Members of Congress have learned that on Monday, April 10, the Justice Department plans on asking U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong to reconsider her ruling that stated that the Bureau of Reclamation must limit the amount of water that is diverted from the Klamath and its struggling salmon."This decision is nothing short of a slap in the face to fishing families and coastal communities in California and Oregon," Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA-1) said. "We are reeling from yesterday's decision to severely limit the season and today the Bush administration has shown complete disregard for the health of the Klamath and the livelihoods of thousands of people who live along our coast. We can't just turn our cheeks to the administration's incompetence and gross mismanagement."
-Submitted by Dougald Scott
* Save the Smith River!
The Smith River is the last major undammed river in California. Located near the Oregon border, the Smith supports the state's healthiest wild runs of steelhead, coastal cutthroat trout and chinook salmon and just might be the finest river ecosystem in California.
While over ninety percent of the River lies within the Smith River National Recreation Area, the future of the Smith is far from secure. Its largest tributary, Goose Creek, is owned by a logging company and a new forty-year harvesting cycle is fast-approaching. The health of the Smith is inseparable from the health of Goose Creek which provides a dependable flow of cold, clean water to the South Fork Smith, even in times of drought, and is an important sactuary for endangered aquatic species.
Fortunately, Goose Creek's owner, Green Diamond Resources, has agreed to sell its entire 9,483-acre plot of the watershed, which could then be added to the National Recreation Area.
Unfortunately, the price tag is nearly nearly $6 million.
More than half the purchase price has been set aside by the federal government but the remainder has been excised from this year's budget. That's why we need you to help us restore this vital piece of funding.
Please take a moment to write Senator Feinstein to urge her to fight for a restoration of the funding for the Goose Creek acquisition. - From a CalTrout mailing
* Snapshot Day 2006 (This notice is being re-run to include some critical dates missing in the previous issue)
Snapshot Day is a program that spans more than 300 miles of coast from Pacifica in the north to Morro Bay in the south. Snapshot Day volunteers monitor water quality and collect samples to assess the health of as many streams as possible. 2006 will be the seventh annual one-day water quality monitoring event in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Coastal Watershed Council is asking for volunteers to help in the local 2006 sampling effort. In order to participate, you will need to participate in a training session.
The Santa Cruz training will be on Sunday, April 30th, from 9:30-12:30 at the Natural Bridges State Park Interpretive Center. For more information and to volunteer, contact: Debie Chirco-Macdonald, of the Coastal Watershed Council at (831) 464-9200 or visit the website at www.coastal-watershed.org.
A training session in Monterey will be on Saturday, April 29th at the CSUMB Watershed Institute. Contact Debie Chirco-Macdonald, Coastal Watershed Council (831) 464-9200 or email volunteer@coastal-watershed.org.
Last year's Snapshot Day results look better than previous years. The number of exceedances of water quality objectives was down in just about every parameter measured. E. coli and orthophosphate continue to be the two parameters that most commonly exceed their water quality objectives throughout the Sanctuary. They are seeing a lot of consistency between years.
Date: Saturday, May 6, Time: 9:00-3:00 PM
Locations: Santa Cruz: Natural Bridges State Park - back entrance, at Delaware and Natural Bridges Dr.,
OR San Mateo: San Gregorio General Store Ð Hwy 84 & Stage Road,
OR Monterey County: CSUMB Watershed Institute (Bldg 42 on 6th Ave and B St)
Contacts: Debie Chirco-Macdonald (Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties) 464-9200-volunteer@coastal-watershed.org; www.coastal-watershed.org
Bridget Hoover (Monterey and SLO counties), Monterey Bay Sanctuary Citizen Monitoring Network, (831) 883-9303 , bhoover@monitoringnetwork.org