Trout Unlimited Opposes Toll Road Proposal

January 30, 2008

Contact: George Sutherland (949) 361-0274, gsland@cox.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Trout Unlimited Opposes Toll Road Proposal

Orange County—On Wednesday, Feb. 6, the California Coastal Commission will hold perhaps its final hearing on the proposed extension of toll route 241 (the “Toll Road”) in southern Orange County.  The proposed road extension would cut through San Onofre State Park, one of the most popular of California’s state parks, and would run through the estuary where San Mateo Creek connects to the ocean.

Trout Unlimited (TU) opposes the Toll Road proposal, as it would undermine conservation efforts associated with San Mateo Creek and recovery of its native steelhead trout run.

TU has led a multi-year initiative to restore the near-extinct population of southern California coastal steelhead trout in San Mateo Creek. The stream is the last wild, undammed drainage in Southern California, and offers the best refuge in this region for steelhead and other aquatic species as climate change brings higher temperatures and drier conditions.

George Sutherland, long-time TU activist in Orange County and founding member of the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Coalition, said, “Trout Unlimited has invested years of effort and expense into restoring San Mateo Creek and other southern California steelhead streams.  We are not convinced the Toll Road can be built so that it does not set back or kill steelhead recovery efforts, or that it is even necessary given other alternatives to traffic problems in the Interstate 5 corridor.” 

Sutherland added, “Traffic between Orange County and San Diego is bad, but our response shouldn’t create more problems than it solves by destroying what little open space we have left in this area.  We need some green places on the map and clean water in our streams, so that our kids and grandkids can have the experience of finding, and maybe even catching, native California trout in their historic range.” 

Steelhead are a unique form of rainbow trout. Like salmon, they spend most of their adult lives in the ocean, but spawn in freshwater streams.  Southern steelhead are adapted to seasonally dry streams in the arid climate at the extreme southern end of the steelhead range. Tens of thousands of steelhead – prized by fishermen for their strength and beauty—used to return to southern California streams annually, but now they’re stopped by dams, water diversions, and urban development. Today, only a few hundred southern steelhead return to their natal streams to spawn each year.

The National Marine Fisheries Service listed the southern steelhead as an endangered species in 1997.  After steelhead were discovered in San Mateo Creek in 2002, the Fisheries Service extended the endangered listing into Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties.  The Service reaffirmed the endangered status of southern steelhead in 2005.

Sam Davidson, California Field Director for TU, said, “California has in recent years acted strongly to protect our most popular and ecologically important public lands from road-building and other development.  The Toll Road is a big step in the opposite direction.  The Coastal Commission’s own staff has recommended alternatives to the Toll Road, such as widening I-5, that would keep San Onofre State Park and the San Mateo Creek estuary intact.  Something smells fishy here, and it isn’t the fish." 

Davidson added that a 2007 survey of hunters and fishermen in California showed an overwhelming majority (70 percent) favor keeping roads out of fish and game habitat, and that a lack of places to hunt and fish, and declining populations of fish and game, are among their biggest concerns.  “The Toll Road is not a fish-friendly solution,” Davidson said.  “We should confine road construction to areas that have already been developed, and not push massive amounts of concrete into some of the last best places to camp, enjoy a quite weekend at the beach, and find remnants of native fish populations.” 

Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization,
with over 150,000 members nationwide and 10,000 members in California.

TU has led a multi-year initiative to restore the near-extinct population of southern California coastal steelhead trout in San Mateo Creek. The stream is the last wild, undammed drainage in Southern California, and offers the best refuge in this region for steelhead and other aquatic species as climate change brings higher temperatures and drier conditions.

George Sutherland, long-time TU activist in Orange County and founding member of the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Coalition, said, “Trout Unlimited has invested years of effort and expense into restoring San Mateo Creek and other southern California steelhead streams.  We are not convinced the Toll Road can be built so that it does not set back or kill steelhead recovery efforts, or that it is even necessary given other alternatives to traffic problems in the Interstate 5 corridor.” 

Sutherland added, “Traffic between Orange County and San Diego is bad, but our response shouldn’t create more problems than it solves by destroying what little open space we have left in this area.  We need some green places on the map and clean water in our streams, so that our kids and grandkids can have the experience of finding, and maybe even catching, native California trout in their historic range.”

Steelhead are a unique form of rainbow trout. Like salmon, they spend most of their adult lives in the ocean, but spawn in freshwater streams.  Southern steelhead are adapted to seasonally dry streams in the arid climate at the extreme southern end of the steelhead range. Tens of thousands of steelhead – prized by fishermen for their strength and beauty—used to return to southern California streams annually, but now they’re stopped by dams, water diversions, and urban development. Today, only a few hundred southern steelhead return to their natal streams to spawn each year.

The National Marine Fisheries Service listed the southern steelhead as an endangered species in 1997.  After steelhead were discovered in San Mateo Creek in 2002, the Fisheries Service extended the endangered listing into Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties.  The Service reaffirmed the endangered status of southern steelhead in 2005.

Sam Davidson, California Field Director for TU, said, “California has in recent years acted strongly to protect our most popular and ecologically important public lands from road-building and other development.  The Toll Road is a big step in the opposite direction.  The Coastal Commission’s own staff has recommended alternatives to the Toll Road, such as widening I-5, that would keep San Onofre State Park and the San Mateo Creek estuary intact.  Something smells fishy here, and it isn’t the fish.”

Davidson added that a 2007 survey of hunters and fishermen in California showed an overwhelming majority (70 percent) favor keeping roads out of fish and game habitat, and that a lack of places to hunt and fish, and declining populations of fish and game, are among their biggest concerns.  “The Toll Road is not a fish-friendly solution,” Davidson said.  “We should confine road construction to areas that have already been developed, and not push massive amounts of concrete into some of the last best places to camp, enjoy a quite weekend at the beach, and find remnants of native fish populations.”

Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization,
with over 150,000 members nationwide and 10,000 members in California.

Date: 1/30/2008