[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 5/14/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 14, 2008

 

 

 

Farm Bill includes $170M in aid for salmon fisheries

Portland Business Journal – 5/13/08

By Journal Staff

 

Legislators have added $170 million to the U.S. Farm Bill to aid families and businesses in California, Oregon and Washington affected by the biggest and most devastating Pacific salmon season closure in American history.

 

The House and Senate are expected to pass the final version of the Farm Bill later this week.

 

"This funding is desperately needed by the communities and families who rely on salmon fishing, many of whom face losing their businesses and homes due to two years of no fishing," said North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson, D-Calif., in a statement.

 

In April, a historic drop in juvenile Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River led to a complete closure of the commercial and recreational salmon seasons in California and Oregon. In Washington, the season was also closed because populations of the Columbia River Chinook and Coho salmon are at near-record lows.

 

In response, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez declared the salmon season a federal fisheries disaster, which authorizes Congress to provide aid to affected communities. Thompson and other members of the California, Oregon and Washington delegations asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help find disaster aid so communities could get aid as quickly as possible.

 

Communities on the Pacific Coast that would receive this aid are still recovering from the 2006 salmon season closure, which was due to historically low salmon stocks in the Klamath River Basin. In 2007, Thompson secured $60.4 million in aid for California and Oregon fishers and related businesses affected by that closure. However, this year's closure will have a much larger economic impact because the Sacramento River salmon are considered the 'driver' of Pacific Coast salmon stocks. For the first time, the recreational salmon fishing season will be closed.

 

Unfavorable ocean conditions, low water levels caused by unsustainable and unlawful siphoning off of water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, plus environmental degradation there have contributed to the precipitous decline in West Coast salmon populations. #

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/05/12/daily21.html