[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: Agencies, Programs, People - 11/25/2008

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

November 25, 2008

 

5.   Agencies, Programs, People-

 

Salmon -- coming back to a classroom near you

The Times-Standard

 

A framework for dam removal

The Times-Standard

 

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Salmon -- coming back to a classroom near you

The Times-Standard, 11/25/2008

By John Driscoll

Like a steelhead in high water, the renowned Salmon in the Classroom program just won't quit.

 

Acting on an outpouring of public support to save the hands-on classroom steelhead-rearing project, a grassroots campaign was quickly launched after news of the program's demise was learned. Now, not only is a volunteer, county and state partnership vowing to revive the aquarium project this year, it may grow to become something more.

 

”Hands-on learning is something that you just can't beat,” said Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools Garry Eagles.

 

The California Department of Fish and Game in October sent a letter to more than two dozen teachers who had raised steelhead in classroom aquariums, informing them that a key position had been cut, and no one would be able to oversee the program. Teachers were saddened to learn of the suspension of the project.

 

But the beloved program was not about to get washed out to sea. There are many teachers with strong experience raising steelhead, and a number of fisheries professionals interested in seeing the effort carry on.

 

”If you start talking to the kids and the families that have gone through this the last 20 years -- you know those milestones you go through in school -- they always come back to 'Are you still raising fish?'” said retired teacher Jeff Self, who has a long history raising salmon in Blue Lake, Freshwater and Eureka city schools.

 

On Friday, representatives with the county and Fish and Game and volunteers met to figure out how to restore Salmon in the Classroom, and ensure that kids would see steelhead raised from eggs this year and into the future. Things quickly came together.

 

”We've got a plan, we've got a strategy and we've got people lined up,” said Fish and Game senior biologist Scott Downie.

 

The group needs to raise about $20,000 to contract a volunteer and for supplies and travel. There are about 33 classrooms in the county scheduled to raise steelhead from eggs procured from the Mad River Fish Hatchery this year. Fish and Game's Fortuna office has agreed to oversee permitting and other elements.

 

Eagles said he believes there are funding sources that can contribute to the program in the short term, and expects to have them in place by the beginning of December.

 

Another potential hurdle for the program has been cleared. A lawsuit lodged by the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity in 2006 looked to force Fish and Game to do an environmental analysis of its decades-old fish stocking programs.

 

That could have shuttered Salmon in the Classroom, because it may have closed the Mad River hatchery and prevented students from releasing the steelhead they raised in their classrooms.

 

But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette on Friday ordered the environmental analysis -- after lengthy negotiation between the parties -- while allowing certain stocking programs to continue, including the Salmon in the Classroom effort.

 

Eagles hopes to take the program further in coming years. He's looking into how California State Parks and the K-12 system might work to bring videoconferencing into classrooms in an effort to link schools to each other and to park interpreters.

 

Virtual field tours can be arranged through such a program, he said, and an existing curriculum is available.#

 

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_11069140

 

A framework for dam removal

The Times-Standard, 11/22/2008

By Jill Geist

Since 2004, 26 diverse parties known as the Klamath Settlement Group have worked to develop the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) built around the simple premise that removal of the four dams preventing fish from reaching 300 miles of habitat is key to the recovery of the Klamath River and her fisheries.

 

Groups supporting the KBRA understand that there are several ways to work towards Klamath Dam removal. A number of Klamath River advocates working towards dam removal are using a variety of approaches, including the regulatory processes such as FERC relicensing, and the water quality 401 certification processes. There is no one 'right pathway' to achieve dam removal, although it bears noting that FERC has never successfully ordered a dam removal nor has a state water board. To date, the only successful dam removal efforts were the product of a negotiated settlement.

 

What is unique about this group's approach is the scope, detail and commitment by federal, state, tribal, local government, fishermen's groups, agricultural, conservation organizations and PacifiCorp to work not only toward dam removal, but a more comprehensive restoration plan that at the same time provides economic benefits to all of the basin's rural communities. This marks a significant departure from the past where groups used litigation as the primary tool to affect change with little progress made by either side.

 

The settlement agreement group has focused primarily on the resources and management of the Klamath River until we had conceptual dam removal agreement from PacifiCorp. There has been a tremendous amount of cynicism, skepticism and even hope by various outside parties that we would fail. But because we are committed to seizing this unique opportunity for Klamath River restoration we have developed understandings of differing views, worked toward providing assurances where uncertainty exists and found points of agreement.

 

As readers will recall, the settlement group released a draft KBRA for public review in January 2008, and that a sub-committee was engaged with PacifiCorp regarding conceptual agreement for removal of four Klamath dams. Parallel discussions were also held between federal, state and PacifiCorp representatives in an effort to break through the dam removal stalemate. These discussions resulted in an Agreement in Principle for the removal of 4 Klamath River dams by 2020. The Agreements in Principle (AIP) are largely consistent with the draft KBRA principles and provisions. The AIP was presented to the group, and we now possess an agreement that recognizes and relies upon our initiative to coordinate and develop the final agreement.

 

At first blush, the AIP contains language that could be construed as troublesome, but it is important to recognize that it provides the framework for removal of four dams, and that the onus is placed on settlement group members to solve these problems, work around constraints, recognize 'off-ramps' and work towards finalizing a comprehensive final agreement that the majority of parties can accept.

 

The Klamath Settlement Group will meet soon to further evaluate the AIP for consistency with the draft KBRA, establish a work plan for development of the hydropower chapter and further revise and refine the existing draft KBRA agreement, with a final agreement target date of June 2009.

 

Jill Geist is Humboldt County's 5th District supervisor. #

 

 

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_11049853?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com

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