south to users such as Westlands, as well as commercial and residential users in the Bay Area and Southern California.

Last summer, Wanger ruled that the three fish species were at risk of extinction and that the state and federal water project operations were further jeopardizing their survival. He found that the rules managing the fish violated the federal Endangered Species Act because they didn't adequately protect the species.

Since then, the National Marine Fisheries Service has been reworking those rules.

Already, a similar rewrite of fish-management rules by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the endangered delta smelt has reduced water deliveries to Westlands and other users. The state's drought has also contributed to the region's water woes.

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said west Valley farmers will receive no federal water this season.

Others are feeling the pinch, too: Contra Costa Water District's 500,000 customers likely will face mandatory water rationing in the coming months, and cities from the Bay Area to San Diego are expected to impose mandatory water rationing soon.

The upcoming rewrite of the salmon rules is widely expected to make things even harder on those who depend on the state's intricately woven water system.

The rewritten rules covering the salmon and steelhead species will likely make it even harder to get any federal water at all, said Woolf of Westlands.

"Zero is zero," she said. "They can't take any more away." #

Eureka Times Standard – 2/20/09
By Casey Allen
Casey Allen is the Public Information Officer for the Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers.

Salmon season was closed last year on the North Coast to protect the Sacramento River Chinook salmon that are believed to roam into our ocean waters. The Sacramento River was also closed, but a last minute change opened the river to fishing and the freshwater fishermen caught more fish than the ocean fishermen were projected to catch offshore. It seems the river fishermen had a louder voice than those on the coast did.

The organization known as HASA (Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers) intends to correct that imbalance.

The issues facing the North Coast now are another possible salmon closure; the Marine Life Protection Act creating Marine Protected Areas that will close rock fishing spots and portions of Humboldt Bay forever; wave energy projects that will also close large tracts of ocean fishing grounds; and yelloweye rockfish closures. HASA is also taking a lead in artificial reef projects.

The mission of Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers is to represent the North Coast fishing community's historic and ongoing right to sport fish along the Northern California coast; advocate reasonable and rational sport fishing seasons and regulations; educate our members and the general public about the economic and cultural contributions of sport fishing to our local economies; and promote sustainable stewardship of the resource.

HASA was formed to give local fishermen a unified voice on these and other issues relating to saltwater sport fishing. Last year's salmon closure -- and the realization that local fishermen found themselves late in providing input -- illustrated the need for this type of organization. HASA is determined not to be caught unaware again. Saltwater anglers in California spent $3 billion in 2006, and they are not getting their money's worth in legislation.

In some circumstances, HASA could be in favor of closures, because everyone agrees, we don't want to catch the last fish. But HASA does not want decisions based on bad science and does not want the local sport fishing community left out.

This nonprofit organization needs membership and is open to everyone. HASA will provide its membership information on important issues, meetings, and events through a quarterly electronic newsletter and the Humboldt Tuna Club Web site. A hard copy of the newsletter will be available for those old salts without e-mail.

Donations are tax-deductible; an individual/family membership is $20 a year. Associate memberships are offered free and include everything but the right to vote on club matters.

HASA exists to protect fishing rights, to promote the sport, to help people learn to fish, and to have some fun along the way.

To join, go to the Humboldt Tuna Club Web site, humboldttuna.com, and download the HASA membership application. The site has loads of information about what's going on from HASA to what size hook is best for tuna. You can also find applications at your local sporting goods stores. Applications can be mailed to HASA, P.O. Box 6191, Eureka, Ca. 95502.

Casey Allen is the Public Information Officer for the Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers. He lives in Bayside. #

California water officials admitted this week they have already violated a key water flow standard in the Delta intended to protect imperiled fish.

The admission came in hearings Tuesday and Wednesday before the state Water Resources Control Board. The hearings were held to consider a petition from the state Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to win exemptions from the standard because of drought.

Board members and Delta advocates were surprised to learn the flow standard had already been violated while the petition was pending.

"There probably were some days where we were not meeting the outflow standards," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources. "At least we had the petition in before any of these things took place."

The agencies sought the exemption because they believe they need to retain cold water in the state's depleted reservoirs to ensure healthy salmon runs this fall.

But in doing so, they risked violating a minimum-outflow standard in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. That standard is designed to protect other fish, including the Delta smelt and longfin smelt. It requires meeting flow targets over a certain number of days in a month, usually by releasing water from upstream dams.

The drought, in other words, posed a tough choice between fish species.

The agencies acted after consulting with wildlife officials, he said, who agreed that saving water for salmon runs was a prudent step.

Johns said they couldn't wait for the water board's lengthy review process. As a result, he said, they retained about 100,000 acre-feet of water in state and federal reservoirs.

"Technically, we did not actually meet the number of days in February that's called for by the board," Johns said. "We took what actions we thought were the best overall mix to better protect fish."

Subsequent rains created enough natural flow to avoid continued violations, though the drought is far from over.

Bill Rukeyser, spokesman for the state water board, said no penalties will be assessed if the board approves the petition. It would become a retroactive endorsement of violations that have already occurred, a fact that does not sit well with critics.

If the petition is rejected, fines or other penalties may be assessed, Rukeyser said. A decision could come next week.

Mike Jackson, an attorney for the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, wants penalties levied to force the agencies to plan more carefully.

"The danger of suspending those rules is that they're really the only protection the ecosystem has," Jackson said. #

San Francisco Chronicle – 2/19/09
By Jane Kay

(02-18) 20:50 PST -- The smallest number of Pacific Ocean salmon ever recorded swam back to the Sacramento River via San Francisco Bay last fall, the latest evidence of the decline of the storied fish along the West Coast, officials said Wednesday.

Highlights of plan to close Calif. budget deficit 02.19.09

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a federal body that regulates commercial and sport fishing, estimated that only 66,286 adult salmon returned to the Sacramento River to spawn. Six years ago, the peak return was 13 times higher.

In 2007, only 87,881 of the fish returned to spawn in the river, falling far short of the agency's goal of 122,000 to 180,000 fish.

The latest count comes as officials consider imposing fishing restrictions off California's coast again this summer.

Chinook - also known as king salmon - are the prized fish of Northern California streams, once proliferating in four genetically distinct runs, or races.

For centuries, they have fought their way up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries to bear young, which hatch in the rivers, swim through the bay and live in the ocean until they return three years later to spawn and die in their natal streams.

The fish have supported an economy worth hundreds of millions of dollars and supplied restaurants and retailers with a local source of heart-healthy protein famous for its rich, buttery flavor.

The Sacramento River fall run, the bread-and-butter chinook run, is the one facing collapse, although Lagunitas Creek in Marin County this year had its smallest run of coho salmon ever recorded.

Scientists believe warmer ocean conditions in 2005 and 2006 led to a lean food supply as young salmon were entering the ocean. That played a part in the low spawning returns in 2007 and 2008.

In addition, in 2004 and 2005, the years the chinook were born and traveled to the ocean, the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project exported record amounts of Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta water to urban and agricultural customers throughout the state, documents show.

Federal researchers also blame 50 years of water management in California for the decline of the fish. The state and federal water projects constructed dams and conveyance systems that separated the fish from their habitats. Pumps, canals and hatcheries built to make up for lost water also depleted once-diverse runs, at one time the pride of the state.

Next week, the management council, which is made up of representatives of states and tribes as well as government agencies and fishing groups, is expected to release numbers estimating the chinook salmon available in the ocean, agency spokeswoman Jennifer Guilden said Wednesday.

Based on stock assessments from the National Marine Fisheries Service and other federal agencies, the management council then will set quotas for the fishing season, which typically begins in May.

Last year, the low estimates resulted in a ban on commercial fishing off California and Oregon, the first time all seasons were closed in California history. Similar restrictions are expected this year, according to officials who have seen the stock assessments.

"Almost for certain there will be no fishing this year," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents commercial fishermen. The industry has received some financial aid, which Grader says may have to carry over to this season as well.

