A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 1, 2007
3. Watersheds
CHINOOK SALMON RUNS:
Chinook salmon shortfall puzzles anglers, experts; The numbers of fish returning are far below expectations - Sacramento
DELTA ISSUES:
Guest Opinion: Projects serve needs of Delta ecosystem -
DEVELOPMENT:
Plans by Cargill to build homes on salt-flat acreage alarms some -
BEAVER DAMS:
City to leave Five Mile beavers alone - Chico Enterprise Record
CHINOOK SALMON RUNS:
Chinook salmon shortfall puzzles anglers, experts; The numbers of fish returning are far below expectations
Sacramento
By Matt Weiser, staff writer
For fishermen and biologists, fall has become a season for fretting in
For the second year in a row, spawning fall-run chinook salmon are not returning to the Central Valley's rivers in the numbers that anglers and experts anticipated, touching off what may be a record year for nail-biting and hand-wringing.
"Horrible. Slowest year in their lifetime. Never seen salmon fishing this bad," said Ron Howe, summing up the feelings of many salmon fishermen this fall. He has pursued the mighty chinook, also known as king salmon, in the
"Everybody's saying the same exact things. This is just unbelievable that the fishing's so poor," he said.
Hard numbers on the
But the 11th Annual American River Salmon Festival, held Oct. 13 and 14, offered one sad indicator. There were no salmon climbing the hatchery's fish ladder that weekend, normally the festival's star attraction.
West managed to collect just 22 fish in five hours – compared to 120 in prior years – just to put some salmon in a big tank as a display for festival-goers.
He said he has never seen so few salmon in the river at festival time.
"We're kinda lucky we caught enough," he said. "I try to always have a positive outlook on Mother Nature. So I'm going to continue that until I get all the figures in."
The most reliable running tally of spawning chinook in the Central Valley comes from the Coleman National Fish Hatchery on
Through Oct. 24, about 20,700 chinook returned to
The numbers baffle experts and laymen alike, because all indicators are that this fall should produce a vigorous salmon run.
"We just don't understand why there aren't more fish around," said Roger Thomas, who has run salmon fishing charters out of
Regulations limited the commercial salmon fishing in the ocean the past two years, which should have left more fish to return upriver.
A strong, cold upwelling in the Pacific Ocean this summer also produced ample food along the California coast, resulting in a bumper crop of herring, sardine and anchovy, said Frank Schwing, director of environmental research at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz, a division of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
But there's a gaping hole in that news: Schwing said the population of krill has mysteriously crashed in the ocean. This zooplankton, which resembles a tiny shrimp, is a key salmon food.
Several bird species that depend on krill have also crashed, Schwing said, such as the Cassin's auklet, a seabird that nests on the
"Historically there's a strong relationship between abundance of krill and the amount of upwelling that occurs," said Schwing.
"But this year that model has broken down for some reason."
Everyone recognizes it's still early in the fall run, said Allen Grover, a biologist who monitors the ocean salmon fishery for Fish and Game. The run normally continues through December and even into January, and it's normal for the run's peak to shift each year.
"I'm concerned, but it's too early to say 'Sell your boat,' " said Grover. "Trying to correlate oceanographic events to fish survival is pretty hard to do."
A combination of plumbing problems in the
This put water deliveries to cities and farms behind schedule, forcing water officials to ramp up reservoir releases for most of the summer.
This, combined with a drought year, left many of the state's reservoirs with below-normal storage, including Folsom Reservoir, which feeds the
A question lingers as to whether the water left behind the dam is still cold enough to trigger the salmon run. The fish need water at 60 degrees or colder to start migrating. This week, those flows are leaving Nimbus Dam at around 63 degrees, said West.
For now, anglers are hoping the best of the run is still to come. Veterans say anglers can still find salmon in the ocean and rivers: Howe hooked three and caught two in two days on the American River this week, both over 20 pounds.
But they'll need to balance their worries with fistfuls of those other fishermen's friends: luck and patience.
"Normally I would hook over 50 fish in the last two days, and I hooked three," said Howe. "And I was lucky to do that, because other guys were out there not hooking any." #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/465062.html
DELTA ISSUES:
Guest Opinion: Projects serve needs of Delta ecosystem
By Mike Chrisman,
The headlines are as old as 1991, and as new as today:
• Water allotments cut in order to protect endangered fish in
•
•
It may seem like déjà vu, but it isn't.
The water crisis in the late 1980s and early '90s was caused by a drought combined with regulatory actions to protect winter-run Chinook salmon as endangered. The potential consequences to both the economy and the environment were dire and led to the creation of a joint state and federal program known as CalFed to deal with the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's water supply and ecological crises.
Now, 12 years since CALFED's formation and seven years into a 30-year plan for the Delta, some are asking, "What's changed?" The answer is both "a lot" and "not nearly enough."
Since the 25 state and federal CALFED agencies agreed to a plan of action called the Record of Decision in 2000, they have funded nearly $5 billion in research and project improvements throughout
To the good, almost 1 million acre-feet of water has been added to the state's water supply through CALFED-funded groundwater storage and water recycling projects – enough water for nearly 2 million families each year.
Ecological improvements and fish screens upstream of the Delta have contributed to improved
On the other hand, the numbers of Delta smelt and other pelagic "open water" fish are at all-time lows, and the number of lawsuits filed over Delta issues is approaching an all-time high.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger quickly recognized that
Building on what CALFED has learned in the past seven years, these initiatives will propel us in our efforts to better understand and manage the Delta's ecology and provide more reliability to
The Delta is a difficult system to manage. Any problem can be the result of numerous complex interactions that must be sorted through, guided by science. Today's most complex issue is understanding the dynamics of the decline of Delta smelt – the little fish that has caused a big problem. Pumping water from the Delta is a factor but so, too, are urban and/or agricultural runoff and the impacts of undesirable, invasive species on the Delta smelt's food supply.
