Hi River Lovers! There is a very important meeting this Monday night (May 15th) on the Estuary Project at the Monte Rio Community Center from 6 pm to 7:30. Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) will give updates on their studies. Supervisor Hopkins will also be there and the meeting will include time for public comment. […]
Read MoreCategory: Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts
Delta Doozy: Delta Water Won’t Meet CWA Standards Post-Waterfix
25 January 2017 Discussions about California water supplies have too often become fact-free discourses that fail to advance an informed discussion. The State Water Contractors’ “Delta Doozy” series was launched in order to distinguish the facts from the fiction and promote constructive dialogue. Today’s Doozy comes in response to Restore the Delta’s statement regarding Governor […]
Read MoreHeadwaters of Smith River Protected
Message from KS Wild Cheers to wild rivers! Today, we are extremely excited to announce that Public Land Order 7859 was signed by Obama officials protecting the headwaters of the Smith and Illinois Rivers and Hunter Creek for 20 years from the threat of industrial strip mining! We could not have done it without your outstanding support by […]
Read MoreEmerging wastewater contaminant metformin causes intersex and reduced fecundity in fish
Nicholas J. Niemuth, Rebecca D. Klaper Highlights Fish were exposed to metformin at concentrations relevant to wastewater effluent. Exposure from early life stages to adulthood caused intersex in male fish. Exposure caused a reduction in fecundity and in overall size of male fish. Results suggest that metformin is a potential endocrine disruptor in the environment. […]
Read MoreREACTIONS to Secretary Jewell’s secretarial order directing federal actions on Cal Water Fix and the drought
January 5, 2017 Maven Yesterday, Secretary Jewell issued a Secretarial order, directing a number of things, including directing federal fish agencies to finish their work on the biological opinions for the California Water Fix by March of this year. From Congressman John Garamendi: “This is an outrageous attempt by the Secretary of the Interior to […]
Read MoreBay Delta Conservation Plan Comment
From Restore the Delta: Today, the Delta Tunnels Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) was released online. As we mentioned yesterday, this document is not a green light for the Delta Tunnels but rather should be understood as the submission of homework by sponsoring agencies (California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) […]
Read MoreToo little water for salmon in state board’s proposal
By Paul Johnson December 9, 2016 Updated: December 11, 2016 I’ve been selling wild king salmon to some of the Bay Area’s most noted restaurants and home cooks for almost 40 years — when our local king (chinook) salmon are in season, my clients clamor for it. So I was happily surprised when, in mid-September, […]
Read MoreWhy are we sending precious water downstream for fish in the middle of a drought? Here’s why.
California is not merely a political jurisdiction drawn on a map. Even without the human artifice of state lines, it exists as a physically and ecologically distinct place, characterized and enriched by iconic species that live only here — the California condor, the giant sequoia, the golden trout, the coast live oak and hundreds of […]
Read MoreSF Bay Ecosystem Collapsing as Rivers Diverted, Scientists Report
By Carolyn Lochhead October 7, 2016 Updated: October 8, 2016 7:03am WASHINGTON — Evidence of what scientists are calling the planet’s Sixth Mass Extinction is appearing in San Francisco Bay and its estuary, the largest on the Pacific Coast of North and South America, according to a major new study. So little water is flowing […]
Read MoreRe: More on Russian River Fish Flow Project and Biologic Opinion
To be added to my previous musings on this subject Another aspect of this issue – that I had been recently pondering – related to the ISRP findings. They ISRP noted that,in part due to incision (the hungry water thing) in the mainstem RR – that many of the tribs are disconected from the mainstem […]
Read MoreRe: Russian River Fish Flow Project and Biologic Opinion
Given this issues raised in the short discussion (below) there are policy implications that may (or should ) be applied to Russian River proposed low flow management (and the Biologic Opinion) First: The Biologic Opinion and proposed low flow scenario were not privy to the findings of the ISRP. They findings should be amended into […]
Read MoreBackground on Russian River Fish Flow Project Proposed
To All, Here is some background on the Russian River Fish Flow Project that includes the Biological Opinion on the lower Russian River that focused on the estuary near the mouth for salmonid development. Need for the Proposed Project Coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead were once abundant in the Russian River watershed. Today, coho […]
Read MoreThis Lawsuit Has Put Big Ag On The Defensive In A Major Way
A pending Iowa case could set a new national precedent for water pollution stemming from farms. Aug 02, 2016 Joseph Erbentraut Senior Reporter, The Huffington Post Earlier this month, the Iowa Soybean Association had a big announcement to make. The group, which represents some 11,000 growers of the state’s second-most-lucrative crop, pledged $150,000 in support for three highly […]
Read MoreDiscussion on Biological Opinion/Low Flow Study on Russian River
Hi All— The Biological Opinion was based on NMFS views (ratified by Cal Fish & Wildlife) of how to substitute fish-rearing habitat to compensate for all the human-imposed changes to the Russian River, (apparently, in my view) without having to face off with any landowners in the tributaries OR along the main stem (except for […]
Read MoreGualala River Logging Plan Suspended by Sonoma County Judge
MARY CALLAHAN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | September 16, 2016, 4:21PM A Sonoma County judge has halted logging operations tied to a disputed timber harvest plan in the Gualala River watershed until a court challenge against the project can be resolved. Superior Court Judge Rene Chouteau granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday, affirming an earlier tentative ruling […]
