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October 11, 2009             Headlines::     F & G Commission Passes North Central MLPAs

Change of Course
Mike Aughney
There are some big changes and a whole new concept coming to USAFishing.
For the past 14 years we have done our best to provide our readers with accurate fishing reports at no charge. As you are too well aware our fisheries and related businesses are all suffering. We have witnessed the demise of our salmon fishery and are seeing rapid declines in nearly every fishery across the state.
The largest factor of this decline has been a huge increase in water diversion out of the Delta. We have seen our salmon fisheries destroyed and anti-fishing / pro-water diversion groups out lobby us on every front. We are fighting some very well funded and organized groups who's biggest priorities are to get us off the water, close down large areas of the coast to fishing or lobby the state and federal government in sending all our water "wealth" south.
We literally have State and the Feds agencies pumping the life blood out of our salmon, striper and sturgeon fisheries, an inept Fish and Game department that has stopped or been forced to cut back funding for hatcheries, environmentalists funding the efforts to close down large sections of our coast and stop the planting of trout under the guise that they are "non natives" and the list goes on and on and on.
Over the years we have asked our readers to sign petitions, attend F&G and PFMC meetings and support many great conservation groups, and we have won a few battles. One recent example that stands out is the "Water4Fish" petition drive last year when over 30,000 of our readers climbed on the W4F bandwagon. This made a huge difference and water managers and politicians took notice. It was a battle won but we are losing the "war".
It's time for us to change our business model from free fishing reports to free fishing reports with a strong SUPPORT CONSERVATION MESSAGE.
We need you, the individual angler to sign on with us in this undertaking. There are many deserving fishery groups that are in need of support. The one that stands out and has been on the forefront of fishery water right issues is the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance or CSPA.
For the past two plus decades this dedicated group has fought countless court cases that have resulted in some of the most important decisions regarding water diversion & fishery issues. CSPA recently filed a landmark case against the State Water Board for their failure to protect the Bay-Delta estuary fisheries from excessive water export that annually destroys millions of fish including salmon, striped bass, steelhead and other important fisheries. If they can win this case it would turn the ebb tide that our fisheries have experienced for decades. The fight for water is only going to escalate and without CSPA we will continue to lose our fisheries.
We are asking all our regular readers to support CSPA so they can continue their work fighting for OUR FISHERIES. If we are successful with this effort it will be expanded so we can support other worthy groups  but we need success with this first effort to prove "the model".

Bottom Line
From our regular readers all we are asking for is an annual tax deductible donation to CSPA in return for our regular fishing reports.
USAFishing readers will continue to receive fishing reports here for free and a tax write-off to boat. (pun intended). Just click on their website and fill out their easy on-line donation form and you're doing your part to help protect our fisheries.  It's only $30 for an individual CSPA membership and they spend every dollar of it protecting our fisheries.

Goal
If we can get our regular readers to support this effort we could raise $100Ks annually for CSPA to fight back for us, for fish, for a future.
The last thing the water lobby wants to hear is that sport anglers are organizing under and supporting CSPA. For years the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance has been known as the tenacious under-funded underdog, but with a big boost in support would become a junk yard Doberman with lawyers and 50,000 USAFishing readers for  backup. That would send quite a message to those intent on destroying our fisheries.
Click HERE to donate and learn more about why the CSPA deserves your support

 

California Waterloo – Tide of Debt May Shift from General Fund to Water Users

Patrick Porgans discloses how the Debt Affordability Report released by State Treasurer Bill Lockyer found that water infrastructure should be paid for by users, not the General Fund and the state's taxpayers as it has been for decades. Could this mark the beginning of the end for massive rip offs of water and taxpayers' money by Westlands Water District, corporate agribusiness and other wealthy water users, who have presided over the destruction of California's fisheries

"Profiteering water users have been getting rich at the expense of unsuspecting taxpayers, who incur insurmountable debt to keep unsustainable agricultural 'operations'20in the 'green' and out-of-the red," said Porgans. "Perhaps, as the Treasurer suggests, it is time for change." 

The report was released at a time when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Darrell Steinberg and corporate agribusiness are pushing for the construction of a massive peripheral canal in order to export more water from the California Delta to southern California and agribusiness. The environmentally destructive project would cost anywhere from $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to a recent draft report by Steve Kasower, economist.

Dan Bacher

------------------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE: 5 October 2009 
Contact Patrick Porgans, Solutionist, Porgans & Associates, Inc. (916) 833-873 or 543-0780: 

California Waterloo – Tide of Debt May Shift from General Fund to Water Users 

On October 1, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer released the 2009 Debt Affordability Report. The report finds that, "further increasing the General Fund’s debt burden, especially in the next three difficult budgets, would require cutting even deeper into crucial services already reeling from billions of dollars in reductions." The Treasurer therefore found that water infrastructure should be paid for by users, not the General Fund. 

Have “we the people” been laboring under a misapprehension or can it be that someone in political office has finally come to his senses. For almost a decade Porgans & Associates (P&A) have voiced concerns about the rising General Fund debt being incurred by Californians to bailout State Water Project (SWP) and other water users. P&A diligently reminded Californians and the “leadership” of the fact that the SWP was sold on the premise that it would pay-for-itself; the beneficiaries, water and power users would pay. 

Furthermore, the SWP was also promoted on the premise it would unify the State. The record shows it has done neither. Conversely, the SWP is at the core of the Delta Collapse and the State’s never-ending water wars. 

Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s recent epiphany that water infrastructure should be paid by users is a far-flung cry from his support and position on General Fund/General Obligation Bo nd funding for water users when he was Senate Pro Tem, back in the 1990s. It was at that time, Proposition 204, the first of a series of General Obligation Bonds, ultimately totaling more than $18 billion were launched. Repayment of GO Bonds comes out of the General Fund. 

In fact, it was in the ante-chamber of the then Senate Pro Tem Lockyer’s office, back in the 1996, P&A openly tape-recorded former State Senator Costa (D), representing agricultural water use in the San Joaquin Valley, and the who’s who in California’s water contingent, caucusing an “impromptu” so-called “conference committee” discussion, pertaining to the General Obligation Bond poster-child bailout-funding scheme -- Proposition 204. 

During that discussion, Senator Costa was the only one seated in the room, in which there was standing room only. Patrick Porgans was the only uninvited participant who witnessed the ante-chamber “legislative” process first hand. 

Proposition 204, started out at about $250 million; however, before the discussion in the Senate Pro Tem’s anti- chamber was over, and the ink was dry on the proposed proposition, and all of the water users gave their input as to how many millions it would take for them to come on board the financially sinking SWP flotilla, the final number for Proposition 204 totaled $995 million, plus $776 million in interest. Total cost to the taxpayer is about $1.8 billion, which was more than what the entire SWP was sold to the voters back in 1960; which was $1.75 billion. 

Essentially, the GO bond-funding scheme was designed to keep the unsustainable agricultural sectors in the San Joaquin Valley from going bankrupt. Although, Treasurer Lockyer was a player in that get-the-public-to pay script, he is to be commended as the first major elected official to take up the Legislative Analyst Office and the Little Hoover Commission’s recommendations that water users/beneficiaries should pay. 

One wonders if his ephinany is a dollar short and a day late, after all, Proposition 204 was only the first of series of water and water-related General Obligation bond acts, commencing in 1996 through 2006; totaling $18.5 billion, with interest it is more than $30 billion. In reality, the “waterloo” that bought this ingenious-funding scheme to its end was the astronomical amount of debt that State incurred. The State is so far in debt that the only way it can get out from under its self-induced financial crisis is to cut jobs, essential services and contemplate selling off public assets. 

As P&A has stated, in its 79-page Sixty Day Notice to sue the government, about $6.5 billion in GO bonds were expended through CalFed, which, essentially turned out as a qualified failure to “fix” the Bay-Delta Estuary. Albeit, when you add in the interest for the CalFed debacle, the costs almost double. 

It has always been P&A’s objective to follow and expose the source and flow of money. In the process we have been very effective in shedding light on the underlying issues fueling California’s water crisis. 

Profiteering water users have been getting rich at the expense of unsuspecting taxpayers, who incur insurmountable debt to keep unsustainable agricultural “operations” in the “green” and out-of-the red. Perhaps, as the Treasurer suggests, it is time for change.

Governor Holds State Hostage to Peripheral Canal Water Bond

Governor Arnold "Fish Terminator" Schwarzenegger has told Legislative leaders that he wants a water package including a peripheral canal and dams on his desk by Friday night before he will act on 700 bills. He is in effect holding the State of California hostage to his plan to build a monument to his gigantic ego, the peripheral canal, a budget-busting government boondoggle estimated to cost $23 to $53.8 billion to build, according to an analysis by economist Steven Kasower. 

"Where are the adults in Sacramento?," asks Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, in the latest Delta Flows e-news. "Yes, the Governor has told Legislative Leaders that he wants a water package on his desk by Friday night before he will act on the 700 bills sitting on his desk. But with a significant portion of the Legislature not in town, and members scattered all over the world presently, can that really happen?" 

According to a recently completed analysis by the East Bay Municipal Utility District on the proposed water bond and the Delta Water Package outlined in the latest Restore the Delta e-news alert, "The proposed $12B GO Delta bonds would result in debt service costs of nearly $780M/year to the General Fund for the next 30 years." 

Here are all of the ugly details of how the Governor's water bond would indebt Californians for years to come to build a project that would economically devastate coastal, Central Valley and Delta communities dependent on Sacramento River salmon and other fisheries and family farms on the Delta. 
Dan
 

Restore the Delta: Where are the adults in Sacramento? 
 Yes, the Governor has told Legislative Leaders that he wants a water package on his desk by Friday night before he will act on the 700 bills sitting on his desk. But with a significant portion of the Legislature not in town, and members scattered all over the world presently, can that really happen? 

To read more about these events in Sacramento click here for an update from the Capitol Weekly, http://capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=ybnf6scq2y5l9i&xid=ybl6q43i1glqv9&done=.ybnf6scq2yol9i# 

Why is the Governor pushing for this water package?  Why are legislative leaders following his lead?
 According to a recently complete analysis by the East Bay Municipal Utility District on the proposed water bond and the Delta Water Package: 

"The proposed $12B GO Delta bonds would result in debt service costs of nearly $780M/year to the General Fund for the next 30 years." 

"The state budget deficit for the next three years is projected to be as much as $15B per year, and could climb even higher. Even these dire projections may not represent the worst case, should California's economy continue to slide. The $780M debt service burden would consume an increasing share of discretionary state funding, without counting the $1.3B annually that it will cost to service debt from resource bonds already approved since 2000. Which state programs are we willing to sacrifice to take on this massive, additional debt?" 