His group was lead plaintiff in a 2004 lawsuit asking the federal government to deem the winter and spring runs of salmon in jeopardy of extinction. The fish are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The system in the Klamath and Trinity rivers had 31,000 returning spawners, a better return than in the Central Valley, but still short of its management goal of 40,700 fish, according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz, the fall run appears to have suffered from "poor ocean conditions when the juveniles left the fresh water to enter the ocean," said Churchill Grimes, fishery biologist and a leader of the group preparing a paper on causes of the decline.

But the ultimate cause of the decline is "sort of by 1,000 cuts" related to habitat destruction of the delta, once 1,500 square kilometers of rearing habitat, he said.

"It was a huge marsh, habitat for all of the runs. Now it's been diked, levied and rip-rapped until it's not more than a big ditch," Grimes said. Dams, pumping water by the state and federal water projects and the operation of hatcheries all contribute to the problem, he said.#

California's degraded rivers and voracious water demand are not just a local problem. They threaten to exterminate a unique population of Pacific killer whales, federal scientists have found.

In a draft ruling, the National Marine Fisheries Service says the southern resident population of killer whales may go extinct because its primary food – salmon – is imperiled by the state's vast network of dams and canals.

This killer whale population is a unique species, already endangered under federal law. They number only 84 animals. They normally reside in and near Puget Sound, but in recent years have spent more time off Central California.

Killer whales, also called orcas, never venture into freshwater. But their food does. The Sacramento River's salmon runs are the largest on the West Coast, but declining.

The fisheries service last month determined that Central Valley salmon populations will go extinct unless state and federal agencies change their water operations in California. After further study, it now believes killer whales will follow salmon into the grave.

"There's so many parts of our (aquatic) system that depend on salmon," said Maria Rea, Sacramento-area supervisor of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "It does really highlight the interconnected nature of what happens in the Central Valley and the Delta to the ocean."

The California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation operate separate systems of dams, canals and pumps that are key to both urban and farm water supplies in the state. Though other factors contribute to the fish declines, including water pollution, the water projects have been targeted for much of the blame.

As part of its final report, the fisheries service has the power to impose new operating rules on the water systems to protect fish. It has not revealed what these recommendations will be, but they could dramatically change water supplies – and water bills – across California. The recommendations are expected this spring.

Rea's agency is assessing the effect of California water operations on four protected species: winter- and spring-run salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon. A key focus of the report is to minimize threats to these species caused by water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub for 60 percent of California's freshwater supplies.

Several observers said the link between salmon and the charismatic orca is certain to elevate California's water conflicts in the public mind.

Though last year was historically bad for California fish and water supplies, restoration of the state's Delta and rivers has yet to grab the public's imagination like environmental problems in Florida's Everglades or the Brazilian rain forest. Much of the debate over the Delta has focused on the tiny Delta smelt, a threatened species few people have seen.

The orca could change the game.

"It's not just an obscure little fish anymore," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens Associations. "It's all one ecosystem."

Ken Balcomb, executive director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Wash., has studied the southern population of killer whales for more than 30 years. He estimates salmon are about 80 percent of the killer whale's diet.

The population eats about 500,000 salmon a year to sustain itself, he said. To reach a healthier population of 100 to 120 orcas, it would need about 30 percent more salmon.

Coincidentally, Balcomb grew up in Carmichael and spent most of his free time as a teenager along the American River. He saw Folsom Dam built in the 1950s.

"I remember the river changing," he said. "All things are connected. Our own neighborhoods are part of this ecosystem fabric that we have to restore."

Among the fixes the fisheries service is weighing, Rea said, is installation of fish ladders on major dams that sealed off hundreds of miles of salmon habitat in California rivers decades ago. One example is Folsom Dam.

If the agency required fish ladders to reopen this habitat, it would cost water agencies – and ratepayers – billions.

Water agency leaders were unwilling to comment on whether they're prepared to pay for such projects.

Laura King-Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors, said a key concern is whether other factors, such as ocean health, share the blame.

"It still begs the question of whether our activities are causing the decline of these these species," she said. "That is the key to our willingness to pay for things like that."

Rea said the fisheries service also may propose new hatchery practices to enhance fall-run chinook salmon. It is the most populous Central Valley salmon species, and therefore, the most important to killer whales.

The fall run set a historic population low in 2008, prompting regulators to ban commercial salmon fishing in California and Oregon. A similar ban is likely again this year. #

Plumas County News – 2/13/09
By M. Kate West

Taking the “Stairway of Power Tour” on Google Earth leaves one feeling a bit like Aladdin on a magic carpet ride.

The Google Earth computer virtual tours and accompanying information sheets are provided at the Chester branch library, free of charge, to the community by the Almanor Basin Watershed Advisory Committee,

There are five different tours available to interested cyber travelers in a 3-D landscape. With the handbook put together by ABWAC Watershed Coordinator Kelly Weintraub, users can navigate around the watershed and even detour up any given stream.

The user can also explore further and learn how the area is zoned, and who owns which parcel of land. The properties of landowners Collins Pine, the United States Forest Service Sierra Pacific Industries are clearly marked.

“This is a place where people can come and access all of the data that has been collected in Almanor, so they may learn what is in their watershed. They don’t have to have a computer or high-speed Internet, and it is all free,” said Weintraub.

Plumas County Environmental Health, Pacific Gas & Electric, the California Department of Water Resources and the Regional Water Quality Control Board work all worked to collect the data for the program.

“What is so neat about the system is the agencies have always worked independently in their data collection and we have brought it together in one place,” said Weintraub.

She added, “Now you don’t have to research the Web sites for PG&E and DWS for data. This program lets people see how the watershed is as a whole.”

She said the program even identifies the boundaries of private water districts and planned developments.

Weintraub said the program also allows the user to layer information like major streams and a geology layer to see what’s underneath and how everything fits together.

“The Stairway of Power tour is pretty amazing in what the pictures show. You can see water and dams; it’s pretty detailed,” she said.

She said users should take a moment to note each stop on the tour has a bubble that provides information and defines the route of water flow.
Weintraub said the Almanor GIS database includes water quality monitoring information, where wildlife species have been sighted, specific Plumas County zoning, major landowners and infrastructure such as railroads and power lines.

“The tour also shows how all three watersheds flow together down to Oroville and the rest of California,” she added.

She said the information binder also contains extra facts about the watershed and the recommendations contained in the Lake Almanor Watershed Assessment. #

ABC 7 San Francisco – 2/09/09

GEYSERVILLE, CA (KGO) -- The North Bay streams and creeks that feed the Russian River were once prime breeding grounds for one of California's prized fish. But overfishing, pollution, low water levels and dams have pushed Coho salmon to the edge of extinction.

You're not likely to see Coho salmon in Sonoma County's Russian River any time soon.

The tubs may be the Coho salmon's last hope. A captive breeding program at the Warm Springs Hatchery is trying to pull the fish from the verge of extinction.

"We decided that we had to intervene before the last wild fish disappears," said Manfred Kittle from California Fish & Game Department.

A breeding program was established in 2001 to bring the Coho salmon back to the Russian River. It is a collaboration between local, state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations.

"So what we do, is catch wild fingerlings, bring them into the hatchery, we grow them to adulthood - we spawn them and the offspring are released back into the same stream where the parents came from," said Kittle.

"Some of those offspring will be kept at the hatchery and thus become captive breed stock and will be used for future spawning efforts," said biologist Ben White.

White heads up the salmon breeding program for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.

"In the wild they choose when to spawn, who to spawn with, and where to spawn, here in captivity it all falls on us," said White.

Each fish is fitted with a tag so it can be identified by scanning. This is a hands on job. Every week, biologists check the fish to see if they are ready to breed. Females are given a firmness rating between one and five.

