The California Legislature was the first in the country to
protect rare plants and animals through passage of the California
Endangered Species Act (CESA) in 1970, Congress followed suit in
1973 by passing the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The federal ESA aims to, “protect and recover imperiled species
and the ecosystems upon which they depend.”
The state ESA states that, “all native species of fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, invertebrates, and plants,
and their habitats, threatened with extinction and those
experiencing a significant decline which, if not halted, would
lead to a threatened or endangered designation, will be protected
or preserved.”
Imperiled species are defined as follows: “Endangered” if it is
in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion
of its range and “threatened” if it is likely to become an
endangered species within the foreseeable future.”
… Assembly Bill 697 by Lori Wilson, a Democrat from the
Fairfield area, would allow state highway officials to
potentially harm three protected bird species and endangered
mice as workers add new lanes to a stretch of Highway 37 to
wine country. … The 21-mile highway connects Interstate
80 in Vallejo in Solano County to Highway 101 in Novato in
Marin County along the north San Pablo Bay. It cuts though some
of the state’s last remaining salt marshes,
which are threatened by sea level rise. … Wilson’s
measure would, during construction, waive certain protections
under the California Endangered Species Act for the endangered
salt marsh harvest mouse, as well as for three protected birds:
the California clapper rail, the California black rail and the
white-tailed kite.
California wildlife officials will shut down a state-run fish
hatchery in Humboldt County, ending more than 50 years of
operations due to rising costs, aging infrastructure and
federal limits on steelhead production. The Mad River Fish
Hatchery, which raises a modest number of steelhead and rainbow
trout and serves as an access point to the picturesque Mad
River for recreation and fishing, will close in June after
decades of financial challenges. … Because the Northern
California steelhead found in the Mad River are federally
protected as a threatened species, the hatchery is limited to
raising only 150,000 fry per year under regulations meant to
preserve the wild DNA of fish that breed naturally in the
waterway, the agency said.
House Republicans passed a measure Thursday that would repeal
the government’s decision to place California’s longfin
smelt, a finger-sized fish, on the endangered species
list. House members passed the resolution, introduced by
California Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), in a 216-195 vote
that followed party lines. The resolution now goes to the
Republican-controlled Senate. “We want to block the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service’s misguided decision to list the San
Francisco Bay Delta population of the longfin smelt as being
endangered,” LaMalfa, who represents a rice-growing region in
Northern California, said before the vote. He said the agency’s
decision last year to declare the fish species endangered was
“unscientific” and said it’s making it harder to deliver water
from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmers.
Congress is expected to vote Thursday on a Republican
resolution to reverse endangered species protection for a tiny
inhabitant of San Francisco Bay that opponents say could set a
dangerous precedent. The resolution aims to remove the
endangered species status of longfin smelt in
the San Francisco Bay. The fish received that designation in
July under the Biden administration. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a
Republican from Butte County, introduced the resolution in
March under the Congressional Review Act, saying it was
necessary to protect the state’s water supply. Opponents say
the time period for such a resolution already expired and that
the Republican effort is part of an unprecedented attack on
endangered species protections.
The mountain yellow-legged frogs of Yosemite National Park are
in an epic fight for survival. Theirs is a tale of devastation
and redemption, luck and suspense, and amphibians in
helicopters. And in an era of grim headlines about the state of
nature, a recent UC study about them offers a rare glimmer of
hope: These frogs, which were plagued nearly to extinction by a
deadly fungus just a few years ago, are now poised for a
comeback. This Earth Day, we’re celebrating stories from the
past year of UC research that illustrate the resilience of life
on our planet and demonstrate the power of humans to help solve
problems of our own making.
… Today, more than 27 million people in the three states rely
on water from the Colorado River—roughly two-thirds of the
total population that the river serves. Yet even as that
dependence on the river grew, a collision between human and
environmental needs was brewing. … For municipal and
agricultural water managers who depended on the Colorado, the
growing list of endangered species was a wakeup call. It
spurred a decade-long effort to craft a multi-party agreement
that allowed water agencies to continue delivering water to
their users while staying ahead of the mounting endangered
species issues. That effort has largely proven successful, but
as the program now crosses the 20-year mark, new questions are
arising about how to keep it strong for the next three decades
in the face of grinding drought, contentious negotiations over
the river’s future, and new uncertainties about the federal
government’s role in its continued implementation.
Before the construction of Hoover Dam on the lower Colorado River, as well as a slew of smaller sisters downstream, the stretch downriver served as a biological oasis in the middle of the unrelenting Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The marshes and backwaters along the river’s edge provided sheltered areas for fish to spawn and rear their young, and mesquite and cottonwood-willow forests provided important habitat for numerous species of birds and other animals.
