Redwood Reader

146. Salmon and Steelhead Budgets Axed
Tom Sinestra (www.sfgate.com) today reported in his outdoor column on the state of DFG programs after the governors last minute axing of funds to the department. Although the governor reduced restoration money from eight million to four million, the 25/75% matching funds program set up by the feds allows leveraging the 4 million dollars into 16 million in restoration work. We wonder why the governor would cut the other four million since it brings another twelve million to the state for programs seemingly beyond the governor’s radar.
Less supportable is the refusing to provide five million dollars to fund fifty new Department of Fish and Game wardens, the eyes and ears on the ground that protect our wildlife, as well as oversee restoration projects, and comment on land use issues and provide information and guidance to property owners. These guys are desperately thin in the field and need more help, not less, especially as many agents took early retirement in 2004 to trim the budget. So we let our experienced guys go and now refuse to replace them. Just the amount of development encroaching on wild lands indicates more field workers are needed. We also note that some restoration work is succeeding and so the amount of fishable streams in California is on the up tick. Seven rural counties have no DFG officials at all. We know lack of law enforcement will lead to a leap in poaching. We also need people thinking about how to put problems right. A good example is the Pikeminnow Derby on the Eel River, a fishing derby to reduce the numbers of an invasive species. This is the first California fishing I am aware of that encourages catching and keeping as many fish as possible, a common feature of East Coast salt water fishing. The Derby runs July 1 to September 30. All California fishing regulations for the Eel River are in place, such as barbless hooks, artificial baits and release of any salmonid caught, and anyone over sixteen needs a license. Still this is a great opportunity to get some fishing in with the kids while reducing a voracious salmonid predator and invasive species. More info at: www.eelriver.org/html/publications_article_89.htm. We worry this fish will escape into other local river systems like the Mattole and the Mad.
Bringing us to the next cut of three million dollars for hatcheries. We are glad to see Mad River was resourceful enough to go to alternate funding and so has survived this round of budgeteering. Having grown up fishing for hatchery trout in the Nissaquogue River we know how quickly transplanted trout are fished out. Replenishment is a necessary to keep anglers happy while allowing a percentage to mature in stream, and another percentage to make it to salt water. Along the way hatchery trout feed lamprey, heron, egrets raccoons and a host of terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. Some escape and become the “big ones” in a year or two, and a couple of survivors in hard to get to places become the stuff of legend.
With California’s growing population and programs directly linked to license fees it is hard to justify this approach. Sixty one percent of anglers fish for trout but only seven percent of license fee money goes to hatchery and wild trout programs. The anglers have a right to be upset here, along with hunters who pay increasing fees for diminishing opportunities. The hatcheries lose three million proposed dollars but remain at last years level of 8.6 million dollars. .Dave Coghill, R-Modesto, has pa bill proposing 33% of license fees go to hatcheries and wild trout restoration.
The last million dollars cut by the governor was earmarked for the Wild Trout Heritage program, making a total of nine million dollars in last minute budget cuts to DFG programs. There seems to be no vision of the rural places in the governors office, and especially where wild processes need insight and protection. Without some grounding, new science like glomalin will appear totally alien and a growth impediment, rather than as a natural process we all count on for the very conditions that make California attractive in the first place.