A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 26, 2007
3. Watersheds
Panel examines Tahoe fire causes; GOVERNMENT'S ROLE MAIN FOCUS OF PROBE - Associated Press
DELTA ISSUES:
Editorial: The San Joaquin Delta's possible fate must be spelled out more clearly - Stockton Record
Big fish die-off tales - Imperial Valley Press
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Officials unclear on Clear Lake infestation - Lake County Record Bee
LAND MANAGEMENT:
Feds crown region's road plans fish friendly - Eureka Times Standard
Panel examines Tahoe fire causes; GOVERNMENT'S ROLE MAIN FOCUS OF PROBE
Associated Press – 7/26/07
By Amanda Fehd, staff writer
MEYERS - A 23-member commission will examine whether bureaucratic delays and government mistakes contributed to a devastating
"Where there is gridlock today, tomorrow we need to have effective, efficient policies in place for the protection of homes," Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons said as he and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced their plan Wednesday.
The California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission will review land-use and other regulations affecting the
The
Gibbons said there has been "over-regulation" at the resort community. Schwarzenegger said the commission will examine whether mistakes were made and, if so, how officials in both states can learn from them.
Even as the governors were announcing their plan, area residents questioned the need for a government commission.
Residents have raised their concerns several times in the fire's aftermath about the complicated layers of government agencies and restrictions that many believe have impaired fire-prevention efforts.
"I think there are way too many (rules), and they drop them or add them as they go. They are very confusing," said Tony Colombo, a former restaurant owner who lost his home in the fire.
He said he was skeptical the commission would do any good.
"I hope the best for it, but I think they should inject some longtime residents on it that can offer a more balanced view, more spirited debate," he said.
The commission will have 16 voting and six non-voting members appointed by the governors plus one voting member from the U.S. Forest Service. It will present its recommendations to the governors by March 21.
Keith Cooney, a renter whose home was burned in the fire, said commission members should be elected, not appointed.
"Let us manage our own lives and our own homes. We don't need people from the outside telling us what to do," he said.
Nevertheless, he said re-examining the overlapping levels of bureaucracy and the complex maze of regulations was necessary.
Many residents have complained that the regional planning agency is too involved, to the point where home owners are not even allowed to clear pine needles from their properties.
"We are definitely over-regulated up here," Cooney said. "I've never lived anywhere where they tell you whether you can cut a tree down or what color you can paint your house. It's ridiculous."
Asked Wednesday about the criticism of the regional agency, Schwarzenegger said, "We'll make it part of the solution. That's why we have this commission together."
The effort by the two governors emerged just as preliminary studies are suggesting that years of effort to thin overgrown forests on public land around the burned neighborhoods helped reduce the fire's intensity. In previously thinned areas, only 21 percent of trees were killed by the fire.
Such thinning likely saved dozens of homes, said Hugh Safford, an ecologist with the Forest Service and author of one report.
Still, many homes burned because they were not protected from flying embers that rained down ahead of the main fire front. #
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_6467161
DELTA ISSUES:
Editorial: The
It would be unwise to reject any idea designed to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's health.
There's been an overflow of proposals, funding plans and studies since the June 2004 levee break that flooded Jones Tract added to concerns about the strength of its fragile levee system.
No concept or proposal should be overlooked.
The transfer point for agricultural irrigation and water used by two-thirds of
The Delta's neglected levees are too weak and unstable. Some of its native species are struggling. Its problems and functions overlap, complicating solutions.
Too many theorists, politicians and special interests have exploited recent circumstances to promote old agendas and selfish ideas.
Last week - the undeclared Week of Water by
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited San Luis Reservoir on July 16 and
Concurrently, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, presented his $5 billion plan.
Both "fixes" include money for above-ground dams, water rights solutions on the
Both proposals are broad and vague. It's hard to identify the priorities and realities.
More details are required. So are mechanisms to assure accountability and the precise cost estimates and time frames.
Given almost certain opposition by environmentalists, it's doubtful a new dam for above-ground storage ever will be constructed.
Expansion of an existing reservoir likely would generate years of debate - and cost more than $5.9 billion.
More likely, the governor, Perata and others are looking for greater reliability in water delivery as their primary objective.
Pressure for a peripheral canal - rejected by voters 25 years ago - will grow.
Advocates of diverting
Canal supporters also will be willing to make trade-offs.
Long before any such negotiating begins and certainly before the issue is put to a public vote again, we must know additional details.
