[env-trinity] California Trout Rescues Fishing License Funds From Schwarzenegger's Raid

[Tom Stokely]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dan Bacher 
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 9:01 AM
Subject: California Trout Rescues Fishing License Funds From Schwarzenegger's Raid 


Conservation Organization Stops Schwarzenegger's Raid on License Fees

As President G.W. Bush attempted to raid salmon disaster relief funds to pay for the U.S. census, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was defeated in his move to transfer $4 million California fishing license fees to the general fund. Schwarzenegger's move is unconscionable in the light of the collapse of the Central Valley salmon fishery and California Delta food chain that his abysmal environmental policies have created.




California Trout Rescues Fishing License Funds From Schwarzenegger's Raid 


by Dan Bacher 


California Trout, a statewide fishery conservation organization, recently defeated an underhanded attempt by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to raid fishing license funds. 


On May 30, California Trout issued a statement release calling for a freeze on California fishing license fees in the face of a Schwarzenegger administration proposal to transfer $4 million from the Hatchery and Inland Fisheries Fund (HIFF) to the state's General Fund. Fortunately, the State Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee rejected the transfer on June 13, in large part because the administration officially withdrew the proposal. 


“This is an important victory for fishing enthusiasts and conservation advocates across California,” said Brian Stranko, CEO of California Trout. “Trying to raid funds that support state fish hatchery operations and protection of wild trout stocks was a bad idea from the start. We’re pleased that these funds remain secure.” 


As consequence of June 13’s action by the Committee, California Trout dropped its call for a freeze on fishing license fees. The conservation group adopted its call after The Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Natural Resources approved the Schwarzenegger Administration fund transfer proposal. 


“The HIFF is funded exclusively through license fees paid by anglers who fish in California,” explained Stranko. “If included in the final version of the 2008 Budget Bill, the loan would not be repaid until 2013.” 


Although CalTrout opposed the raid on HIFF, the budget subcommittee approved the loan but made it contingent on a freeze on fishing license fees. 


"It is unfair to the two million anglers who annually buy fishing licenses in this state to continue to see their fees raised year after year by the Department of Fish and Game when it is simultaneously cutting back fish hatchery operations, wild trout protection, and programs for recovery of endangered species like salmon," said Stranko. "We believe it is inappropriate to divert these revenues to address chronic problems in the state's General Fund if DFG is allowed to continue increasing the cost of a sport fishing license." 


The Hatchery and Inland Fisheries Fund was created in 2005 through Assembly Bill 7 in order to ensure that at least some of the $60 million collected annually through fishing licenses in California goes to improve fishing opportunities. The law specifies that at least 30% of the monies collected through fishing licenses be dedicated to upgrading hatcheries and funding the state's wild trout program. 


I commend California Trout for raising the level of public outrage over this proposal by Schwarzenegger At a time when we are faced with devastating fishing closures, including the salmon closure on the ocean and draconian no fishing zones funded by a private organization, the Resource Legacy Fund, Schwarzenegger attempted a despicable raid on OUR money. 






Bush Tries Raid on Salmon Disaster Relief Funds to Pay for Census! 


West Coast representatives and leaders of fishing groups are outraged over an attempt by the White House to yank $70 million in disaster funding from commercial and recreational fishermen in order to pay for the 2010 US Census. 


The Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday, June 9, sent a proposal to Congress to amend the president's budget and take back $70 million of the $180 million West Coast representatives had put into the farm bill for disaster assistance for fishermen devastated by fishing closures off California and Oregon and in Central Valley rivers. 


West Coast Democrats reacted to the proposal by sending an angry letter to President Bush. They called "unconscionable" his proposal to deny the disaster funding to fishermen and use it to pay for a failed contract with the Harris Corporation. Harris, assigned to do the 2010 Census, was forced due to serious mismanagement to abandon its plans for using handheld computers to conduct the census and will have to conduct a costly paper census. 


"This proposal is especially egregious when you consider that your administration's water policies on all of the Pacific Northwest's major salmon rivers are the reason this disaster funding is needed in the first place," the letter said. 


The representatives noted that three different courts have found the administration's water plans for the Sacramento, Klamath and Columbia/Snake Rivers to be illegal and in violation of the Endangered Species Act. 


