A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 17, 2008
3. Watersheds
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Mud snails, other invasive species threaten north state wildlife - Redding Record Searchlight
Water authority vote supports San Joaquin River restoration - Associated Press
DELTA ISSUES:
Column: Delta commission faces a new test -
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Mud snails, other invasive species threaten north state wildlife
Redding Record Searchlight – 3/16/08
By Dylan Darling, staff writer
They likely came to the north state hiding in the seams of waders or holding tight to the hull of a boat.
Tiny, prolifically reproductive and nonnative, the
"It's the genie out of the bottle so to speak," said Peter Moyle, an ecology professor at the
Able to reproduce without a mate, one snail can lead to as many as a million in about 9 square feet in the right kind of cool temperature waterway. State Department of Fish and Game scientists will be monitoring how they do in the lake and are asking anglers to inspect their waders and boats to avoid further spread of the snail. Invasive species are those that aren't native to an area and have the propensity to take over, pushing out native plants and animals.
The list of invasive species in the north state now includes the snails in the water, yellow starthistle in the ground and European starlings in the air, wildlife and plant experts say. While some are kept in check by animals native to the area or efforts by humans, others can wreak havoc on the ecosystem. Those are the ones that worry officials the most. And atop the most unwanted list right now are zebra and quagga mussels. Zebra mussels have been a scourge of the
Like the
The mussels are filter feeders, straining nutrients out the water system that small aquatic animals and plants rely on, knocking out the foundation of the food chain for many fish, said Randy Benthin, senior fishery biologist at DFG's
Quagga mussels, cousins of the zebra mussel, were first found in the state early last year in
"There is a real risk of them getting up here," Benthin said.
The danger of boats bringing in the mussels led officials in
Benthin said to avoid spreading the mussels boaters should inspect the bottoms of their boats after pulling them out of a lake, and also then let them dry out for a month if they've been used them in contaminated waters.
While DFG officials have considered performing boat inspections, the logistics of doing so, especially at a lake with as many access points as Lake Shasta, makes the inspection unlikely, said Susan Ellis, DFG's invasive species coordinator.
That places the onus on the public to patrol for unwanted hitchhikers, as is the case with many invasive species, she said.
"Things attach to your boat," Ellis said, "whether it is weeds or animals."
People also can cause the spread of invasive species by using live bait not native to a lake, draining aquariums outdoors and not washing their cars or trucks after a long drive - seeds of invasive plants can stick to vehicles and find a new place to grow.
That's how yellow starthistle is suspected to have migrated to the north state, said Paul Kjos, deputy agriculture commission for
"The key is to catch it early," he said.
While the weed has been eradicated from some places - using weevils and other pests to kill the plants - stands of it are spread out enough that it likely is here to stay, Kjos said. Other invasive plants in the county include Himalayan blackberry and Scotch broom.
"They spread just like wildfire," he said.
European starlings, which spread from the East Coast to the rest of the country after being introduced in the late 1800s, also probably are here for good, said Richard Callas, senior environmental scientist with the DFG's Yreka office. Here for hundreds of years, the starlings have pushed out native songbirds from their nesting holes.
The starlings were introduced in an effort to import all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare to the
"If species would just stay where we put them, then it wouldn't be a problem," Moyle said. #
http://www.redding.com/news/2008/mar/16/mud-snails-other-invasive-species-threaten-north-s/
Water authority vote supports
Associated Press – 3/14/08
By Aaron C. Davis, staff writer
The Friant Water Users Authority, a powerful band of
Supporters say they hope the action adds urgency to the issue in Congress, where bills are pending but Republicans and Democrats disagree over how to pay for the effort.
Under a legal settlement for the restoration reached in 2006, water is supposed to be returned to a dry 60-mile stretch of the
The Friant authority would agree to relinquish a set portion of its traditional water use. Its board has viewed that arrangement as preferable to having a judge establish the water flows.
