[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 7/10/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

July 10, 2007

 

3. Watersheds

 

Governors back blue ribbon fire task force - Tahoe Daily Tribune

 

Editorial: Salton Sea documentary positive - Imperial Valley Press

 

 

Governors back blue ribbon fire task force

Tahoe Daily Tribune – 7/10/07

By Adam Jensen, staff writer

 

On Friday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his intention to take a closer look at wildfire prevention in the Lake Tahoe Basin, with the formation of a California-Nevada Joint Blue Ribbon Task Force.

The task force will undertake a "comprehensive review of land management practices associated with conditions that contributed to the devastating Angora fire," according to a press release from the Governor's office.

"Now that the Angora fire is contained, we must take every step to prevent this disaster from happening again, and we owe it to the victims to create the best land management practices that will lead to a healthy forest in the Lake Tahoe Basin," Schwarzenegger said in the statement. "I am pleased to join with Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons to find solutions to the serious issues raised in wake of the Angora fire."

Gibbons was not immediately available for comment on Monday, although Brent Boynton, a spokesman for his office, said the task force is in its infancy and members are being chosen this week.

Membership will focus on those with fire management expertise and is likely to include local fire officials, according to Boynton.

While neither of the governors' offices would spell out the agencies baring the brunt of the review, California Senator Dave Cox cast a wide net in a June 29 letter, urging the governors to create the task force.

"There is a very strong feeling among residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin that over the years all levels of government have failed to properly manage the forest lands and reduce the threats of catastrophic wildfires. Many feel that the requirements and regulations that have been put in place by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and the U.S. Forest Service have made the process of creating defensible space both cumbersome and costly," Cox wrote in the letter. "Further, I frequently hear from constituents who gladly abide by the 100 foot defensible space requirement, but are frustrated by the fact that adjoining lands owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), California State Parks and the federal government do not meet the same requirements."

A similar task force was convened after the 2003 wildfires in Southern California that burned more than 700,000 acres, destroyed 3,631 homes and killed 24 people. The task force report, released approximately five months after containment of the fire, outlined 48 recommendations to federal, state and local jurisdictions.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20070710/NEWS/107100044

 

 

Editorial: Salton Sea documentary positive

Imperial Valley Press – 7/10/07

 

For once a documentary involving Imperial County got it right.

Sure, there were the requisite “characters” speaking with accents you might find in, say, west Texas, but there were the intellectuals, too. And most were on the same page: the one that dictates the future of the Salton Sea.

“The Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea,” which last aired July 1 on the Sundance Channel, is far from the mockumentary one might expect, given the disdain much of the rest of California holds toward this part of the state. The one-hour show, which has won multiple awards, was insightful, persuasive and provocative.

The show opens with the creation of the latest version of the sea with the catastrophic flooding of the Colorado River and the engineering debacle that enabled the river to flood so hard for so long at the beginning of the last century. It weaves footage of the sea’s heyday in the 1950s and ‘60s, complete with children frolicking in foam-free, dead-fish-free waters and waterskiers performing their aquatic acrobatics.

And it chronicles additional flooding that consumed shorelines and destroyed livelihoods and the water transfers that all but signed the death sentence for the sea and the millions of birds that find refuge in one of the last wetlands in Southern California.

 

 

Directors Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer spent four years shooting footage and researching history not only of the sea but of the events surrounding it in the last 100 years. They profile the attention brought once again by the late Congressman Sonny Bono, for whom the wildlife refuge on the south end of the sea is named. Unfortunately, as one resident was quoted, Sonny went skiing. After Bono’s tragic death in that skiing accident in 1998, the sea’s future again seemed dismal. Legislation now wending its way through the Legislature would target billions toward restoration over several decades.

The film raises the specter of toxic dust clouds and the stench of a dying sea spreading not only south into Imperial County, but north into Riverside County and, more importantly, into the eyes and noses of the wealthy residents who live there. Perhaps that is the threat most needed. #

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/07/10/opinion/ed02_7-10-07.txt

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