"One being the tightest and the firmest, and essentially the farthest away from spawning and five -- a five being really soft, I call it like jelly soft meaning that she's ready to go, probably within a week," said White.

Their color will also change when they are ready to spawn.

"Prior to spawning, this whole belly of the fish will be dark almost a really dark grey," said White.

An ultra sound determines whether the female's eggs are mature. Numbers are attached to fish to make them easier to identify. Each salmon is carefully cataloged in order to maintain the greatest genetic diversity.

When they are ready these salmon are transported to holding tanks for a couple days until they are ready to breed.

When they are ready, biologists carefully choose the males, and check to make sure they're viable mates. When the eggs are ready, they are extracted from the females.

"So I get the eggs out of her by just applying pressure on her ventral surface," said White.

Each female salmon can only lay eggs once, and dies after she spawns. So biologists are very careful to make sure they collect every single egg.

"I would say the average is between one and three thousand eggs," said White.

Detailed records are taken on each fish. Each female's eggs are separated and fertilized by four different males to ensure genetic diversity. They are sorted into trays where they incubate until they hatch.

When the fish are old enough, they will be released back into the wild. But their odds of returning to breed are not good. About 6,000 juveniles were released in 2004, and only a handful returned.

"Every year though you can count the number on one hand - so it's been few and far between so far, but every year we expect more and more to come back, said White.

And with each little fish that returns the co-ho salmon get one more chance to keep their species alive.

If drought conditions improve, the Department of Fish and Game hopes to release 60,000 to 90,000 Coho salmon this year.

But only one percent of them are expected to eventually return and spawn. #

The California Progress Report – 2/11/09
By Dan Bacher

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, today issued an urgent action alert today in response to the introduction of legislation to temporarily suspend the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as it applies to the California Delta pumping facilities during times of drought.

The bill will also establish a Delta Smelt conservation hatchery, a bad idea that was defeated in the State Legislature last year, due to opposition by a coalition of environmental organizations, fishing groups and Delta residents.

Congressman George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) on February 4 introduced H.R. 856, the California Drought Alleviation Act, to bypass the ESA so exports of Delta water to corporate agribusiness in the Central Valley can be increased during this period of drought, a drought that has been largely engineeered by the draining of northern California reservoirs over the past two years by the state and federal governments. He claimed that California agriculture is a "victim" of economic "eco-terrorism" caused by the ESA.

"By allowing the Delta Pumps to operate at increased capacity, the CDAA allows available water to flow to Valley farmers and provides a stimulus to the California economy without costing the taxpayer a dime, Radanovich said in a statement.

We cannot allow California agriculture to wither and die because our precious resources are being hijacked by what amounts to economic eco-terrorism in the form of the ESA and the entities that support this damaging law."

"Of course, Congressman Radanovich has forgotten the economic eco-terrorism that has been inflicted on commercial fisheries, the Delta sportsfishing economy, and Delta agriculture as a result of years of excessive water exports to support Central Valley agri- business," countered Parrilla.

"Even more disturbing is that Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced), one of the bill's co-sponsors, has forgotten that he represents people who live in the secondary zone of the Delta and that the people he represents in central Stockton are alarmed over the condition of Delta fisheries and what water exports have done to our local Delta economy," said Parrilla.

So, here's how you can help. First, call the eight sponsors of H.R. 856 to express your outrage at their disregard for the economic eco-interests of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Tell them that the business as usual regarding California water policy must end.

Direct them to the Restore the Delta website (http://www.restorethedelta.org) and tell them that Regional Water Self- Sufficiency, rather than moving water from Northern California to Southern California, is the best way to meet California's water needs. Tell them that they need to focus on breaking dependence on the Delta to meet the state's water needs. It is the cost effective way, in these difficult economic times, to address our water problems.

In addition, contact the following members of the House Natural Resources Committee to express your opposition to H.R. 856.

"Let them know that increased Delta exports in a time of drought will deal the final deathblow to Delta fisheries," said Parrilla. "Let them know that the Delta's $2.5 billion economy is dependent on water flowing into the Delta for fisheries and Delta agriculture. Let them know that Delta farms are mainly family farmers also deserving of economic protection."#

A coalition of conservation and fishing groups Wednesday filed a lawsuit contending that California water quality officials have failed to do enough to clean up streams and rivers along the North Coast.

The lawsuit claims that the North Coast Water Quality Control Board and state water board have taken too long to implement action plans to clean up more than 15 waterways from southern Sonoma County to the Oregon border. The rivers include the Russian, Navarro, Albion, Eel and Mattole.

“We’re hoping to both restore the health of these rivers and to provide the cool clean water for these salmon populations to be restored,” said George Torgun, an attorney with the Oakland-based environmental legal group Earthjustice.

Catherine Kuhlman, executive officer of the North Coast water board in Santa Rosa, said she was dismayed that the lawsuit seems to focus on completing paperwork rather than on the actual results her staff has accomplished to reduce sediment and other pollutants from the region’s rivers.

Kuhlmans also said her current staff of about 78 is nearly half the size it was in 2000.

“The bottom line is we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got,” Kuhlman said.

Many North Coast rivers suffer from two much sediment and nutrients and occasionally high temperatures. Conservationists contend that the pollution comes from logging, grazing, farming, mining and from the runoff off dirt roads.

In 1995, some of the same conservation groups took the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to court and won a settlement in which the federal agency agreed to set pollutions limits for the region’s rivers. With the exception of the Klamath River watershed, that work has been completed.

The suit contends that except for three rivers, the state has failed to complete specific action plans for reducing pollution on each waterway.

Among the organizations that joined in the lawsuit are the Sierra Club, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and conservation groups for three river watersheds.

Asked if the state should be moving faster on cleaning up the region’s rivers, Kuhlman replied, “That’s a decision for the legislature and the governor to make. I take what they give me.”

Torgun said the action plans are required under the state’s water quality act. “A lack of funding isn’t a good excuse for not complying with the law,” he said.#

Yubanet.com – 2/5/09
By: Karuk Tribe

Oakland, CA Feb. 5, 2009 â “ Today taxpayers filed suit against California Fish and Game for using taxpayer dollars to fund an illegal recreational gold mining program in Alameda County Superior Court.

"Its morally reprehensible and illegal for California Fish and Game to use tax dollars to subsidize the destruction of our fisheries in the midst of a budget crisis," said Dave Bitts, a commercial salmon fishermen from Humboldt Bay.

Suction dredges are powered by gas or diesel engines that are mounted on floating pontoons in the river. Attached to the engine is a powerful vacuum hose which the dredger uses to suction up the gravel and sand (sediment) from the bottom of the river. The material passes through a sluice box where heavier gold particles can settle into a series of riffles. The rest of the gravel is simply dumped back into the river. Often this reintroduces mercury left over from historic mining operations to the water column threatening communities downstream. Depending on size, location and density of these machines they can turn a clear running mountain stream into a murky watercourse unfit for swimming.

In 2005 the Karuk Tribe sued Fish and Game for allowing the practice of suction dredge mining to occur in areas known to be critical habitat for endangered and at-risk species such as Coho salmon, Pacific lamprey, and green sturgeon. At the time, Fish and Game officials submitted declarations to the Court admitting that suction dredge mining under its current regulations violates CEQA and Fish and Game Code §§5653 and 5653.9 (the statues which authorize the Department to issue permits for suction dredging under certain conditions) because the activity causes deleterious harm to fish ⠓ including endangered fish, such as the Coho salmon.

The suit ended in a court order directing Fish and Game to conduct a CEQA review and amend its regulations by June 20, 2008. Fish and Game has yet to initiate the process.

"Looks like DFG actually stands for Department of Frontier Greed," said Leaf Hillman, Vice Chairman of the Karuk Tribe. "While legislators are cutting basic programs for our children and elders in an effort to balance the budget, DFG is subsidizing hobby mining. Miners should not be allowed to mine in critical habitats and they should pay their own way if they mine at all."

