danbacher “We want to show there is strong public opinion that the MLPA Initiative should be stopped,” said the Stephens-Lewallens. “It’s a deceptive privatized process that has nothing to do to what the law was originally intended to do – to protect marine resources. We are asking the financial sponsor of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation, to pull out of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the state of California and to halt the initiative.”
Barbara Stephens-Lewallen harvests the tips of sea palms on a low tide in Sea Lion Cove, an area where the Schwarzenegger administration will ban sustainable seaweed harvesting starting April 1, 2010 under a corrupt process privately funded by the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation. Photo by Dan Bacher.
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Environmentalists, Fishermen to Protest MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force
by Dan Bacher
A peaceful community demonstration and informational tabling beginning at 8:30 a.m. next Monday, March 1, at the entrance to the C.V. Starr Center at 300 Lincoln Street in Fort Bragg, is being organized to greet Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) Blue Ribbon Task Force for the North Coast.
The initial demonstration organizers are Barbara and John Stephens-Lewallen, Mendocino County’s leading environmental activist couple, David Gurney, fisherman and community activist, Craig Bell, chair of the Mendocino Fish and Game Commission and longtime salmon restoration advocate, and Michael Carpenter of the Albion Harbor Regional Alliance.
“We want to show there is strong public opinion that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Initiative should be stopped,” said the Stephens-Lewallens. “It’s a deceptive privatized process that has nothing to do with what the law was originally intended to do – to protect marine resources. We are asking the financial sponsor of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation, to pull out of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the state of California and to halt the initiative.”
The Blue Ribbon Task Force is the key decision-making group in the MLPAI process. “In October, this Blue Ribbon Task Force will reveal its Integrated Preferred Alternative, which probably will be selected by the California State Fish & Game Commission for the new Marine Protected Areas from Point Arena to the Oregon Border,” said the Stephens-Lewallens. “These closures of fisheries, tribal harvest areas, and intertidal food-gathering sites will impact every community member.”
Environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes, seaweed harvesters, cities, counties and local elected officials have criticized the MLPA process for its many conflicts of interests, violation of tribal sovereignty and traditional seaweed harvesting and fishing rights, corruption of the democratic process and mission creep.
The task force that guides the MLPA Initiative includes oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. It is no coincidence that Katherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, is chair of the task force for the South Coast and serves on the North Coast panel at a time when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the oil industry want to install more oil rigs off the California coast.
“Reheis Boyd is really advancing the cause of the oil industry,” commented the Stephens-Lewallens. “By setting up these no-take marine reserves and kicking fishermen, Indians, seaweed harvesters and other ocean food providers off traditional areas of the ocean, the Schwarzenegger administration is paving the way for offshore oil drilling.”
They emphasized that twenty-three percent of the nation’s offshore oil reserves are off the coast of California – and the Point Arena Basin off Mendocino is on track now to be leased for drilling by the Mineral Management Services.
Dan Hamburg, former North Coast Democratic Congressman and the current Green Party Candidate for the Board of Supervisors of Mendocino County, has also blasted the privatization of public trust resources that has occurred under the MLPA. “We will work with Humboldt and Del Norte Counties to stop privatization efforts such as the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) – a private-foundation takeover of marine life that threatens local coastal businesses that harvest the ocean for food,” vowed Hamburg.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), at their annual session from October 11-16 in Palm Springs, passed a strongly worded resolution blasting the MLPA process for failing to recognize the tribal subsistence, ceremonial and cultural rights of California Indian Tribes.
“The NCAI does hereby support the demand of the tribes of Northern California that the State of California enter into government to government consultations with these tribes; and that the State of California ensure the protection of tribal subsistence, ceremonial and cultural rights in the implementation of the state of Marine Life Protection Act,” the resolution stated.
The Kashaya Pomo Tribe of Sonoma County will lose some of its ancestral harvesting grounds when North Central Coast marine protected areas (MPAs) go into effect on April 1. “One of the closed places is Stewarts Point, a spot that our creation story identifies as the first place our people set foot on the Earth,” Reno Franklin, Kashaya Pomo Tribe historic preservation officer, told Kurt Madar of the Crescent City Triplicate on January 16 (http://www.triplicate.com/20100116107962/News/Local-News/With-MPAs-on-horizon-tribes-seek-united-front).
“Despite the fact that some of the tribe’s historic harvesting areas are still open, Franklin said the Kashaya Pomo are going to take it to the next level, which could involve legal action,” according to Madar.
In spite of a plea by former tribal chair Lester Pinola before the Fish and Game Commission to keep the Stewarts Point open to seaweed gathering and fishing, the Commission voted to close the area during its meeting on August 5, 2009. To hear Pinola’s great testimony, go to: http://www.astral-arts.com/audiomovie/openthecoast.mp3.
The stench of corruption, privatization and denial of tribal harvesting rights permeates the MLPA Initiative, so it’s time for people to speak out and protest against this unjust process.
“Community members are invited to participate in the demonstration,” urged the Stephens-Lewallens. “The Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting will begin at 9:00 A.M. Please come and sign up for the Blue Ribbon Task Force public comment period beginning at 1:15 p.m.”
For more information, contact John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, 707-895-2996.
danbacher
The Leaping Steelhead Awards are presented every year to those who have fought to restore California’s fish populations and aquatic ecosystems.
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by Dan Bacher
2009 was a year marked by an increased assault on California fisheries from politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies.
The salmon closure continued on the ocean, with the exception of a brief 10-day season on the North Coast in late August and early September. The Central Valley river closures continued also, with the exception of a six-week season on the Sacramento River from Red Bluff to Knights Landing.
Corporate agribusiness launched an Astroturfing campaign to put a “human face” on agribusiness by claiming that tens of thousands of farmworkers were unemployed because of restrictions on pumping protecting Delta smelt and king salmon. The Latino Water Coalition, a front for corporate agribusiness instigated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, waged relentless campaign throughout the year, highlighted by a fake March for Water in April, pushing for the peripheral canal, more dams and end to pumping restrictions.
Lloyd Carter, longtime investigative journalist, wrote a scathing piece, “The PR Firm from Hell,” exposing this “Astroturf” campaign on his blog and elsewhere, as part of a carefully developed campaign for Burson Marsteller. He also wrote a follow-up article on the Latino Water Coalition, as well as a great piece in the Golden Gate Law Review about how Westlands Water District profits off rural poverty.
In a similar vein, Mike Fitzgerald wrote a series of excellent columns in the Stockton Record exposing the lies of the Astroturfers about the greatly exaggerated drought and the false issue of fish versus jobs, including his column, “when it comes to Valley ag, Sea Hannity is all wet.”
For their fearless investigative journalism that contrasts with the blind acceptance of the Astroturf group claims by both corporate media and some alternative media, Lloyd Carter and Michael Fitzgerald receive the “Expose Big Ag’s Big Lies” award for 2009.
A great effort by fishing groups forced the gutting of AB 1253, a dangerous bill sponsored by corporate agribusiness that would have removed Fish and Game protections for striped bass, in the Legislature on April 29. Robert Johnson, founder of Californians Against the Canal, Author Dan Blanton, John Beuttler, conservation director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Gary Adams of the California Striped Bass Association, Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens Associations, bass pro Bobby Barrack, Dick Pool, administrator of water4fish.org, Roger Thomas, president of the Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association, the Coastside Fishing Club and other groups and individuals involved in this battle receive the “Save the Stripers” award for rallying anglers against this insane bill.
While Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, in collaboration with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, forced the passage of a water policy/water bond package that will lead to the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams, some courageous Delta legislators showed actual leadership and worked with Delta residents, family farmers, fishermen, environmental groups and environmental justice groups to save the Delta’s fisheries and people.
These dedicated legislators Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis), Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada (D-Davis), Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo), Senator Mark Desaunier (D-Concord) and Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills) get the Legislators of the Year award for standing up against the Legislature’s and Governor’s bail out for big ag.
While some Big Green NGOs collaborated with Schwarzenegger to kick Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, seaweed harvesters and others off the ocean under the fast track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process, a courageous group of folks organized the “Seaweed Rebellion” at Point Arena in June to unite fishermen, tribes, seaweed harvesters and environmentalist against the corrupt MLPA.
Five people deserve special recognition for exposing the conflicts of interest behind the MLPA process and showing how there is nothing “green” behind the MLPA process – John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, Tomas DiFiore, Craig Bell, Mendocino County Fish and Game Commission Chair, and Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. For their outstanding efforts, they each receive a “Real Environmentalist” award.
The California Fish and Game Commission on August 5, in imposing new marine reserves under the MLPA on the North Central Coast, banned the Kashia Pomo Tribe and other tribes from harvesting abalone, mussels and seaweed off Stewarts Point, as they have done for centuries.
“What you are doing to us is taking the food out of our mouths,” said Lester Pinola, the past chairman of the Kashia Pomo Rancheria. “When the first settlers came to the coast, they didn’t how to feed themselves. Our people showed them how to eat out of the ocean. In my opinion, this was a big mistake.” For speaking up for the sovereign rights of tribes under the corrupt MLPA process, Pinola receives the Fish Quote of the Year award.
While others fought against the unjust MLPA, Herman Garcia and a large group of community volunteers every year rescue steelhead smolts and adults on Uvas Creek in Gilroy. Members of his group, the Coastal Habitat Education & Environmental Restoration (CHEER), also engage in regular creek clean-ups , teaming up with homeless people to fill two truck beds with garbage in May 2009. Herman Garcia and the CHEER volunteers are honored with the “Salmon Restoration Activists” award.
The Winnemem Wintu Tribe held two war dances, one in 2004 to oppose the raising of Shasta Dam and the other in April 2009 to regain federal recognition, and has fought against the peripheral canal for the past several years. Now they are engaged in a big campaign to return salmon back into the McCloud River.
Last year they began to organize a trip this March to New Zealand, where McCloud River salmon were introduced in late 19th Century, to bring eggs back to the McCloud River. The tribe has proposed getting the salmon over Shasta Dam by building a connecting channel between Dry Creek, which now empties into the reservoir, and Cow Creek, a Sacramento River tributary. It is therefore fitting that the “Bringing Back the Salmon” award goes to the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, including Mark Franco, headman, and Calleen Sisk-Franco, chief and spiritual leader.
The “Undam the Klamath” award is given to the Klamath Riverkeeper board and staff for their unceasing efforts to remove Klamath dams, restore water quality on the river and stop the periodic dewatering of the Scott and Shasta rivers by agribusiness.
Their staff includes Erica Terence, Riverkeeper, Scott Harding, Executive Director, Malena Marvin, Outreach and Science Director, Georgiana Myers, Tribal Empowerment Coordinator and Yurok Tribal Member, and Evelyn Roether, Bookkeeper/Administrator. The Riverkeeper board includes Vice-President Craig Tucker, Karuk Tribe Klamath River Campaign Coordinator, President Daniel Cooper, Lawyers for Clean Water, Treasurer, Stephanie Tidwell, Executive Director, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Peter Brucker, Salmon River Restoration Council, Leaf Hillman, Karuk Tribe, Dania Rose Colegrove, Klamath Justice Coalition and Hoopa tribal member, Terry O’Day, Environment Now Foundation, and Nathaniel Pennington, Klamath Salmon Media Collaborative.
The organizations that fought furiously against passage of the Delta policy and water bond package – a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal – include the Friends of the River, Restore the Delta, Planning and Conservation League, Sierra Club California, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Clean Water Action, California Striped Bass Association, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, California Water Impact Network, Delta farmers and water districts, and many others. These hard core opponents of the process deserve special recognition for standing up for democratic principles, the people of the Delta and Californias fisheries and are honored with the “Healthy Delta Smelt” award.
In addition, a special “Chrome Bright Salmon” award goes to Debbie Davis, policy director of the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Steve Evans, conservation director for Friends of the River, Charlotte Hodde, water program manager of the Planning and Conservation League, Jennifer Clary from the Clean Water Network, Jeff Miller from the Alameda Creek Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity and Roger Mammon of the California Striped Bass Association for their many efforts fighting the legislation.
In the battle against the peripheral canal, Bruce Connelley, an Oakley City Councilman, organized the most creative event of the year, the “Million Boat Float” from Antioch to Sacramento in August. Although the event didn’t attract the thousands of boats that many were hoping for, it received a ton of mainstream and alternative media coverage about the campaign to save the Delta that wouldn’t have been generated otherwise. Connelley is bestowed the “Creative Organizing” award for putting the “Million Boat Float” together.
Finally, Barbara Daly of Save the Delta and Kim Glazzard from Organic Sacramento organized rallies and demonstrations outside of Darrell Steinberg’s office to oppose the water policy/water bond package. They have engaged in a whirlwind of activity to save the Delta and its fisheries.
Likewise, Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, and Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, have held steadfast against the corporate greenwashers in the battle to defend the Delta, sending out constant news releases and organizing people to go to rallies and hearings at the State Capitol.
For these reasons, these four very deserving individuals receive the “Leaping Steelhead” of the Year awards.
danbacher 
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Senator Offers Fierce Competition to Governor in Quest for Cold, Dead Fish Award
by Dan Bacher
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who continually does the bidding of corporate agribusiness, has refused to meet with Restore the Delta staff and has spurned requests by the fishing community for a copy of her amendment language for increased water exports from the California Delta.
Her proposed amendment language, designed to strip protections for collapsing populations of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales, has been kept “mostly secret,” according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta.
“Those who would be most affected by implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) waiver – Delta farmers and commercial salmon fishermen – have been once again left out of the discussion process, as they were during the 2009 California legislative water package discussions,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.
Although Senator Feinstein’s amendment was not included in the present jobs bill, as reported in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Restore the Delta has learned that Senator Feinstein is seeking other ways to move her legislation forward.
“In stark contrast, Restore the Delta understands that the Westlands Water District, some additional water contractors, and some members of Congress have seen the language included in Senator Feinstein’s proposed amendment,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “Once again those who want Delta water are working to control any and all legislative discussions by funding media spin and political contributions.
Barrigan-Parrilla adds, “Westlands leaders and Stewart Resnick of Paramount Farms clearly have access to the Senator that everyday Delta people do not.”
Therefore, Restore the Delta is urging Senator Feinstein to recognize that Delta residents are dependent on protection of public resources.
Barrigan-Parrilla adds that Delta residents “have an equal right to participate in representative governance as do corporate irrigators. The people of the Delta and related fishing communites must be given the opportunity to create a sustainable economic-ecological future for Delta communities and fisheries.”
Barrigan-Parrilla said people of California, especially Delta residents, have been kept in the dark along enough regarding the Senator’s proposal to guarantee Westlands’ water contracts. She is calling on Senator Feinstein to “end the secrecy on behalf of large corporate irrigators receiving subsidized water. The public has a right to know how their water and money will be spent.”