"State expenditures for resources-related GO bond debt have grown rapidly, from 8% of General Fund spending in 2000-01 to a whopping 36% in 2009-2010. Adding a $12B bond would simply break the bank. According to State Treasurer Lockyer, between now and 2028, the state will assume another $225 billion in general fund bonded indebtedness. This mounting debt burden is an unsustainable trend, and is already interfering with the state's efforts to address its growing environmental and resource needs." 

And it's not just costs from a GO bond. It is simply shocking to Restore the Delta staff members that the Governor and Legislative Leaders could be in favor of this package during this time of economic crisis. Look at what California's urban water users will be expected to pay, all to support agribusiness on the West side of the San Joaquin Valley. Also, according to the East Bay Municipal Utility District analysis: 

"The legislature has embarked on a major reform of the state's water system, heedless of the enormous costs involved, just when the state's financial condition has never been more dire. A realistic assessment of the total costs of the Delta legislation comes to $52B to $78B or more. This includes a series of huge capital projects: new Delta conveyance, construction of several new surface storage reservoirs, construction of other local water management and delivery projects, Delta levee strengthening, ecosystem restoration, and creation of three new state agencies and expanded state programs to prepare and implement the Delta Plan." 

"Of this total price tag, urban SWP and CVP customers (who comprise roughly 24 million Californians) located south of the Delta will pay between_$42B and $68B, likely to be amortized over thirty years. First, these customers will pay all of the costs of new Delta conveyance, which are estimated between $18B and $44B. As they comprise 70% of all Californians who reside within the Delta watershed, their cost share of all other components of this water package (totaling approximately $34B) will add another $24B. Paying this huge price tag via water user fees on the water bill will result in more than doubling of the water rates for these customers, as well as additional huge annual water rate increases for many years into the future." 

"The costs of new Delta conveyance includes the construction cost of building a canal or tunnel on an eastern or western alignment, plus necessary levee upgrades to continue through Delta operations, new rights of way, mitigation and relocation of impacted facilities/infrastructure. The reason for the range ($18B-$44B) in estimated costs of new Delta conveyance is that a tunnel will be substantially more expensive than an open canal." 

"All users of water from the Delta watershed will have to pay the $16B cost of new programs and projects in the "Delta Plan. These costs include: 

·$14B in levee repair and strengthening, plus new staffing costs for the Delta Plan. 

·$2B for ecosystem restoration not included as part of the new Delta conveyance." 

So to be clear, Delta landowners and communities, which have riparian rights and rights to the use Delta water for beneficial use, will now have to pay for the restoration and mitigation needed from 50 years of excessive water exports. And if that's not enough... 

"It is expected that these activities will be funded through a surcharge or fee on water use. $16B in state water fees spread over 30 years is approximately $530M per year in new state water fees, not counting the likely fee increases over time. For the same urban customers south of the Delta who are financing the new Delta conveyance, this fee would come to $11B more on their water bills." 

The agricultural water districts have repeatedly told the Legislature that they can pay neither the costs of the new Delta conveyance, nor any fee on water use. This would shift all the costs enumerated above onto urban water customers in California. As a result, urban water customers south of the Delta carrying the full cost of a new Delta conveyance, two- thirds of the cost of the Delta Plan, plus their share of surface storage and regional projects. In the absence of drastic cost-cutting, the debt service for these urban customers could come to more than $4B/year. 

"The money to pay the $52B to $78B price tag for these programs and projects will be demanded from the same Californians who are enduring the worst recession since the 1930s. The state share of any bond repayments will strain the state's already overburdened General Fund. This long-term over- commitment of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars must be rigorously scrutinized by the Legislature, and the costs scaled down to meet financial reality." 

For more information, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org 

Feds Seek Public Comment on Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Plan 
 by Dan Bacher 

The federal government today published in the Federal Register a draft recovery plan designed to restore and stabilize Central Valley salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). NOAA's Fisheries Service is now seeking public comment on the plan, with workshops for public comment and information planned in Chico and Sacramento this month. 

The document addresses long-needed recovery efforts for endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, threatened Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon and threatened Central Valley steelhead. The ESA requires the development of a recovery plan for the successful rebuilding of species identified as being "at risk of extinction." 

“This draft plan provides the framework necessary to recover salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act in the Central Valley,” said Maria Rea, Sacramento office supervisor for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “With the public’s input, it will also provide significant improvement for other non-listed salmonid species like the commercially valuable fall run Chinook.” 

The document recommends changes in the operation of the state and federal pumping plants in the California Delta, as well as in upstream dam operations, incurring the wrath of corporate agribusiness interests that have exported record amounts of water from the estuary in recent years. The document pinpoints Delta water export operations as a key factor in the demise of the Sacramento River winter-run Chinook run and other Central Valley salmon populations. 

"The primary factors causing mortality of winter-run Chinook salmon in the Delta are considered to be the diversion of juveniles from the mainstem Sacramento River into the central and southern Delta where environmental conditions are poor and reverse flow conditions exist which may move them into the lower San Joaquin River and into the south Delta waterways (NMFS 1997)," the plan states. "Survival through central Delta migratory routes is substantially lower than through northern routes." 

The document was released as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Central Valley Congressmen, under pressure from subsidized corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, have gone to war against the federal biological opinions protecting Delta smelt, Central Valley salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales. The recovery plan is the result of a court order that mandated the Bush administration to rewrite a badly flawed biological opinion that declared that the operation of the state and federal water projects would pose "no jeopardy" to endangered salmon and steelhead. 

The writing of the revised biological opinion was initiated under the Bush administration, so "Green Governor" Schwarzenegger, Feinstein and Valley Democrats including Representative Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) have taken environmental positions to the right of the Bush administration. They have repeatedly pressured Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to re-write the re-written biological opinion in order to keep robbing northern California and the Delta of water badly-needed to restore Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations. 

Unfortunately, Salazar has apparently buckled under their pressure. Last week he said he would ask the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an independent review of the science underpinning federal water pumping limits mandated under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to protect Delta smelt and Central Valley salmon. 

You can be sure that corporate agribusiness will amp up its astroturfing campaign, orchestrated by Barson-Marsteller, the "Public Relations Firm from Hell," to falsely portray the battle to restore the Delta as being over "fish versus jobs" in coming weeks. You can also be sure that the Latino Water Coalition, a front for Westlands and other corporate agribusiness interests, and the Central Valley Tea Party will marshal their forces at these meetings to pressure the federal government to greatly weaken court-ordered protections for Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt. 

This astroturfing campaign takes place as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and agribusiness are relentlessly campaigning to build a peripheral canal and more dams. If built, the canal would drive collapsing populations of salmon and Delta fish over the edge of the extinction. 

Schwarzenegger is now threatening to veto all bills on his desk if he doesn’t get the water bill package that he wants, in effect holding the entire state hostage to plans by corporate agribusiness and the Metropolitan Water District to build a canal and more dams to export more water from the Delta, the West Coast's largest estuary. 

Faced with these attacks on Delta and Central Valley fisheries, it is crucial that recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists, representatives of Indian Tribes, Delta farmers and all of those who care about the future of the Delta show in force at these and other upcoming meetings to raise their voices in support of the strong measures and changes in water policy required to protect Central Valley salmon and steelhead. 

"Local knowledge and input from the public on the unique needs of these fish is extremely valuable, to ensure the plan is comprehensive and promotes stakeholder involvement," emphasized Maria Rea. "The plan has already received substantial input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game, and their expertise will continue to be tapped as the plan undergoes public review." 

NOAA’s Fisheries Service plans to conduct workshops in Chico and Sacramento to provide the public with an opportunity to learn more about the contents of the draft recovery plan and offer any feedback or comments. Federal biologists will explain the steps necessary to recover Sacramento River winter-run Chinook, Central Valley spring-run Chinook and Central Valley steelhead, so that they may ultimately be removed from the Endangered Species List. 

Workshops will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and again from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the locations and dates listed below:
Tues., Oct. 20 - Masonic Center, 1110 W East Avenue, Chico 
Wed., Oct. 21 - Hilton, 2200 Harvard Street, Sacramento 

Public comment and information relevant to this recovery plan must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. Dec. 7. Comments may be submitted by e-mail or U.S. mail: 

• Email to CentralValleyPlan.SWR [at] noaa.gov. Include in the subject line “Comments on Central Valley Salmon and Steelhead Draft Plan.” 

• Mail to: Brian Ellrott, 

National Marine Fisheries Service 
650 Capitol Mall, Suite 8-300 
Sacramento, CA 95814 

Electronic copies of this plan are also available online at: http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/recovery/centralvalleyplan.htm. If you do not have online access, you can receive a CD copy. Contact Aimee Diefenbach at 916-930-3600 or e-mail your request to aimee.diefenbach@noaa.gov with the subject line “CD-ROM Request for Central Valley Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Draft Plan.” 

On the Web: Central Valley Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Draft Plan: 
 http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/recovery/centralvalleyplan.htm 

Recovery plans for California and southern Oregon salmonids: http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/recovery 

Other ESA recovery plans: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/recovery 

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov

The Coast That Sean Hannity Forgot 

by Sarah Randall 

 As many of you are aware, Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations(http://www.pcffa.org) and the Institute for Fisheries Resources (http://www.ifrfish.org), was on the Sean Hannity Show on September 17 when Hannity broadcast live from the Central Valley to bolster the "fish vs farmers" argument being promoted by agribusiness. 

The truth is that the Delta ecosystem is collapsing through years of excessive water withdrawals -too much water has been taken out of the Bay Delta estuary for too many years to support its biological self-cleaning and self-renewal systems. To function, estuaries require fresh water inflow to mix with tidal flows. This mixing creates rich brackish water that is full of nutrients and is so important for many marine and anadromous fish species. The multi-billion dollar west coast salmon fishing industry is now suffering 100% unemployment rate today because of ecological problems in the Delta created by years of water overdrafts and drought. 

To watch the video of Zeke on the Sean Hannity Show click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IOf-11wmlY 

On September 29, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart covered Hannity's broadcast from the Central Valley. To see what Jon Stewart has to say (starting at the 2 minute mark and completing at 6 minute mark) click here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/99122/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-tue-sep-29-2009 

Please go to http://www.salmonawaternow.org to learn more about the CA water crisis. At http://www.salmonwaternow.org, we have a series of videos illustrating the problem that can be shared and embedded on different websites. Salmon Water Now! was founded to raise public awareness of the plight of wild California salmon, fishermen, and coastal communities dependent on healthy freshwater delta flows. Salmon Water Now! sheds light on the inadequacies of the current water allocation regime and champions the restoration of the Bay-Delta’s legacy of strong salmon runs. 

 

COMPLETE DETAIL OF MISINFORMATION ON HANNITY'S CENTRAL VALLEY BROADCAST: 
 courtesy of Bruce Tokers and Salmon Water Now! 

False: Hundreds of laborers appeared in the background, backed up for miles, holding signs and screaming chants in support of Hannity. 

