Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
November 21, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Deal reached to limit planting fish for sport
Sacramento Bee
Opinion: My View: Let's make a future for California's fish
Special to The Sacramento Bee
Editorial: And now the work begins
The Times-Standard
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Deal reached to limit planting fish for sport
Sacramento Bee – 11/21/2008
By Matt Weiser
Anglers may no longer be able to catch rainbow trout in many of California's mountain lakes, the result of an agreement reached Thursday to protect native fish.
The California Department of Fish and Game has agreed to cease stocking fish reared in hatcheries – including trout, bass and catfish – in many lakes and streams where the practice threatens 16 native fish and nine native frog species.
The deal was reached after weeks of negotiations with two environmental groups that sued the state over its hatchery and stocking practices. The interim rules are meant to protect native species while the state prepares a broader, permanent plan to reform its hatchery and stocking programs.
The agreement will have potentially far-reaching effects on sport fishing in the state.
Species targeted for protection range from Central California steelhead, found in the American River, to the California golden trout, found in lakes and rivers of the southern Sierra Nevada. Protected amphibians include the California red-legged frog and mountain yellow-legged frog.
Hatchery-reared fish have been planted by the state into lakes and streams for a century to support recreational fishing. But these fish compete with native species for food and habitat, and in some cases also prey on native fish and frogs or their young.
"Interim measures limiting stocking are needed to help save California's native fish and frogs from extinction," Noah Greenwald, program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. "Fish and Game will still be able to stock hatchery fish, but mainly in places where they won't harm native species."
Greenwald's group and Pacific Rivers Council sued the state in Sacramento Superior Court in 2006 to force reform of its hatchery and stocking practices. The Department of Fish and Game is preparing an environmental impact report on the program but recently asked Judge Patrick Marlette for a one-year extension, until January 2010, to complete the study.
In response, environmental groups asked for interim measures to protect native species, resulting in the agreement announced Thursday.
Fish and Game officials had little to say about the deal, except to confirm its basic terms.
"Nothing is final until the judge certifies it on Monday," spokeswoman Jordan Traverso said.
Greenwald said the deal will take effect immediately if approved by the court. It was structured, he said, so that some stocking can continue in order to support the state's popular inland sport fishing industry.
He said the state will be allowed to continue stocking hatchery fish in reservoirs that have more than 1,000 acres of surface area. That means popular fishing spots like Folsom Lake and Lake Oroville will probably continue to be stocked.
The American River also will not be immediately affected. Fish are not stocked directly in the river, though procedures at the state's Nimbus Hatchery, which produces most of the salmon found in the river, could be altered by the permanent changes being studied.
Stocking may also continue in smaller reservoirs if they are not connected to a stream that hosts any of the 25 native species. And Fish and Game will be allowed to renew existing permits for fish stocking on private land or backyard ponds.
But natural lakes and streams that are home to the native species will no longer be stocked. And new requests for private stocking permits must first prove that no native species are present.
Greenwald said Fish and Game has identified 81 water bodies where stocking will be halted. Another 112 also might be affected, and the state may be hoping for some leeway to continue stocking these waters. Neither list was available Thursday.
Mike Seefeldt, vice president of the Hot Creek Hatchery Foundation in Mono County, said the agreement could harm many small businesses that depend on fish stocking for a major portion of their tourism-related income.
"It's going to have a significant impact on Mono County and the people that run the resorts," said Seefeldt, who lives in Sacramento and is a retired Fish and Game hatchery manager. "A lot of them are only open in fishing season. If they're on a lake that's not stocked, they're probably going to be facing catastrophic financial impacts." #
Opinion: My View: Let's make a future for California's fish
Special to The Sacramento Bee – 11/21/2008
By Peter Moyle
California has a remarkable diversity – 32 species – of native salmon and trout, thanks to our long coastline and high mountains. However, the disappearance of bull trout in the 1970s may foretell a series of salmon and trout extinctions in the near future, including our coho salmon and golden trout.