“It is unfortunate that Feinstein is elected to champion Westlands, the most junior of water rights holders, at the cost of the collapse of one of the great estuaries in the world and the jobs of those whose livelihoods depend on it,” said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).
Feinstein has recently gone out of her way to compete with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the upcoming 23rd annual “Cold, Dead Fish Awards.” Among her many administrative and legislative attacks against the environment, the following stand out:
• She has continually campaigned for a peripheral canal around the California Delta, a $23 billion to $53.8 billion project that is likely to seal the doom of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations.
• At the urging of agribusiness giant Stewart Resnick, she pressured the Obama administration to review the court-order biological opinions for Delta smelt and Central Valley salmon at a special meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in January. Since this opinion was initiated under the Bush administration, this objectively puts Feinstein to the environmental right of the Bush regime!
• Feinstein, at the behest of the corporate growers in Westlands Water District, recently sponsored an amendment to the jobs bill that would strip protections for Delta fish and Central Valley salmon and increase the pumping of water from the Delta. Although this amendment has been apparently left out of the jobs bill, there is no doubt that Dianne will try to seek other ways to push her legislation through the Senate and House.
• Finally, in a poorly-written op-ed in the Sacramento Bee (http://www.sacbee.com/2010/02/20/2550803/delta-water-compromise-will-save.html) Feinstein, imitating talk show host Sean Hannity and Governor Schwarzenegger, tried to falsely portray the campaign to restore the Delta and Central Valley salmon fishing jobs and a conflict between “fish and jobs.”
“More than 2,700 growers, who farm 800,000 acres of land south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, rely on water from the Central Valley Project to stay in business,” said Feinstein. “Three consecutive years of drought have caused more than 400,000 acres of farmland to be fallowed. Rows of almond trees have been uprooted, and thousands of farmworkers are unemployed .”
She completely failed to mention the loss of 23,000 jobs spurred by the collapse of Central Valley salmon populations resulting from increased water exports – and the dramatic impact of this loss upon coastal and inland communities.
Although these are Feinstein’s latest attacks on fish and the environment, she is no friend of either. Feinstein convened the discussions and meetings that produced the 1994 Bay-Delta Accord between the state and federal governments. This accord resulted in the creation of the CalFed program, a failed project based on the coequal goals of “ecosystem restoration” and “water supply.”
What were the concrete results of the Bay-Delta Accord and the implementation of the Cal-Fed program?
• Salmon populations have declined to the lowest levels in history, due to record pumping of water to corporate agribusiness and Southern California that was authorized under the accord. The Central Valley fall Chinook salmon run collapsed to 39,500 in 2009, a new record low.
• Salmon fishing has been closed on the ocean for two years and the season is almost certain to be closed this year. The Central Valley rivers were also closed, with the exception of a brief six week season on a small stretch of the Sacramento River. The result is 23,000 jobs lost to the California and Oregon economy.
• Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, striped bass, threadfin shad and other species have declined to record low levels, due to the record Delta water pumping that was authorized by the accord.
Feinstein, the Department of Interior and then Governor Pete Wilson, by engineering this accord that enshrined the co-equal goals of ecosystem “restoration” and water supply, set in motion the policies that have resulted in the current ecosystem crash.
In addition, the accord’s organizers invited a few select environmental NGO’s to participate in the water deal and completely excluded California Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, Delta farmers and environmental justice communities from the process. This was environmentally injust and racist, in my opinion. You can’t reach any just solution to California’s water problems when you exclude the folks most directly impacted by water policies.
Feinstein has played an instrumental role in the creation of the current salmon collapse and ecosystem crash on the Delta. Rather than continuing to shamelessly collaborate with corporate agribusiness and southern California water districts to drive salmon and Delta fish over the abyss of extinction, she should own up to her role in the ecosystem collapse and work with Delta communities, California Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmental justice communities and Delta family farmers to restore Delta fish and Central Valley salmon populations. She owes it to her constituents to reverse the environmental injustice that she has helped to create.
Please call Senator Feinstein’s DC office before 2 pm Pacific time at (202) 224-3841 and urge her to withdraw her salmon and job killer legislation. If you get a busy signal or would prefer to call one of her California offices, you can reach her in San Francisco at (415) 393-0707 or Los Angeles at (310) 914-7300.
For more information about Restore the Delta, call Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at 209-479-2053 or go to http://www.restorethedelta.org.
danbacher 
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UFW President Slams California Water Bond
by Dan Bacher
Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farmworkers Union (UFW), today blasted the $11.1 billion water bond on the November ballot in an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The water bond that was recently approved by our lawmakers will give agricultural companies billions more in subsidized water,” said Rodiguez. “The state treasurer has asked the right question: Why aren’t these giant ag industry operators paying for their water like everyone else?”
Rodriguez’s eloquent slam against the water bond rammed through the California Legislature by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger completely negates the argument of corporate agribusiness “Astroturf” groups, such as the Latino Water Coalition, that the battle against the water bond and the peripheral canal is a conflict of “fish versus people” or “fish versus jobs.”
In reality, the campaign to restore the Delta, stop the peripheral canal and defeat the water bond is a conflict between the vast majority of people – including farmworkers, fishermen, Delta family farmers, California Indian Tribes and environmentalists – and greedy agribusiness corporations that don’t care about the health and safety of their workers or the thousands of workers and fishermen unemployed because of the Central Valley salmon collapse.
“The $800 million per year in annual bond payments required under the new water bond is more than California spends on health care for farmworkers and their children, more than the entire worker-safety budget, more than on farmworker housing, more than on pesticide regulations and food safety. In fact, it’s more than all those things added together,” noted Rodriguez.
Why is the UFW opposing the bond? “We don’t believe that the giant agriculture corporations should get more subsidized water until farmworkers get the right to protect themselves, including the right to clean and fresh drinking water,” explained Rodriguez.
“We see a clear and ironic link between a state government unwilling to enforce its own laws protecting farmworkers, a governor vetoing legislation to allow farmworkers to protect themselves, and a Legislature that bemoans budget cuts while giving the agriculture industry water subsidies at a cost of $800 million every year,” said Rodriguez.
Last year SEIU and the Teamsters Union put $1 million into a UFW “war chest” to fight Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s water bond. The groups fighting the peripheral canal and water bond were eagerly awaiting an official announcement by UFW against the water bond – and that announcement took place today.
In the New York Times on April 17, 2009, Rodriguez condemned the Latino Water Coalition’s “March for Water” for being a “farmer march orchestrated and financed by growers.”
The UFW joins a growing group of conservation, fishing, environmental, tribal and family farming groups opposed to the water bond’s bailout to corporate agribusiness. Everybody who cares about the future of California fisheries and Delta farms and the thousands of jobs that depend on them must applaud Rodriguez for speaking out against the budget-busting water bond!
To read the article, go to: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/22/ED7U1BUUH3.DTL.
For more information about the UFW, go to: http://www.ufw.org/.
danbacher “The actions that are being taken to weaken Endangered Species Act protections are an affront to the Tribal nations of the State of California,” said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “They violate the spirit of the treaties signed and consultative processes that California Indians have fought for centuries to ensure remain in place.”
Photo of Mark Franco and Caleen Sisk-Franco courtesy of Indigenius Media.
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Winnemem Wintu Tribe Urges Feinstein to Withdraw Salmon Killer Legislation
By Dan Bacher
The Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe of northern California today joined environmental organizations and fishing groups in strongly opposing legislation sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein to waive Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for imperiled Central Valley Chinook salmon.
