Draft Southern Oregon Northern California Coastal
(SONCC) Coho Recovery Plan Part 1 of 2: The Board of Supervisors has been requesting
that the National Marine Fisheries Service “coordinate’ on the SONCC Coho
Recovery Plan. Although NMFS still does not believe the law requires them to coordinate
with the Board, they did agree to meet with us in a government to government meeting.
Participants included Irma Lagomarsino,
Clarence Hostler, Julie Weeder and Mark Hampton. Lagomarsino said that she had been given
some sage advice to listen to what we had to say, so that was what she was prepared to do.
Supervisor Grace Bennett pointed out that there was only one
paragraph in the entire plan about all the work that had been done by the Resource
Conservation Districts and the landowners in the Scott and Shasta Valleys. Nothing was
said about the salmon-friendly road and planning work done by the County and timber
companies. The Five County Salmonid Conservation effort was not mentioned, nor was the
sacrifice of the timber and mining industries.
Bennett talked about a lack of historic perspective – how
water-soaking juniper trees had encroached on grasslands, how trees in the uplands were so
dense that snow evaporates before reaching the ground. She talked about how riparian
vegetation had been removed by floods and how some reaches of river go naturally dry and
always have. Bennett mentioned that the Yurok
Tribe was trying to build a cannery at the mouth of the Klamath. She wanted to know who
was going to police their nets.
Bennett stated that Siskiyou County’s comments on the draft
recovery plan had been prepared by a hydrologist with input by local experts. It had been
completely blown off.
Supervisor Cook talked about a lack of discussion about ocean
conditions, prey species and bottom trawlers
taking everything. He talked about maps of “intrinsic
potential” that had not been ground-truthed that showed potential
spawning and summer rearing habitat unrealistically in ephemeral streams that cyclically
go dry for two-three years at a time. He said from the map, you would have the impression
that this area was a rainforest. Cook stated
that fishermen get a free pass with incidental take, yet ranchers and farmers get nothing.
Cook asked how NMFS could support dam removal with a huge sediment
flush to the estuary – how the agency could say that this would not be likely to
jeopardize the fish. He asked how NMFS could say in the report that they could not
ascertain affects of fish harvest on the species, that this was beyond their control so no
corrective actions would be taken.
“Why should we trust that you have identified the real reason
for fish decline? We citizens and the US Forest Service made hundred of comments and you
have not addressed any of them. It is hard not to see a hidden agenda,” said Cook.
“We did not get treated with respect.”
Supervisor Kobseff talked about critical habitat for coho being
declared in irrigation ditches. He said that once smolts leave the system, we have no
control over them in the Klamath, estuary and ocean. He said that a 1951 report stated
that the biggest single factor affecting salmon in the Klamath is escapement, (surviving
fish returning for spawning.) The fish aren’t making it back, but the reason is not
the landowner. We are producing them. Kobseff asked what the subsistence catch numbers
were for the tribes and whether removal of nets might create better returns
Kobseff said that at a recent genetics workshop, the Alaskan
presenter pointed out that of an 11,400 chinook fish return, 90% had been jacks or
immature 2 year old fish. He said that was a symptom of under-utilized habitat. According
to Kobseff, fisheries agencies were treating Siskiyou County as if it has been in the dark
ages. The proposed County proposal to inject supplemental eggs in the Shasta River, were
coho populations have bottomed, has been stalled by the agencies over genetics. Studies
are showing that the Iron Gate hatchery genetics are already in Shasta River fish –
pure native strains are just not there anymore. Rather than killing the surplus coho that
has returned to the hatchery, eggs from these fish could have been used for
supplementation. All seven scientists at the genetics workshop agreed that it was a good
idea.
Supervisor Valenzuela said that urban and residential problems in the
plan were a non-issue here. All the projects that were “low hanging fruit” have
been done and he sees farmers and ranchers struggling. Valenzuela stated that there comes
a point where you just can’t do any more. Things that were damaging in the past have
been corrected.
Hear the hearing online at
http://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/BOS/DOCS/minutes/2012/032012/032012morningsession.wma
at 30:55
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