A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 10, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Officials say fragile banks quickly eroding
Naval base serves as a steward of wetlands
Behind gates, a 2,500-acre saltwater estuary forms; Point Mugu lagoon, containing rare, undisturbed habitat
Monster salmon could be harbinger of fish's recovery
San Francisco Chronicle
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Officials say fragile banks quickly eroding
By
They worry birdwatchers and schoolchildren will lose their nature trails, that flooding will kill the lush forest and create a swampy mess that could spread mosquito-borne diseases.
Mostly, they worry the town's 58-acre riverfront gem that distinguishes
"(
On Wednesday, the City Council gave city officials the go-ahead to apply for $1.6 million worth of state grants that could be used to fund permanent fixes to the eroded riverbank.
Supporters - including state legislators, the
Erosion is at critical levels along a 500-foot stretch of riverbank that protects the park and its wildlife from the river, a strip separating the Mokelumne and a small body of water called Pig's
Erosion is common there. But engineers hired by the city earlier this year to investigate the problem say it likely has been sped up by boating, winds and the annual draining of
City engineers estimate that, should the riverbank fail, most of the nature area could be covered in up to 3 feet of water, cutting off access to an area that alone represents about 20 percent of the city's total park space.
The Aug. 13 report, compiled by the Stockton-based engineering firm Kjeldsen, Sinnock & Neudeck Inc., suggested pile-driving the riverbank or studying a way to divert the flow of water on that section of the river.
The report also outlined a steep price tag: at least $1.6 million, something city parks coffers cannot support when the city is struggling to perform routine park upkeep.
The city is applying for state grant money that comes from bonds sold under Proposition 84, the wide-ranging statewide measure to protect water quality and waterways.
Between two state grant programs, there is about $40 million of available funds.
Jeff Hood, a city spokesman who also is coordinating the city's grant application, said there are expected to be more than 100 applicants for those state funds. "So it will be very competitive," he said.
If the city loses out, there's another round of grant awards next year, he said. The city may have a little bit of time: Officials estimate the riverbank could perhaps last another five years.
The city purchased the land that is now the nature area 34 years ago, and city workers first noticed erosion there about 19 years later.
Crews used tree trunk stumps and strapped logs to the bank with cables to help slow the process in hopes that the work would help catch floating branches and sediment, rebuilding the riverbank.
City officials say the river has eaten through those efforts, which also might have made the deterioration worse.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081110/A_NEWS/811100312/-1/rss14
Naval base serves as a steward of wetlands
Behind gates, a 2,500-acre saltwater estuary forms; Point Mugu lagoon, containing rare, undisturbed habitat
By Scott Hadly
Martin Ruane pulls a rope hand over hand from the clear water at the Point Mugu lagoon.
At the end of the line is a mesh trap with a lone stingray flopping around inside.
Ruane, a resource manager at
In early October, Ruane pulled in about 31 fish, crabs and stingrays in one haul, part of his regular assessment of aquatic life moving in and out of what is now the largest functioning saltwater marsh on the
Watching Ruane work is Ron Dow, who heads the environmental division at the base.
"People are pretty surprised when they see what's here," said Dow.
Pristine as it is, the lagoon isn't a nature preserve.
The 2,500 acres of wetlands, large saltwater estuary and white sand beaches are enclosed behind the gates at
These lands are part of the base that, among other things, tests new weapons systems, is home to a deepwater port and is part of the Navy's 36,000-square-mile Sea Test Range.
Not too far from where Dow stands is a runway that is 11,000 feet long, capable of handling the massive C-5 Galaxy, the Air Force's huge cargo plane. In the other direction, there are ramps used to launch dummy missiles for weapons testing along seven miles of beaches. Less than a mile behind Dow is a cluster of white domed antennae and radar equipment.
Common reaction is surprise
The base is home to E-2 Hawkeyes and Navy fighter jets that buzz overhead along with the marbled godwits, long-billed curlews, savannah sparrows and more than 350 nesting least terns and 30 snowy plovers. In certain times of the year, the wetlands surrounding the runways are full of migratory birds and waterfowl.