Feinstein has attached an amendment to a jobs stimulus bill that would increase pumping to subsidized corporate agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley. The amendment would convert the “jobs bill” into a “job killer bill” that would result in the destruction of California and Oregon’s once vibrant salmon fishing industry.
“The actions that are being taken to weaken Endangered Species Act protections are an affront to the Tribal nations of the State of California,” said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “They violate the spirit of the treaties signed and consultative processes that California Indians have fought for centuries to ensure remain in place. These proposed actions and the failure of the government to even once engage in any discussion with the first people of this state regarding water rights and needs of tribal reservations, rancherias and communities is offensive and a slap in the face of all people of this state who believe in the truth behind the bromide ‘one nation under god, with liberty and justice for all.’”
“I urge you to ensure that the voice of the ‘regular’ citizens of this great state be heard and that the voice of ‘big business and the almighty dollar’ be hushed so that you hear the voice of the salmon, for whom we speak, to penetrate your heart and mind, unpolluted by the words of those who only seek riches for themselves and nothing for their relatives,” emphasized Franco.
The legislation is being proposed as the tribe is planning to travel to New Zealand from March 19 to April 2, 2010 to conduct ceremonies to pray for the return of winter run Chinook salmon, now thriving in New Zealand, to the McCloud River.
“We are going to New Zealand to dance for the salmon and pray for their return, since it is the McCloud River salmon that live in the Rakaia River in New Zealand now,” said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the tribe. “They were taken there in 1875 from the McCloud River. However, before we can even get enough money and all the clearances for our regalia for our trip, it looks like Senator Feinstein is cooking the books with Westlands Water District and will sell out all the water, leaving the salmon to die.”
Sisk-Franco urged everybody concerned about the fate of salmon and people to take action to stop Feinstein from ramrodding her salmon and job killer amendment through the Senate.
“It is more than just salmon that will die, for they are the climate changers,” said Sisk-Franco. “Senator Feinstein wants to kill them without even a thought of the imperative job they do for water and all life. Without them there won’t be a prayer for pure, clean water.”
Rather than supporting legislation like this at the behest of agribusiness giant Stewart Resnick, owner of Paramount Farms, and the Westlands Water District, Feinstein should be introducing legislation that will restore salmon and other imperiled fish populations and fishing jobs. Central Valley fall Chinook populations collapsed to a new record low of 39,000 fish in 2009, the result of massive Delta water exports, declining water quality and other factors.
Strong protections for the Delta ecosystem could help recover the salmon fishery, returning $1.4 billion to the California economy and 94,000 new jobs to California. An amendment to waive the requirements under the Endangered Species Act could lead to the permanent closure of this fishery, with long-term job losses and enormous economic damage. Such a suspension would likewise harm the Delta family farmers who rely on clean Delta water to irrigate their crops.
Besides sponsoring her job killer amendment, Feinstein is collaborating with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District in plans to build a peripheral canal and new dams. The peripheral canal is likely to result in the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, southern resident killer whales and other species that depend upon a healthy Delta ecosystem to thrive.
“The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn’t make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective,” said Franco. “Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand– it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die.”
There are two immediate things that you can do to save the salmon and the lives and jobs that depend upon them.
First, Friends of the River urges you to call Senator Feinstein’s DC office before 2 pm Pacific time at (202) 224-3841! If you get a busy signal or would prefer to call one of her California offices you can reach her in San Francisco at (415) 393-0707 or Los Angeles at (310) 914-7300.
Second, you can financially support the tribe’s trip to New Zealand by going to: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/440954. All donations are greatly appreciated to enable the tribe to go on this historic trip!
For more information, contact: Caleen Sisk-Franco, Tribal Chief and Spiritual Leader, or Mark Franco, Headman, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, 14840 Bear Mountain Road, Redding, CA 96003, 530-275-2737 voice, 530-275-4193 fax, 530-510-0944 mobile,http://www.winnememwintu.us.
danbacher 
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Former Congressman Dan Hamburg Slams MLPA Initiative
by Dan Bacher
Dan Hamburg, a North Coast Democratic Congressman from 1992-94 and a Green Party candidate for Governor in 1998, recently blasted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track Marine Life Protection (MLPA) process for its many conflicts of interests, private funding and other problems in a great letter to the editor he wrote to the Anderson Valley Advertiser in Boonville.
“Coastal residents — including fishermen, divers and gatherers — have joined together to protest the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI). There is plenty of reason to protest,” Hamburg said in his letter, http://theava.com/archives/2825, entitled, “What Protection?”
He then summarized some of the key criticisms made against the MLPA process. The implementation of the MLPA, a law passed in 1999 to protect ocean ecosystems, has become a surrealistic parody of “protection” under the Schwarzenegger administration.
“Jim Martin, vice president of the Salmon Restoration Federation, the Recreation Fishing Association and a member of the Mendocino County Fish and Game Commission, has pointed out many of the foibles of the MLPAI,” said Hamburg. “Special interest groups, unaccountable to elected officials, dominate the process. Key policy decisions are made by private foundations rather than the public. And, at a time when the state is broke, Martin asks who will pick up the tab to police a large number of underwater parks.”
Hamburg noted how Cindy Arch, a longtime ocean preservation leader, is also disturbed that the MLPAI is being funded “by the charitable arms of huge businesses.” “She foresees aquaculture (farmed fish) as a real possibility for the coast if the initiative isn’t stopped,” said Hamburg.
“Author, activist and businessman John Lewallen’s critique is perhaps the most devastating. He sees the MLPAI as a diversion from the real prize — offshore oil,” emphasized Hamburg. “He reminds us that while it was during the George W. years that the possibility of drilling off the Mendocino coast reemerged, the Obama administration has done nothing to reinstate a moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf.”
Hamburg said that Lewallen’s concern was “recently amplified” by the appointment of Catherine Reheis-Boyd to the MLPAI’s Blue Ribbon Task Force for the MLPA’s North Coast Study Region, a group of supposedly “knowledgeable and highly credible public leaders” selected by Mike Chrisman, Schwarzenegger’s Secretary of Natural Resources. Reheis-Boyd, after serving as chief operating officer and chief of staff of the Western States Petroleum Association, became the association’s president on January 1, 2010.
In August, Chrisman selected Reheis Boyd to be the chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast. She also served on the task force for the North Central Coast, helping to engineer a process that will ban the Kashia Pomo Indian Tribe and other tribes from harvesting seaweed, mussels and abalone as they have done for centuries off Stewarts Point and Point Arena starting April 1.
“I urge everyone in Mendocino County to become familiar with the MLPAI and the process currently underway for the area from Point Arena to the Oregon border,” Hamburg concluded. “A good place to start is with Frank Hartzell’s excellent series that ran in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News last summer. Additional information is available on the Albion Harbor Regional Alliance website at albionharbor.org.”
Hamburg is a well respected North Coast political leader, environmental advocate and writer. While in Congress, Hamburg authored the Headwaters Forest Act, a bill that passed the House overwhelmingly. After leaving Congress, he was active in the struggle to preserve the 60,000 acre Headwaters Forest Complex.
Since 1997, Hamburg has served as Executive Director of Voice of the Environment, a 501 (c-3) not-for-profit Montana-based corporation formed in 1991. The group’s mission is to “educate the public regarding the transfer of public trust assets into private, mostly corporate, hands.”
Hamburg is now running for the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. He was on the board from 1981 to 1985.
Hamburg joins a growing group of environmentalists, Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and elected officials that are challenging Schwarzenegger’s MLPA process for its conflicts of interests, mission creep and corruption of the democratic process.