 Truth: These are the same workers with the same signs that have been hired by large farm growers for the past couple of rallies. On April 14, 2009, the same organization sponsoring Hannityʼs visit held a march that the United Farm Workers called a “grower- sponsored march, a grower-organized march, for water for growers....not a farmworkers' march." The New York Times reported "many of the protesters were paid by their employers to march in lieu of harvesting crops.” 

False: The unemployment rate in the San Joaquin Valley is over 40% because farmers cannot grow crops due to a lack of water. 

Truth: The State of Californiaʼs most recent employment data reports that Fresno County, the county in which Hannity filmed, has only 15% unemployment, compared to a 12.1% state average. Furthermore, farm jobs increased by 5.3% in the months immediate following the NMFS environmental ruling. Even before the global recession, the Western region of the county historically had the highest unemployment rate in the state. In 2000, before the drought and environmental restrictions, unemployment in the Western region was 32%. 

False: The federal government has shut off the water pumps. 

Truth: Most water is flowing through the valley. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that nearly 80% of the water from the ailing delta continues to flow directly into the valley. The local water district has a surplus of hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water that it is not distributing. 

False: The water restrictions were issued to protect only a 2” smelt. 

Truth: A number of species threatened with extinction in this region are being protected by this regulation, including salmon, sole, crab, herring, steelhead, sturgeon, bass, and killer whales. The collapse of one of these fisheries alone is costing the state $5.7 billion and 94,000 jobs. 

False: The federal government is choosing fish over people. 

Truth: Protecting regional fisheries creates numerous jobs. Both fish and agriculture can prosper if growers adopted simple, cost-effective irrigation techniques. More responsible farming practices would save 18 times the amount of water being diverted for salmon. 

False: The price of processed tomato goods and almonds are going to skyrocket across the nation. 

Truth: This year is predicted to be a record-breaking harvest of processing tomatoes due to ideal weather conditions. Tomato production is up 15% from last year, with 11% more acres planted. Mike Montna, president and CEO of the California Tomato Growers Association, said this yearʼs processing-tomato harvest — now at the halfway point — is heading toward a record for the state. Almonds are in record-shattering surpluses as well, and a decrease in production would actually save the industry. 

False: The NMFS ruling will require us to import more food from China. 

Truth: Seafood is already the most imported food product in the United States. The NMFS estimates that 83% of all seafood consumed in America last year was imported from another country. Driving fisheries out of business will only increase food imports. On the other hand, 75% of Californiaʼs almonds are exported out of the United States. 

False: This decision was made by a handful of environmentalists. 

Truth: Restoring water to fisheries has been ordered for over 15 years, beginning in 1992 with a Congressional law (Central Valley Improvement Act). A recent independent review was “flabbergasted” that the law has been ignored. A team of government scientists in the Bush administration ordered for water to be rerouted to save fisheries as well, although that order was shelved by the Secretary of the Interior. An additional report was recently released and approved by the new administration. 

 False: Local residents are flocking to food banks and waiting all day for food. 

 Truth: The local CBS station reported that only "dozens of families" showed up to the food bank. 

 False: The area of Fresno County in which Hannity reported is a ʻnatural breadbasketʼ where agriculture flourishes. 

 Truth: Huron, CA receives an average of only 6.7 inches of rain a year, far less than what is needed to sustain agriculture. 

 

For stories on the broadcast and more information see:  Hannity stumbles upon cause of west side water issues 
Fresno Bee - Fresno,CA,USA: http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/mcewen/story/1644349.html 

Friends: This is a call to action for all those who care about our fisheries and who want to support their restoration. CSPA, after much thought and analysis, is urging you to log onto our website and sign our petition to oppose the Legislature's last minute Delta Bill Package & the Peripheral Canal.

Below, you will find more information about the petition and how to go to our website and sign the petition. After you have done this, please cut and paste this request into new email and send it to as many of your friends as you can! Together we can make a difference if we let our State Legislature know of our concerns.

Thank you for helping us save what was not so long ago our world class fisheries! I apologize for any cross posting, but better that than failing to reach you!

John Beuttler
CSPA Conservation Director

Go to our website to sign on the Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Peripheral/ By signing this petition you will be stating your strong opposition to the “Delta Bill Package.”

The following is a summary of why it is critical to do so. If you would like more information please log onto our website where a number of documents await you review. To get the short version, attached is a pdf that summarizes our analysis.

A LAST MINUTE Delta Bill Package is being rushed through the legislature in the final days of the session without adequate opportunity for public review and comment.

The Bill Package would establish a committee appointed by politicians that could authorize, fund and build a Peripheral Canal without legislative or voter approval.

The Package fails to provide requirements and enforceable standards for fishery restoration NECESSARY to realize the recovery of all the fisheries dependent on the Delta. If you think fall run salmon will soon recover without flow standards that are enforceable, think again! The fisheries of the Delta and its tributaries require restoration programs now, not just promises!

The Package guarantees water for west San Joaquin Valley agriculture, while ignoring the toxic drainage from lands that undermine the Delta's ecology, imperils its fisheries and its degrades water quality.

The Package weakens environmental law by making water for the environment and fish a “coequal goal” with water exports to the lowest priority water contractors when more water has been promised for export than actually exists.

The Package would overturn existing water law and nullify California Supreme Court decisions holding that protection of the Delta's environment and fisheries are superior to water exported from the Delta.

The Delta Bill Package places the future of the Delta's ecosystem and the fate of its fisheries into the hands of a seven member Delta Stewardship Commission, the majority of which are appointed by the Governor without any qualification requirements. 

Our petition in opposition to this fatally flawed bill package urges our elected representatives in the State Legislature to oppose this ill-considered stampede and to establish a thoughtful process that provides for adequate oversight and opportunity for meaningful public involvement.

This petition will be sent to all of the legislators in both of the state Senate and Assembly via US Mail and e-mail. 

After signing the petition the program used to enable the petition takes you automatically to a donation page. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DONATE TO HAVE YOUR NAME RECORDED ON THE PETITION. JUST EXIT THE PAGE OR HIT THE BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THE PETITION AND SEE THE LIST OF THOSE THAT HAVE SIGNED. If you do want to donate and help us fight back, please understand that it is greatly needed.

You email address will not be sold or distributed, but is necessary to validate the petition when presented to the Legislature!

Million Boat Float Will Arrive Before Delta Bill Hearing

Boaters and their allies will converge on Sacramento on August 16 and 17 to defend the California Delta and to stop the mad rush by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Legislators to build a peripheral canal. 

By Dan Bacher 

On the day before the California Legislature will hold an informational hearing on a package of water bills that provide a road map to the construction of the peripheral canal, boaters from throughout the Delta will converge on Sacramento in the first-ever Million Boat Float. 

The massive two-day flotilla from August 16-17 is being organized to show that boaters and their allies are united in the defense of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta against plans by the Governor and Legislators to build the peripheral canal and destroy the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. The proposed canal would approximate the Panama Canal in width and length. 

The details on the historic event are now being finalized. The event will start with a float up the Sacramento River from Antioch on Sunday, August 17, at 8 a.m. Yachts and small boats will join the fleet from different staging points as it moves up the river. Several commercial salmon boats may join in the protest if enough donations can be collected to cover fuel costs. Once in Sacramento, a riverside rally is planned at the Delta King in Old Sacramento at 7:00 pm. Sunday, according to Bruce Connelley, the organizer of the event. A press conference featuring Delta advocates is also scheduled on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Robert Matsui Waterfront Park on 219 Jibboom Street in Sacramento. 

The activities will continue Monday with an around the Capitol parade of trailer boats starting at 9 am. A rally with legislative and organizational speakers will top off the events at 11:00 am on the West Steps of the State Capitol. The event is drawing national media attention including the staff of "60 Minutes." The event is sponsored by the Sportsmen Club of Antioch, Restore the Delta, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Organic Sacramento, North Delta Cares, California Striped Bass Association, Californians Against the Canal and many other organizations. 

“Restore the Delta is supporting the float because it is a wonderful opportunity to show how out of sync the Legislature is with the needs of the Delta fishing and boating communities,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. 

“The Million Boat Float is a delivering a critical message in light of what corporation interests are doing to our state’s natural resources, including the destruction of the imperiled fisheries of the California Delta and Central Valley,” said John Beuttler, conservation director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “The sportfishing public is finally getting the message that unless they stand up and oppose corporate greed, they will lose their fisheries and the state’s public trust resources.” 

“The Legislators and the Governor aren’t including the Delta stakeholders in the process,” stated Bruce Connelley. “If they don’t include the Delta stakeholders and continue down the road they are going now, they will surely destroy the Delta.” 

California Senators and Assemblymembers are now pushing a deceptive water bill package through the Legislature that will enable Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to build his peripheral canal, an environmentally destructive and obscenely expensive project that will approximate the Panana Canal in length and width. 

SB 12, a bill sponsored by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), will set up a Delta Stewardship Council consisting of seven members - four appointed by the Governor and one each by the Senate and the Assembly, with the seventh being the chairperson of the Delta Protection Commission, according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. 

How can Simitian allow Schwarzenegger, the worst-ever Governor for fish and the environment in California history, to appoint four out of seven seats of this council when the Governor wants to build the canal as a monument to his gigantic ego? 

This is the same Governor that has presided over the collapse of Sacramento River salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, Sacramento splittail and other species. This is the same Governor that has relentlessly fought the court-ordered federal government biological opinion to prevent Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales from going extinct. 

This is the same Governor that has fast-tracked a corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process that kicks Native Americans, fishermen and seaweed harvesters off their traditional harvesting areas off Stewarts Point and Point Arena while doing absolutely nothing to stop water pollution and the threats posed by offshore oil drilling and wave energy projects. This is the same Governor who continually engages in meaningless "green energy" corporate greenwashing photo opportunities while doing his best to destroy the California Delta and the people that depend on a healthy Delta to survive. 

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) is sponsoring AB 39, a bill that includes a section on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), a Schwarzenegger-engineered plan that fishing groups, Delta farmers and many environmental groups have blasted as window dressing for building Arnold's "Big Ditch." The bill also sets the stage for the "Stewardship Council" to implement the BDCP in order to authorize the peripheral canal. 

"Thus, despite Assembly Member Huffman's press release last week in which he claims not to be advancing the peripheral canal, it looks like he is allowing a peripheral canal by connecting his bill with Senator Simitian's and giving up the Legislature's authority to allow or disallow a canal," according to Barbara Barrigan Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. We must let the public and the Legislators know that we will not allow any legislation that supports a environmentally destructive plan like the BDCP and the peripheral canal to go through the Legislature. I urge you to attend the Million Boat Float from Antioch to Sacramento on August 16-17 and to attend the hearing on the water bills on August 18! 

The Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee and the Assembly Water Parks & Wildlife Committee will hold a Joint Hearing on Aug. 18, 9:00 a.m. in Room 4202, titled "2009 Proposed Delta/Water Legislation: Perspectives on the Package.” 