Specifically, the suit charges that the suction dredge program violates: (1) the previous court Order; (2) CEQA, for failure to conduct a subsequent or supplemental EIR in order to provide protections for endangered and threatened fish listed since 1994; and (3) Fish and Game Code §§5653 and 5653.9, for failure to promulgate regulations in compliance with CEQA and for issuing permits when it has determined that the activity causes deleterious harm to fish.

The suit comes two weeks after Fish and Game Director Don Koch rejected a petition from the Karuk Tribe, PCFFA, and others to use emergency rule making authority to enact modest restrictions on where and when suction dredging could take place.

"Fish and Game is quick to kick California's 2.4 million fishermen off the river, but they continually go to bat for 3,000 hobby miners," said plaintiff Craig Tucker. "As a taxpayer I am sick and tired of government handouts to hobby miners that are destroying California's rivers."

Arguments for a preliminary injunction will likely be heard in early spring.#

Yubanet.com – 2/4/09
By: Karuk Tribe

Salem, OR, Feb. 3, 2009 - Today lawmakers introduced a bill that would direct funds from PacifiCorp power bills to remove dams instead of paying millions more for federally mandated dam upgrades. Affected Tribes, fishermen, conservationists, ratepayer advocacy groups, and even dam owner PacifiCorp, support the legislation. The legislation is a first step to restoring fisheries and stabilizing tribal, agricultural and fishing economies in the Klamath Basin - as mapped out in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

"Governor Kulongoski has helped negotiate a win-win-win situation that we hope legislators will support," said Jeff Mitchell, Klamath Tribal council member and long time dam removal advocate. "Tribes and fishermen win because we will recover salmon runs, farmers win because dam removal is a cornerstone of our water sharing agreement, and PacifiCorp and their customers win because they control costs."

The legislation is based on a dam removal "agreement in principle" signed by PacifiCorp, Oregon, California, and the United States last November. The legislation essentially caps PacifiCorp ratepayers' contribution to dam removal at $200 million. Without the legislation PacifiCorp's ratepayers would have to pay the full cost of relicensing the aging dams, including mitigation measures such as fish ladders that, at a minimum, will cost the same as removal. Additional costs for addressing water quality issues such as toxic algal blooms are yet to be determined by regulatory agencies, but could add millions more. Groups argue that dam removal solves these problems in a more cost effective manner.

A broad-based coalition of organizations representing diverse interests has been working since 2005 to bring peace and sustainable solutions to the Klamath Basin. This bi-partisan, cooperative effort deserves support, say participants:

"Legislative solutions should offer benefits for more than just one interest," says James Honey, Program Director for Sustainable Northwest. "This legislation and the companion Restoration Agreement is the most promising option to end the Klamath crisis." Dam removal is a key feature of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement released early last year. However, the Agreement also settles many long standing water disputes between Tribes and farmers, increases flows for fish, invests in rural economic development to support tribal and agricultural communities, and provides a coordinated approach to fisheries restoration, from the Klamath's headwaters to the sea.

The Klamath Water Users Association, which represents farmers and ranchers who lost access to irrigation water in 2001, supports the bill. Executive Director Greg Addington explains, "We see the legislation as one component of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which can bring stability to a region known mostly for its instability. The package of measures provides increased water security for farmers, helps us with energy issues, and provides landowners with tools to ensure that reintroduction of salmon to the Upper Basin doesn't make it even harder to earn a living in agriculture."

Oregon fishermen also support the bill: "Oregon's commercial salmon fishery is worth more than the small amount of power these particular dams produce," says Mike Becker, a commercial salmon fisherman from Newport. "We can replace the relatively small number of megawatts from the hydro project. But we can't replace the salmon runs on the Klamath River. When the fish suffer, so do our coastal communities."

While not a part of the coalition of groups working in the Basin, the Citizen's Utility Board (CUB), a ratepayer advocacy group, also supports the Governor's legislation.#

One by one, Jake Habib's second grade students lined up on Monday to get their steelhead started.

Each of the Dow's Prairie Elementary School students took a plastic spoon with a single orange steelhead egg in it from Jeff Self, who is heading up the Salmon in the Classroom program for area schools. They tipped the spoon into the water of a chilly aquarium and watched as the egg floated down into the gravel at the bottom.

The kids already know lots about salmon, including that the egg is a protective shell that also provides food for the fish in its earliest stages. Self explained how the steelhead will feed after the alevin stage, and how the fish breathe in oxygen from the water.

After the eggs were dropped into the tank, Habib placed a brightly colored cover over the tank to keep the light out.

”It's dark in there,” Self said. “It's like being under the gravel.”

Just a few months ago, it was almost lights out on this popular program. The California Department of Fish and Game told teachers from 33 classrooms in October that its key oversight position had been cut. But teachers rallied, and so did others who believe the program has too much to offer for it to be shut down.

”When the children heard that we weren't going to be doing this, they were so upset,” Habib said.

Recrafted with help from teachers, volunteers, the Humboldt County Office of Education, state Fish and Game, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Green Diamond Resource Co., the program has stayed intact, and may expand.

Self told the children in Habib's class that writing, drawing, reading and math would be part of the curriculum, which will end when the children release the young salmon into the Mad River.

”Who knows where it will take us?” Self said.

He encouraged them to write down their first fish word in their salmon dictionary: redd, the gravel nest in which salmon lay their eggs.

The eggs are expected to hatch in the next three to five days, continuing the steelhead cycle for yet another year. #

Sacramento Bee – 1/29/09

The California Department of Fish and Game said "no" to fish this week and "yes" to gold miners. Even though experts within DFG have said that suction dredge gold mining is having "deleterious effects on fish," including endangered coho salmon, the department declined to further restrict gold miners who use giant dredges to vacuum up rock and sand from creek and river bottoms, likely killing fish in the process.

In a petition to the state, the Karuk Indian Tribe and several environmental organizations had asked the department to curtail dredging on sensitive stretches of waterway. The department said it could not act until it completed a court-ordered review of the issue. But DFG was supposed to complete that review last July. It hasn't even begun.

Meanwhile, so serious is the decline of salmon that federal regulators banned fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon last year. State officials say the mining restriction requested by the Karuks would do nothing to address ocean conditions, which are suspected to be the main cause of the decline. Suction dredge gold miners insist that global warming and dams are the culprits and that their mining operations actually improve fish habitat.

No doubt global warming, dams, logging, pesticides and other human activities kill fish and destroy habitat, but the bulk of the science strongly suggests that suction dredge mining harms fish, too.

As salmon populations dwindle, the state agency charged with protecting them protects gold miners instead. #

The Napa Valley Register – 1/23/09
By Guy Carl

The treasured salmon runs of California’s rivers are in real danger of disappearing forever.

The return numbers for the 2008-09 spawning season are not yet final, but preliminary counts show no improvement over the previous year’s dismal figures. There is every indication that the recreational salmon fishing season will remain closed for all of 2009.

At last weekend’s International Sportsmen’s Exposition in Sacramento, a panel of experts and public officials was brought together to discuss the outlook for California’s salmon runs.

The consensus was clear — without immediate action, the California salmon will be extinct within the next couple of decades.

The salmon have already been in trouble for years. We have been keeping the runs on life support (so to speak) through extensive hatchery programs.

The truth is the majority of returning fish were reared in hatcheries. Only a small population of wild-born salmon still survives today.

This is hardly the self-sustaining species that thrived in these waters for millennia before humans arrived!

Out of Water

Water is at the heart of the issue. Salmon require consistent flows of cold, fresh water in the rivers and streams in order to successfully spawn.

Prior to human influence, winter rainstorms would create massive river flows, making for just the conditions salmon need to migrate upstream to their spawning grounds.

But in modern days, a combination of upstream dams and diversion programs has drastically reduced flows in most river systems. In many cases, so much water is extracted or held back that the salmon are left with far less-than-ideal habitats for spawning, and have great trouble even reaching the spawning grounds.