In December, Organic Sacramento, a local environmental and sustainable food group, co-sponsored the “Organic Capital Celebration of Sustainability” with Friends of the River to honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding work on crucial water issues, including the campaigns to restore the Delta and stop the peripheral canal, to stop the Nestle Water Plant in Sacramento and for environmental justice under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA).
The groups honored Atta P. Stephenson, traditional North Coast tribal seaweed harvester, for her dedication to defending tribal fishing and seaweed harvesting rights under the MLPA process, as well as for her many efforts on behalf on environmental water justice. Kim Glazzard of Organic Sacramento also recognized Vern Goehring of the California Fisheries Coalition and Edwin Nieves of the Mendocino Seaweed Stewardship Alliance for the great work they have done to fight for the rights of sustainable fishermen and seaweed harvesters under threat by the MLPA initiative.
The North Coast MLPA process is in its initial stages. The recently appointed MLPA stakeholder group held its first meeting in Eureka on February 7 and 8.
The group includes 32 residents of Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties within the MLPA North Coast Study Region, which encompasses state waters from the California-Oregon border to Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County. The stakeholder group includes “representatives of recreational angling and diving groups, tribes, commercial fishing and other ocean-dependent business interests, ports and harbors, conservation groups, educational and research interests, and government agencies,” according to a news release from the MLPA Initiative.
Real environmentalists oppose the attempt by Schwarzenegger and his collaborators to kick commercial fishermen, tribal seaweed harvesters, commercial seaweed harvesters and recreational anglers and divers off public trust ocean waters to clear a path for offshore oil rigs, wave energy projects and corporate aquaculture. They support those who are fighting for social and environmental justice both inside and outside of the MLPA process.
danbacher The Resnicks Manipulate Water Policy with Big Campaign Contributions
Stewart Resnick, the Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoon who owns 115,000 acres of farmland in Kern County, appears to be putting his bets on Jerry Brown as the winner of the gubernatorial race in the November election – even though Brown hasn’t officially declared himself as a candidate.
On November 11, 2009, Resnick and his wife, Lynda, the co-owner of the giant Paramount Farms and Roll Corporation, wrote four checks totalling $50,000 for the Brown campaign.
The donations that the Resnicks made to Brown to date exemplify the enormous political influence of Resnick and other water barons exert over California water politics. The Resnicks are the largest tree fruit growers in the world.
Delta advocates fear that campaign contributions from the Resnicks and other big water interests could heavily influence Brown’s positions on the peripheral canal, the construction of more dams and the November $11.1 billion water bond. They also fear the Resnicks could pressure Brown to support legislative and administrative attacks on federal plans protecting Delta smelt and Central Valley salmon.
The Resnicks and executives of their companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees since 1993, mostly in the Golden State, a California Watch review of public records shows, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting, December 6, 2009.
Roll International, one of the largest private water brokers in the U.S., makes millions of dollars in profit off marketing subsidized public water. “Through a series of subsidiary companies and organizations, Roll International is able to convert California’s water from a public, shared resource into a private asset that can be sold on the market to the highest bidder,” according to Yasha Levine in “How Limousine Liberals, Water Oligarchs and Even Sean Hannity are Hijacking Our Water” (http://www.alternet.org/story/144020/how_limousine_liberals%2C_water_oligarchs_and_even_sean_hannity_are_hijacking_our_water_supply/).
Resnick was heavily involved in the creation of Kern County Water Bank — a controversial underground water storage facility in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The Westside Mutual Water Company, owned by Resnick, now owns 48 percent of the bank. One of the reasons why Central Valley reservoirs were drained so low over the past few years was to fill the water bank and southern California water reservoirs.
The Resnicks have also written big checks to the campaigns of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and presidential candidates from both parties in the 2008 election. They contributed a total of $271,990 to Schwarzenegger’s campaign coffers. They haven’t contributed to the Republican candidates for Governor, Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner yet, but don’t be surprised if they do.
In response to my emailed questions about Brown’s positions about the peripheral canal, new dams, the water bond and the biological opinions, I received the following response from “Ned,” a staffer from Jerry Brown 2010.
“Thank you for your email,” “Ned” stated. “While Jerry is considering a potential run for Governor, he is not a declared candidate. He has said that he will make a decision on the Governor’s race by the filing deadline in March, until that time he is focused on his job as Attorney General. Should he declare a run for Governor, he’ll begin to address all the issues and concerns that Californians will find important in choosing their next Governor.”
Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), quipped about Resnicks’ contributions to Brown and others. “Resnick is an equal opportunity contributor to candidates seekers. He gives money to everybody – it doesn’t matter if they’re Republican, Democrat or the Anti-Christ, he’ll try to buy their votes.”
“For Brown to say that he doesn’t have a position on the issues and then to accept major contributions from a guy involved heavily in water politics like Resnick is highly disingenuous,” said Barbara Barrigan Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. “The contribution to Brown is a prime example of how big agribusiness influences both political parties.”
Brown signed the original legislation that authorized the original peripheral canal bond in 1982, but voters overwhelmingly defeated the canal at the ballot box that November.
Brown hasn’t indicated his position now on the canal and new dams, but the other candidates have. Meg Whitman is a strong supporter of the peripheral canal, more dams, and increased Delta pumping.
“She acknowledged the ‘humanitarian disaster’ resulting from 35-percent unemployment in some west valley towns and the threat to a region that grows a huge portion of the nation’s food,” according to Whitman’s Website, reporting on her visit to Fresno on May 29, 2009. (http://www.megwhitman.com). “As governor, she said she would stick with her conviction that saving jobs takes precedence and would use emergency powers to order more pumping from the Delta. In the longer term, she supports more above- and below-ground storage facilities and the construction of a peripheral canal in addition to conservation efforts.”
Poizner is also a big backer of the peripheral canal. In an interview with the Bakersfield Californian on April 30, 2009, he stated, “I do support more above-ground storage and I do support more water conveyance systems to get the water from where it is to where it needs to go, without completely destroying the delta.”
Obama Administration Convenes Panel at Resnick’s Request
The recent National Academy of Sciences Delta Panel held in Davis from January 24-28 illustrated the influence of the Resnicks’ money upon political decisions. Because of a letter that Stewart Resnick wrote to Senator Diane Feinstein, Feinstein pressured the Obama administration to conduct the review of the biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt.
In the letter of September 4, Resnick claimed that the biological opinion to prevent endangered salmon and smelt from becoming extinct was “exacerbating the state’s severe drought” because it reduced the water available to irrigate farmland. He claimed that “sloppy science” by federal fishery agencies had led to “regulatory-induced water shortages.” “I really appreciate your involvement in this issue,” he stated.
The administration invited representatives of corporate agribusiness, including Resnicks’ Astroturf group, the Coalition for a “Sustainable” Delta, and Southern California water districts to testify, but they invited no representatives of recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, Delta farming groups, California Indian Tribes and environmental justice communities, the people most impacted by fish collapses.
The NAS Panel is a typical example of the “pay to play” corruption endemic to California and U.S. politics. The Resnicks and associates have contributed $29,000 to Feinstein and $246,000 more to Democratic political committees during years when she has sought re-election.
Feinstein, the Resnicks and other corporate agribusiness interests, southern California land speculators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are engaged in an intense campaign to weaken pumping restrictions protecting threatened and endangered species under the federal biological opinions for Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales.