That said, the state and federal CALFED agencies will continue to fund good science and projects that help the Delta serve both the needs of the ecosystem and the state's water supply. In the meantime, we will continue to increase our understanding of the Delta with the hope that someday headlines such as those from 1991 and 2007 will conjure up thoughts not of déjà vu, but rather of problems resolved. #
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/464746.html
DEVELOPMENT:
Plans by Cargill to build homes on salt-flat acreage alarms some
San Francisco Chronicle – 11/1/07
By Jonathan Curiel, staff writer
The owner of one of the largest undeveloped swaths of bay shoreline says it is considering building houses on the land - a controversial idea opposed by environmentalists who say the property should be restored to its natural state and protected.
Cargill Inc. uses the 1,433-acre site on the edge of
The land is just southeast of
Although Cargill has not actually produced any plans for the nearby 1,433-acre site, environmentalists say they would fight to prevent Cargill from getting permits to build residences there. Instead, they say the land should be used to further the state's goal of restoring the thousands of acres of bay wetlands destroyed over the past 200 years.
The idea of building housing on the land is supported by at least one local official, a key member of the Redwood City Planning Commission who says the city has an immense need for housing and amenities like playing fields and trails. And the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which has jurisdiction over land within 100 feet of the bay's shoreline, said Cargill could pursue a development plan if it first restored at least half of the site to a natural setting.
Cargill is phasing out its salt production on the land and wants to convert it into some type of mixed development, including some housing. For the past year, Redwood City Industrial Saltworks - a joint venture between Cargill and a real estate development firm called DMB Associates - has solicited comments from
More than 6,000 people have responded through mailings and comments during the company's forums, "and the vast majority of what we've heard is that people are looking for a mixture of uses, and that runs the gamut from housing to parks to bay trails," said Bruno, general manager of Redwood City Industrial Saltworks.
Bruno wouldn't specify the type of housing Cargill envisions nor what percentage of land the housing would occupy, but any development is opposed by groups such as Save the Bay. That group recently started a campaign to protect the last remaining undeveloped properties that ring the bay.
"It's not the place to put housing," said the group's executive director, David Lewis. "If Cargill thinks this can be approved, they're living in the past."
Cargill's
Before it does, Cargill would have to restore at least 50 percent of the area to natural habitat under state laws governing bay salt ponds, said Will Travis, head of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
"Our position is that when you take a salt pond and use it for something other than salt making, a substantial portion of it should be restored to the bay or wetlands. The issue of what the (rest of the) property can be used for is the call of local government," Travis said.
And Lewis said the company would face additional development hurdles under the federal Clean Water Act, which he said prohibits former waterways from being filled with development if there are alternatives to put the development in another area.
And, Lewis said, state water quality regulations would also severely limit what Cargill could build on the site, which has been used for salt production since 1901.
Development in that area has been controversial since the first home at
That battle in part led to the campaign to protect
Cargill won't formally submit a development application to
Construction probably wouldn't begin for at least several years.
The vice chairwoman of Redwood City's Planning Commission, Nancy Radcliffe, said she would favorably consider any housing plan by Cargill because Redwood City is in desperate need of residences for people who work in the Peninsula city.
Such housing would reduce the number of commuters on Bay Area roads, thereby reducing car emissions and helping the environment, Radcliffe said.
"Housing would ... lessen the amount of commuters, and then you look at the affects of global warming, so it's not just a one-issue thing," Radcliffe said. "At the moment,
Bruno said that those who oppose any housing on the site are "by far a very small minority opinion."
But Save the Bay's Lewis and Ralph Nobles, a former
Cargill, Nobles said, "can't develop (its saltworks) land unless they convince the people of
About 40,000 acres of wetlands rim the
Even if housing is ultimately put on the property, Bruno said, it probably would be accompanied by open habitat spaces, a recreation area and other places that will reflect the area's natural setting.
Redwood City Councilman Jeff Ira said he would like a youth sports facility on the land that would "be able to host Little League and soccer tournaments and those types of things. The No. 1 complaint I hear on a regular basis is that we just don't have enough playing fields. That wouldn't require zoning changes since that's one of the few things allowed."
"There's no question we need housing," Ira said. "But do we want to build housing for housing's sake? Never. You have to do something that is a good use of the land. I think everyone wants to build open space, but how much - that's a tough question." #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/01/MNAET3ET0.DTL&hw=water&sn=008&sc=189
BEAVER DAMS:
City to leave Five Mile beavers alone
By Jenn Klein, staff writer
Beavers who have moved in at the Five-Mile won't get an eviction notice from the city, but will eventually be ousted by Mother Nature.
Interim Assistant City Manager Dennis Beardsley said Wednesday the city won't be touching a beaver dam about 10 yards north of the Five-Mile Dam in
"We're treating this as a natural occurrence right now and leaving it alone," said Beardsley, who is in charge of the city's parks.
He said as soon as
The water in Big Chico Creek is lower than normal, but the beaver engineers will not be able to completely shut the water out, Beardsley said.
The city's No. 2 administrator said beavers have been active for the past three to four years in another area around Five-Mile.
"We just don't have a mailing address for Mr. Beaver to tell him he's being a nuisance," Beardsley said jokingly.
Beardsley said he does not know if the Department of Fish and Game has a separate plan, but said historically when beaver dams are knocked down, the animals build them back. #
http://www.chicoer.com//ci_7337275?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
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