The California National Guard on Monday joined more than a dozen other agencies to help the Yurok tribe combat rampant marijuana grows that have threatened the reservation’s water supply, harmed its salmon and interfered with cultural ceremonies. …
The breakthrough came in April when governor’s office staff was discussing the drought with tribal officials.
The idea that the grizzly bear might someday roam California’s Sierra Nevada again warms the heart a little. … But like so many romantic notions, the reality, well, it’s a bear.
From The Sacramento Bee, in a commentary by Erin Hauge:
While a proposal to reintroduce grizzly bears to the Sierra Nevada sounds thrilling, it may be too ambitious for at least three reasons: Human encroachment on habitat, climate change and the fact that these bears would be a non-contiguous population in a limited range.
Bald eagles have expanded their range in the Channel Islands off the coast of California, where a nesting pair has been found on San Clemente Island for the first time in more than 50 years, an official said Thursday.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the number of breeding ducks remaining in California this season is 23 percent below the long-term average. The decline speaks to the significant degradation of habitat in the Central Valley due to lack of precipitation.
From The Sacramento Bee, in a commentary by Zeke Grader:
Our nation’s fisheries are recovering, in stark contrast to much of the rest of the world, where fish stocks are overfished and continue to dwindle, science on sustainable catch levels – if it even exists – is ignored, and illegal fishing runs rampant.
From the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW):
California now has an official state amphibian: the California red-legged frog
(Rana draytonii),a state species of special concern. … Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 2364 (V. Manuel Pérez, D-Indio) into law June 28.
A federal judge has cleared the way for water transfers from Northern California to the thirsty south San Joaquin Valley, overruling environmentalists who argued the transfers would harm threatened fish.
Long accustomed to dealing with bad news “garbage” bears that become hooked on improperly stored trash at homes and businesses around Lake Tahoe, Nevada wildlife officials say they’re increasingly responding to a new kind of troublemaker they’ve started calling “drought” bears.
Eric Ward went to one of his regular fishing spots near the Oroville Dam Friday morning, and the scene was far from serene. … The word from the Department of Water Resources is that the rubber booms were deployed to capture any hydraulic oil that spilled into the water when a valve was tested, explained Mark Anderson, assistant State Water Project deputy director.
The panoply of eagles, ospreys, beavers, otters and other critters that paraded before our gaze over our nine hours (including 30 minutes for breaks) on the Sacramento River between Hamilton City and Butte City far exceeded our hopes.
From The Sacramento Bee, in a commentary by Mariel Garza:
Not that long ago, grizzly bears ruled the wild places of the western United States, ranging the length of California from the coastal mountains in the south to the Cascade Range in the north.
The researchers found a strong correlation between pesticide concentrations measured in surface freshwater and lower or negative local population growth rates of 14 species of birds since the introduction of the pesticide imidacloprid in the Netherlands in the 1990s, according to a study published online Wednesday in the journal Nature.
From the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW):
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is hosting its third speaker series with a presentation on the effects of climate change on salmon and steelhead trout in the American River. The event will be held at the Nimbus Hatchery Visitor Center in Rancho Cordova on July 17 at 7 p.m.
It looks as if the last oyster may finally be shucked at the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. by the end of December, judging by what both sides in the long legal fight over the future of the farm said in federal court Monday. Then again, maybe not.
Seventy-plus years later, [Whitey] Rasmussen is still tying his own feathered flies and crafting his own lures, still using them to catch his own trophy fish, and still telling some great stories in a way that only an ex-Navy man can. But Rasmussen is more than a storyteller.
From the Los Angeles Times, in a commentary by Karin Klein:
The fans of today’s wild horses are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the animals as an endangered species because open rangeland is reduced and also less fit to graze.
From the Los Angeles Times, in a commentary by Jeff Burrell:
Today, working as a wildlife conservation scientist in the Northern Rockies, I see grizzly bears regularly. … Every sighting is gratifying, especially since the grizzly bear has been listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act for most of my life.”