Senator Feinstein is now proposing an amendment to a jobs stimulus bill that, in effect, would suspend rules that protect salmon and other imperiled fish from being killed by the giant state and federal pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. She is doing this at a time when Central Valley salmon populations have collapsed to a new record low. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) on February 11 reported that only 39,530 Sacramento River fall Chinook salmon returned to spawn in 2009.
“No hearings have been held on Senator Feinstein’s proposed amendment,” said Steve Evans, conservation director for Friends of the River. “No written version of the amendment is available for review by the public. This is not the way to conduct public policy!”
Corporate agribusiness and their political allies are also pushing for the approval of a water bond that, combined with the water policy package passed by the California Legislature in November, creates a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal or tunnel and Temperance Flats and Sites reservoirs.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), who received $15,600 for his 2010 campaign from the Resnicks on July 30, 2009, strong-armed the water package through the Legislature in spite of strong opposition from his constituents and environmental, fishing and Delta farming groups.
The canal will cost $23 billion to $53.8 billion to build at a time when California is in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression – and the budgets for teachers, game wardens, health care for children and state parks have been slashed.
Unfortunately, you can expect political influence by corporate giants like the Resnicks to increase even more, due to the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision that blocks bans on corporate spending for political candidates.
For a complete list of Resnick’s contributions, go to http://californiawatch.org/data/resnick-and-associates-spend-nearly-4-million-campaigns. For action alerts and updates, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org.
danbacher 
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Sacramento River Fall Salmon Run Reaches New Record Low
by Dan Bacher
The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC), a quasi-governmental body that manages West Coast fisheries, on February 11 released alarming numbers showing that California’s once most abundant salmon run collapsed to an all-time record low in 2009.
The Council reported that an estimated total of only 39,530 natural and hatchery Sacramento River Fall Chinook (SRFC) adults returned to the Sacramento River basin to spawn in 2009.
“The 2009 adult escapement estimate is the lowest on record and continues the declining trend in SRFC escapement despite the 2008 and 2009 closures of nearly all ocean Chinook fisheries south of Cape Falcon,” according to the PFMC report.
Fall Chinook returns to Sacramento River hatcheries totaled 17,435 adults, while 22,095 adults spawned in natural areas.
In 2008, a record low of only 66,000 fall-run fish returned to the Sacramento, American, Feather and Yuba and other Sacramento Valley rivers. The minimum escapement for long term sustainability of these fish is 122,000.
State and federal biologists had predicted that 122,196 fish would return to the Sacramento in 2009, so the actual returns were less than one-third of the number forecasted. The Sacramento run, the driver of West Coast salmon fisheries, numbered nearly 800,000 fish in 2002.
“This year’s Sacramento River fall Chinook adult return is a terrible disappointment,” said Neil Manji, DFG Fisheries Branch Chief. “Over the past two years, DFG has collected and analyzed data and worked diligently to figure out what steps can be taken to improve our stock management, increase future returns and help craft fishing regulation packages.”
The number of returning fall run “jacks” and “jills” (2-year-old fish), 9216, were also lower than anticipated. “The initial jack returns looked favorable, but the final returns were very disappointing,” said Dick Pool, administrator of water4fish.org.
Ocean salmon fishing seasons are based on the return of adult and jack salmon to the rivers – and it’s very doubtful that there will be a season this year, based on the low numbers of spawning fish in fall 2009. “There’s not going to be any season this year from these numbers,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations..
Federally protected runs of winter and spring run chinook both came in at less than 5,000 individuals each, according to the PFMC. Spawner escapement of endangered winter Chinook salmon in 2009 was estimated to be 4,483 adults and
54 jacks, while the escapement of spring Chinook 2009 totaled 4,506 fish (jacks and adults).
The San Joaquin River is in particularly bad shape, with just under 2,100 fall Chinook salmon representing perhaps the last of their race in that watershed.
“Salmon have been part of California for thousands of years and this report shows we’re losing them,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the PCFFA. “If we wipe our salmon out, we’ll also be wiping out generations of fishing families from the central California coast to northern Oregon that have all relied on king salmon from the Sacramento River to make a living.”
He asked, “Why are San Joaquin agricultural operators selling their water to southern California developers and then demanding more water from the Delta?”
The last three years of salmon returns have each set new record lows and coincide directly with three of the highest years of Delta water diversions, according to Grader. Delta pumping kills juvenile salmon migrating through the Delta to the sea. It takes three years for surviving salmon to return as adults and for scientists to record the full destruction caused by the pumps.
“We’re watching our salmon disappear in exact concert with a 16 percent increase of Delta water diversions over the last decade,” said Dick Pool, administrator of water4fish.org. “The full throttle pumping of Delta waters is wiping out valuable salmon worth over a billion dollars to the commercial and sport fishing sectors.”
Pool noted that with near-record export pumping in the spring, it is no surprised that millions of salmon smolts were pulled through the Delta Cross Channel Gates and Georgiana Slough into the Central Delta.
“There is no cover, little food and lots of predators in these rip-rapped channels and most of the fish are gone by the time the water makes it to Clifton Court Forebay,” said Pool. “Between river and Delta losses, 92 percent of the smolts perish. With only 8 percent surviving, we will never recover these species until the Delta is fixed.”
Pool said that salmon runs and many other fish species in the Delta collapsed in 2007 after a dramatic increase in pumping of water to points south. As a result, regulators closed all ocean fishing of chinook salmon in California and most of Oregon in 2008 and 2009, with the exception of a 10 week season for chinook off northern California and southern Oregon in 2009, to save the remaining salmon. Although the seasons were closed, the collapse had nothing to do with recreational or commercial fishing pressure.
The Central Valley fall chinook run typically provides 90 percent of all king salmon harvested off California and 60 percent of all king salmon harvested off Oregon in both sport and commercial fisheries.
Healthy Salmon Populations Create Thousands of Jobs
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, agribusiness “Astroturf” groups including the Latino Water Coalition and Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and right wing talk show hosts such as Sean Hannity have falsely portrayed the battle to restore salmon and other fish by curbing Delta exports as a conflict over “fish versus jobs.”
The truth is that massive increases in water exports to corporate agribusiness have led to massive job losses in the fishing industry and related businesses. The real conflict is one of “people versus corporate agribusiness profits,” not “fish versus jobs.”
“Southwick Associates have estimated that the season closures have cost an estimated 23,000 jobs and $2.8 billion in the California economy alone,” said Pool. “California has over 2,000 small and medium businesses that derive most or all of their income from the recreational and commercial salmon industry.”
These businesses include 1,200 commercial boats, 11 manufacturers, seven wholesalers, 904 retailers, 230 guides and charter boats, 74 marinas and hundreds of boat dealers and marine parts and service centers. Oregon has also faced similarly devastating losses.
“Behind those statistics lies enormous suffering by families along one thousand miles of Pacific Coast,” said Grader. “Boats are tied up on docks, marina businesses have closed, homes have been lost to foreclosure. West Coast restaurants that once featured locally caught salmon are increasingly turning to imported fish as local harvests decline.”
In contrast, agricultural employment in the seven county area impacted by new pumping restrictions intended to protect fish was actually up between 2008 and 2009, and the California almond industry had record shipments of 1.39 billion pounds in 2008-2009, up 10 percent over 2007-2008. “Over the same period, the Oregon and California salmon industries experienced near total shutdown,” stated Grader.
On average, San Joaquin Valley agricultural contractors received 80 percent of their contract allocations last year, although there were some localized shortages primarily due to drought. In comparison, average Westside deliveries in the past two decades have been about 60 percent of full allocations.
