The Drift (July 2016): update from TU's California Director

Brian Johnson speaks at the signing ceremony for the revised Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement earlier this year.

 

By Brian Johnson

As we passed the summer solstice this year, Trout Unlimited of California took advantage of the long days to record progress on a number of conservation fronts: on Klamath River restoration, on improving protections for streams and water rights holders from impacts associated with marijuana cultivation, and on bringing scientific analysis to bear on prioritizing stronger protections for key native fish habitats.

At the end of June, Governor Brown signed into law the State of California’s budget. TU had worked for months with other conservation groups, legislators and state agencies to make sure that the 2016-17 budget included substantial provisions for salmon and trout conservation.

I am pleased to report our efforts were largely successful, particularly in two issue-areas that are of major interest to Trout Unlimited members and the angling community.

First, the state budget includes full funding for California’s commitment to restoring the Klamath River. The state has pledged $250 million to this effort, which will remove four dams below Klamath Lake and restore access for fish to more than 400 miles of historic spawning and rearing habitat in this key watershed for salmon and steelhead.

(R) Nice Klamath River steelhead. Photo courtesy Craig Nielson/Shasta Trout

TU played an important role in negotiating the Klamath Basin agreements and strongly supports California’s commitment to their goals of a restored river and fisheries with greater water security for upper basin farmers and communities.

Second, through its new budget California took unprecedented actions to reduce and control the impacts of medical marijuana cultivation on our rivers and streams. These actions are included in a “Budget Trailer Bill,” Senate Bill 837 (SB 837), signed by the Governor.

SB 837 provides specific new legal authorities for the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to withhold issuance of medical marijuana permits unless specific water reporting, monitoring, and measuring of cultivation impacts are built into the permit conditions. Without such permits, growers will not be able to participate in California’s medical marijuana industry.

The substantial environmental impacts associated with marijuana cultivation are now well documented and jeopardize the health of California’s land, water supply, and wildlife. Moreover, as this severe drought persists the amount of water used in marijuana cultivation – previously unregulated -- is especially worrisome. See here for my opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle last year on this issue.

Under the new regulations, based upon filings with state agencies, it is anticipated that as many as 50,000 outdoor medical marijuana cultivation permits could be issued across dozens of high priority watersheds for salmon and steelhead.

TU joined The Nature Conservancy and California Trout – our partners in the California Coastal Coho and Steelhead Coalition – in issuing a press release applauding the new regulations. Much of TU’s restoration work for Coho salmon and steelhead in California takes place in watersheds, such as the Eel, where marijuana cultivation is occurring on a large scale. The new state permit requirements should help protect stream flows, water quality, and habitat for all life stages of salmon and steelhead in these watersheds.

Speaking of protecting watersheds: a new science study co-authored by Kurt Fesenmyer, one of TU’s Science staff, found that the rivers and streams which provide the most critical habitat for California native fishes, and contribute most to native fish diversity in this state, remain largely unprotected. TU is working at several levels to address this gap in protection for the most important habitats for salmon, steelhead and trout.

For example, through our Wild Steelhead Initiative we are working to establish new protections for key wild steelhead waters, perhaps through management as “gene banks.” On public lands, we are working to educate and organize anglers about habitat values and opportunities—such as the current plan revision process for national forests—to advocate for stronger protections for those values. And we are working at both the state and federal levels on legislative changes that will strengthen protections for our most important trout and salmon waters.

TU’s conservation mantra—take care of the fish, and the fishing will take care of itself—continues to drive our efforts here in California.  I hope you have a chance to see some of our success first-hand this summer, for example by fishing the Little Truckee River and other streams where our conservation work is making fishing better by taking care of the fish.