CONSERVATION
By Ron Forbes

Early this month I spoke with Anthony Saracino, the Director of the California Water Program for the Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy along with NCCFFF, Cal Trout, Trout Unlimited and other conservation groups are concerned with the Nestle Corporations
plan to sell bottled water that it takes from the underground source form the McCloud River.

Nestle bought the water rights from the McCloud Community Service District (MCSD) for the period of 100 years. For the water rights MCSD will be paid $10,000 per year. Nestle will get the water at a cost of 8.7 cents per 100,000 gallons. Nestle Corporation’s water
facility will be a one-million square foot operation. They want to take one half billion gallons from the ground every year. The biologic impact on the McCloud would be huge.

The first environmental reports by Nestle were “very kind” to the company. However, after the uproar from many environmental groups, Nestle has decided it will do more studies on the impact to the area and the McCloud River. It is evident to those of us in the fly fishing clubs that Nestles removing one half billion gallons per year can do damage to the fish habitat that may not be able to be restored. It is important to note that that the substratum in the McCloud
area is primary basaltic in nature and much less understood that other stratums. Errors in judgment could have adverse effects on the McCloud and its fish habitat. We need to keep or eyes on this one to prevent the loss of the McCloud.

I have never understood why people are willing to pay for the water that is sold to them in stores which, in many cases, is comes straight out of a tap. While in the market the other day I found “Fiji Water” for slightly more than $4.00 a gallon. But then it promised to leave your mouth with that “soft feeling”. I am not real sure of what an “oral soft feeling” is but at least it’s an interesting concept. Maybe they feel if you pay over $4.00 gallon you should get something for your money.

Update
It seems the House of Representatives has taken very little action on the restoration of the San Joaquin River. As you will recall, this fight has been going on since 1988. At this point the bill (H.R. 4074) has passed the Committee on Natural Resources by a 25-15 vote. However it has had no further action. The bill is requires $250 million from the government as its part in the restoration.

Jerry McNerney is a cosponsor of the bill and I contacted his office in Stockton. Frankly I was ignored after a phone call requesting information on H.R. 4074. Even after going to his office it still took three weeks to get any information.

However new wrinkles are going to effect the restoration of the river. The Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation has started, what they call the Upper San Joaquin River Storage Investigation. What is entails is to place another dam on one of three locations as the San Joaquin flows into Millerton Lake behind Friant Dam. Two locations are in the Temperance Flat area and the other is on the Fine Gold Creek area. After calls to the DWR and BoR I was not told of what if any impact will new dams have on the restoration of the San Joaquin River nor would they give any information would this have and effect of the restoration of the salmon run, (now down to 100 from the original 500 fish). Again this is something we need to watch carefully.

Davis Lake
Also in the original bill only salmon are mentioned. Several of us on the Board id Directors of NCCFFF want steelhead to be started on the San Joaquin at the same time. Originally they were native to the river but were lost along with the salmon. It’s strange but we are meeting with resistance from some members of the DWR personal. I have been told by some that they fear predation of salmon eggs by the steelhead and will keep the steelhead out. When I ask if they will keep the trout out for the same reasons they had no answers. When it was mentioned that the salmon and steelhead have coexisted of hundreds of thousands of years there was still no response for the DWR. NCCFFF plans to continue to try to have Steelhead placed into the San Joaquin along with the salmon and hopefully restart a local steelhead run. A Steelhead trout run in our backyard a great asset to the San Joaquin.

Good Fishing,
Ron Forbes

FFF Conservation Updates
Reminder – Mark you calendar and make your travel plans. This summer the Conclave and National Fly Fishing Show will be held in Whitefish Montana July 23-27. On Wednesday July 23 from 9-12 the Conservation Committee will hold their annual business meeting. Following at 1 pm will be the Fish Forum which will feature short presentations on timely conservation topics. All are welcome to attend Fish Forum. FFF Conclave (Whitefish, MT) on-line pre-registration opened April 21st. Also the printed pre-registration forms will be arriving soon in the Spring Issue of the Flyfisher Magazine if you prefer to mail it in or fax. Questions in regards to Conclave can be directed to Jessica at conclave@fedflyfishers.org. See in FFF news for two added seminars at conclave for the clubs/councils.

We need more clubs to join the ranks to help in the conservation and education efforts of the FFF. If you would like to start a club or know of a club that might be interested in affiliating with the FFF please direct them to the Club Information pages below:
For Affiliate Clubs http://www.fedflyfishers.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4359
For Charter Clubshttp://www.fedflyfishers.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4358

Please send an e-mail to fffoffice@fedflyfishers.org should your club have a fishing / tying event / banquet. We would like to add these events to our web site calendar of events. Provide the date, location, name of your club and a website address that I can link to direct our members for more information. The events calendar is on the following web page http://www.fedflyfishers.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4513

Conservation Club Idea – Contact your state fish and game agency for a presentation on the health of your local fisheries. You can also volunteer to help with fieldwork and learn firsthand about the fish in your area.

A letter to Sen. Boxer (CA) to encourage the Environment and Public Works Committee to hold oversight hearings to investigate recent decisions by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in association with Endangered Species Act rulings that ignored scientific information and undermined endangered species protections for over 50 species, including the fluvial arctic grayling.