The proposal advanced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
National Marine Fisheries Service would limit the meaning to
taking direct action to kill or injure endangered or threatened
wildlife — removing the prohibition against habitat destruction
that leads to those ends. It fits with White House officials’
intent to spur economic growth by slashing regulations. If
adopted, the change could significantly curtail the reach of
the Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973 under former
President Nixon. It would also flout a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling that upheld the definition of harm to encompass
“significant habitat modification or degradation.” …
(T)he previous definition prevented acts like cutting down
swaths of old-growth forests in Northern California and the
Pacific Northwest where federally threatened northern spotted
owls nest and roost. Or filling in a wetland inhabited by
red-legged frogs, California’s state amphibian also listed as
federally threatened.
One of the rarest species on Earth, the Devils
Hole pupfish, came close to extinction in recent months,
thanks to an earthquake 500 miles from their deep desert cave.
Now, worried scientists and divers are taking unprecedented
steps to save the 38 remaining fish. … A few years
ago, a mat was laid on the rock shelf of Devil’s Hole to
collect pupfish eggs. Those eggs were then transferred to a
replica of the cave built in nearby Ash Meadows Fish
Conservation Facility. The fake Devil’s Hole contained the same
92-degree water and spawning shelf. There, in captivity, a
backup colony of pupfish was bred. Nineteen of those captive
fish were carefully brought into the cave in recent weeks.
Locals call the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve “UC
Merced’s backyard,” and it’s a backyard unlike any other.
Picture a 6,500-acre stretch of land that has thousands of
vernal pools in the winter, blankets of vibrant flowers in the
spring, the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the distance, and
countless animals to watch, including the famously-elusive
“fairy shrimp.” Established in 2001 and located just north of
Merced, the reserve protects the sensitive vernal pool habitats
and grasslands. … Vernal pools are small pond-like dips in
the ground that fill up during the rainy season. … Jasmine
Salazar, a graduate student assistant and tour guide for the
reserve, told community members on the recent tour that vernal
pools are very rare to California now, but they’ve been around
for centuries. “In the Central Valley, we used to have a
ton of vernal pools. But because of infrastructure and
urbanization, we’ve lost 99% of them,” Salazar, 20, said.
Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic
and developed river.
The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the
1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of
acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern
Mexico.
The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and
managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier
climate.
The Klamath River Basin was once one
of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed
teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived
alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly
from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper
Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the
Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty,
redwood-lined finish.
In the vast labyrinth of the West
Coast’s largest freshwater tidal estuary, one native fish species
has never been so rare. Once uncountably numerous, the Delta
smelt was placed on state and federal endangered species lists in
1993, stopped appearing in most annual sampling surveys in 2016,
and is now, for all practical purposes, extinct in the wild. At
least, it was.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
Does California need to revamp the way in which water is dedicated to the environment to better protect fish and the ecosystem at large? In the hypersensitive world of California water, where differences over who gets what can result in epic legislative and legal battles, the idea sparks a combination of fear, uncertainty and promise.
Saying that the way California manages water for the environment “isn’t working for anyone,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shook things up late last year by proposing a redesigned regulatory system featuring what they described as water ecosystem plans and water budgets with allocations set aside for the environment.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
Butte Creek, a tributary of the
Sacramento River, begins less than 50 miles northeast of Chico,
California and is named after nearby volcanic plateaus or
“buttes.” The cold, clear waters of the 93-mile creek sustain the
largest naturally spawning wild population of spring-run chinook salmon in the Central Valley.
Several other native fish species are found in Butte Creek,
including Pacific lamprey and Sacramento pikeminnow.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
The federal government passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973,
following earlier legislation. The first, the Endangered
Species Preservation Act of 1966, authorized land acquisition to
conserve select species. The Endangered Species Conservation Act
of 1969 then expanded on the 1966 act, and authorized “the
compilation of a list of animals “threatened with worldwide
extinction” and prohibits their importation without a permit.”
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines science –
the answers it can provide to help guide management decisions in
the Delta and the inherent uncertainty it holds that can make
moving forward such a tenuous task.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
In California and the West, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a
critical issue. Development and agricultural interests say the
law should not be used to unjustly block new projects, while
conservationists view the law as a major bulwark against the
destruction of vital habitat. In the water world, municipal and
agricultural interests say there is room to streamline the ESA’s
application to prevent undue interruption of water delivery.
Two events that transformed the West, population growth and the
dominance of agriculture, are inextricable parts of the battles
fought over its most vital resource, water. Throughout the 19th
century, as settlers sought to tame the rugged landscape,
momentum built behind the notion of a comprehensive, federally
financed waterworks plan that would provide the agrarian society
envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. The Reclamation Act of 1902,
which could arguably be described as a progression of the credo,
Manifest Destiny, transformed the West into an economic
powerhouse while putting an exclamation mark to the tide of
American migration.
