San Francisco — As the year 2022 draws to a close, a petition written by the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA) and signed by 1500 Californians calls on the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) heads to step in to protect Central Valley salmon populations.
The petition was sent to Janet Coit, Assistant Administrator for the NMFS, and Martha Williams, Director of the USFWS, at a time when the very existence of Sacramento River salmon populations is threatened by Central Valley Project and State Water Project operations.
“Our future is now in your hands as you craft new water operation rules under the Endangered Species Act for federal dams that block salmon rivers and the massive Delta pumps,” the petition states. “Done right, California’s salmon, other native species, and those of us who have sustainably coexisted with nature, will survive into the 21st century. But if you don’t correct course, we’ll see extinction of species that have been in California for tens of thousands of years. In addition, tens of thousands of people will lose family wage jobs.”
According to a press statement from the GSSA, “NMFS and the USFWS play a key role in making sure that species protections are included in new operation rules currently being written that govern the federal CVP’s dams, canals, pipes and massive Delta pumps all harm salmon and other native species. The rewrite is happening because the Biden Administration acknowledged that the last set of rules, written by the Trump administration, failed to adequately protect fish and wildlife.”
The federal agency overseeing the CVP, the Bureau of Reclamation, has said it plans to finalize a draft of the new operating rules by the end of December, according to GSSA. Some of the state’s biggest agricultural water districts have made clear they oppose inclusion of the sort of enforceable requirements needed to protect species.
“Regular citizens are asking that California’s salmon, other native species, and those of us who have sustainably coexisted with nature, be allowed to survive through the 21st century,” said John McManus, president of the Golden State Salmon Association. “If the feds fail to improve protections for our natural resources and native wildlife, we’ll see extinction of species that have been in California for tens of thousands of years. In addition, tens of thousands of people will lose family wage jobs.”
“What’s needed is to leave a little bit more water in the rivers to keep salmon and other wildlife alive,” said GSSA director Mike Aughney. “We also need science-based temperature requirements for reservoirs and downstream spawning beds to avoid the massive die off of salmon eggs we’re seeing. Those salmon kills have been caused by draining cold water from reservoirs like Shasta in order to deliver it to corporate agricultural operations.”
The petition asks the DC policy makers to do their own due diligence and not simply rely on the word of state bureaucrats that refuse to challenge the status quo. Reducing water diversions isn’t going to wipe out agriculture in California, but it will make water allocation fairer and give salmon a fighting chance.
The petition also tells the DC policymakers that the salmon fishery isn’t the only casualty of California’s legacy of deference to corporate agricultural operations. Many small communities in the Central Valley are seeing community wells go dry as big ag neighbors unsustainably overdraft local aquifers.
“Underscoring the emergency, the USFWS recently found that existing rules are inadequate to keep longfin smelt, another native fish that shares water and habitat with salmon, from going extinct. The Service proposed listing it as endangered under the ESA. Requiring better river flows to protect longfin will also help protect salmon,” GSSA stated.
“Those causing the problems won’t fix them voluntarily. We need strong, enforceable rules instead of the wobbly aspirational “targets” currently being discussed,” said GSSA director David Zeff. “We need to manage our reservoirs more conservatively, making sure to leave enough water at the end of the irrigation season in case the following year is dry.”
“After starving the rivers and salmon of water for multiple years, we have a pitiful number of adults returning to reproduce this year,” said GSSA director Aughney. “We need rules that recover salmon and build toward the federal goal of one million naturally spawning salmon in the Central Valley.”
“The status quo has utterly failed to stop the downward spiral of our native fish, including salmon, said GSSA president McManus. “Tinkering around the edges with water rules that have proven deadly to native fish and wildlife is not what’s needed now. Though far from perfect, a few short years ago we had better federal protections in place and strong support for making them even better.”
“We’re asking the Biden Administration to throw out the old Trump water rules and give us something that will finally protect salmon and other endangered fish. We’re asking that they please be bold. That’s what is needed now,” McManus concluded.
The complaint was filed at a time when Central Valley rivers and the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary are in their worst ecological crisis ever, due to decades of massive exports of water by the state and federal water projects to agribusiness and Southern California water agencies and the abysmal management of salmon-blocking dams and reservoirs.
Populations of winter, fall, late fall and spring-run Chinook salmon continue to plummet. A record low number of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon fry migrated downriver from Redding to Red Bluff on the Sacramento River this year, according to preliminary data collected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at Red Bluff Diversion Dam: www.recordnet.com/...
An estimated 158,764 fry (baby salmon) have made it from below Keswick Dam to Red Bluff this drought year, compared to an average number of 1.3 million winter Chinook salmon. This is the second consecutive year that the service reported alarmingly low numbers of Chinooks.
Spring run Chinook salmon have also had a very tough time over the past few years. The pre-spawning mortality of these endangered fish in Butte Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River, was estimated at only 19,773 out of 21,580 fish total in 2021. Only an estimated 1,807 adults survived to spawn, largely due to the failure of PG&E to release enough cold water from a hydroelectric dam on the creek in time to stop the massive mortality.
Fishing for fall-run Chinook salmon on the Sacramento River was abysmal this autumn, with low, warm water conditions spurred by the drought and the mismanagement of water by the state and federal water projects for decades resulting in low returns to most Central Valley rivers.
The salmon disaster takes place as the Delta smelt and longfin smelt move closer and closer to extinction. A Nov. 28 memo from James White, environmental scientist for the Bay Delta Region of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), reveals that zero Delta Smelt have been found in the CDFW’s fall midwater trawl survey (FMWT) on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September to November 2022. If no Delta Smelt are reported in the survey this month, this would be the fifth year in a row that zero smelt have been been found in the FMWT.
The slender 2 to 3 inch fish, once the most abundant fish in the entire estuary, is found only in the California Delta. It is considered an indicator species that shows the relative health of the imperiled estuary.
The decline of the Delta’s pelagic (open water) species, including three once abundant fish species pursued by anglers, has been catastrophic since the State Water Project went into operation in 1967. Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95 percent, respectively, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).
Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom’s Delta Conveyance Project, AKA Delta Tunnel, continues to move forward, despite strong opposition by California Tribes, fishing groups, environmental justice organizations, conservation groups, numerous elected officials, family farmers and Southern California water ratepayers.
This massive tunnel under the Delta would only hasten the extinction of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon, green sturgeon and other fish species, according to Tribal leaders, scientists, Delta residents and other tunnel opponents.
About GSSA: The Golden State Salmon Association (www.goldenstatesalmon.org) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fishermen and women, businesses, restaurants, a native tribe, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GSSA’s mission is to restore California salmon for their economic, recreational, commercial, environmental, cultural and health values.