CSPA Advisory 3-18-09

Attention Club presidents, conservation chairs and webmasters!!!

Club presidents, and conservation chairs, please copy this page and organize letter writing sessions at your next club meeting. Supply the paper, envelopes and stamps. Club editors, please include our action alert and a link to this page on your club website. The current deadline for letters is April 13th.

Instructions for letter writing

Paper snail mail letters still have the greatest impact. If you can, please write a snail mail letter to the committee chair, Jared Huffman and, if you are a resident of any of the committee member's districts, a second letter to that committee member.

If you just can't handle the idea of snail mail, please send your letter in E-mail format. Again, one to the chair, Jared Huffman, and a second letter to your assemblyman if living in one of the committee member's district.

Below are two sample letters. Your personal letter can be a short as the first or as long and detailed as the second. Please consider writing, "YOUR OWN" letter. The more individual letters received, the better.

Sample letter #1

Dear Assembly member __________________,

As a California angler, voter and taxpayer, I strongly oppose passage of AB 1253, the bill to delist and remove support of the striped bass as a California game fish.. Please vote this bill down when it comes before you as a member of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

Sincerely,

Your name
Address including zip code (important)

Sample letter #2

Dear Assembly member __________________,

As a California angler, voter and taxpayer, I strongly oppose AB 1253, the bill introduced by Assembly member Fuller, intending to delist and remove support of the striped bass as a California game fish.

The striped bass, a fish legally introduced to the State by the California Fish and Game Commission, established itself as one of the state's premier game fish and coexisted in harmony for over 130 years with the state's native fishes. Even in the 1930's when the striped bass population was believed to exceed 12 million adult fish and the species was fished commercially, the fish did not impact the state's salmon stocks or the health of the delta's fisheries including the delta smelt and the longfin smelt.

The striped bass fishery along with the chinook salmon, steelhead, delta smelt, longfin smelt, American Shad, green sturgeon, white sturgeon fisheries only began to decline with the operation of the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project in the late 1960's. As exports have increased, the populations of all of these fishes has crashed to all time historical lows with the delta smelt now on the endangered species list, the longfin smelt threatened, the chinook salmon run the lowest in history. The current striped bass popluations is also at historical lows.

The striped bass is a fish of legend and has been a part of California's angling heritage for 130 years. AB 1253, a bill sponsored by a number of water districts is an obvious attempt to transfer the blame of the decline of California's once great fisheries to one of the species that made the California Delta one of the greatest fisheries on earth instead of their insatiable demand for larger and larger amounts of delta water. They  realize that if the delta's fisheries can be destroyed, it is one less reason to obstruct the draining of the delta for subsidized agribusiness farming.

Please vote this bill down when it comes before your committee. If passed, it will do nothing to restore California's once great fisheries and will cause the destruction of one of California's greatest game fish.

Sincerely,

Your name
Address including zip code (important)

Below is the most current information we have on the committee members and their addresses.

Important: You must live in an assembly member's district as indicated by zip code for him/her to accept an Email message. If not, you must send snail mail.

Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife Committee