For more information about the legislative package and hearing, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org or http://www.calsport.org. 

As the bill proceeds through the Legislature, the Department of Water Resources is planning to begin drilling at 16 locations on the Sacramento, Mokelumne and San Joaquin rivers for possible intakes for the canal. In spite of the spurious claims of its proponents that the canal will result in “ecosystem restoration," the canal will only exacerbate the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail, American shad, striped bass and other California Delta fish populations. 

For updates and more details, go to http://www.millionboatfloat.org or call Bruce Connelley at 925-625-7467. 

Schedule of Events for the Million Boat Float: 

The Main Event - Rally on the River August 16th: 

Note: All times and check points are subject to change. Check back Saturday for confirmation. As we meet up don't forget to get your Million Boat Float pennant. There will be runners handing them out. The Coast Guard would like to see this. They will be on hand for your safety purpose. Thank you U.S. Coast Guard! 

For locations of Marina's and their amenities, go to http://www.deltaboating.com/marinas-cdelta.htm 

Boats in the area of the Antioch Bridge will be depart from the Sportsmen Yacht Club at 8AM to Checkpoint 1 

Check point 1. For those coming from the Bay Area and the West Delta, meet up at Check point 1, between buoys 1 and 2 at Broad Slough at 9:00AM. 

Check point 2. For those coming from the South & Central Delta, we will meet you at the Rio Vista Bridge at 10:00AM. 

Check point 3. For those in the North Delta, hang tight, we'll get there. We will have a pause in Walnut Grove. Approx. Time 12:00PM. 

Check point 4. Courtland. Approx. time 2:00PM. 

Check point 5. Clarksburg. Approx. time 4:00PM. 

For the Sacramento area folks and northward, relax, we'll get there. While you're waiting we will be having a press conference at 1:00PM at Matsui Waterfront Park. We need all the boats available at that time. Don't forget to get your Million Boat Float pennant. There will be runners handing them out. They'll have a large banner on their boat so it will be easy to spot them. 

Notes: Please respect all waterways and boating regulations. Communications channel will be Channel 19A on your VHF. If you don't have a radio, stay close to someone that does. Safety is the most important thing here! 


The Cal F&G Commission did pass the North Central Coast MLPAs. They passed the strictest option and while I do like the idea of protected areas I don't like how this whole process played out. The "science" was funded by extreme enviros and worse, the Governor's last minute pick to the Commission when Commissionaire Cindy Gastafson, who was thought to be opposed to the MLPAs stepped (ridden out of town) down voted for the Governor's favored option. This is just another nail in the coffin of sportfishing. The MLPAs do nothing to address environmental issues and only further regulate sportfishing. The MLPAs do nothing to address the collapse of our salmon fisheries and other than push anglers into ever smaller areas do nothing to improve the overall coastal environment or habitats.
Yes, I am upset about how it all came to pass but not the least bit surprised. California sport anglers as a whole are probably the least engaged of the political processes that affect them of any outdoor user group. Just wait a few years when they come to pass MLPAs inside the Bays.
Maybe then anglers may rise up.
Mike Aughney
________________________________

Commission Bans Indians, Seaweed Harvesters From Traditional Areas 
Racism and elitism prevails over science and environmental justice 
 By Dan Bacher 

Lester Pinola, the past chairman of the Kashia Rancheria in Sonoma County, and members of his tribe have harvested abalone, seaweed and mussels for hundreds of years in the inter-tidal zone off Stewarts Point. 

However, the California Fish and Game Commission yesterday voted 3 to 2 for a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that will ban Pinola and his tribe from sustainably harvesting seafood as they have done for centuries. The new reserve network on the North Central Coast, stretching from the waters near Half Moon Bay to Point Arena, will close approximately 20 percent of the state waters in the region to seaweed gathering and fishing. 

 “What you are doing to us is taking the food out of our mouths,” said Pinola in a public hearing prior to the contentious vote. “When the first settlers came to the coast, they didn’t how to feed themselves. Our people showed them how to eat out of the ocean. In my opinion, this was a big mistake.” 

Pinola spoke in solidarity with recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and grassroots environmentalists that showed in force at the meeting in support of 2XA, the alternative that best met the conservation objectives of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process while incurring the least economic harm to coastal communities. Under this alternative, Pinola and members of his tribe would be allowed to continue harvesting abalone and seaweed, but the Commission instead chose the option pushed by the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegge and his staff, the Integrated Preferred Alternative (IPA), that closes access to Pinola and his tribe. 

“We as tribal members abide by the state fishing regulations, even though are we a federally recognized sovereign nation,” he said. “We observe the bag limit of 3 abalone and 45 pounds of seaweed when we pick the rocks. We feed our elders who longer can go down to the ocean to harvest abalone and seaweed.” 

The tribe of 600 members is one of 23 Pomo tribes in California. Historically, other tribes in the region would trade with the Kashia for abalone and seaweed. They were known for the jewelry that they made out of abalone shells and traded with other tribes, according to Pinola.  “The state shouldn’t be able to take our traditional harvesting rights away from us,” said Pinola. “We were here first, but these people on the Fish and Game Commission don’t seem to care.” 

 Fish and Game Commissioner Richard Rogers and Michael Sutton praised the Marine Life Protection Act process for being a transparent one before their vote. “What we have before us today is the result of a complicated, open, historic process,” said Rogers. “I’ve seen processes before that were real railroad jobs and this isn’t one. It is the single most best process in my life that I’ve been involved with." Pinola disagreed completely with Rogers' contention. “They never contacted us at all,” he stated. “They didn’t let us know they were planning to close the coast to fishing and seaweed harvesting even though we were the first people on the coast.” 

The vote took only one day after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a new member of the Fish and Game Commission, Donald Benninghoven. A Republican stalwart from Santa Barbara, Benninghoven served on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force in the north central region from 2007 to 2009. As expected, he voted for the "Integrated Preferred Alternative" (IPA) for the North Central Coast yesterday. 

Benninghoven replaced the former President of the Commission, Cindy Gustafson, who mysteriously and suddenly resigned from her post on Friday. Although the Schwarzenegger administration claimed she resigned due to a “conflict of interest," political insiders say that the Governor forced her to resign after she indicated she would vote for 2XA and for a suspension in the MLPA Process. 

Commissioners Jim Kellogg and Dan Richards voted for motions to adopt 2XA and to delay the process due to concerns over the lack of funding to enforce the process, but the other 3 commissioners voted no on both motions. The Game Wardens Association had asked for the Commission to delay or the implementation of the North Central Coast process, but the other Commissioners refused to heed the wardens' plea. 

“We request you delay or suspend any new mandates until there is some relief from furlough officer to enforce these significant new provisions,” according to a letter from the California Fish and Game Wardens Association that Jerry Karnow presented. A broad coalition of grass roots environmentalists, Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen and recreational divers were outraged by the vote – and the political manipulation of the Commission’s decision by the Governor. 

“I’m really stunned that our democracy would be trashed like it was today,” said John Lewallen, one of the founders of the Ocean Protection Coalition and the “Seaweed Rebellion” on California’s North Coast, a group that has worked since 1987 against oil drilling, water pollution, wave energy projects and corporate greenwashing. “Californians have to oppose today’s decision and the MLPA process or our coast will be taken over by private money interests.” 

The marine reserve package passed by the Commission yesterday will kick Lewallen and his wife, Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, off Sea Lion Cove near Point Arena where they have sustainably harvested sea palms and other seaweed for 25 years. 

Lewallen, other North Coast environmentalists, fishermen and Indian Tribes have slammed Schwarzenegger’s MLPA process for being a corrupt process, filled with numerous conflicts of interest. The supposedly “public” process is funded by a private foundation, the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation, in turn funded by the Packard Foundation and the Betty Moore foundation, organizations with many dark ties to corporations involved in environmental destruction and corporate greenwashing. 

"The MLPA is the back door to oil,” said Tomas DiFiore, Mendocino County seaweed harvester and environmentalist. 

"Conceived as law in 1999 in response to mismanaged fisheries/politics, the science was there all along, but the MLPA was hijacked by the Betty Moore Foundation," DiFiore told the Commission. “Dr. John M. 'Mick' Seidl, the President of Maxxam, Inc, Enron, Kaisertech and many other oil related firms, by June 5, 2001 was the Environmental Grant Program Director for the Foundation's first 4 years. Almost every company Dr. John was president of since the 70's has gone bankrupt. The MLPA Initiative could bankrupt our ocean and our coastal communities." 

After DiFiore spoke, Commissioner Richard Rogers claimed that the Betty Moore Foundation didn’t fund the MLPA process. However, later in the meeting Rogers retracted his previous statement and acknowledged that the Betty Moore Foundation indeed funds the process through the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation.

While the Commission decision was an affront to the democratic process and environmental justice, it was also a huge affront to science. 

Jim Martin, West Coast Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and Dan Wohlford, Science Director of the Coastside Fishing Club and member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), both pointed out that a landmark study published in Science magazine on July 31 said that the California Current marine ecosystem has the lowest fishery exploitation rate of any place in the world examined. This peer reviewed scientific assessment, coauthored by Ray Hilborn, Boris Worm and 19 other international scientists, contrasts with the claims of Governor and his collaborators that stocks of groundfish including lingcod and rockfish are in severe crisis and that the massive area closures are needed to “save” them – and effectively challenges the need to fast-track the MLPA process. 

“Much of the motivation for the MLPA was concern about the state of the groundfish stocks - there is clear evidence that these can be rebuilt without MPAs resulting from the MLPA that have only recently begun to be implemented,” Dr. Hilborn said. 

The network of new marine reserves is supposedly designed to "protect" 85 miles of ocean, but will nothing to protect these waters from pollution by cities, farms, industry and oil tankers. It only serve to remove Indian Tribe members, fishermen and seaweed harvesters, among the strongest backers of fishery and environmental restoration, from the water permanently. 

DRAKES BAY OYSTER FARMER CONTINUES FIGHT TO KEEP THE FARM:
 The Drakes Bay Oyster Co. manages one of the most successful oyster farms on the California coast.  With 30 employees, the company produces about 460,000 pounds of shucked oysters and 1 million Manila clams a year.  Despite the company’s economic success, it is in the midst of a legal battle with National Park Service Officials who argue that the business is having deleterious effects on the bay’s harbor seals, native eelgrass, and overall ecosystem functions.  Park officials also argue the fact that the companies oyster beds, which are located inside the Point Reyes National Seashore, prevent the park from achieving full wilderness area status.  The National Academy of Sciences most recent environmental impact report on the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. debates the National Park Service’s scientific claims.       

