[env-trinity] Trinity ROD at Stake

[Byron]

KLAMATH BASIN FISHERIES 

Comment: President Bush should keep the promise to the Trinity River 
Eureka Times-Standard - 12/12/04

By State Sen. Wesley Chesbro 

The effort to restore the Trinity River took a long step backwards last week
when the Bush administration declared war on the salmon of the Pacific
Northwest. The administration published a proposal in the Dec. 1, 2004,
Federal Register calling for an "80 percent reduction in designated habitat
for endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead," according to news reports. It
is especially bad news for Northern California because it may mean
restoration of the Trinity River will be shortchanged. 

The federal agencies are justifying less protection for salmon by saying
fish runs "have experienced significant improved numbers." This politically
motivated assertion flies in the face of the reality of the 68,000 Klamath
and Trinity river fish that died in 2002. 

Since 1955, the United States has broken promises to protect and restore the
Trinity River's fish habitat. That is when Congress authorized taking
Trinity River water for the Central Valley Project. California Congressman
Clair Engle promised, "not one bucketful of water which is necessary to this
(Trinity River) watershed" would be diverted until the needs of the river's
fishery were satisfied. Despite these assurances the Bureau of Reclamation
(BOR) has taken up to 90 percent of the river's water in some of the years
since diversions began in l964. In 2000 Department of Interior Secretary
Bruce Babbitt promised to restore the river in a Record of Decision (ROD)
after 20 years of cooperative studies with the Hoopa Valley Tribe. 

Before the ink had dried on the ROD, Westlands Water District and the
Northern California Power Agency filed a lawsuit stopping restoration of the
river. But this summer the U.S. 9th Circuit Court ruled in favor of the ROD.
That means the tribe has the water for the river. 

But the water is only part of the restoration equation. Non-flow measures
like riverbed gravel repair, riparian foliage and bridge improvements are
also needed to make the river a healthy fish habitat. The courts have given
the tribe and the North Coast the water, but now they must battle a fiscally
stalled BOR for non-flow improvements. By not providing enough money for the
river's restoration, the Bush administration is continuing the flow of
broken promises on the Trinity River. 

President Bush must not renege on the Trinity River ROD. The time is right
for the restoration of the river and its fishery. We have won the water in
court, now the president should give the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation enough
money to finish restoration work before the river's natural fishery dies. 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 519 4810 ce

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

 

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