The “Astroturf” campaign by corporate agribusiness to increase Delta exports, build a peripheral canal and construct more dams has promoted the myth that crops grown on toxic, drainage-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley “feed the nation” or “feed the world.”
The corporate media, right wing talk show hosts and even some “alternative” media outlets have bought into this myth in their coverage of the California water wars, portraying the conflict as one between hard-working farmers like those portrayed in the classic Grant Wood painting who only want “feed America” versus “radical environmentalists” who want to protect a “minnow” like the Delta smelt.
An examination of the actual economic data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that there is no basis in fact for the contention that west side farmers are the “backbone” of American agriculture. According to a USDA Chart, US gross farm income in 2008 was around $375 billion.
Westlands Water District produces $1 billion annually in gross farm income, according to articles by Mark Grossi, Fresno Bee reporter, on November 7, 2009, and Garance Burke, Associated Press writer, on July 31.
“That means Westlands’ contribution to the nation’s food supply (and exports) is about a quarter of a percent,” said Lloyd Carter, veteran investigative journalist. When subsidies and the cost to the taxpayers of cleaning up Westlands’ toxic drainage are figured in, the contribution of the district to the national agricultural economy is even lower.
Feinstein Declares War on Salmon and Jobs
As corporate agribusiness continues to promote its “Big Lies” about “fish versus jobs” and “feeding America” in order to stop Central Valley salmon and Delta fish restoration, fishing groups say the key issue in the salmon collapse has been the “reckless” 16 percent increase in delta pumping over the last decade above levels of the 1990s under the Schwarzenegger administration.
It is ironic that as the salmon return numbers were released by the federal government, Senator Dianne Feinstein, announced an “emergency” move “to provide more water to farms and avert further economic catastrophe in San Joaquin Valley” by stripping protections for salmon and Delta smelt.
“I am working to develop an Emergency Temporary Water Supply amendment that will simply allow San Joaquin Valley farmers to plant, hire and harvest for two years by giving them between 38-40 percent of their water allocation totals in a normal water year,” said Feinstein.
“Over the last few years, 400,000 acres of farmland have been fallowed, permanent crops uprooted, and tens of thousands of people are unemployed. The situation is untenable,” concluded Feinstein.
The increased pumping from the Delta advocated by Feinstein and her faithful campaign contributor, agribusiness giant Stewart Resnick of Paramount Farms, “would indeed finish off a number of native species, help to further destroy the commercial salmon fishing industry in California, and significantly worsen water quality for Delta farmers,” according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta
Please call Senator Feinstein’s staff at the San Francisco Office and let them know that they need to defend the Endangered Species Act for the fisheries and people of the Delta, as well as the majority of Californians who support strong protection of our state’s natural resources.The number is (415) 393-0707.
As Feinstein was waging her war on salmon, four groups on February 8 launched litigation challenging the back door renewal of water contracts by the Westlands Water District. The North Coast Rivers Alliance, Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, Friends of the River and Save the American River Association filed suit in Fresno Superior Court demanding “full public disclosure” of the impacts of Westlands’ contract renewals with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation upon Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and migratory birds. The groups charge that Westlands is trying to “lock up” over a million acre feet of water a year in exports from the Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta.
“The Winnemem Wintu, a traditional people of California, see the folly of the government’s plans relative to the Delta and pray for people of reason to wake up and help protect the estuary from over pumping and the damage these plans will wreak upon the water and resources of this state,” said Mark Franco, Headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “Water is the lifeblood of our people and we stand ready to protect it with our colleagues across California’s social justice movement. This rash plan will only serve a few people and will impact the rights of our future generations.”
The report of the Pacific Fishery Management Council report is available at http://www.pcouncil.org/salmon/salsafe09/salsafe09.html
For more information, call Zeke Grader, PCFFA, 415-606-5140, or Dick Pool, Water4Fish, 925-963-6350.
danbacher 
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Mendocino County Asks for More Local Representation on MLPA Panel
by Dan Bacher
The Mendocino County of Supervisors has told state officials overseeing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative that more representation of the diverse interests found in the county is needed on the Regional Stakeholder Group (RSG).
“We are concerned that the slate of RSG appointees for Mendocino County does not adequately represent the diverse interests of our county,” said Carre Brown, chair of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, in a February 9 letter to California Department of Fish and Game Director John McCamman and MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force Chair Cindy Gustafson.
“The appointment of additional stakeholders, representing critical interests which currently appear underrepresented or completely omitted, will ensure that a more comprehensive cross-section of our community is able to participate in this process. This enhanced diversity will ultimately lead to a better final product,” Brown stated.
Brown pointed out that the RSG appointments for Mendocino County now include 3 educators, 3 tribal representatives, 1 ornithologist, 1 commercial fisherman, and 3 individuals with experience in seaweed harvesting, sea urchin diving and processing, and recreational fishing.
The stakeholder group will work with a blue ribbon task force, science advisory team, and MLPA staff “to help California improve the design and management of the north coast portion of a statewide network of marine protected areas,” according to Annie Reisewitz from the MLPA Initiative.
Brown charged that the southern portion of the County “has no representation.” She urged McCamman and Gustafson to appoint RSG nominees, Mike Carpenter and Bruce Campbell, both of Albion, since they “have met or exceeded the RSG selection criteria.”
She also criticized the lack of commercial fishing representatives from Mendocino County. After receiving many letters from local residents, the MLPA staff finally appointed Jim Bassler, a commercial fisherman from Fort Bragg, to the panel on February 6.
“Even with the MLPAI’s recent nomination of Jim Bassler, there is limited Mendocino County representation for commercial crab, salmon, and nearshore permit holders,” said Brown. “Stakeholders with this unique background have invaluable knowledge regarding seasonal trends in fish and invertebrate populations (abundance and distribution), and rare oceanic events typically experienced only by individuals actively working in the commercial sector.”
She urged the two officials to appoint RSG nominee Tom Estes, a commercial groundfish and large boat crab fisherman, to fill this gap in representation.
Finally, Brown noted that Del Norte and Humboldt County Harbor District are represented on the RSG, while Mendocino County’s Noyo Harbor District is inexplicably not.
“This representation on the RSG could be attained through the appointment of Jim Burns, Noyo Harbor Commissioner, or a similar delegate,” she said.
The Fort Bragg City Council on February 10 also sent a letter to Gustafson and McCamman requesting them to appoint a member of the RSG from the Albion area. “Four persons from that port followed the nomination process set out by the MLPAI, and all were passed over,” wrote Doug Hammerstrom, Mayor, Dave Turner, Vice Mayor, Meg Courtney, Council Member, Dan Gjerde, Council Member, and Jere Melo, Council Member.
The Council disputed the MLPA staff’s claims that the process is “open and transparent,” when they believe the process is in fact plagued with a lack of transparency and bias.
“The MLPAI staff has repeatedly praised the process as being public and open,” the letter stated. “Yet there are many deviations from the announced process. For the North Coast RSG, a specific process with deadlines was established for nominatinos, interviews and appointments.”
The Council emphasized that this process was not used in the appointment of some RSG members, pointing to “a lack of transparency and bias that undermines the integrity of the entire MLPA.”
“This is a very serious problem,” they concluded, “and the MLPAI will continue to suffer from a lack of public trust until a truly open and public process that considers local communities is imposed.”
The stakeholder group currently includes total of 32 residents of Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties within the MLPA North Coast Study Region, which encompasses state waters from the California-Oregon border to Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County. The first meeting of the stakeholder group was held in Eureka on February 7 and 8.
