The California Fish and Game Commission is holding a teleconference meeting on Friday, April 17, 2015 at 10 a.m. to take action on an emergency regulation, proposed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), to close all fishing on the 5.5-mile stretch of the Sacramento River from the Highway 44 Bridge in Redding upstream to Keswick Dam to "protect" endangered winter-run Chinook salmon.
The anticipated dates of closure are April 27-July 31, according to the CDFW.
Members of the public may participate in the teleconference at locations in Redding, Arcata, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Los Alamitos, as well as attend in person in Sacramento at the Resources Building – Room 1320, Fish and Game Commission Conference Room, 1416 Ninth Street.
The meeting will be live-streamed for listening purposes only. Teleconference locations and the proposal (item 2) are available on the agenda: http://www.fgc.ca.gov/...
Members of the public will be able to voice comments on the proposed emergency temporary closure directly to the Fish and Game commissioners per established protocols and procedures.
Submit written comments by one of the following methods: E-mail to fgc@fgc.ca.gov; fax to (916) 653-5040; delivery to Fish and Game Commission, 1416 Ninth Street, Room 1320, Sacramento, CA 95814; or hand-deliver to the Commission meeting.
Comments that were sent to the Commission by April 13 will be made available to Commissioners at the teleconference; written comments submitted by the public at the teleconference locations will not be seen by all commissioners. All materials provided to the Commission may be made available to the general public.
The CDFW recently submitted the proposal to the commission, arguing that the closure "in this critical holding and spawning area” would “ensure added protection for the federal and state endangered winter-run chinook, which face high risk of extinction.”
“At the department, it pains us to propose this action for the state,” said Stafford Lehr, CDFW Fisheries Branch Chief. “But we are in unchartered (sic) territory here, and we believe this is the right thing to do if we want to help winter run and be able to fish for big rainbows in the long-run.”
The CDFW argues: “Given the gravity of the current situation, it is imperative that each and every adult fish be given maximum protection. Current regulations do not allow fishing for Chinook salmon, but incidental catch by anglers targeting trout could occur."
I agree with the CDFW that "it is imperative that each and every adult fish be given maximum protection," but the agency has failed miserably at providing "maximum protection" to both adult and juvenile endangered winter Chinook.
The problem is that this emergency situation that we're now in could have been avoided if the state and federal fishery agencies had done their job and challenged the Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for their abysmal management of water during the drought.
Approximately 95 percent of winter Chinook eggs and young fish perished last year, due to the virtual emptying of Trinity Reservoir on the Trinity River, Shasta Lake on the Sacramento River, Lake Oroville on the Feather River and Folsom Lake on the American River. These reservoirs were drained to supply water during a record drought to corporate agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies and oil companies conducting fracking steam injection operations in Kern County.
But instead of standing up to the water contractors and protecting the public trust as it is the CDFW's job to do, the Department's current leadership is leading endangered winter run Chinook, as well as Delta and longfin smelt, spring-run Chinook, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other species, to the scaffold of extinction.
While Jerry Brown is asking cities and counties to reduce water use by 25 percent, corporate agribusiness and oil companies continue to deplete and pollute surface and water supplies throughout the state. Only when the Department has the courage to address the real issues - the long-needed retirement of drainage impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and a ban on fracking - can we hope to ever restore winter run Chinook and other species.
As Adam Scow, Food & Water Watch California Director, said so well, "It is disappointing that Governor Brown’s executive order to reduce California water use does not address the state's most egregious corporate water abuses. In the midst of a severe drought, the Governor continues to allow corporate farms and oil interests to deplete and pollute our precious groundwater resources that are crucial for saving water."
In the two year period covering 2014-2015, the Westlands Water District is on pace to pump over 1 million acre feet of groundwater - more water than Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco combined use in 1 year, according to Scow. Much of Westlands grows water-intensive almonds and pistachios, most of which are exported out of state and overseas.
"This is a wasteful and unreasonable water use, especially during a severe drought," emphasized Scow.
I agree with Scow. The Brown administration would rather penalize law-abiding anglers for a looming wave of extinctions engineered by state and federal government water policies than really deal with the problem - the over appropriation of water by corporate interests during a record drought .