These issues become painfully evident in seasons of drought like we are experiencing right now. In wet years, there is enough water to go around to irrigate all the farms, supply all the cities, and leave good flows for the fish.

But when the rains don’t come, the demands on our state’s water resources become far greater than the supply. Farms have always been the “sacred cow” in this country, so their water deliveries are a priority.

And we selfish humans bristle at being inconvenienced with water rationing, so our local governments find ways to keep the water flowing to their people.

It is the fish, then, who get left high and dry.

There is no greater example of this than the San Joaquin River. Dams and diversion pumps have taken every last drop of water out of a 60-mile stretch of the river. Several hundred thousand Chinook salmon once spawned here each spring, but this run has now been completely eradicated.

More rivers may face this same fate. The state’s human population continues to expand, most dramatically in regions which Mother Nature had designed as a desert and suitable for only a small community of people.

These new desert-dwellers demand more water, and that water now comes from river systems in the north part of the state.

The California State Water Project transports billions of gallons around the state each year. Much of this goes to the farms of the San Joaquin Valley and the urban areas of Southern California.

But a significant allocation also goes to Northern California cities, including the city of Napa. Napa uses this water to supplement its own supplies, allowing it to avoid completely draining Lake Hennessey and Milliken Reservoir.

So before we go blaming L.A. for sucking dry all of our rivers, keep in mind that even in Napa we are part of the problem.

And we can be part of the solution.

Save Some For the Fish

Recycled urban storm runoff as well as treated sewage water can be used for many kinds of irrigation. Another great solution is good ol’ common-sense conservation. Cut back on the lawns and other water-intensive landscaping.

Use the low-flow shower heads and efficient plumbing fixtures.

And just generally be responsible with your water usage.

A potential solution that’s seldom mentioned is the concept of desalination.

For all of Southern California’s need for water, the most plentiful supply in the world is right on its front doorstep — the Pacific Ocean.

The problem is that removing the salts from seawater and making it suitable for drinking is very expensive and energy-intensive. But some cities in the state are already doing it, including Santa Barbara and Avalon.

Desalination plants are commonplace in extreme desert regions like northern Africa and the Middle East, where there is no immediate source of fresh water.

At some point it will make economic sense for California to use this process on a wider scale, reducing the demands on our river systems and eventually restoring them to historic flow levels that are adequate to sustain a salmon run.

Take Action Now But the salmon can’t wait for “eventually” to arrive. Immediate action is necessary to save them from extinction. So far the only measures taken have been the closures of the fishing seasons. As the 2008-09 runs have proved, that is not enough.

An organization called “Water For Fish” has stepped to the forefront of the effort to demand more action from state and federal governments.

Anglers and environmentalists alike have joined forces through Water For Fish to save the salmon runs.The organization has created a petition to demand specific government actions on certain rivers, along with enforcement of environmental protection laws that are already in place but are being ignored by water agencies.

To read the petition details and learn more about the organization, visit the Web site at www.water4fish.org. You can also sign the petition and send letters to government representatives right from the Web site.

California’s salmon issue has become a salmon crisis. It is nearing the point of no return, after which there will be nothing we can do to save them from extinction. It took all of us Californians to break the system, and it will take all of us to fix it. Let’s get started.#

Last week's International Sportsmen's Exposition show at Cal-Expo in Sacramento featured a panel discussion on the current state of California's salmon fishery. The panel included Dr. Josh Israel of UC Davis, Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Jared Huffman of the California State Assembly Sixth District and Chair of the Water (Parks and Wildlife Committee), Michael Jackson of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations, and Dick Pool of Water4Fish.

Each participant delivered a prepared statement based on their area of expertise or concern, although time constraints allowed only a few questions from the audience. The participant's statements are excerpted below.

Israel (UC Davis): "It is possible that 65 percent of the 31 native California species of trout and salmon will become extinct soon. California has such tremendous species diversity due to the Pacific's California Current and other factors, but human development has affected those species adversely.

"At this time, only 10-percent of California's ocean population of salmon are wild, the rest are hatchery-produced. This tends to reduce the fitness of the natural population, we need to consider ways to adapt and reform hatcheries. We also know that many ocean-harvested fish are from endangered runs. Marking all hatchery fish may be a possible strategy.

"Bio-complexity is important. We have had self-sustaining salmon populations because of locally-adapted stocks. If we want to keep self-sustaining populations, we should take advantage of this. Right now it is not possible to differentiate between stocks in the ocean."

"We may also need to re-connect landlocked populations. It may be necessary to look at taking trout, steelhead and salmon, and passing them into historic habitats. In Southern California this could mean moving steelhead over dams. We will really have to adapt over the next 50 years, and will have to decide what kind of societal changes we will have to make."

During a brief one-on-one discussion with Dr. Israel, this writer asked why the salmon population on Butte Creek could be doing so well. Dr. Israel replied, "It may be because the salmon from Butte Creek summer over in the stream, and exit as larger sub-yearlings. They [Butte Creek juvenile salmon] may also put on some additional growth in the Sutter Bypass."

Nelson (NRDC): "The Chinook salmon is California's iconic fish [displays a California flag with a salmon replacing the bear], and we've come to the remarkable conclusion that fish need water. We hope to restore a dead salmon river, the San Joaquin, by re-watering it for the first time in 60 years. Water needs to be managed first for the needs of fish, and second for the needs of people."

Grader (PCFFA): "Right now we have another opportunity for change. Some 40 years ago when the negative effects of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam were first being felt in the salmon population, the proposal from Pauline Davis in the Assembly was just to 'close down the fisheries'. Since then of course, we have found that the foundation for restoring salmon is water.

"The Delta is collapsing, there is not enough water. In the future, we must not get things out of order; instead we need to go from the foundation up. We must say no to new dams and the peripheral canal."

Huffman (CA Assembly Sixth District): "We are looking at an unprecedented second year in a row for salmon fishing closure, primarily caused by the Delta pumps and upstream reservoirs that don't allow enough cold water downstream. A fishery can't be managed just by restricting the take of endangered species. If we don't come together on this, it will be handled by the courts, which can be abrupt and draconian.

"It is important that the voices of fishermen be heard in Sacramento this year. Not just because of endangered species like Delta smelt, but because of the simultaneous decline of many Delta species. We must take bold action on the stressors. The National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion says that extinction of winter-run Chinook salmon and others is primarily due to Delta pumping and dams.

"Governments have not fulfilled their responsibilities, the system is failing. As we reach critical mass, we must act in enlightened self-interest. It should also be made clear that economic activity related to fishing amounts to millions of dollars. The decline and loss of jobs is equally bad. Nationwide, at least $200 million is collected for fishery restoration in the form of excise tax on fishing tackle. Some $12 million of that comes back to California.

"It is important that the voices of fishermen be heard in Sacramento this year. Not just because of endangered species like Delta smelt, but because of the simultaneous decline of many Delta species. We must take bold action on the stressors. The National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion says that extinction of winter-run Chinook salmon and others is primarily due to Delta pumping and dams."

"Governments have not fulfilled their responsibilities, the system is failing. As we reach critical mass, we must act in enlightened self-interest. It should also be made clear that economic activity related to fishing amounts to millions of dollars. The decline and loss of jobs is equally bad. Nationwide, at least $200 million is collected for fishery restoration in the form of excise tax on fishing tackle. Some $12 million of that comes back to California."

Jackson (CSPA): "There are four things we must do within five years, or salmon will go extinct. We must reduce the water export from the Delta from 6 million acre-feet to 2.5 million acre feet per year. The water that is pumped should be given an 'urban preference', to keep the city dwellers from becoming hysterical.

"You can't equate urban requirements with growing cotton in the San Joaquin Valley, and this will break up 'Big Ag'. It also allows us to isolate where water with real value will go.