In collaboration with my colleagues at UC Davis and with support from California Trout, I recently completed a two-year research study that indicates 65 percent of California's salmon and trout species face extinction within this century, if not sooner.
These are not just obscure species that only a few people care about, but species that support fisheries, that are extraordinarily beautiful, and that are emblematic of California's diverse streams, rivers and lakes.
For example, silvery spring Chinook salmon once ascended streams of the Central Valley in the hundreds of thousands. Today, just a few thousand spawn in three small streams in the shadow of Mount Lassen. Lahontan cutthroat trout, a spotted bronze trout that was once found throughout the northeastern Sierra, is now fighting to survive in a few protected localities. And just a handful of oceangoing steelhead remain to struggle up the damaged streams of Southern California.
For most species, the major cause of decline is degraded habitat, either through water removal or through watershed conditions that allow temperatures to warm, silt to cover spawning gravels and shade-providing riparian trees to disappear. In the Klamath River, for example, most of its nine varieties of native salmon and trout are in serious trouble, in part because there is not adequate cold water to support spawning and rearing during the warmer months of the year.
This doesn't have to happen. The Goose Lake redband trout, in remote Modoc County, is thriving because of watershed restoration projects resulting from cooperation among ranchers, agencies and diverse citizen groups. Restoration projects on important streams such as Clear Creek and Battle Creek in the Sacramento Valley are increasing habitat for the four runs of Chinook salmon. A court settlement has ordered restoration of Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River. Major efforts are under way to protect the three kinds of golden trout in the upper Kern River basin, funded by water users.
Providing a future for our iconic native fishes and their waters is not easy. It requires a fundamental shift in the way our society treats its streams and natural lakes. We have to leave more water for fish while protecting their diverse habitats. We need to engage in more large-scale restoration projects, following the example of the San Joaquin River.
To start this effort, we must re-energize, fund and empower the fisheries, water protection and landscape management agencies so they can do their jobs and lead efforts to re-create healthy streams and landscapes. Water is California's most valuable commodity, and the environmental costs of its heavy use by humans need to be repaid, through a combination of better management of our natural systems and creating stable funding sources for fish and wildlife conservation programs. Above all, we need to teach the public how to better live in a world of limited resources.
Our fish are telling us that we are using our water and watersheds in an increasingly unsustainable fashion. If we lose our native salmon and trout, we will have created environments much less suitable for humans, and we will leave our grandchildren an unfortunate legacy of water shortages, poor water quality and degraded landscapes. The drastic decline of California's native fish is symptomatic of a much larger water crisis that, unless addressed, will severely impact every Californian in the future. #
| Editorial: And now the work begins The Times-Standard – 11/19/2008
While even we are still flush with the excitement of the recently announced agreement to remove the dams on the Klamath River, this is no time to celebrate.
Obviously, how can we as a community not be excited by the prospect that ecological health may be returning to the Klamath River system? After the last half-dozen years or so, when we've seen the river suffer under the yoke of environmental mismanagement, this is breath of new life. It gives us hope that some day we may again see a Klamath River that is burgeoning with life and possibility. But at this point, it is only hope. It is the far off glimmer of possibility, not the hard-edged trophy of reality righteously won. And that continues to be what we're all working and hoping for. This latest development just means that the real work is beginning, work to craft an agreement that in the end protects the interests of as many stakeholders as possible while never losing sight of the fact that the river, and its health, is paramount. And work to make sure that the promise of this development, the ultimate removal of the dams, is not lost with the coming and going of presidential administrations and the fickle preferences of an at times schizophrenic American electorate. So as we applaud the progress made thus far, and wave toward the glimmering destination on the hill, we must keep putting one foot in front of the other so that when we reach the end of this road, we find more than a mirage there waiting for us. # ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DWR’s California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the SWR Public Affairs Office. For reader’s services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news . DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California
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