The base, like military bases across the country, is an island of rare undisturbed habitat.
It's no surprise that the mission on military bases is to train and equip soldiers, sailors and Marines to protect the country.
What's a revelation — as a recent article in BioScience magazine noted — is that the 30 million acres of military-owned land have "a disproportionate importance to the nation's rare and endangered species."
Catherine McCalvin, an ecologist with the Nature Conservancy in
Base commander Capt. Brad "Brick" Conners jokes sometimes that he overseas more marine mammals than people: more than 100,000 seals, sea lions and elephant seals versus about 19,000 military and civilian personnel.
When he talks to groups about the environmental work being done on the base, the most common reaction is surprise.
But he says the Navy is fully committed to being "a good environmental steward."
"It's part of what we do," Conners said.
Tradition of conservation
Beyond what's happening here, military bases across the country are being looked at in a different way.
From the longleaf pine forest where Army Rangers and Special Forces soldiers train at Fort Bragg, N.C., to the coastal shrub and grasslands on the sprawling Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the vast cordoned off military areas across the country have become wildlife sanctuaries.
"Military bases have been seen as a savior because of all the development that goes on around them," said Dow. "Initially, there wasn't an intent there, but the military mission has allowed for the preservation of large tracks of undeveloped land."
While many do not make the association between the military and environmental conservation, J. Douglas Ripley, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who helped draft the first Department of Defense Handbook on Biodiversity in 1996, said there's actually something of a tradition there.
In the Yosemite Valley and
"
But in the modern era, as large bases were established during and after World War II, environmental conservation happened sort of by accident, said Ripley, who now works as a consultant.
A stronger realization
Over the past decade and a half, the military has formally embraced the role, said Ripley, who helped draft the latest edition of the DOD's Handbook on Biodiversity, which resource managers on military bases use to protect sensitive habitat and endangered species.
"It's improved," he said. "There's this steady march forward as the military has matured. There's a stronger realization on the operational side, the military folks."
There is sometimes a tension between habitat protection and training; an amphibious assault training exercise might not be conducive to snowy plovers breeding on the beach, for instance. The controversy over sonar testing and migrating whales is another example, but there are also many times when the military mission and environmental protection go hand in hand, Ripley said.
In the BioScience article, the authors noted that preserving the longleaf pine forest actually helps in training at
"The maintenance of natural habitats and native biodiversity is increasingly viewed as important for providing realistic military training experiences," according to the article.
Even on bombing ranges, only about 2 percent of the land might be used for actual testing because there are large buffer areas required, resulting in vast tracts of undisturbed land, said Ripley.
There are also some ironies.
State parks and national parks must provide access to the public, whereas military bases largely keep people out. Consequently, the conditions on some bases are better than in parks. Even funding is sometimes better. There are 30 people who work for the environmental division at
Buffer zones around bases
The functions of a military base can be impaired if development closes in on its edges. Housing and other kinds of development have hemmed in the use of some military air bases and limited live fire training and noisy exercises on other bases. Working with farmers and land preservation groups, the Department of Defense has an annual fund of $60 million to buy property for buffer zones around bases.
"Some bases require a lot of open land for maneuvers and buffer zones," said Jane Hendron, division chief for public affairs at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services office in
That offers certain opportunities to establish wildlife corridors as well as open space. The biggest buffer between urban development in
On 400 bases nationwide, there are more than 330 threatened or endangered species, the highest concentration of sensitive species of any other federal lands, according to a BioScience article.
In coastal
The Naval Air Station at
"These military installations have become a refuge for a number of species," said Hendron. "They have extensive environmental stewardship programs, and we've been working with the military to provide them with assistance and guidance in complying with the endangered species act. They are good stewards of the land."
Area is largely undisturbed
Sitting next to an almost sugar-white sand beach and swimming-pool blue ocean water, Resource Manager Ruane talks birds.
His words are punctuated with the steady pounding of surf and the distant crack of someone squeezing off rounds from an M-4 at a nearby firing range.
Most of the base beaches are off limits to the public because they are dotted with decoy launch ramps and ordnance bunkers. That means the area is largely undisturbed and a great habitat for nesting plovers and least terns. The base now has the largest number of nesting pairs of both species in the county, Ruane said.