The deal capped an 18-year legal battle over how much water should be released from Friant Dam, outside
Completion of the federal dam in 1949 dried up portions of the river below where salmon once ran thick.
"It's not that any of us think this settlement is a perfect solution," said Ronald Jacobsma, Friant's general manager.
"However, our boards concluded two years ago and continue to believe today that water supply and cost certainty provided by the settlement are a much better business decision for everyone in the valley than leaving it up to a federal judge to decide how much water should be released for salmon."
Last week, farmers in the Madera Irrigation District took steps to back out of the restoration plan, saying it would cause them to lose too much valuable irrigation water. But they also recommitted to the plan this week.
U.S. Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, said he would work to move the settlement through Congress "without tax increases, and finally put this issue to rest and allow the community to come together."
Scott Gerber, a spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, called the Friday announcement good news.
"It reaffirms that Friant, along with environmentalists, are still prepared to go forward in a meaningful way," he said.
"There are other issues, and we are trying to work through those."
Among the most problematic of those outstanding issues is getting money for the river's restoration.
The total cost could range from $250 million to $800 million, according to estimates by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which brought the original lawsuit that forced the settlement. Some $200 million would come from state bond money, with much of the rest from irrigation districts.
Federal approval is necessary because water fees that now go into the federal treasury would be diverted to the settlement, something requiring congressional signoff.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that fee diversion as a $170 million loss to the U.S. Treasury. Under congressional "pay as you go" rules, that loss must be offset by other income. #
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_8578266?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
DELTA ISSUES:
Column: Delta commission faces a new test
By Dan Walters, columnist
Fourteen months ago, just after being invested with new powers over development in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a state commission faced its first test in the form of a controversial residential project on the grounds of a former sugar beet processing plant along the
The sugar mill project had divided the tiny riverside community of
The Delta, the West Coast's largest estuary at nearly 500,000 acres and the source of drinking and agricultural water for most of the state, is clearly in crisis. Its multifaceted role as water source, wildlife habitat, agricultural producer, waste water drain and recreational playground – governed haphazardly by dozens of federal, state and local governmental agencies that often work at cross-purposes – is unsustainable under current practices.
The Delta's problems, especially of water quality and fish habitat, have become so acute that the courts are intervening to curtail water extractions; global warming could worsen conditions; and politicians from the governor down have sounded the alarm, calling for a new approach.
A blue-ribbon committee appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued a crisis-tinged draft report, legislative hearings are being held and everyone is promising to do something – although exactly what is still being debated.
Last week, the Senate Natural Resources Committee pressed Lester Snow, the state water director, to begin work on some Delta projects even as the debate over the overall state strategy continues, and Snow agreed that "we need to get moving." But with limited funds to fix the Delta's deteriorating levees, Snow said, he may propose that some of the century-old, privately maintained levees that protect some agricultural islands not be shored up because of the heavy costs and, implicitly, the relatively low economic value of the lands involved.
As the Delta debate continues with an uncertain outcome, the owners of the
That means the project will once again go before the Delta Protection Commission, but this time with the Delta's overall condition receiving much more political and public attention. And this time, the commission may have to face the most vexing issue attached to the project – urbanization of the Delta's "primary zone" that, under state law, is supposed to be free of large-scale development.
The commission more or less skipped that thorny aspect of the conflict over the project, but the proposal's opponents, which include major environmental groups, see in the report of the blue-ribbon Delta commission new ammunition.
The report condemns "irresponsible … land use decisions that permit and encourage construction of significant numbers of new residents in the Delta in the face of the flood hazards."
The blue-ribbon commission is mulling the notion of creating an agency that would wield tight land use controls over the Delta, similar to powers held by the state Coastal Commission and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Thus, the sugar mill project shapes up as a new test for the Delta Protection Commission's ability to make tough decisions in the face of pressure from developers and their political surrogates. #
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/790545.html
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