Conservation News
Conservation Odds and Ends
By Dougald Scott
Conservation Odds and Ends
By Dougald Scott
San Joaquin River Settlement
After an 18-year court battle to restore California's San Joaquin River and revive the southernmost run of Chinook salmon in North America, a historic settlement was recently reached. The agreement will restore the San Joaquin below the Friant Dam. The dam had diverted nearly the entire river since the 1940s, leaving 60 miles of the river bone dry in most years and completely wiping out its salmon runs. In the 1800s, the river was deep and wide enough to carry steam paddleboats laden with freight and passengers. Its historic chinook salmon runs were among the biggest on the West Coast, so plentiful that farmers fed the fish to hogs.
The settlement between water users and conservation groups will be one of the most ambitious river restoration efforts in the nation's history. It requires that Friant Dam release between 364,000 and 462,000 acre-feet of water in normal years to help restore spring and fall chinook salmon runs. According to the settlement details, there will be enough water in the river to keep it wet all the way to Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, even in the driest of years. More water in the river will not only help wildlife, but could improve the quality of drinking water for several Central Valley cities, as well as the quality of water in the delta and bay. This settlement would not have been reached were it not for the Endangered Species Act.
Programs to restore the river channel are also part of the settlement agreement Fish passageways and screens will be constructed, the river channel will be improved in some areas, and levees will be strengthened to contain the increased flows. The project will take years and, according to estimates, will cost between $250 million and $800 million, depending on how extensive the levee work is.
Implementation of the settlement depends on legislation passed through the U.S Congress and the State of California. Funding will come from growers, the state and the federal government, which operates Friant Dam. Proposition 84 on the November ballot includes $100 million of state money for the San Joaquin. Additional funds could come from other infrastructure bonds that will go before California voters this fall. As with most California water issues, there is an intense lobbying push from agricultural interests to minimize the restoration effort. Please let your state and federal legislators know of your concerns for the San Joaquin.
Roadless Rules in National Forests Reinstated
A federal judge has overturned a rule that would have allowed roads to be built through nearly 60 million acres of national forest land, including 4.4 million acres in California. The decision came as several states were preparing to allow road construction on untouched wildlands, opening them to activities like logging, mining and driving off-road vehicles. The court ruled that the policy ignored both the National Environmental Policy Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The judge reinstituted a policy implemented in 2001 that prohibited new roads on some pristine wildlands, including large swaths in the Inyo and Stanislaus national forests.
The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule banned new roads on 58.5 million acres of national forest land - 49.2 million in the continental United States and 9.3 million acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest. A U.S. Forest Service spokesman said that it's unclear whether the Tongass forest is affected by this decision. The acreage protected under the 2001 policy represents 2 percent of the nation's total land area and 31 percent of national forest land. Six states, including Idaho, California, New Mexico, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina had filed petitions for roadless area management, and Colorado had a petition pending. In 2003, new rules were issued that allowed states to petition the federal government to institute their own plans for national forest roadless areas.
First Flush 2005 Results
When the first heavy rains of the winter season occur, months of accumulated litter, oil, chemicals and other pollutants will be washed off city streets and flushed through storm drains, making their way directly to the Monterey Bay. This polluted runoff is one of the largest sources of pollution in the bay and throughout the country.
First Flush is the first major storm event of the season, in which water flows off the roadways into city storm drains and into our local streams and the Monterey Bay. Trained volunteers collect water samples during this crucial time. The collected samples are then analyzed for certain metals, nutrients, bacteria, and sediment. Program areas are in Capitola, Live Oak, Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley.
The training sessions for volunteers will have already passed by the time you read this, but there is a good chance you could still help out. To volunteer contact the Coastal Watershed Council:
(831) 464 Š 9200 or email urbanwatch@coastalws.org
Here is the summary of their 2005 conclusions:
In general, after six years of collecting water quality data, metal concentrations continue to be much lower in Santa Cruz County than in Monterey County. High E. coli and orthophosphate concentrations are more wide spread during both the dry and wet weather flows. This pattern is also apparent in results from the Snapshot Day event as well. Results from the annual citizen monitoring water quality events are producing valuable data that should now be used by local jurisdictions to try to track the sources of the pollutants and reduce the concentrations at the source.
NOAA Budget
The NOAA budget for fiscal year 2007 is now grinding its way through congress. Two important fishery research programs are included: the Fishery Observer Program and Fishery Stock Assessments. Both of these programs help provide fishery managers with the data that they need to improve management of our nationÕs fisheries. Unfortunately, many fish populations are managed with inadequate data. By having more robust and accurate fish stock assessments, as well as an account of what is caught at seaŃincluding fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, sea birds, and other ocean wildlife, fishery managers can make informed decisions on the fisheries that they oversee.
El Nino on the Way?
According to NOAA scientists, El Ni–o conditions have developed and are likely to continue into early 2007. By early September equatorial anomalies were observed in most of the equatorial Pacific, with stronger anomalies in the central Pacific. Over the past several months most of the forecasts have trended towards warmer conditions in the tropical Pacific through the Northern Hemisphere winter. The latest forecast predictions indicate El Ni–o conditions for the remainder of 2006 and into the spring of 2007.
Typical El Nino effects include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average conditions are likely over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley, the Pacific Northwest, and most of the U.S.-affiliated islands in the north tropical Pacific.
South Fork of the Pit River safe... for now
Good news! The proposed hydroelectric diversion project on the South Fork of the Pit River that I mentioned in last month's newsletter has been dismissed... for now. The application for exemption for the West Valley Hydroelectric Project has been dismissed by FERC, but the applicant can appeal, and possibly have the decision reversed.