"We have got to get those fish above the dams. All it takes is one natural disaster, like a catastrophic fire or even Mount Lassen erupting, and we will lose the fish in Butte Creek, Mill Creek and Deer Creek.

"Last, the outflow must increase at cross channel gates during the ingress and egress of fish. It happens now or they're [salmon and steelhead] gone."

Dick Pool([Water4fish): "In the past year almost nothing has happened. No water has been reserved for fish. This industry is going to die if we don't change. So far we have 64,000 people signed up on our website, but we need 264,000! We need the public behind us and support for conservation organizations." #

San Francisco Chronicle – 1/22/09
By Dave Bitts

Dave Bitts of McKinleyville (Humboldt County) is president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.

State and federal water managers are pumping California's most valuable resource as fast as they can, and the consequence - the ecological crash of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - is a catastrophe for us all. Especially hard hit are coastal communities, where salmon fishing has been central to the economy and culture for more than a century.

To bring back salmon and other native fish, we must stop depleting the delta by sending millions of acre feet of water each year to the western San Joaquin Valley, where corporate megafarms pay pennies for taxpayer-subsidized water to irrigate cotton and other thirsty crops on arid lands with toxic soil. The biggest of these farms are in the Westlands Water District, long the most powerful player in the state's water politics.

A draft report released last Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Service confirms that the operations of the federal Central Valley Project and the smaller State Water Project, which pump delta water southward, jeopardize the very existence of the state's spring and winter run of Chinook salmon, steelhead and green sturgeon - all endangered or threatened species. Undoubtedly, pumping is devastating the commercially valuable fall run of Chinook as well.

Until two years ago, Chinook from the Sacramento provided most of the year's catch for sports and commercial salmon fishermen in California and Oregon. Historically, the Sacramento has consistently produced far more salmon than any other river south of the Columbia - until the run crashed in the face of record water exports, requiring the closure of all ocean salmon fishing south of Cape Falcon, Ore.

Meanwhile, the state Water Resources Control Board, which is supposed to be protecting the delta fishery, has turned a blind eye to the depredations of the water export agencies, as have the state Department of Fish and Game and the governor's office.

Westlands Water District irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres of semi-arid land that is tainted with selenium, a highly toxic mineral. Irrigation causes selenium to leach out of the soil.

Twenty-five years ago, Westlands dumped its toxic wastewater at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, killing thousands of migratory birds. After the Kesterson disaster came to light, Westlands had a harder time evading the truth about the widespread destruction its irrigation practices caused. But the district farmers haven't learned their lesson.

Westlands says about 100,000 of the most poisoned or poorly draining acres have been taken out of production, and wants taxpayers to pay for a Kesterson-like scheme to drain another 100,000 acres. But federal scientists say the amount of contaminated cropland is closer to half a million acres.

The cheapest and most environmentally sound answer is to take all of the tainted land out of production, which would greatly reduce the amount of water Westlands needs. But the district is in negotiations with the federal mangers of the Central Valley Project for a 50-year contract that would entitle it to more water, not less, which it could then turn around and sell at great profit to water-scarce cities in Southern California. Westlands has the backing of some of the highest-ranking politicians in Washington and Sacramento.

The state Water Resources Control Board has failed to declare irrigation and cultivation of these selenium-tainted soils an unreasonable use of water, although they are now facing a lawsuit brought by sport fishermen over this issue. The state still allows irrigation districts north of Westlands to funnel their wastewater into the lower San Joaquin River. The water board and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board have turned the lower San Joaquin River and the delta into a sewer and all but invited generators of waste to use the delta as a toilet.

We can't continue to promise more water than nature supplies. California has a finite water supply that is already stretched beyond its limits. When are water users and managers going to face facts? Will our fish disappear forever before they do?

The information collected by DFG at hatcheries, by biologists working in the field, and through data analysis will be presented to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) in February for review.

The PFMC will analyze the data and make recommendations, based on conservation goals, on which runs of salmon can sustain a fishing season with allowable harvest in 2009.

The 2008 season was limited to November and December on the Sacramento River between Knight’s Landing and the Red Bluff Diversion Dam.

“This season was set because the Sacramento late-fall Chinook run was stable, allowing an opportunity for anglers to catch a salmon,” said Neil Manji, DFG Fisheries Branch chief.

The late fall run is one of four distinct runs on the Sacramento River. The late fall occurs between the fall and winter runs.

The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) estimates that about 2,400 Chinook salmon were harvested and 100 caught and released during the November and December season.

Coded wire tag readings indicate that late-fall Chinook salmon run were caught, while anglers successfully avoided any major contact with depleted fall-run and endangered winter-run stocks.

DFG scientific aides and biologists collected scale samples and recovered coded wire tags for salmon caught by anglers.

Analysis of the data collected by DFG shows that hatchery salmon comprised 71 percent of the catch. Of 147 coded wire tags successfully recovered and read, all tagged salmon but one was of Coleman National Fish Hatchery origin and of late-fall Chinook descent. One salmon was of winter-run decent.

The best fishing occurred during the first half of the season, with catch rates of one fish per boat being common. The DFG statistics estimated 89,500 hours of fishing during 16,500 trips resulting in 2500 fish landed.

There were two historical survey periods in 1998–2002 and 2007–08 available for comparison. Fishing time more than doubled with only a slight increase in harvest for the period. But in my opinion, that we had any season at all preserved the precedent that we do have a freshwater salmon fishery in the central valley.

The reason for the declining salmon stocks has not been definitively ascertained.

According to a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration study there is a gradation from south to north in the decline of salmon stocks. From the central California coast north to the Canadian border, the farther north you go the better condition the salmon runs are in.

This supports the theory that ocean conditions are the reason for the decline in the salmon numbers. In 2005, the upwelling of nutrients off the California coast did not occur until late in the year leading to speculation that the young of that year lacked a good food source.

This past spring and summer had an exceptionally good nutrient upwelling. The krill abundance off our coast was excellent as the young salmon moved out of the Golden gate.

The DF&G efforts to protect the salmon smolts from predation with net pens provided a maximum crop from available eggs. I am hoping that a couple years from now we will see a recovery of the premier north state fishery.#

The Redding Record Searchlight – 1/14/09
By Dylan Darling

An American Indian tribe from the Klamath River has petitioned the state to ban a popular form of recreational gold mining on parts of the river and many of its tributaries.

The Karuk Tribe — along with conservation groups California Trout, Friends of the North Fork and the Sierra Fund — filed the petition late last month, asking the California Department of Fish and Game to limit suction dredging for the sake of salmon.

"We are not trying to end gold mining or suction dredging, but we are saying, ‘Let's not mine in the places that are most important to the fish,' " said Craig Tucker, spokesman for the Happy Camp-based tribe.

In the 11-page petition, the tribe asks for a ban on suction dredging where the creeks and other rivers flow into the Klamath. In suction dredging, miners use gasoline- or diesel-powered pumps to suck submerged gravel from the waterway and run it through a sluice box in search of gold.

The state has until Jan. 25 to respond to the request, which also includes some creeks in the Sierra Nevada, said Jordan Traverso, deputy director of the DFG's office of communication.

"We are reviewing the complex petition from the tribe, and we have not taken a position on this at this time," Traverso said.

While the tribe says suction dredging creates harmful conditions for salmon and steelhead by clouding the water with mud and stirs up mercury, those who do the dredging say it actually improves the river for the fish.

"The worst thing they could do is ban dredging on the Klamath because of the dams on the river," said Dan Stamps, a Redding man who has been suction dredging for 28 years.

The dams hold back flood waters that normally would have flushed the river periodically, shuffling its gravel, he said. Through suction dredging, he said miners break up packed gravel and create spawning habitat.

As for the muddy water, Stamps said a strong rainstorm creates much cloudier water than suction dredging.

"Mother Nature puts more mud into the rivers than all the miners in California all year long," Stamps said.

