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<h1>Editorial: It's not only fish vs. people<o:p></o:p></h1>
<h1>Published: Monday, Jun. 29, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 15A <o:p></o:p></h1>
<p>The <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/National+Marine+Fisheries+Service/"><span
style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>National Marine
Fisheries Service</span></a> has issued a <a
href="http://topics.sacbee.com/wake-up+call/"><span style='font-size:11.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>wake-up call</span></a> on the dangers facing
the <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Central+Valley/"><span style='font-size:
11.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Central Valley</span></a>'s salmon and,
ultimately, the <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/water+system/"><span
style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>water system</span></a>
they depend on. It should be mulled and acted upon.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/wake-up+call/"><span style='font-size:
11.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>wake-up call</span></a> came in the form
of a "biological opinion" that the fisheries service filed earlier
this month. Prompted by a federal court ruling on a lawsuit by
environmentalists and fishermen, it found that the ways the state and federal
water projects operate threaten the survival of endangered chinook salmon and
steelhead, and it required that they change their policies.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The changes the agency envisions include finding ways to get the fish around
the dams and other barriers that currently stop them as they migrate upstream
to spawn. With immense structures like <a
href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Shasta+Dam/"><span style='font-size:11.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Shasta Dam</span></a> spanning the <a
href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Sacramento+River/"><span style='font-size:11.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Sacramento River,</span></a> and <a
href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Folsom+Dam/"><span style='font-size:11.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Folsom Dam</span></a> the American, this will
not be a simple task. It will require the construction of fish ladders, or
elevators, or perhaps truck-and-haul operations. Experts aren't sure if any are
feasible. The estimated price tag starts at $1 billion. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The price of not acting, however, will likely be steeper.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>To begin with, the winter- and spring-run chinook salmon of the Sacramento
River and the steelhead of the American are almost certainly doomed if their
journeys to spawning habitat continue to be blocked.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>That probably won't take salmon off diners' plates, although there are
persistent questions about the taste, healthfulness and environmental impact of
what's produced on fish farms.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>But if these natural populations vanish, they will likely take with them the
state's commercial salmon industry, which has already been shut for two years
in the wake of the fish population's crash. The <a
href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Fish+and+Game+Department/"><span
style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Fish and Game Department</span></a>
estimates that in 2008, the shutdown cost $255 million in revenue and more than
2,200 jobs.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Beyond that, the federal fisheries service's opinion is a <a
href="http://topics.sacbee.com/wake-up+call/"><span style='font-size:11.5pt;
font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>wake-up call</span></a> on the need for a major
reassessment of state water policy. Pretty much everyone involved in the
current system recognizes that it's broken, unable to store excess supply in
wet years or deliver needed supply in dry ones.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The new federal rules, which will likely face a court challenge, don't
require an immediate solution. The current blueprint requires studies starting
later this year, trials of fish-moving procedures by 2012 and a decision on an
ultimate answer by 2020.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Water officials should use that time not only to find the best way to get
the fish around the dams but to explore cheaper ways to save them. One
possibility being pushed by a Placer County group called <a
href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Save+Auburn+Ravine+Salmon/"><span
style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Save Auburn Ravine
Salmon</span></a> and Steelhead seeks the restoration of 600 small creeks
between Modesto and Redding. The group says these creeks were once the sites of
significant fish runs and offer a much less expensive way to provide spawning
habitat than laboriously transporting fish around dams.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Whatever solution is ultimately embraced, the region will likely never return
to the days when so many salmon choked the Sacramento River that Indians and
settlers could catch dinner with their hands. But a revived commercial fishing
industry, and an answer to one relatively small piece of the state's water
policy puzzle, is a pretty good consolation prize. We should try to seize it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
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