Two Key Fish Restoration Bills Pass Through Assembly Committee

By Dan Bacher, The FishSniffer, April 16, 2008.
Two key fish and wildlife habitat restoration bills, AB 1806 and AB 2502, passed through the California Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on Tuesday, April 15. These two bills are greatly needed at a time when the Central Valley chinook salmon population and the California Delta ecosystem are in a state of unprecedented collapse.

For the first time in history, commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon this year will be banned in ocean waters off California and most of Oregon. While the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations blame the collapse on "ocean conditions," a coalition of recreational and commercial fishing groups, environmental groups and Indian Tribes contends the collapse is largely the result of increased water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and declining water quality caused by agricultural pollution.

AB 1806, the Fish Rescue Plans Bill by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis), passed through the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee today on a vote of 8-5, with the State Water Project and Federal Central Valley Project mitigation requirements included. The next stop will be the Assembly Appropriations Committee in a couple of weeks.

However, legislative staff anticipate it will not come up for an actual vote in Appropriations Committee for several weeks, probably later in May.

AB 1806 requires public land managers to prepare emergency fish rescue plans before undertaking a project that would have a significant adverse impact on fishery resources in the Delta. The bill covers mitigation for the Prospect Island fish kill and requires direct and indirect mitigation for fish losses from the state and federal water export pumps in the California Delta. If this measure is passed, there would be millions of dollars of mitigation money available for rapidly dwindling chinook salmon and Delta fish populations.

"We strongly support AB 1806, particularly the provisions that require mitigation by the state and federal delta pumping facilities," said Dick Pool, representing Pro-Troll Fishing Products, the American Sportfishing Association and Water4Fish.org.

Direct mitigation is for fish killed directly at the pumps or in Clifton Court Forebay. Indirect mitigation is for losses of fish that are pulled out of their normal migration path by the pumps, but perish before they get to the pumps.

"The state has never mitigated for indirect losses and the federal pumps only mitigated for direct losses for a few years," said Pool. "The federal pumps have never mitigated for indirect losses. Many biologists believe that indirect losses are far greater than direct."

The Allied Fishing Groups, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) are also supporting the bill. The Desert Water Agency, Valley Ag Water Coalition, Association of California Water Agencies, State Water Contractors Association, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and other agricultural districts that take water from the Delta are opposing the legislation.

The Central Valley Flood Control Association and the Resource Landowners Coalition indicated they would likely be removing their previous opposition to AB 1806 in the committee hearing yesterday, based on the amendments that were taken.

Wolk's AB 2502 also passed easily through the Committee today without a single no vote, though 3 Republican Assemblymen abstained. This bill will create a Delta Ecological Restoration and Recreation Area that will allow increased angling, hunting and other recreational access while providing needed fish and wildlife habitat.

"This bill is an excellent opportunity to accomplish ecosystem restoration in the Delta while enhancing the local economy by creating greater opportunities for recreation such as hunting and fishing, and other outdoor activities," said Wolk. "These islands have been neglected and poorly managed, as was shown by the devastating fish kill that occurred on Prospect Island this past December. It's time for a new approach and someone to take charge."

Ducks Unlimited, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the Recreational Fishing Alliance, California State Parks Foundation, and Trust for Public Land are supporting the bill. The CA. Central Valley Flood Control Association is opposing the bill.

Wolk proposed for the state to buy Prospect Island and Little Holland Tract from the federal government and Liberty Island from the Trust for Public Lands and turn them into a state recreation area. However, a Trust for Public Lands spokesman said at the hearing that they plan to donate their land for the creation of the recreation area!

Thanks to everyone who attended the hearing or wrote a letter in support of these two badly needed bills. We need to let everyone know we won round one and that round two will be more difficult. We will need many more letters of support if we are to get these two bills out of the Assembly in the coming weeks!