Scientists from the National Academy of Sciences delighted allies of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. with findings that the National Park Service’s scientific evaluation of the oyster farm was flawed.  According to the scientists, the Park Service’s findings were based on errors, selectively presented information and distorted facts.  Previous studies by the Park Service purported that the oyster farm occupied essential habitat for juvenile harbor seals and their mothers. 
It was also suggested that engine noise from oyster boats was the cause of a reduced seal population in the area developed by the company.  Academy scientists found that while reduced seal concentrations were found in the general vicinity of the company’s operations, the overall population of harbor seals actually increased during oyster farming.  Native eelgrass was also thought to be disturbed by increased accumulation of oyster waste in the bay.  Since the oysters and clams are filter feeders that remove suspended nutrients from the water column, the farm’s operations actually improved growing conditions for the sensitive grass.  Scientists found that eelgrass’s total percent coverage doubled between the years of 1991 and 2001, while the farm was under operation.  Not one of the National Parks Service’s six reports mentioned that native Olympia oysters once lived in the estuary, until the population was wiped out by harvesters. 

 The National Academy of Sciences report solidified U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) support of a permit renewal that would allow the farm to continue its operations in Drakes Bay past 2012.  Sen. Feinstein explained that any future problems arising from the continued operation of the plant would be addressed through adaptive management.  On 5 May 2009, Feinstein expressed her support of permit reissuance to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.  The Interior Department’s Office of the Solicitor has formally stated that the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. cannot be allowed to continue operations in the bay because it represents a “non-confirming use.”  In a letter from the Solicitor addressed to the Superintendent of the Point Reyes National Seashore, the Solicitor explains “the Park Service is mandated by the Wilderness Act, the Point Reyes Wilderness Act and its Management Policies to convert potential wilderness, i.e., the Oyster Company tract and the Estero, to wilderness status as soon as the non-conforming use can be eliminated.”     

Biologically beneficial or not, the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. is at direct odds with the Park Service’s legal obligation to phase out non-conforming uses in “potential wilderness.” The National Park Service Management Policies 2001, Sec. 6.2.2.1 defines “potential wilderness areas” as those areas directly adjacent to or surrounded by wilderness that don’t qualify as wilderness due to “temporary, non-conforming, or incompatible conditions.”  Under the Point Reyes Wilderness Act of 1976, 25,370 acres were dedicated as wilderness and 8,003 acres as potential wilderness.  The oyster farm is permitted to continue activities for 40 years until the permit expires in 2012.

 

For a 6 May 2009 article from the San Francisco Chronicle, go to www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/05/MNIQ17ERPE.DTL.  For a 7 May 2009 press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, go to www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/05/07.  For a copy of the Department of the Interior’s letter to the Superintendent of the Point Reyes National Seashore, go to www.peer.org/docs/doi/09_07_05_doi_solicitor_opinion_pt_reyes.pdf.

Legislature Will Hear Bill Attacking Bay-Delta Fisheries (AB 1253) on April 28

Assemblywoman Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) has introduced dangerous legislation, AB 1253, to remove gamefish status for striped bass in California. The bill will be heard in the Water, Parks & Recreation Committee of the California State Assembly in Meeting Room 437, on Tuesday, April 28, at 9 a.m. 
The bill is opposed by an unprecedented coalition of recreational fishing, commercial fishing and environmental restoration groups and businesses. Representatives of these groups will be attending the hearing on Tuesday to testify against the bill and will be available for comments to the media. 
The proposed legislation would prohibit regulation of striped bass by the California Department of Fish and Game. Passage would allow unlimited, indiscriminate harvest of striped bass. Assemblywoman Fuller's stated intent is to increase water exports from the Delta by an indirect and scientifically ill-advised approach. 
Ms. Fuller claims that removing striped bass from gamefish protection would decrease the population of striped bass and consequently reduce the predation of the fish on threatened and endangered smelt and salmon. In reality, AB1253 would only decimate the striped bass recreational fishery throughout the State, and particularly in the Bay and Delta region, along with the economy that depends on the striped bass fishery.
"Assemblywoman Fuller's legislation fails to recognize that historically, striped bass have coexisted in abundance with Delta Smelt and all the salmon species," states John Beuttler, conservation director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
The States foremost experts on Deltas fisheries, including respected scientists Peter Moyle, Matt Nobriga, and David Ostrach, agree that striped bass predation does not impact smelt and salmon populations. "The rapid decline in native species (Smelt and Salmon) and desirable species (Striped Bass) across the board can be attributed to poor water quality, insufficient fresh water flows into the Delta, excessive pumping, and fish entrainment at the Federal and State water pumps," says Barbara-Barrigan Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta." 
"If you were to amend your bill to identify the true cause of our fish declines – diversions upstream and within the Delta that are far in excess of whatever water may be surplus to the needs of the fish and the ecosystem “ then we could support it," says Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations. "But blaming Striped bass for the salmon decline is at best a red herring." 
A previous press release and list of organizations opposing AB 1253 are attached. For more information, go to: http://www.saveourstripers.org/ or http://savedeltafish.wordpress.com

AB 1253 the bill to wipe out striped bass: Have you written your letter yet?

April 7, 2009 -- AB 1253, the bill introduced by Assembly Jean woman Fuller (Bakersfield) to deregulate and remove all support for the striped bass is still on the agenda to be heard by the Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife Committee. CSPA has sponsored a letter writing campaign to kill the bill in committee and we understand our supporters are having an impact. However, this is no time to slack off. Each and every letter received by the committee is counted as pro or con and the totals are reported on the date of the hearing. We want to make sure that the pile of letters in the pile recommending the bill be killed overwhelms those in the pile recommending its passage.
The bill will be heard by committee on April 28th. The committee secretary states to be the most effective we should do the following: Here are the NEW instructions to send your letters to the committee.
Send ONE letter to the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee either snail mail or FAX. The committee does NOT want e-mail!

The address of the committee is:
Assemblymember Jared Huffman, Chair
Assembly Committee on Water, Parks & Wildlife
1020 N Street, Suite 160
Sacramento, CA 94249

The fax number is: 916-319-2196

Your letters should be addressed:

Re: Opposition to AB 1253 (Fuller) - Striped Bass
Chairman Huffman and Members of the Committee:

Sample letter to individual committee members. You are encouraged to cut and paste as you see fit and add your own comments as well.

You are still encouraged to send snail mail or e-mail responses to individual assembly members IF YOU LIVE IN THEIR DISTRICT. The list of committee members, their addresses and districts follow the sample letters.

Sample letter

Dear Assembly member __________________,
As a California angler, voter and taxpayer, I strongly oppose AB 1253, the bill introduced by Assembly member Fuller, intending to delist and remove support of the striped bass as a California game fish.
The striped bass, a fish legally introduced to the State by the California Fish and Game Commission, established itself as one of the state's premier game fish and coexisted in harmony for over 130 years with the state's native fishes. Even in the 1930's when the striped bass population was believed to exceed 12 million adult fish and the species was fished commercially, the fish did not impact the state's salmon stocks or the health of the delta's fisheries including the delta smelt and the longfin smelt.
The striped bass fishery along with the chinook salmon, steelhead, delta smelt, longfin smelt, American Shad, green sturgeon, white sturgeon fisheries only began to decline with the operation of the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project in the late 1960's. As exports have increased, the populations of all of these fishes has crashed to all time historical lows with the delta smelt now on the endangered species list, the longfin smelt threatened, the chinook salmon run the lowest in history. The current striped bass popluations is also at historical lows.
The striped bass is a fish of legend and has been a part of California's angling heritage for 130 years. AB 1253, a bill sponsored by a number of water districts is an obvious attempt to transfer the blame of the decline of California's once great fisheries to one of the species that made the California Delta one of the greatest fisheries on earth instead of their insatiable demand for larger and larger amounts of delta water. They  realize that if the delta's fisheries can be destroyed, it is one less reason to obstruct the draining of the delta for subsidized agribusiness farming.
Please vote this bill down when it comes before your committee. If passed, it will do nothing to restore California's once great fisheries and will cause the destruction of one of California's greatest game fish.

Sincerely,
 Your name
Address including zip code (important)

Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife Committee Chair
   
Jared Huffman (D)
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0006
Tel: (916) 319-2006
Fax: (916) 319-2106
Assemblymember.Huffman@assembly.ca.gov 6th Assembly District -- Marin headlands including Sausalito, Novato, Petaluma
     
Vice Chair (And AB 1253 Sponsor)
   
Jean Fuller (R)
State Capitol, Room 3098
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-319-2032,
916-319-2132 fax
Assemblymember.Fuller@assembly.ca.gov 32nd Assembly District -- Bakersfield, Frazier Park, Kern River Valley, Ridgecrest, Taft, Tehachapi

Fisheries Forum: Chesbro Tells Blue Ribbon Panel to “show me the science” requiring new no-take Marine Reserves at Point Arena 

Assemblyman Wes Chesbro challenged the Blue Ribbon Task Force which proposes to close about forty percent of offshore fishing areas and shore access in the Point Arena area to subsistence fishing and ocean food harvesting to “show me the science” driving this push to deny Point Arena residents access to sustainable ocean food. 

The occasion was the Fisheries Forum on March 26 at the California State Capitol, where a delegation of Mendocino fishermen, abalone divers and seaweed harvesters went to tell the legislature’s Fisheries Committee about the combined threats of livelihood loss and offshore oil drilling currently facing the Point Arena community. Senator Patricia Wiggins, fisheries committee chair, and Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, listened to all testimony. 

Point Arena resident Allan Jacobs presented a petition signed by hundreds of people whose businesses and livelihoods would be affected if proposed new State Marine Reserves and Protected Areas are adopted by the California State Fish and Game Commission. Jacobs described a community whose fisheries experience and observation was ignored by a process determined to prevent Point Arena residents from taking food from the intertidal zone or ocean in places harmoniously harvested for centuries. 

In written and oral testimony, Jim Martin, Mendocino County Fish & Game Commissioner, called for the outright “abolition” of the Blue Ribbon Task Force which runs the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process of setting up new no-take zones where nobody can harvest ocean food. “Special interest groups have hijacked the Marine Life Protection Act,” testified Commissioner Martin. “The Packard Foundation has picked up most of the tab for the public meetings and has influenced key policy decisions....the Department of Fish & Game has been completely marginalized in the MLPA process.... 

“Point Arena Pier stands to lose more than any harbor in the north-central coast study region” if the Fish & Game Commission carries out its declared intention to accept the “Integrated Preferred Alternative”(IPA) at an August, 2009 meeting, testified Commissioner Martin. “Point Arena Pier is teetering on the brink of survival....Hemmed in by closures to the north and south, the IPA creates a tiny “box” open to rockfishing in front of Arena Cove. This box is about four square miles. That will be the only area open to commercial and recreational20groundfish out of Point Arena.” 