While dredging does bring up mercury — a heavy liquid metal left on bedrock below gravel bars from 19th century gold mining — Stamps said recreational miners are doing a good thing because they then haul it out.

"They don't throw that mercury back into the creek," Stamps said.#

The Marin Coastal Post – 1/2009

Over 770,000 pounds of chemicals used by Sierra Pacific Industries since 1995; some toxins linked to ovaries in male frogs.

Statistics released today by international environmental group ForestEthics show for the first time the total quantity and variety of toxic herbicides used by Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) as part of their controversial logging practices.

Compiled between 1995 and 2006, the data reveals that California's largest private landowner has used over 770,000 pounds of toxic chemicals to manage their tree plantations across Northern California. The questionable safety of these chemicals, and the sheer quantity used in the watersheds of California's rivers and streams, raises questions about whether SPI is using herbicides as a crutch, when they should be used as a last resort.

Contact ForestEthics at 415.407.3426 to learn more about SPI's herbicide use in your specific county.

"The evidence for pesticides acting as endocrine disruptors affecting everything from sexual development, to immune function, to cancer is increasing and is no longer simply a hypothesis," said Professor Tyron Hayes of the Department of Integrative Biology at Berkeley and an expert on atrazine. "The task now is to figure out exactly what and how much humans and wildlife are exposed to and assess the relative risks to environmental health and public health."

One of the toxins detailed in the report, atrazine, was the second most frequently detected pesticide in EPA's National Survey of pesticides in drinking water wells. Studies have shown that at levels 1/30th of what the EPA allows in drinking water, atrazine can cause male frogs to grow ovaries. It is also suspected to have caused male fish in the Potomac River to grow eggs. ForestEthics' records find that SPI has used over 91,450 pounds of atrazine. Its use is banned by the European Union.

Imazapyr is also used by SPI in their forestry practices. It has been shown to increase the number of brain and thyroid cancers in male rats and can be persistent in soil for up to a year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has gone on record stating that imazapyr is a threat to endangered species in 24 states east of the Mississippi River. SPI has used almost 31,000 pounds of this chemical in the state.

"Scientific work has shown that even trace amounts of common herbicides such as atrazine have deleterious ecological effects when present in streams and lakes," said Don Erman, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis and the Science Team Leader of the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project. "Pesticides show up in some of our most pristine watersheds, and forestry practices increasingly rely on herbicides in management after logging and fire. Individual citizens, watershed groups and others need information on what, where and when herbicides are being applied to forestlands."

SPI is already facing scrutiny from concerned citizens due to its persistent use of destructive logging practices such as clearcutting and the conversion of natural forests to tree plantations. Their heavy reliance on toxics in everyday management is yet another example of a business model that is viewed as controversial and outdated.

"For years I have witnessed the devastation caused by timber companies as they clearcut forests in Shasta County, replacing forests with sterile tree plantations and eviscerating habitat for wildlife," said Sue Lynn of Montgomery Creek, a small town 36 miles outside Redding. "The astounding quantities of herbicide being sprayed in our forests outrages me. They do not have the right to poison the land and the watersheds that provide drinking water for Californians."

The process of compiling this information required over half a year of sorting through data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). By California law all commercial herbicide use must be reported, including the time, location and quantity of each application.

ForestEthics' "Save the Sierra" campaign is working to transform the destructive logging practices of California's largest landowner, Sierra Pacific Industries. Since 1995, SPI has clearcut or converted to plantation over a quarter of a million acres of natural forests, with plans for up to a million acres within the next fifty years. Though the Sierra is home to half of California's plants and animals and the source of 60% of our drinking water, SPI continues to ruin this natural treasure with its destructive practices.

ForestEthics, a nonprofit with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile, recognizes that individual people can be mobilized to create positive environmental change-and so can corporations. Armed with this unique philosophy, ForestEthics has helped protect more than sixty-five million acres of Endangered Forests. Visit www.forestethics.org, for more information.#

Salmon, steelhead and sturgeon in the Central Valley are being driven to extinction by Delta pumping systems and upstream reservoir operations, according to a draft federal report.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has not yet released the report, but it was discussed at a meeting of scientists in Sacramento on Thursday.

The impacts are so significant that the agency is also studying whether killer whales in the ocean could be imperiled by declining Central Valley salmon, their primary prey.

The grave findings suggest that California's efforts to serve thirsty farms and cities while sustaining healthy fisheries will only get more difficult.

A final version of the report, called a biological opinion, is expected by March 2. The Endangered Species Act empowers the fisheries service to impose new rules on state and federal water systems to protect the fish.

The state and federal governments operate separate reservoir and canal systems that collect Northern California's snowmelt and distribute it to cities, suburbs and farms statewide. These systems have dammed off hundreds of miles of fish habitat and altered the timing and temperature of river flows.

Given the findings, the fisheries service could require the California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to change reservoir operations, improve river habitat and divert less water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California. Hatchery practices might have to be changed to protect wild fish.

The details of these forthcoming rules were not revealed Thursday. Officials at both water agencies have seen the full draft but declined to comment on the specifics.

"To take additional hits (in water supply) will be very problematic for us," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. "Our goal is to protect these fish species, and we've got to make sure we do that effectively. But we've got to do it in a reasonable way."

The biological opinion has a long and troubled history.

A version completed in 2004 reached similar findings. But a regional director at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a political appointee, altered the final report to show, instead, that the species would not be imperiled by water operations.

Conservation groups sued, and last year federal district Judge Oliver Wanger ruled the agency's actions were "arbitrary and capricious" and violated the Endangered Species Act. He ordered a new report prepared by March of this year, but allowed water operations to continue unaltered until then.

Under current rules, the state Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation coordinate their operations to boost water pumped through the Delta to farms and cities south. One of their tools is to manipulate the timing of water releases from reservoirs, including Shasta, Oroville and Folsom.

Fisheries Service biologists said Thursday that the current system, with its emphasis on water for people, does not provide adequate cold water for spawning habitat in the Sacramento River. This will worsen as climate change and population growth take hold, the scientists said.

"There's not much chance here for spring-run (salmon) in the mainstream Sacramento River," said biologist Bruce Oppenheim. "We just don't have as much water available in Shasta in the future."

The discussion took place before an independent panel of scientists conducting a peer review of the findings for the CalFed Bay-Delta Authority, a joint state-federal agency charged with improving the Delta.

The meeting was highly technical but offered warnings about four protected species: winter- and spring-run salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon.

Similar conditions exist in the American River: not enough cold water or habitat for steelhead spawning.

"By the time May comes around, it's really not a suitable place for egg incubation," said biologist Brian Ellrott.

Providing more cold water for fish would mean saving water behind dams for spawning season. This could mean less water for farms and cities in summer and fall.

Under the current system, risks to the fish are numerous. The Bureau of Reclamation, for instance, operates giant gates on the Sacramento River near Walnut Grove to divert freshwater into the interior Delta to freshen supplies available to diversion pumps.

When these gates are open, young salmon migrating to sea stray into waters teeming with predators, including foreign species such as striped bass.

Federal biologist Jeff Stuart said closing the gates almost doubles salmon survival rates.

Other threats include herbicides to control aquatic weeds, entrapment in the suction effect of the water diversion pumps, and rough handling at fish screens near the pumps.

"Basically, if you enter the interior Delta, you're not going to survive," Stuart said.

The biological opinion does not directly consider effects on fall-run chinook salmon, because this species is not yet protected by the Endangered Species Act. But it is declining steeply and affected by the same threats.

The fall-run remains the largest salmon population on the West Coast, vital as ocean-going adults to the commercial fishing industry. It's also a primary food for the southern resident population of killer whale, or orca, an endangered species that ranges from Puget Sound to Monterey. Fewer salmon spawning in Central Valley rivers, then growing into adults in the ocean, could mean hard times for the orca.

