Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
I recently returned from two weeks of trial in the federal district court in Fresno, on the validity of Endangered Species Act protections for salmon, steelhead, delta smelt, and other fish in California’s Bay-Delta estuary. The plaintiffs (Westlands Water District...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today, the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council (NRC) publicly released its interim report on the science used in the biological opinions protecting salmon, delta smelt, and other endangered fish in California’s Bay-Delta estuary. The NRC’s report confirms that...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today, the federal court in Fresno denied a motion to relax pumping restrictions in the Bay-Delta estuary, finding that the restrictions were necessary to protect endangered fish species, and would also benefit salmon and the salmon fishery. The Court also...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
In today’s Sacramento Bee, reporter Matt Weiser writes about the future of California’s fall run Chinook salmon, which forms the backbone of the salmon fishery in California and Oregon. Unfortunately, the news doesn’t look very good. 2008 set the record...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
New Year’s provides a good opportunity to look back on the past year, and to look forward to the next. Here’s my list of 2009’s Good, Bad and Ugly in terms of California water politics, and what I’m wishing for...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today's editorial in the Wall Street Journal tries to blame all of the Central Valley's woes on the tiny delta smelt, and on a lawsuit by NRDC, in order to perpetuate myths about the impacts of protecting endangered species in...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Over the past 8 years of the Bush Administration, politics trumped science to enable water exports to reach unprecedented levels in California, reaping a host of consequences. One of the consequences was that the state's native fish, particularly salmon, were...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
On Thursday, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is expected to release its biological opinion (BO) on the effects of the state and federal water projects on threatened and endangered runs of salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, and killer whales. The...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The tiny endangered delta smelt has become a popular target for anger over low water allocations this year. It's not a charismatic species - not many people love a three inch long fish that smells like cucumber and lives only...
Posted by Doug Obegi in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued its long-awaited biological opinion on delta smelt. The opinion concludes that we must restrict water exports from the Delta to prevent the extinction of the delta smelt. While this tiny fish is...
