Conservation News
By Dougald Scott
By Dougald Scott
Local Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Opportunities
Snapshot Day May 7th, 9-3 PM - Volunteers from San Mateo County to San Luis Obispo County participate in this annual event sponsored by the Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network (our local Coastal Watershed Council is a member). It provides a one-day "Snapshot" of the health of the rivers and streams that flow into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and conductivity are measured in the field, while water samples are collected for laboratory analysis of nutrients and bacteria levels. Information collected is used by resource agencies, local governments and community groups, to protect and improve the health of our local streams. The volunteers collecting this valuable information play a key role in our community as stewards of our watersheds. To participate, volunteers must attend a training session. There will be a San Mateo training on April 16th, and Santa Cruz training session on April 23rd. For more information or to volunteer, contact Debie Chirco-MacDonald at the Coastal Watershed Council, (831) 464-9200 or email volunteer@coastalws.org.
Urban Watch 2005 - The Urban Watch Water Quality Monitoring Program is a collaborative effort between the Cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove, Capitola, the Coastal Watershed Council, and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Urban runoff is one of the leading sources of pollution into coastal waters. This program provides a way for local residents and community members to become involved in learning more about water quality and urban pollution issues by becoming an Urban Watch volunteer. Monitoring occurs during the dry weather months (June-October). Fifteen sites are monitored twice a month for approximately five months. Teams of trained volunteers, collect water samples and conduct basic field analysis using pollution detection kits. Kits include tests for detergents, phenol, ammonia, chlorine, copper, pH, and turbidity. There are three volunteer training sessions scheduled: Pacific Grove & Monterey, Saturday, May 21; Capitola & Live Oak, Sunday, May 22; and Scotts Valley, Saturday, June 4. For more information or to volunteer, contact Debie Chirco-MacDonald at the Coastal Watershed Council, (831) 464-9200 or email volunteer@coastalws.org. The program will start the first week of June.
Good News on Local Coho Salmon and Steelhead
Dave Streig, Monterey Salmon & Trout Project Hatchery Manager, reports that "this is the best year for coho I've seen." He estimates that 400-500 adult coho have entered Scott Creek for spawning, and that a large majority of these are wild fish. Just a few years ago, coho salmon were on the verge of extinction in streams south of San Francisco. Dave added that other north coast streams are seeing good numbers of returning coho as well.
Terry Umstead of San Lorenzo Valley High School is in charge of the fish trap at the Felton Diversion Dam on the San Lorenzo River. He said that as of the middle of February, there had been 522 steelhead through the trap, many of them hatchery fish. The trap is not working on weekends, so this count is below the actual number of upstream fish. He also said there had been about 15 coho salmon through the trap, and that there may have been more before the trap was operating. Many thanks to the Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project for their efforts in restoring the runs of these endangered fish, and to Terry and the SLVHS students for their monitoring efforts.
Major State Conservation Issues Involve Water
There are three major water battles going on right now, and all three will have significant impacts on the future of steelhead, salmon and striper fishing in California. The first involves the distribution of water in the Central Valley Project. The second and third have to do with water flows in the Trinity and Klamath Rivers. Although hundreds of miles separate these three areas, their issues are related.
The Central Valley Project is a 450-mile-long network of dams, reservoirs and canals stretching from the Cascades to Bakersfield. Most of the construction spanned several decades beginning in the 1950s, and supplied Central Valley growers with a vast quantity of cheap water through the issuance of long-term contracts. At a cost of $3.2 billion to U.S. taxpayers, it is the largest water-supply system in the country.
The current controversy involves the renewal of more than 200 long-term contracts, which the Bush administration will begin issuing later this month (February). Conservationists are worried because the contracts will give the valley's agribusiness interests control over the single largest allotment of water in the state for the next 50 years. The renewal contracts allot the same amount of water to contractors that they received four decades ago, despite projections that Central Valley agriculture will use less water in the years to come because of more efficient irrigation and the spread of cities into farm regions.
In addition, most of the contractors do not presently use all of the water they are allocated. For example, the Westlands Water District uses only about 55 percent of its water allotment. It is almost certain that contractors will increase the use of their allotments in the near future because they can sell their subsidized water to rapidly growing urban areas for a healthy profit. This means that the renewed contracts could increase the amount of water delivered to the Central Valley Project by 17% over the amount now supplied. This water has to come from somewhere, and the only source is water that now sustains fish and wildlife in the Delta, the Trinity, Sacramento, and other major valley rivers.
There are other concerns with the contract renewals, but too numerous and lengthy to go into here. Let your state and federal officials ("They Work for You," page 3 of the print newsletter, or in the little flybox in the upper left corner of the website) know about your concerns for fish and wildlife. Insist that they do all in their power to stop this covert water grab. I will address water and wildlife issues in the Trinity and Klamath Rivers in future columns.
U.S. Scientists Say They Are Told to Alter Findings
More than 200 scientists employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been directed to alter official findings to lessen protections for plants and animals, according to a survey conducted jointly by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. More than half of the biologists and other researchers who responded to the survey said they knew of cases in which commercial interests, including timber, grazing, development and energy companies, had applied political pressure to reverse scientific conclusions deemed harmful to their business. The pressure to alter scientific reports for political reasons has become pervasive at Fish and Wildlife offices around the country," said Lexi Shultz of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The two groups that circulated the survey also made available memos from Fish and Wildlife officials that instructed employees not to respond to the survey, even if they did so on their own time. One scientist working in the Pacific region, which includes California, wrote: "I have been through the reversal of two listing decisions due to political pressure. Science was ignored - and worse, manipulated, to build a bogus rationale for reversal of these listing decisions." More than 20% of survey responders reported they had been "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information." Source: Los Angeles Times 2/10/05.
And Finally, Kyoto Pact Takes Effect Without U.S.
The world's largest producer of greenhouse gases won't join in the Kyoto Pact, which targets global warming. It was not perfect. By itself it would not solve global warming, but it was a first step.
Energy Saving Tip:
Heating water in a 900-watt microwave oven for five minutes uses about half the energy of an electric stovetop in the same amount of time on its "high" setting.