Assemblyman Wes Chesbro said he had been part of earlier efforts directed by the Fish and Game Commission to set up the no-take zones required by the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act. Assemblyman Chesbro said that the marine science required to back the need for no-take zones was questionable or absent, so the process had been abandoned. “Now you propose to close areas to seaweed harvest, affecting the livelihood of a seaweed harvesting couple,” Assemblyman Chesbro told the advocates of the Integrated Preferred Alternative. “All I’m saying is, show me the science.” 

“The proposed regulations close nearly half of the shore-based public access sites in the region,” testified Mendocino County Fish & Game Commissioner Jim Marti n. “Our abalone fishery is managed sustainably and is one of the world’s last viable abalone fisheries.” Seaweed harvester John Lewallen declared that “seaweed is not an endangered fishery,” and called for suspension of any new no-take zones in intertidal areas sustainably harvested for food by people for centuries. “We need to continue the collaborative stewardship management of edible seaweed, abalone, and other ocean food resources which have worked here, not impose senseless new no-take zones from above,” Lewallen said. Lewallen described the whole MLPA process as a “divide and drill” strategy where the only winners are oil companies who want to drill for oil off Point Arena. 

“Why is Catherine Reheis-Boyd, CEO and Chief of Staff for the Western States Petroleum Association, a key member of the five-member MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force which has decreed new zones where people can take no food from state waters?” Lewallen asks. “Is it coincidence that the Point Arena Basin offshore from Point Arena is the area of highest oil industry interest in Northern California, and the only tract here now open to Minerals Management Service offshore oil leasing process? “ 

People wishing to contact the Legislative Fisheries Committee with relevant information or opinion can send your comment to: Senator Patricia Wiggins, http://dist02.casen.govoffice.com/ or write State Capital, Room 4081 Sacramento, CA 95814 916-323-6958 
Assemblyman Wes Chesbro at: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a01/ or write State Capital P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0001 916-319-2001

Large California Grower Illegally Expands Orchard Seven Acres Into Fresno River
Patrick Ricchiuti could face U.S. EPA fines of $37,500 per day for federal violations 

(SAN FRANCISCO – 4/1/2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a violation notice and compliance order to Patrick Ricchiuti, president of P.R. Farms, following the discovery of the grower’s illegal expansion into the Fresno River. Ricchiuti bypassed flood control levees, illegally filling an area approximately 2,300 feet long and 45-250 feet wide and encroaching more than seven acres into the Fresno River. 

The EPA has ordered Ricchiuti to immediately remove all unauthorized fill material and restore the levee in accordance with the specifications of the Fresno River flood control project. 

"This action will protect the Fresno River from illegal encroachments," said Alexis Strauss, Water Division director for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. "We shall oversee restoration of the site and ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act." 

Ricchiuti owns assessor’s parcel numbers 033-160-001 and 033-160-002, near Avenue 16 and Road 21 in Madera County, California. The Fresno River forms the southern boundary of the property and is an integral part of a flood control project overseen by multiple federal , state, and local authorities. 

The EPA, along with state and county inspectors, inspected the site after receiving information that the property owner had filled in the bed and bank of the Fresno River. During their investigation, inspectors observed that earthen material had been placed within the Fresno River to create a new levee and fill area along the northern bank of the River, and that an asphalt road and an orchard had been placed on top of the fill area. 

Ricchiuti placed dredged and fill material into the Fresno River without a Clean Water Act section 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The permit program, which is co-administered by the Corps and EPA, regulates the filling of federally-protected waterways and wetlands to ensure that proposed projects would cause the least environmental harm and be protective of the public. Unauthorized encroachments such as Ricchiuti's can exacerbate flooding potential and damage important flood control infrastructure. Persons who fill federally protected waterways and wetlands without the requisite Clean Water Act permit could face a daily penalty of up to $37,500.  

The Fresno River, which is approximately 68 miles long, is a major tributary of the San Joaquin River. Flows in the reach of the Fresno River along the property are regulated by releases from Hidden Dam and augmented by storm events between October and March and periodic agricultural return flow. The Fresno River flows either directly or via the Chowchilla Canal By pass to the San Joaquin River, which flows to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and then San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. 
 

CSPA News Release
Legislation to Eradicate Striped Bass Fisheries Introduced! We need your letters and support!

AB 1253 (Fuller) Would abort the management of the public's striped bass fishery, open it to unlimited harvest, and send it to oblivion.

Apparently not satisfied that the litigation filed last year by agricultural interests will succeed, Assembly Woman Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) has introduced legislation to eradicate the fishery. She's the front person forcertain corporate agricultural growers and irrigation districts in the Central Valley that believe it is fine to destroy a public fishery to enhance their economic interests. They justify this based upon the contention that striped bass predation of ESA listed species impacts their ability to receive water from the Delta.

Unfortunately, their stealth attacks have gone unnoticed by most of the public, the state's recreational fishing industry and anglers. But, don't interpret this lack of awareness as meaning they are not deadly serious! They don't want you to know it, but they are attacking sport fishing in the state because it has gotten in the way of their power play to eliminate anything they think stops them from getting water out of the Delta.

AB 1253 would prohibit the possession, importing, shipping, transporting, or planting of striped bass in any water within the state. It would fine any person who violates that prohibition up to $10,000. The bill would require the Department of Fish and Game to adopt regulations to carry out these provisions and it deletes all harvest restrictions that currently protect striped bass from  commercialization. The bill would also delete the striped bass fishery from the fisheries for which Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp revenues are to be used.

The proponents of this bill justified their striped bass litigation in part because of their belief that stripers eat and caused jeopardy to Delta smelt protected under the Endangered Species Acts. When that misinformation was exposed as false based on the best science available in the opinions of the state's foremost fishery scientists that include Peter Moyle, Matt Nobrigaand David Ostrach, the proponents simply have change their propaganda to say the stripers eat salmon and steelhead protected under the ESA. However, the science shows the minute predation caused by striper bass is simply not a factor in the decline of winter-run and spring-run salmon and steelhead.

The science also shows that one of the most critical factors in the decline of the Delta's productivity and its fisheries is WATER EXPORT! But, instead of solving that problem, these pillars of industry have put a full court press on destroying fisheries that get in their way. They don't really care about the science, or about the collapse of all the fisheries dependent on the estuary over the past fifty years. And, they don't give a damn about our state's sport fishing industry that generates some $4 billion a year to the state's economy, or about the salmon fishing closures and the destruction of the lives that hang in the balance. They don't care about you or your quality of life! They are conducting an undeclared war and you and the fishing you hold so dearly are the target.

Should they succeed in eradicating stripers, they will target the Delta's black bass (largemouth) fishery, the smallmouth, American shad, crappie and any other fish that have a "non-native" status, because, like striped bass, they were introduced.

So, contact the Chairman of State Assembly's Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and tell the committee this destructive legislation must be stopped! If you have a legislator on that committee, send them a letter as well. It doesn't need to be long, or eloquent, but you do need to send it as soon as you can. The information below will tell you how to do it. Follow this link to find sample letters and the addresses and E-mail addresses of the assembly members of the committee. When you finished sending the letters, I hope you can make it your mission to get two of you friends, two fellow anglers, or family members to send letters as well. CSPA will lead the charge when the bill comes up for hearing, but without your letters we will not have the pubic support to make the outcome. It is time to stand up and be counted or else say goodbye to sport fishing as we know it.

John Beuttler
Conservation Director
CSPA

Schwarzenegger Launches Green Corps As California Fisheries Collapse 
by Dan Bacher 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley Chinook salmon, delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish populations while gutting the Department of Fish and Game, tried yet again to cast himself in the role of the "Green Governor" by launching the "California Green Corps" Tuesday. 

Schwarzenegger announced the formation of the corps immediately after meeting with President Obama’s Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis in Sacramento to discuss federal economic stimulus funding and job creation. In yet another cynical attempt to add a green veneer to the worst-ever administration for fish and the environment in California history, Schwarzenegger claimed that the California Green Corps "will place at-risk young adults aged 16-24 into jobs in California’s emerging green economy." 

“President Obama and I share similar priorities right now when it comes to helping the economy rebound and creating a greener California and America,” contended Governor Schwarzenegger. “In California we will utilize federal economic stimulus funds and public-private partnerships to help stimulate our economy while initiating actions to improve our environment. Green jobs are exactly what our economy and environment need right now – and the California Green Corps targets that need while helping at-risk young adults realize a brighter future.” 

He said the "initial phase" of the California Green Corps will consist of a 20-month pilot program reaching at least 1,000 of California’s at-risk young adults. It will invest "at least $10 million in federal economic stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Labor and an additional $10 million from public-private partnerships." 

The program will consist of a minimum of 10 regional Green Corps throughout the state – with at least one regional Green Corps located in each of California’s nine economic regions. All programs will be "public-private partnerships" that include green job training, a stipend, an educational requirement and community service. 

"To help ensure the success of the Green Corps, it will be housed under CaliforniaVolunteers – an agency in a unique position to leverage federal economic stimulus funding and to work with public-private partnerships and across state agencies," according to the Governor. "This program furthers the goals of California’s Green Collar Jobs Council which was created when the Governor signed Assembly Bill 3018 in September 2008. The Council is charged with developing a comprehensive approach to address the workforce needs associated with California’s emerging green economy." 

"We will need construction workers, cost estimators, energy analysts, computer technicians, salespersons, scientists, engineers, and many others," according to a corps facts sheet. 

I'm a big supporter of "green jobs," but under this Governor, what will the young "Green Corps" members be forced to do? Will he force them to fulfill his "Delta Vision" of a creating a dead estuary by training them as construction workers, engineers and cost estimators engaged in building a peripheral canal and more dams as part of a "public-private partnership? Will they be trained as salespersons and scientists to market the "need" to build the canal and dams to the media and the public? 

Will they be forced to work as engineers and construction workers on cosmetic, greenwashing "habitat restoration" projects that make streams look pretty while their fish populations die as the water is diverted for corporate agriculture and urban development? 

Will they go distribute notices to Delta farmers informing them that their lands are going to be seized by eminent domain because they are on the route of the peripheral canal? Will the Governator have them take down levees to make sections of the Delta into salt marsh, rather than the fresh and brackish water habitat the Delta has been historically? 

Since the governor has vetoed legislation twice limiting the environmentally destructive practice of suction dredge gold mining mining, will he order corps members to conduct "outreach" on the state's rivers and streams to promote suction dredging regardless of its impact on endangered salmon, lampreys and green sturgeon? 

Will Schwarzenegger command the corps to clean up all of the dead, rotting chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, green sturgeon and other species that will result from his persistent advancing of the interests of the timber industry, corporate agribusiness and developers over fish and wildlife? 

Will the corps members be hired to serve as de facto enforcement officers to patrol the state's growing marine protected areas that kick sustainable fishermen and seaweed harvesters off the water? After all, California already has the worst wardens per capita ratio in the United and 98 wardens and cadets recently received layoff notices, resulting in an epidemic of fish and wildlife poaching, and patrolling redundant MPAs would be a "wise" use of the corps members time! 