There needs to be a lot more substance to any new ideas for the Delta - not just convenient political slogans. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070726/A_OPINION01/707260313/-1/A_OPINION06
Big fish die-off tales
By Jonathan Athens, staff writer
SALTON SEA — News reports of another massive fish die-off at the
Salton Sea Authority Program Manager Dan Cain said he saw on Monday scores of dead or dying tilapia fish on the sea but by Tuesday winds may have pushed those fish into deeper layers of the sea.
News accounts that appeared in other daily newspapers and on some television stations, Cain said, grossly exaggerated the die-offs, which are common at the sea.
An Associated Press story described the die-off: “Millions of tilapia died over the weekend in the annual summertime
Both the AP and Salinas-based Fox television affiliate KBCA-TV, Channel 35’s Web site, attributed this statement to Cain: “… the number appears to have surpassed the 3 million that died in August 2006.”
Cain on Wednesday said the media accounts were overblown.
“They overstated what happened. It wasn’t the greatest fish event of the year,” he said.
Although he did not name a particular news outlet, Cain said “Some of those things they wrote I did not say. They basically put words in my mouth.”
California Department of Fish and Game experts in the past have stated the die-offs are a common occurrence and do not threaten the tilapia population of the
Die-offs occur when algae in the lower layers cause a biological reaction making the lower layers oxygen poor. When winds churn the sea, the oxygen-poor portion circulates to the layer where tilapia live, thus depriving them of oxygen.
Cain said he does not know where the carcasses are of this most recently reported die-off.
A visit to the west shores of the Salton Sea on Wednesday showed hundreds of thousands of dried out, rotting fish carcasses, and came with a stench of dead fish in the air. #
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/07/26/news/news01.txt
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Officials unclear on
By Tiffany Revelle, staff writer
But the verdict isn't in yet on
"(The net) collects everything in the water," said Francis, which includes silt, plankton and aquatic plants. "They're looking for a needle in a haystack."
That may explain why conclusive results aren't back after the county's Water Resources Division sent off seven sets of samples to the Bureau of Reclamation laboratory in
The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) collected and sent a set of surface samples just a few weeks ago as well to
The tests were ordered after a presentation to the
The zebra and quagga are mussels of the genus dreissena, which originated in eastern Europe, according to DFG spokesperson Alexia Retallack. They invaded the
The tiny mussels start out microscopic as a veligers, as they are known in their larval stage, and are detectable only as a sandpapery texture on a normally smooth surface.
The problem is that they reproduce at almost unfathomable rates. One mussel lays up to one million eggs at a time. At a three percent survival rate, that one mussel could spawn 30,000, and when those lay eggs, it's easy to see how such a tiny creature could cause big problems.
The price tag just to maintain the quagga and zebra mussel populations in the
The mussels filter out photo plankton in fresh water, making the water very clear, explained Retallack. Smaller invertebrates, fish and zooplankton feed on the photoplankton and cannot thrive without it, leaving bigger fish nothing to eat, and so-on.
Quaggas are actually the worse of the two species, according to Retallack, because they attach to both soft and hard surfaces and at deeper, cooler depths, where they are harder to find. Both need calcium to form their shells, meaning that high-nutrient watercourses are considered "at risk" of infestation.
http://www.record-bee.com/local/ci_6466389
LAND MANAGEMENT:
Feds crown region's road plans fish friendly
By John Driscoll, staff writer
A cutting edge program to manage 4,700 miles of
The National Marine Fisheries Service has approved the road manual being used by
”This is another tool that we have to show the state and federal agencies that we are well on the road to maintaining and improving habitat,” said Mark Lancaster, director of the Five Counties Salmonid Restoration Program.
Among the most well-known efforts of the program have been removing culverts that block salmon and steelhead from reaching tributaries. Experts believe that perhaps 15 to 20 percent of all steelhead habitat in the region is behind impassible barriers like these. Where culverts have been replaced with fish-friendly culverts or bridges, salmon and steelhead have responded quickly and moved up the newly available streams to spawn.
The program also contains measures to ensure that routine maintenance doesn't send sediment into streams, by modifying ditches and placing spoils where they can't leach into streams. It also calls for habitat improvement, including putting large logs in streams and planting trees along streams.
Fisheries service recovery coordinator for southern
”It became a source of pride,” Bryant said. “They were doing something that's helpful and they understood why.”
Several years into the program, hundreds of miles of once-closed off streams are opened up and tons of sediment has been kept out of creeks and rivers. The counties involved also expect to have more regulatory certainty, and possibly a more streamlined process for road project approvals.
Projects are prioritized to keep the counties from competing for the same limited restoration funds, and while an impressive number of project have been completed, there are plenty more to go.
”We look at this as a really long-term process,”
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_6468446
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