Occasionally a CFWC response is
posted to an article that generates a continuing dialogue, such as with this
blog. While the author of the blog responded to Mike Wade's initial comment,
his second comment, submitted yesterday, has not yet been published by the NRDC
blog moderator. Below is Mike's second comment.
Coalition response...I must correct you and say that my beef is indeed with NRDC. You had an
opportunity in your blog to discuss what's needed to help endangered species
and yet you completely ignored some of the main factors listed in the PPIC
report you quoted. In fact, the first bullet in the report's summary states: "Almost
all scientists and stakeholders agree that all five categories of ecosystem
stressors- discharges of pollutants, direct fish management, changes in the
flow regime, invasive species, and alteration of physical habitat-have
contributed to the ecosystem decline."
You ignored this top line point
in the PPIC report and rather chose to use selected parts to justify your
effort to once again blame public water agencies for the fate of salmon.
Consider these points:
* Climate conditions between 2000
and 2005 were wetter than average and did not result in increased salmon
population, as GGSA and NRDC claim should have happened.
* In February 2008 a NMFS report
(http://swfsc.noaa.gov/publications/FED/00994.pdf)
concluded that the overall cause of the recent salmon decline was ocean
conditions.
* A 2009 PFMC report (http://www.pcouncil.org/bb/2009/0409/H2b_WGR_0409.pdf)
said all of the evidence they could find pointed to ocean conditions as being
the proximate cause of the poor performance of the 2004 and 2005 broods of
Sacramento River Fall Chinook.
Neither of these agencies can be
mistaken as biased supporters of the State and federal water projects; rather
they appear here as honest brokers of balanced and trustworthy information.
Regarding the quote by Dick Pool
about "the state and federal water projects that divert too much water out
of the Delta", this too was analyzed by the Pacific Fishery Management
Council. And rather than aggregate the total volume of water diverted for the
year to create a false correlation with the decline of salmon, such as NRDC has
done, PFMC analyzed exports during the critical migration period and found that
they were, "... near average during the spring, when fall Chinook are
migrating through the Delta." In other words, of the things that changed
that could have caused the decline of salmon populations, projects' diversions
were not among them.
Public water agencies are
translating science into action by supporting, developing and/or implementing
solutions that address the need for multi-solution approaches, such as those
found in the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Those solutions will increase both
the quality and quantity of habitat diversity through ecosystem based
management, as will solutions recommended by a range of science interests from
PFMC to the PPIC.
NRDC has the opportunity to be
part of the solution but it will take a concerted effort to move beyond the
tired old approach of simply blaming the pumps.
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