In addition, he and other ecologists and biologists working in the environmental division have a steady stream of money, something he doesn't always see among state and federal agencies.
The money and staffing have allowed him to regularly monitor the nesting terns. During the peak nesting period, he has someone in a hunting blind monitoring the sites 24 hours a day.
Ruane helps oversee work to prevent the young hatchlings from being preyed on by hawks, coyotes and possums. The hawks are trapped, tagged and then released to areas in northern
Along with protecting what they have, the division has undertaken several restoration projects.
Walking along a ghost grid, base ecologist Emilie Lang shows where new plants have taken hold in areas where old roads used to be.
Wooden stakes with red fluorescent ribbons mark the old roadway that's been removed. Lang points to bird tracks and snails in the mud at low tide.
Elsewhere, the Navy is in the process of digging up an old dump. The plan is to replant the area and restore water flow there.
"A lot of folks who come out here are just amazed," said Ruane. "They feel if the Navy hadn't taken over the land, it would have all been developed by now."#
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/nov/09/naval-base-serves-as-a-steward-of-wetlands/
Monster salmon could be harbinger of fish's recovery
San Francisco Chronicle – 11/9/08
By Tom Stienstra
(11-08) 17:50 PST -- The biggest salmon in 29 years in California, 85 pounds and more than 4 feet long, was found washed up on a river bank last week, dead and spawned out. Fish and Game biologists discovered the giant fish on a creek that feeds the Sacramento River near
The salmon likely weighed more than 90 pounds before it died, a big buck, according to Fish and Game biologist Doug Killam, perhaps far more when in the ocean and beginning its journey through
The state record salmon is 88 pounds, caught in 1979 by Lindy Lindberg in an epic tale. Lindberg was fishing alone near Red Bluff and brought the fish alongside after a long fight. Then, like in Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," he strapped the 41/2-foot salmon to the side of his boat to make it back to the boat ramp.
Last week's giant fish is more good news in what has been a great year for the long-term future of salmon:
-- Genetics: The fact that the salmon appeared to have spawned successfully means that its rare genetics, a wild fish of landmark proportions, will be passed down to its progeny.
-- Future indicator: The giant salmon is another indicator that the ocean has been full of food this year, the richest year of marine food production in more than a decade. When plankton, krill, anchovies, squid and sardines are abundant, salmon can grow an inch and a pound per month.
-- 2010 a magic year? The ocean abundance is a key because more than 20 million salmon smolts were trucked from hatcheries in the north state to
This comes after two disastrous summers in 2006 and '07, when there was little upwelling in the ocean and sparse marine food production. That lack of food caused the salmon population to crash, not only for Chinook, or king salmon, but also for Coho salmon on small coastal streams. The population of many species of marine birds, including murres, often considered an indicator species, also plunged in '07.
Some blamed global warming, or the delta pumps, but the consensus among scientists is that the crash was due to a scarcity of food in the ocean. That population crash was caused by a change in wind conditions and predicted in a Chronicle story in '06.
Yet this past spring, strong winds out of the northwest returned for the first time in three years. That set off upwelling, where cold, nutrient-rich water rises to the surface, and jump-started the marine food chain with plankton and krill. The high numbers of marine birds, blue whales, humpback whales, porpoise and other marine species that have spent the summer and fall off the Bay Area coast indicates that the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary is again one of the richest marine regions in the world.
The giant salmon that washed up last week adds to the great news, and it's needed after a disastrous shutdown of the salmon industry. The number of adults was so low in the '06 and '07 classes that salmon fishing was prohibited this year off
At the Coleman National Fish Hatchery on
Although that's down by more than half in a typical fall run at the hatchery, Hamelberg said it was enough to collect 15 million eggs and produce its goal of 12 million smolts for release next spring. He said the biggest salmon that made it to the hatchery this year weighed 53 pounds.
The world record for salmon caught on rod and reel weighed 97 pounds, 4 ounces, and was landed in 1985 in
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/08/SP1B13VRCL.DTL
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