Of course, I know that many will laud the Governor for launching the "Green Corps." However, anybody that takes even a cursory look at the state of California's fish populations will realize that there is nothing "green" about Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Federal and state scientists estimate that only 66,264 natural and hatchery adult fall Chinooks returned to the Sacramento River basin in 2008, the lowest spawning escapement on record. Recreational and commercial fishing in ocean waters off California and most of Oregon and was closed for the first time in history in 2008 and is expected to be closed again this year. 

While the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations claimed "ocean conditions" were the cause of the collapse, respected scientists, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists and members of California Indian Tribes point to massive increases in water exports and the mismanagement of Central Valley dam operations as key factors behind the decline. 

The DFG's 2008 fall mid-water trawl survey shows abundance estimates for delta smelt, American shad, Sacramento splittail and threadfin shad to be the lowest in 41 years. The longfin smelt indices are the fourth lowest on record and young of the year striped bass abundance estimates are the sixth lowest. (For more information, go to http://www.calsport.org). Again, record water exports and mismanagement of dam operations under the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations, along with increases in toxics and invasive species, are the primary reasons behind the collapse of these species. 

It will be interesting to see what the Governor and his staff really mean by training people in "green jobs." If Schwarzenegger's past performance is any indication, the California Green Corps will end up being yet one more carefully calculated greenwashing scheme by the Governor to divert attention from his deplorable management of California fish and the environment! 

For additional information about the California Green Corps please visit: http://gov.ca.gov/fact-sheet/11753

Senator Lois Wolk Unveils Delta Legislation At Symposium 

During the Restore the Delta Symposium in Lodi on February 28, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) outlined her package of legislation to protect the Delta. The organization also presented Congressman George Miller (D-Martinez), Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, former California State Senator Mike Machado, and Delta farmer Alex Hildebrand with the "Delta Advocate" awards. 
by Dan Bacher 

Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) outlined her package of legislation to protect the Delta and spoke about her strong opposition to a peripheral canal in Lodi on Saturday, February 28. 

“We must take responsibility for the Delta and recognize that it is a significant region worthy of permanent protection,” said Lois Wolk before a crowd of 250 people at a day long symposium held by Restore the Delta. “Saving the Delta can’t just be about the interests of balancing the interests of Southern California, corporate agriculture and endangered fish. Doing just that is a recipe for ruin.” 

Wolk emphasized that there are people, communities, recreation, wildlife, history, transportation and economic infrastructure that must be considered in saving the Delta. 

During the event, people on five panels representing diverse communities including farmers, environmentalists, fishermen and Delta residents rallied to detail why the Delta must be saved. They also disclosed their solutions to stopping the decline of Central valley salmon and Delta fish populations, as well as the impacts of the Delta’s decline upon Delta farmers and environmental justice communities. 

Headlining Wolk’s legislative package to save the Delta is Senate Bill 457 to establish a Delta Stewardship Council to balance the “the triequal goals of the Delta ecosystem, water supply reliability and the Delta as a place.” She introduced the bill because the Delta currently has no structure that coordinates governance of the Delta. 

“The Delta needs a steward, someone entrusted with responsibility for this critical and irreplaceable resource and not just given power over it,” she said. “There are 200 some odd state, federal and local agencies with some responsibilities with some responsibility in the Delta. Too often these agencies are working at cross purposes and with varying interests.” 

Wolk’s package also features SB 458, which creates a Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy to promote projects that further Delta-based tourism, agriculture, fishing, hunting and other related economic activities. “The Delta isn’t just the state’s plumbing system and it shouldn’t be treated like an aquarium,” she said. “These bills work to protect the Delta as a whole.” 

The Senator’s Delta package also includes SB 456, a $9.8 billion bond to increase water supply and fund Delta restoration and sustainability, and a bill to encourage statewide water conservation. 

Her water bond contrasts greatly with water bond bills sponsored the same week by Senator Dave Cogdill (R-Fresno) and Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) that include funding for a peripheral canal (“conveyance”) and Temperance Flat and Sites dams. Unlike those bills, Wolk contains no peripheral canal nor funding for Temperance Flat and Sites, though her bill does provide $3 billion for regional and local water storage projects, groundwater storage and cleanup projects. 

“If all of the energy of the state goes into the building of peripheral canal, the Delta will die,” she noted. “There are too many things to be done on the Delta to put a pipe through it.” 

She also disclosed that $1.2 billion of funding for the California Department of Water Resources, the agency that has teamed up with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for decades to drive our fisheries into the abysmal state they are now in, is “off the budget.” 

“There are no hearings on this issue – there is an absolute lack of transparency. If there’s one thing I do this year in Sacramento, I want to see this changed,” she vowed. 

Restore the Delta, a Delta-based coalition including Delta farmers, environmentalists, everyday citizens, fishermen, business leaders, the faith community, and recreation enthusiasts, held the event to “craft a blueprint for the Delta that reflects the needs of Delta communities and fisheries,” according to Campaign Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla. 

The event featured a morning key note address by Congressman George Miller (D-Martinez) and afternoon key note address by Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton). Restore the Delta presented Congressman Miller with their inaugural award - The Delta Advocate Award - for his years of advocacy at the federal level on behalf of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. 

The organization also bestowed Delta Advocate Awards to Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, former California State Senator Mike Machado, and Delta farmer Alex Hildebrand. 

During his address, Miller condemned the move by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Feinstein and State Legislators to build a peripheral canal. “The peripheral canal is a setup that requires the taxpayers to pay and the environment to suffer. We’re going to twitter the canal out of business,” he said to applause. 

He also said the Bureau of Reclamation’s mission has to be changed to one that is “futuristic and based on science, “compared to the days of the Bush administration when science was frequently manipulated or discarded to support Bush’s political agenda. 

“There is an investment to make in saving these species,” he stated in a call to action, noting the economic importance of commercial and recreational fishing to the state’s economy. “I think we’re up to it and we’ll be successful if each one of us engages in political activity to save the Delta. The Delta is as fundamental as any geographical area in the country - it is fundamental to the quality of lives and economy of the people of California.” 

Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, emphasized how the fate of fishermen, environmentalists and Delta farmers is “irrevocably intertwined." 

“We understand that a Delta that supports abundant fisheries also supports productive farms and recreational and viable communities,” he stated. “We’ll prosper together or we’ll hang together.” In contrast to the “collaborative” “win, win” processes that the state and federal governments have often used to drive the agenda of corporate agribusiness, Jennings said the following. 

“There is no win, win solution,” he noted. “We live in a water-limited state where there is only an average of 29 million acre feet of runoff in the Central Valley, while the State Water Resources Control Board has allocated 245 million acre feet of water rights.” He condemned the “solution” of the water contractors to build a peripheral canal – and said that we need to compel our regulatory agencies to enforce the water code and Clean Water Act. 

“The canal would transfer pumping impacts to the last viable salmonid river in the Valley (the Sacramento), eliminate critical habitat and send numerous species into oblivion, and increase the concentration and bioaccumulation of pollutants,” he said. “It would increase salinity, severely reducing yields of hundreds of thousands of productive farmland, and eliminate tens of thousands of fishing, recreational and agricultural jobs.”

Mike Jackson, CSPA attorney and board member of the Water Impact Network, quipped that “the Governor should tell his scriptwriter, Susan Kennedy, to rewrite his current script. What he’s doing now is “Terminator Five, the Death of the Delta.”

After receiving his award, South Delta farmer Alex Hildebrand put the current Delta fish and water quality declines and the effort to build a peripheral canal into historical perspective. “Societies rise, flourish and eventually crash because they misuse their water,” said Hildebrand. “As those ancient civilizations fell, they trashed their environment." 
For more information about Restore the Delta, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org.

"Partneship for Sustainable Oceans Responds to Public Statement:
Budget Cuts Will Damage the State’s Recreational Fishing
Submitted by the Coastside Fishing Club
 
SACRAMENTO, CA, February 24, 2009 – The Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO) supports a recent editorial issued by top executives from three of California’s sportfishing equipment manufacturers - Daiwa Corp., Shimano American Corporation and AFTCO Bluewater - challenging recent comments by Natural Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman. The piece questions how the state’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) can be successfully implemented in light of the state’s budget crisis.
The editorial, entitled "Fishers Fear State Will Restrict LB Waters, Hurt Industry," addresses the impacts of the state’s mounting fiscal crisis on the sportfishing industry. Published in the February 23 Long Beach Post online edition, the editorial is signed by Terry Pederson, Daiwa Corp.; Dave Pfeiffer, Shimano American Corporation; and Bill Shedd, AFTCO Bluewater.
"Saltwater recreational fishing contributes more than $2.2 billion annually to the state’s economy, directly supporting more than 20,000 jobs which are often at the heart of many coastal communities," according to the editorial.
The recent budget cuts are causing concern for the recreational fishing and boating industries because state funds are crucial for scientific monitoring and enforcement safeguards in the newly created marine protected areas (MPAs) under the state’s MLPA. "We need to be able to monitor the MPAs in order to determine their impact on the marine environment," said Patty Doerr, Ocean Policy Resource director for the American Sportfishing Association (ASA), a member of the PSO. "Without the monitoring, there will be no scientific basis on which to make future regulatory changes. Without funding to monitor the MPAs’ effectiveness, recreational angling and boating may be permanently prohibited in large swaths of California’s coastal waters."
"The editorial provides a clear picture of the deep impacts that the budget cuts will have on the businesses and local communities that depend on a vibrant sportfishing industry," said ASA Vice President Gordon Robertson.
The PSO agrees with sportfishing industry leaders who depend on a healthy fishery resource and calls upon Governor Schwarzenegger to take action that assures the MLPA is implemented correctly and not in a manner that costs the state, as well as the sportfishing and boating communities, billions of dollars each year. Robertson further said, "We also call on the Fish and Game Commission to have an open and honest public discussion about the financial resources that are actually available for the MLPA implementation. This initiative needs to be correctly monitored and enforced right from the start."
The PSO, a group of recreational fishing and boating organizations, is committed to protecting the health of California’s ocean environment without unnecessary closures of California coastal waters to recreational fishing. Members include the American Sportfishing Association, Berkley Conservation Institute, Coastside Fishing Club, International Game Fish Association, Kayak Fishing Association of California, National Marine Manufacturers Association, Nor-Cal Kayak Anglers, Shimano Sport Fisheries Initiative, Southern California Marine Association and the Sportfishing Association of California."
 

The following "News Release" should NOT come as a surprise to anyone. So long as the status quo of Fish and Game mis-management continues our fisheries will continue to decline in both value and available resources.
Mike Aughney

California Department of Fish and Game
NEWS RELEASE

Ocean Salmon Season Setting Process Begins /Estimates of 2008 Sacramento River Fall Chinook Escapement At All Time Low

Preliminary 2008 salmon data released today indicates a continued and significant reduction in the return size of Sacramento River fall Chinook stock. The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) estimates that 66,200 Sacramento River fall Chinook adults returned in 2008 - the lowest recorded return since comprehensive monitoring of Central Valley hatchery and natural escapement began in the 1970s. An estimated 73 percent of these spawners returned to natural areas. 