Read MoreWill the Delta tunnels get built? Plan enters critical make-or-break phase
DELTA NEWS, July 24, 2016 BY DALE KASLER AND RYAN SABALOW dkasler@sacbee.com Still swirling in controversy, Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed $15.5 billion re-engineering of the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is heading into a critical phase over the next year that could well decide if the project comes to fruition. Crunch time starts Tuesday. The State […]
Read MoreTwin tunnels: A matter of trust
Key hearing for water project starts this week By Alex Breitler Record Staff Writer Posted Jul. 23, 2016 at 5:11 PM When testimony begins Tuesday in a months-long hearing that could decide the fate of the $15 billion Delta water tunnels, amid all the acronyms and complexities and water-wonk jargon there will be a simple, […]
Read MoreAction: Klamath National Forest Give-Away to Logging Industry
To All, Call it “Christmas in May”; the Klamath National Forest is set to give a big gift to the logging industry at the expense of taxpayers, wildlife and watersheds. Take Action Now. The Klamath National Forest is offering to “sell” old-growth forests for logging in the Middle Creek and Whites timber sales for as […]
Read MoreDeveloper to Pay $1 Million for Damaging Salamander Habitat
By Bob Egelko March 12, 2016 An East Bay development company and its president, who admitted polluting a pond that supported the threatened California tiger salamander and forging documents to hide their actions, has been ordered to pay $1 million to conservation funds and preserve 107 acres of land as habitat for endangered species. James […]
Read MoreHow Predators Encourage and Protect Diversity
One of the big surprises to biologists when wolves were returned to Yellowstone National Park is that the fishing got better – a lot better. It turned out that the elk which liked to stand in the creeks prior to the return of the wolves would eat all of the willows and small plants along […]
Read MoreCalifornia’s Most Endangered Fish Having Worst Year Ever
by Chris Clarke January 27, 2016 The good news is we were wrong last summer. The Threatened Delta smelt isn’t extinct, or at least it wasn’t in mid-January when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife found some in the western Sacramento Delta. The bad news: CDFW’s mid-January trawls — referred to by the agency […]
Read MoreCourt compels Marin to pay salmon lawyers $652,000 for ‘Significant Public Benefit’
By Nels Johnson, Marin Independent Journal Posted: 12/11/15, 2:04 PM PST | Updated: 3 weeks, 5 days ago Marin County must pay $652,544 to cover the legal fees of a San Geronimo Valley fishery group which “vindicated an important public right and conferred a significant public benefit” in getting a court order compelling environmental study involving […]
Read MoreA Regional-scale View of Climate Impacts on California’s Salmon Habitats
December 16, 2015 — Maven Dr. Nathan Mantua discusses how climate change and seasonal weather patterns influence coastal and marine salmon habitats Earlier this fall, the UC Davis Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute Center for Coastal Ocean Issues and the Delta Science Program convened the California Salmon and Climate Variability Symposium to explore how variable and changing […]
Read MoreMeasuring the effectiveness of ‘environmental flows’
November 18, 2015 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences Salmon spawning in Shasta River. Photo by Carson Jeffres, UC Davis By Ann Willis and Andrew Nichols In the early fall of 2012, an unusually large number of Chinook salmon were returning to the Klamath River, straddling the California-Oregon border. Many of those fish were expected […]
Read MoreLong-Term Effects of Common Pesticides on Aquatic Species
16 November 2015 Wiley New research indicates that commonly-used insecticide mixtures continue to impact aquatic invertebrate species over multiple weeks, even when the chemicals are no longer detectable in water. Through experiments meant to generally reflect runoff from a multiple-homeowner watershed, investigators found that pesticide mixtures had negative effects on the abundance of certain snails, […]
Read MoreDigging Deeper on Fish and Flows
The Fish Report November 9, 2015 Everyone knows that fish need water – but just how much water is often a subject of debate, especially when it comes to fish in California’s highly managed rivers. Many studies and management decisions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its tributaries have relied on research that found correlations […]
Read MoreFinally, a One-stop Shop for Locating California’s Fishes
November 8, 2015 by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences Introducing PISCES 2.0, an open-source software and data storage platform that uses primary source data, modeling and expert analysis to generate current and historical locations of California’s freshwater fishes. “Fish richness” is the number of different fish species in an area. Source: UC Davis Center […]
Read MoreA Real Halloween Horror Show: Jerry Brown’s Delta Death Tunnels
by Dan Bacher The real-life horror show of Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels Plan keeps revealing its deadly surprises as the public comment period for the California Water Fix draws to a close on Friday, October 30. Like an evil vampire that you just can’t seem to kill, the Delta-destroying tunnels plan keeps coming back. […]
Read MoreSAN FRANCISCO BAY AT RISK
Seven million Californians call the Bay Area home, with the iconic waters of San Francisco Bay making this one of the best places in the world to live. Now the Bay is at risk – and with it, the jobs, recreation and wildlife that depend on a healthy Bay. The threat is the “Twin Tunnels” […]
Read MoreDamning California’s Future
Hoping to capitalize on the epic drought, the state’s water industry wants to usher in a new era of dam-building in the state. But environmentalists say it would cost billions and do more harm than good. By Will Parrish October 21, 2015 On the edge of the Yolla Bolly Wilderness, about 15 miles north of […]
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