North Coast environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes and seaweed harvesters have strongly criticized the MLPA process for being rife with conflicts of interests, mission creep and corruption of the democratic process. Many believe that Schwarzenegger and his collaborators are using the MLPA Initiative to remove tribal seaweed gatherers, recreational anglers, commercial seaweed harvesters and commercial fishermen, the greatest advocates for the preservation and restoration of ocean fisheries, to clear a path for offshore oil rigs, wave energy projects and corporate aquaculture.
The MPLA, a state law passed in 1999 with support from a broad coalition of environmentalists and fishermen, has under Schwarzeneggger become a surrealistic parody of marine “protection,” with oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests overseeing the process, critics of the initiative charge.
danbacher A federal judge in Fresno on February 10 turned down a request by water contractors for a temporary restraining order on Delta pumping restrictions necessary to protect Delta smelt.
Photo of Delta smelt courtesy of Department of Water Resources.
Judge Upholds Pumping Limits to Protect Delta Smelt
Wanger Denies TRO Request by Westlands
by Dan Bacher
Federal Judge Oliver Wanger on Wednesday denied the request by Westlands Water District and other water agencies for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Delta pumping restrictions necessary to protect Delta smelt.
Attorneys from Earthjustice and NRDC successfully argued that a temporary restraining order (TRO) of Old and Middle River (OMR) flow restrictions would imperil the endangered Delta smelt, found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. OMR flows are a measure of whether the San Joaquin River is flowing towards the sea or towards the Delta pumps, where thousands and thousands of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, chinook salmon, steelhead, striped bass, threadfin shad and other fish species are killed every year.
“This is a reasonable compromise that balances the demands of growers with operations in the desert-like western San Joaquin Valley that depend on water from other parts of the state, with the needs of fishing communities all up and down the California and Oregon coasts that depend on our native salmon,” said Mike Sherwood, an attorney for Earthjustice.
Giving new definition to “ironic,” the Delta smelt flow restrictions were triggered by recent high entrainment of Delta smelt in the Delta pumps that followed Wanger’s suspension of OMR flow restrictions, said Jonathan Rosenfield, Ph.D. Conservation Biologist with the Bay Institute and president of the Salmon Aid Festival (http://www.salmonaid.org).
“When the salmon biological opinion was temporarily suspended, water export pumping rates went up, more smelt were entrained and thus, more restrictive export restrictions went into effect,” Rosenfield explained. “So, the net-net of the water user suits is that they have produced greater flow restrictions than they would have had had they ‘restrained’ themselves.”
San Joaquin Valley water agency representatives claimed the pumping restrictions will result in the loss of 90,000 acre feet of water. They said they go back to Wanger next week to lift the pumping restrictions.
“State and federal public water agencies are bracing to lose more than 29 billion gallons of water during the next seven days because of these additional restrictions,” said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager for the State Water Contractors. “That is enough water to serve more than 700,000 people for one year.”
“We will be back in court next week. This is not the way to run a water project,” Tom Birmingham, general manager of the giant Westlands Water District, told the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-smelt11-2010feb11,0,5607215.story).
Last week the Westlands Water District and other water interests filed a petition with the Federal Court in Fresno for a TRO cancelling part of the Delta salmon biological opinion and allowing the Delta pumps to increase to full capacity. Last Friday Judge Wanger approved their petition and the pumping operations went to maximum export levels, according to Dick Pool, administrator for water4fish.org.
On Monday, February 8, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) asked Judge Wanger to reverse the opinion to protect the West Coast fishing industry from irreparable harm by reinstating limitations on freshwater pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that are essential to the recovery of the Central Valley salmon runs.
“There must be adequate freshwater inflow through the Delta and to the Bay at critical times of the year, including winter and spring, to get the juvenile fish past the pumps and on a westward migration to the Bay and Delta,” said Zeke Grader, PCFFA executive director.
The following day, Westlands petitioned for a similar Temporary Restraining Order to also waive the Delta smelt biological opinion.This opinion requires lower pumping rates than the salmon opinion.
Then on February 10, Wanger ruled both on the PCFFA request and the Delta smelt petition. He denied the Westlands Delta smelt petition and declared the PCFFA request “moot” since the smelt opinion requires lower pumping rates than the salmon opinion.
“We owe a great deal of thanks to the Earthjustice and NRDC attorneys who quickly filed the motions and presented excellent arguments on behalf of the fishing interests,” noted Pool.
Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other fish populations have collapsed due to increasing water exports from the California Delta and declining water quality in recent years. As a result, the federal and state governments closed nearly all ocean fishing for Chinook salmon in California and most of Oregon in 2008 and 2009 to save the salmon. They also closed Central Valley rivers to all fishing for chinook salmon, with the exception of a two month season for late fall Chinook in 2008 and a six week season in 2009 in the Sacramento River from Red Bluff to Knights Landing.
The Central Valley stocks are the driver of West Coast fisheries, typically providing 90 percent of all Chinook salmon harvest off California and 60 percent of all Chinook salmon harvested off Oregon in both recreational and commercial fisheries.
“Southwick Associates has estimated that the closure has cost an estimated 23,000 jobs and $1.4 billion annually in income for the California economy,” said Pool. “California has over 2,000 small and medium businesses that derive most or all of their income from the recreational and commercial salmon industry.”
These businesses include 1,200 commercial boats, 11 manufacturers, seven wholesalers, 904 retailers, 230 guides and charter boats, 74 marinas and hundreds of boat dealers and marine parts and service centers.
Groups Sue to Block Westlands Backroom Water Deal
In related news, the North Coast Rivers Alliance, Friends of the River, Save the American River Association and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe filed suit in Fresno Superior Court Monday morning demanding full public disclosure of the impacts of Westlands Water District’s water export contract renewals with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The groups want full disclosure under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) of the pollution and potential environmental harm from locking in such massive water exports from the California Delta, the largest estuary of the North Coast of the Americas, which provides migration corridors for two-thirds of the state’s salmon and nearly half of the waterfowl and shorebirds along the Pacific Flyway
“Three months after the State Senator Steinberg’s so-called ‘historic’ Delta protection legislation was approved, the state’s agribusiness industry is quietly securing secret state and federal sign offs to authorize water exporters to damage the Delta for decades to come,” according to a joint news release from the groups. “A couple days before Christmas when Westlands Water District thought no one would notice, the giant district issued a three paragraph notice that quietly declared the renewal of six water export contracts valid and harmless to the Delta and environment.”
Westlands Water District is trying to lock up over a million acre feet of water a year in exports from the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, the groups contend. The federal agricultural contracts represent almost three times the Delta water that goes to southern California urban areas receive under state contracts.
“The Winnemem Wintu, a traditional people of California, see the folly of the government’s plans relative to the Delta and pray for people of reason to wake up and help protect the estuary from over pumping and the damage these plans will wreak upon the water and resources of this state,” emphasized Mark Franco, Headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “Water is the lifeblood of our people and we stand ready to protect it with our colleagues across California’s social justice movement. This rash plan will only serve a few people and will impact the rights of our future generations.”
“With little or no review Westlands Water District wants the federal government to sign off on these destructive water exports,” said Steve Evans, Conservation Director for Friends of the River. “They are slipping this by trying to avoid responsibility for reducing damage to the Delta.”
This week’s court victory for Delta smelt occurs as corporate agribusiness, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and San Joaquin Valley Representatives have launched a series of administrative, legal and legislative attacks against the biological opinions protecting Delta smelt and Central Valley salmon. The same forces are advocating the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams to facilitate water exports to the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California.
