A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 7 2008
3. Watersheds –
California
The Sacramento
Keeping Lytle vital
The San Bernardino
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California
The Sacramento
By Matt Weiser
The petition before the state Board of Forestry comes as
The request came from California Trout, the Sierra Club and the
For several years, the National Marine Fisheries Service has cautioned the board that its forestry rules not only are inadequate to protect salmon, but actually threaten fish. That's because, among other things, state logging rules allow too much erosion into spawning habitat.
The forestry board regulates logging on private land. Last year it required new stream protections if the state Department Fish and Game ruled that a logging plan will kill salmon. But Fish and Game has never made such a ruling.
The petitioners want the stream protections required without such a finding. As justification, they cited new reports by the federal fisheries service, which protects coho under the Endangered Species Act.
The agency reported in February that coastal coho populations plunged 73 percent compared with the previous spawning season. In April it said extinction may be close at hand.
"Emergency action is necessary to prevent the morally unacceptable situation that certain populations of coho may go extinct," said Bill Yeates, attorney for the petitioners.
The nine-member board, appointed by the governor, is weighted toward the logging industry. Most members said there wasn't enough evidence to support more regulation.
"What we're asking of landowners is a huge financial hardship," said board member Doug Piirto, a forestry professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and former Forest Service timber management officer.
Charlotte Ambrose, species recovery coordinator at the National Marine Fisheries Service, said her agency supports additional coho protections.
Piirto and other board members pressed Ambrose for proof that salmon are threatened by in-stream conditions and not just ocean forces.
"Do you honestly feel it's an issue of (in-stream) carrying capacity?" said board member Lloyd Bradshaw, forest manager for Hearst Corp.
"I do," said Ambrose.
The board rejected the petition in a 6-3 vote.#
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1138400.html
Keeping Lytle vital
The San Bernardino
Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer
LYTLE CREEK - The burbling water lined with colorful rocks and plants is an attraction for most.
Picnickers like to put their feet in it, hikers want to take a quick dip to cool off, and residents often sit their babies in the creek's slow current.
The problem is, people also leave their trash lying near the watershed, fail to dispose of dirty diapers properly and build miniature dams that disrupt the water's flow.
Enter "Lytle is Vital!"
The watershed-protection program recently was launched by the Water Resources Institute at Cal State San Bernardino.
"One of the things we know is that we've got 10,000 people literally pouring into the area on the weekends, and they all want to get into the water," said institute Director Susan Lien Longville. "We have a whole variety of basic things they should remember when they're in the watershed."
The gist of the awareness program is to remind people that the Lytle Creek watershed provides drinking water for several cities, including Rancho Cucamonga,
The three-pronged program is intended to prevent pollution of Lytle Creek's drainage basin, which is about 186 square miles, and ensure the reliability of the water supply for both people and wildlife.
Since the 2003 Grand Prix and Old fires and the resulting floods, student interns have helped monitor the recovery of the Speckled Dace - a minnow fish - and are learning how the ecosystem has been off-balance.
Weekly testing is being done on five spots of the watershed to identify the areas where pathogen-indicator bacteria - bacteria not native to the watershed but introduced by humans - is entering.
The "Lytle is Vital" advisory committee has several activities planned to promote awareness of the issues over the next two years:
Schoolchildren will be selling native plants instead of candy bars for fundraisers.
A demonstration garden is being planned for a local school.
Puppet shows and mobile education centers are also on the horizon.
"People go out there for the natural resources, so we've got to have them help us take care of it," said Gabe Garcia, who heads the U.S. Forest Service station in Lytle Creek.#
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_10122190
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