Maria Rea, Sacramento supervisor for the Fisheries Service, said her team has not finished evaluating whether California water operations threaten the orca. #

Ask a Sacramento angler for reasons why Central Valley salmon populations have crashed over the past two years, and this is likely to be high on the list:

"Dozens of sea lions that live between Rio Vista and Verona year-round," said Sacramento fisherman Terry Horst. "That's a major problem because they eat tons of fish a day."

Scientific brain power has been applied in thick doses to many aspects of the alarming fish declines in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – from weather patterns to water pollution. No one with a science degree, however, has had anything to say about sea lions.

Now Mark Dendy, a professor of biology and natural resources at American River College, has produced a survey of the Delta sea lion population. And, yes, there are resident sea lions, though not nearly as many as fishermen think.

According to Dendy, five individual California sea lions live most of the year in the Sacramento River. They account for most sightings between Isleton and Colusa.

These five spend much of their time in the river near downtown Sacramento, at the confluence with the American River. Dendy has seen them eating catfish and striped bass. But their favorite appears to be chinook salmon – as many as one every 45 minutes.

Dendy identified the five individuals through unique markings on each animal in photos and video gathered during 132 hours of boat observation between September 2007 and January 2008. They are not harbor seals but California sea lions, distinguished by small external ear flaps.

He published his findings as his master's thesis for a degree in life sciences from the University of Maryland, and presented results at a Delta science conference in October.

"I don't think it's the cause of the collapse of the salmon fishery by any means," said Dendy, 54, who lives in Elk Grove. However, he said, "This has become a problem in the Sacramento Delta."

Since 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act has made killing and harassing sea lions a crime. The law followed steep population declines caused by hunting for fur and blubber, and it was a success.

The population of California sea lions is not endangered and now could be as high as 300,000, with an annual growth rate near 6 percent, according to 2007 federal data.

It's likely that declining fish populations and habitats have forced this growing population to travel farther for food. Sea lions are known to be smart, adaptable feeders.

Dendy said sea lions have always visited the Delta but were a rare sight until about five years ago. Now they frequent areas as far inland as the Feather River and Colusa – more than 100 miles from the Golden Gate.

More sea lions are likely to follow, Dendy said.

Marty Gingras, supervising biologist at the California Department of Fish and Game Bay-Delta Office, said his agency knows little about the local sea lions. But employees have seen the animals seize sturgeon, striped bass and salmon out of nets during fish population surveys.

"We know that every fish that a sea lion takes is a fish that's not available to spawn naturally," Gingras said.

There is fear that Delta sea lion numbers could grow to rival those in the Columbia River. Hundreds of Stellar and California sea lions have taken up residence there and are blamed for consuming as much as 4 percent of the spring chinook salmon run.

State officials in Oregon, Washington and Idaho obtained federal approval in March to kill up to 85 sea lions. The Humane Society of the United States recently lost a federal lawsuit to prevent the killing, but it plans to appeal.

"All it's going to take," Dendy said, "is this continued uncontrolled growth of the population of sea lions and the destruction of habitats for fisheries, and you're going to see a huge problem like they have up on the Columbia River, and there won't be any more salmon. I believe the potential could be explosive."

Sacramento's five resident sea lions are males. Four leave in spring to visit breeding areas on the Southern California coast.

The fifth is a very large, senior male who stays near the American River confluence year-round. Dendy named him "Brutus," after the Popeye cartoon character. Brutus can be identified by his prominent forehead bulge.

On a recent cold winter morning, Brutus was found swimming calmly at the mouth of the American River, near a sandy beach just below the Jibboom Street Bridge.

"He's 600 pounds if he's a pound," Dendy said as he watched Brutus through binoculars. "He's obviously lost interest in breeding. He's more interested in dining, I guess."

Brutus was not seen dining that morning. But he would stay submerged as long as 15 minutes, then surface and watch activity on the beach with curiosity. The long dives, Dendy said, indicate Brutus may be eating small fish underwater. He was trolling the watery seam where the clear American meets the silty Sacramento.

Dendy said he does not know the impact sea lions have on the river's salmon population. He hopes to start a new research to find out.

A lingering mystery is where the sea lions sleep. They usually have preferred "haulout" areas on shore. But Dendy has been unable to find any such spots along the river. Finding these would be useful to collect scat to analyze the animals' diet.

Dendy said having resident sea lions is probably not a good sign; it indicates an imbalance in nature. They are here, he said, because of overpopulation, a shortage of food or habitat – or all three.

"I don't really begrudge the sea lions eating the fish," said J.D. Richey, a Sacramento fishing guide who shot his own video, posted on YouTube, of a sea lion eating a salmon at the Sacramento-American confluence. "I mean, they've been doing that longer than we have. But now that every salmon is precious, I think the sea lion factor gets a little bit bigger." #

San Francisco Chronicle – 1/2/09
By Robert Selna, staff writer

(01-01) 16:28 PST -- Despite legal threats from the city of San Francisco and protests from environmentalists, regulators have no plans to stop a local power plant from using a cooling system that kills fish, discharges heated water into the bay and stirs up sediment that can be harmful both to wildlife and people.

Mirant Corp.'s permit to draw in bay water and discharge it from the Potrero Power Plant expired Wednesday, but the company has no immediate intention of turning off its power generators or cooling system, located east of Third Street just south of Mission Bay.

One of the generators, known as Unit 3, draws in millions of gallons of water per day from the bay, killing an undetermined number of fish. After being run through the plant, the now-heated water is discharged back into the bay where, studies show, it stirs up harmful substances such as copper, dioxin, mercury and PCBs.

The 40-year-old plant is the subject of a larger, long-running debate about whether it should be retrofitted or closed in favor of a new and cleaner plant that the city would own. In the meantime, however, environmentalists and city officials want Mirant to find an alternative to its cooling system or to shut down its operations.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera joined Supervisors Sophie Maxwell and Aaron Peskin in writing a letter to the Regional Water Quality Control Board on Dec. 12, urging it to reject Mirant's application to continue discharging water from Unit 3.

If the board approves the application, "the city intends to take all appropriate legal action to protect the bay and the public," the officials wrote.

City lawyers declined to specify what the legal action might be, but one option would be for the city to seek an injunction halting the use of the cooling system. Herrera's office also has asked water board members to meet with local officials and residents to come up alternatives to the cooling practice.

"Our view is that Mirant has a permit, and to keep it they must show that their cooling system doesn't hurt the bay, or they have to stop - and they haven't shown that it doesn't hurt the bay," said Theresa Mueller, a deputy city attorney.

Mirant spokesman Chip Little responded to questions about the water permit via e-mail, saying the company "continues to work with the water board to address the potential impacts of its once-through cooling system and welcomes input from public stakeholders in the permit renewal process."

The water board is responsible for implementing federal water laws that relate to power plant pollution. When the agency last extended Mirant's permit in 2006, it said it would bar the company from using the cooling system after 2008 unless the firm could show that its methods had "no significant adverse environmental effects" on the bay.

Bruce Wolfe, executive officer of the water board, said Mirant had not yet done so - but that questions have been raised about the federal law on the issue since the regional agency issued its edict.

According to Wolfe, a pending U.S. Supreme Court case challenging federal water laws has thrown restrictions on power plants into doubt. Until that case is resolved and the rules are clarified, regulations governing cooling systems such as Mirant's are on hold, he said.

"Everything has changed since the suspension of the rules," Wolfe said. "Mirant is not currently required to do the studies."

The Supreme Court is expected to rule by mid-2009, he said, and any changes in federal regulations would not be in place before fall.

Wolfe said he still intended to meet with local officials and community groups in the coming months to discuss their concerns.

Amy Chastain, an attorney for the environmental group San Francisco Baykeeper, said the water board has the authority to impose its own rules while the federal guidelines are hashed out in court.

"This will take a very long time for the case to be resolved and for the federal government to act," Chastain said. "We believe the water board can use its best professional judgment to decide to stop once-through cooling." #