The salmon stock information was collected early February by DFG and was forwarded this week to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) to help the council begin its annual ocean salmon season setting process. The data focuses on the return of both Sacramento River fall Chinook and Klamath-Trinity River System fall Chinook salmon in 2008. Preliminary data indicates approximately that 31,000 adult fall Chinook returned to spawn in Klamath-Trinity River System natural areas during 2008, well below the 2008 management objective of 40,700 required by the PFMC.

DFG provides extensive information and scientific assistance on California salmon stocks annually to the PFMC for the evaluation and setting of ocean salmon seasons. The California Fish and Game Commission (FGC) uses this information for season-setting as well.

The 2009 ocean salmon season regulatory process includes public and scientific meetings starting in February and ending in April. The PFMC Salmon Technical Team is currently meeting in Portland to draft the “Preseason Report I-Stock Abundance Analysis for 2009 Ocean Salmon Fisheries” and to consider any other estimation or methodology issues pertinent to the 2009 ocean salmon fisheries. Stock assessments and ocean salmon seasons are critical to maintaining and meeting conservation goals.
 
In 2008, all ocean salmon seasons were closed for the first time in California history. The closure was enacted to protect Sacramento River fall Chinook stocks. These stocks are considered a primary driver of both commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California and most of Oregon. The PFMC and the FGC closed all ocean Chinook salmon fisheries in 2008, south of Cape Falcon, Oregon.

DFG will hold a public salmon information meeting (dog and pony show) March 3 in Santa Rosa to present information pertinent to California salmon fisheries and gather public input regarding the 2009 season.

The PFMC will conduct public hearings to receive comments on three proposed ocean salmon fishery management options scheduled to be adopted March 7-13 in Seattle. A PFMC public hearing will be held March 31 at 7 p.m. in Eureka at the Red Lion Hotel. The PFMC and FGC will adopt final 2009 ocean salmon regulations in April.  For further information about the 2009 PFMC salmon management process, work sessions or hearings, please contact Mr. Chuck Tracy at (503) 820-2280 ext. 415, or toll free 1-866-806-7204.

For further information about salmon, the season-setting process for California inland waters and the 2008 salmon seasons’ structures, please go to: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/salmon/#01.
 

Name Change Won't Alter Resources Agency's Dark Mission
by Dan Bacher

The Resources Agency on January 1 adopted a new name, the California "Natural" Resources Agency, to give the agency a more "green" veneer. Unfortunately, nothing has changed at the agency that has presided over the collapse of the state's salmon, steelhead and other fish populations. A press release from the agency in late December claimed that the name change was adopted to "better reflect its mission."

"Since 1961, the Resources Agency has been responsible for the safeguarding and stewardship of California's precious natural resources," according to the release. "From water and wildlife management and conservation to wildland fire protection, energy, ocean and coastal policy, land stewardship, climate change adaptation, sustainable living, and the promotion of outdoor recreation, the agency oversees most all of the state's functions designed to protect California's natural resources."

In July, Governor Arnold "Fish Terminator" Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1464 (Maldonado) authorizing the Resources Agency to change its name. "The new Agency logo will remain largely the same and the change will be phased in gradually as new supplies are ordered," the release stated. "In this way there will be little or no cost to the Agency or any of its departments, boards or commissions save for any replacement costs that would normally be incurred."

California's Natural Resources Agency is responsible for the state's natural resource policies, programs and activities. It has 17,000 employees and oversees 25 departments, commissions, boards and conservancies, including the Department of Fish and Game, Department of Water Resources and California Water Resources Control Board.

However, wouldn't it be more appropriate for the Resources Agency to adopt a name that truly reflects its REAL primary mission? Based on my years covering California fisheries, this mission appears to be engineering the collapse of Central Valley salmon fisheries, driving the California Delta's pelagic fish populations to the edge of extinction, building a peripheral canal, constructing more dams, slashing funds for salmon and steelhead restoration, and instituting massive closures of public trust fisheries throughout the state's ocean waters.

Considering all of this, wouldn't "the Natural Destruction Agency" be a more appropriate name for the agency? Other potential names for the agency could be "Bureau of Corporate Greenwashing," "Raping of Natural Resources Agency," "No More Natural Resources Agency," "The Fish Termination Agency," or the "Water Exports Agency." Readers of my articles have also suggested the "Final Legislative Usurpation of Significant Habitats, FLUSH," and "The Death Star" as more appropriate names for this agency with such as legacy of environmental destruction behind it.

More recently, Karuk Trib Vice Chair Leaf Hillman proposed that the name of one of the agency's member departments, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), be changed more accurately to reflect its "mission" after DFG Director Donald Koch rejected a petition by the Tribe, California Trout and Friends of the North Fork to restrict suction dredge gold mining in order to protect salmon and steelhead populations. "I guess DFG really stands for Department of Frontier Greed," Hillman quipped.

While the name of the Resources Agency has changed, pelagic (open water) fish populations of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta continue to collapse. There is nothing "natural" about this unprecedented and catastrophic species decline.

The delta smelt population has declined to its lowest level ever, according to the latest data from the DFG's fall midwater trawl survey. The DFG studies the health of these populations by compiling an "index," a relative measure of abundance. The index declined to 23 in fall 2008, down from the previous low level of 28 in fall 2007. American shad also reached a record low level in 2008. The index was 271, compared to 533 in 2007 and 9360 in 2003. Threadfin shad also declined to a record low population level, down to 450 from 3177 in 2007. The Sacramento splittail, a native minnow, declined to the lowest-ever level this fall. In fact, no splittail were observed in the fall survey, while only one fish was documented the previous autumn.

Only the striped bass and longfin smelt showed an increase, though the population levels are still precariously low. The striper index rose to 220 in 2008 from 82 in 2007, both alarmingly low numbers. In contrast, the index was 9500 in 1971, when the population was still healthy before the fish-killing state and federal pumps went into full operation.

The longfin smelt abundance index rose from a record low of 13 in fall 2007 to 113 this fall. By comparison, the index was 6654 in 1998. These fish populations have declined to unprecedented low population levels because of the deplorable water and fishery management policies of the California "Natural" Resources Agency under the Schwarzenegger administration, combined with extremely bad management by the federal government. State and federal fishery biologists have pinpointed three major causes of the fishery decline - increased water exports, toxics and invasive species. More recently, increases in ammonia releases through sewage treatment plants have been cited by scientists as a possible factor.

Record water export levels occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increased to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

The crisis in Delta fisheries will not be solved by changing the agency's name - or taking more water out of the Delta through the peripheral canal proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Department of Water Resources, Senator Diane Feinstein and the Nature Conservancy as a "solution" to the Delta's problems. The canal and more dams that Schwarzenegger and Mike Chrisman, Resources Secretary, are campaigning for will only exacerbate the imperiled status of these fish populations, driving them over the precipice of extinction.

The only way the Resources Agency can live up to its new "natural" name is to abandon the mad campaign for a peripheral canal and more dams, mandate water conservation by corporate agribusiness, adopt tough agricultural water pollution standards and require the retirement of toxic selenium-filled soil in the Westlands Water District.
 

Governor Schwarzenegger Proposes Closing the CA Dept. of Boating and Waterways

Dear BoatUS Member,
Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed to close the CA Dept. of Boating and Waterways (DBW) to save $600,000 a year. But DBW is funded solely by your boater fuel tax dollars, registration fees, and interest payments on infrastructure loans - it doesn't take General Fund dollars - and its work helps boating be safer, and more accessible. We urge you to send the Governor and your state legislators an email, help them learn the value of DBW, and ask that they leave DBW intact.

Things to know:

1. Recreational boating contributes approximately $16.5 billion to the gross state product and supports more than 8,500 related businesses, and 284,000 direct and indirect jobs. (Source: DBW Boating Needs Assessment Study, 2002)

2. With a Boating Director and a statewide Boating and Waterways Commission, DBW provides accountability, transparency, and leadership in its use of boater-derived taxes and fees. This will be lost if the DBW is absorbed into the larger Department of Parks and Recreation (which relies on the state General Fund.)

3. DBW invests in boating infrastructure - docks, ramps, and marinas in a revolving fund that pays itself back (with interest!).

4. DBW ensures safe boating by supporting local law enforcement agencies, and boating safety education.

5. DBW is funded solely by boaters. It does not take General Funds!

For more information:

FISH STOCKING PROGRAM WILL CONTINUE FOLLOWING COURT ORDER

From the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance:

November 2008 -- SACRAMENTO – An order today signed by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette will allow the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to stock more waters than would have been allowed under his Nov. 6 tentative ruling. The order is a result of weeks of negotiation among DFG, and the Pacific Rivers Council and Center for Biological Diversity, along with their counsel Stanford Legal Clinic.

“DFG fought hard in the negotiations to save its fish stocking programs,” said DFG Director Donald Koch. “We are pleased that the order allows us to continue stocking in a number of areas where the communities depend on fishing.”

The order, with some exceptions, has a broad prohibition against DFG stocking “nonnative” fish in “any California fresh water body” where surveys have demonstrated the presence of 25 specified amphibian or fish species or where a survey for those species has not yet been done. The order does not address the stocking of native fish into native waters.

The order lists exceptions to the prohibition regarding stocking nonnative fish, which include:

Stocking in human-made reservoirs larger than 1000 acres.

Stocking in human-made reservoirs less than 1000 acres that are not connected to a river or stream, or are not within red legged frog critical habitat or where red legged frogs are known to exist.

Stocking as required as state or federal mitigation.

Stocking for the purpose of enhancing salmon and steelhead populations and funded by the Commercial Trollers Salmon Stamp.

Stocking of steelhead from the Mad River Hatchery into the Mad River Basin.

DFG’s Aquarium in the Classroom program.

Stocking actions to support scientific research.

Stocking done pursuant to an existing private stocking permit or to be done under a new permit with terms similar to one that was issued in the last four years.

DFG is preparing a list of waters where stocking will cease based on these parameters. It will be available on the DFG Web site early next week.

In October 2006, Pacific Rivers Council and Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Stanford Law students, sued DFG over fish stocking programs it has engaged in for more than 100 years, claiming that no Environmental Impact Report (EIR) had been completed for the programs. The result of the case was a court order requiring DFG to complete an EIR. DFG is engaged in the years-long and multimillion dollar EIR process, now scheduled to be completed in January 2010.

Due to delays in the EIR process, which involves combining the EIR with a federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), on Friday, Nov. 7 Judge Marlette told the department to negotiate with the petitioners to seek an agreement on terms for how and where DFG may continue stocking fish during the time it is preparing the EIR/EIS.

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