Two Key California Fish Restoration Bills Pass Assembly Committee

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Wolk's AB 1806 and AB 2502 Move through process

By Dan Bacher

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.