"These failed policies have resulted in over 80,000 dead adult salmon in the Klamath River, record low returns to the Sacramento and Columbia/Snake River systems, two fishery disaster declarations issued by the secretary of commerce and two years of fishing closures impacting thousands of families and small businesses," the letter continued. "The states of California, Oregon and Washington estimated this year's closure alone will have a $290 million impact on these fishing communities. Scientists expect similar low returns to the Sacramento next year and another closed season for most of the West Coast." 


California Representatives Mike Thompson, Anna Eshoo, Doris Matsui, Lois Capps, Lynn Woolsey and Sam Farr; Oregon Representatives Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley, Earl Blumenauer and David Wu, and Washington Representatives Jim McDermott, Brian Baird, Rick Larsen and Jay Inslee signed the letter. 


"To suggest that the money to pay for this contract mistake is diverted from emergency disaster payments is yet another blow delivered by your administration to the fishing families and small businesses in the Pacific Northwest," they stated. "It is a clear sign that your administration is not committed to protecting these river systems and has no interest in helping the fishing communities and economies reliant on them. 


Dick Pool, president of Pro-Troll Fishing Products and coordinator of Water for Fish [http://www.water4fish.org], said news of the attempted raid of the disaster relief was "very distressing considering the devastating financial impact that the salmon fishing closure is having on the recreational and commercial fishing industries of California." 


"I'm not surprised to see Bush trying to take away needed money from our community," said Mike Hudson, president of the Small Boat Commercial Fisherman's Association and coordinator of the SalmonAid Festival that took place in Oakland on May 31 and June 1. "Through his actions over the last few years, he has told us time and again that we don't matter to him. What would you expect from a man who wants to declare dams as natural structures and lets rivers run dry? That he would allow a dime to find its way into the pockets of hard-working people who oppose these dams, diversions and pollution of our waters?" 


The Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations continue to blame "ocean conditions" for the sudden and unprecedented collapse of Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon, while a broad coalition of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes and conservationists contends that increased water exports from the California Delta and declining water quality play a major role in the collapse. The Central Valley fall chinook population has declined from over 800,000 fish in 2002 to under 60,000 this year. 


The decline of the Central Valley fall run chinook parallels the collapse of four pelagic (open water) species - delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad - in recent years. A panel of state and federal scientists has pinpointed changes in water exports as the No. 1 reason for the collapse, followed by toxics and invasive species. 


More recently, two studies conducted by Richard Dugdale, a San Francisco State University oceanographer, contend that ammonia from Sacramento's treated sewage discharge may be killing Delta smelt and other species (Stockton Record, June 11). 


Fortunately, it is unlikely that the White House will be able to push Bush's proposal through Congress, based on strong opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. 


"This request is a slap in the face to the scores of salmon fishermen in Oregon who are struggling to make ends meet in the wake of the largest salmon closure in West Coast history," said Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-Oregon). "Rest assured there will be a strong bipartisan effort to ensure that these cuts don't go through." 


Ironically, Smith and the Bush administration, in order to secure rural southern Oregon votes in 2001, overrode the Endangered Species Act by cutting off water to fish in order to curry favor with agricultural interests. The result was the Klamath fish kills of 2002, where hundreds of thousands of juvenile salmon died in the spring and 68,000 salmon perished in September in low, warm, disease-infested water conditions. 


Bush's attempted raid was even too much for Governor Schwarzenegger. On June 17, Schwarzenegger, Oregon Governor Theodore Kulongoski and Washington Governor Christine Gregoire sent a joint letter to President George Bush expressing strong opposition to the Administration’s proposal to remove $70 million in emergency disaster assistance for fishing families, communities and businesses impacted by the closure of the salmon season, and they urged President Bush to reconsider his opposition to helping these families in need. 


"Mr. President, we disagree with your Administration’s assessment that these funds constitute 'lower-priority federal programs and excess funds," they stated. "We believe that it should be a high federal priority to provide the $70 million of needed assistance to fishing families, communities, and businesses that depend upon salmon fishing, instead of directing this amount to fix the underestimated cost of the 2010 census. We urge you to instead stand with fishing families and communities who rely on this industry for their livelihood." 



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