In October of this year, Salmon reached Auburn Ravine Park in Lincoln, California, and started dying banging themselves to death trying to negotiate the Nevada Irrigation District's Lincoln Gauging Station, a quarter mile downstream from Highway 65 that passes through the heart of Lincoln. They are still dying as we write. Ron Nelson, General Manager of NID, assures critics that the LGS will be retrofitted for fish passage with a fish ladder by Fall of 2011, which does little to pacify the angry many who cannot understand why fish who have swum thousands of miles in the Pacific Ocean, grown to maturity over three to five years and then returned to Auburn Ravine to complete their Salmon Life Cycle are being treated to the ignoble death of dying trying to get over this manmade barrier,the Lincoln Gauging Station Dam and concrete apron, after completing their miraculous journey.
SARSAS has worked with NOAA Special Agent Don Tanner, to see that all flashboard dams downstream of the City of Lincoln are in compliance with NOAA regs; that is, the dams are removed from October 15 through April 15 to accommodate returning salmon returning to spawn. As a result salmon have clear passage to the city of Lincoln, Why is NID surprised that their three barriers, the Lincoln Gauging Station, the Hemphill Dam, and the Gold Hill Diversion Dams are the only unretrofitted barriers left on the Auburn Ravine preventing fish from reaching Wise Powerhouse, one mile downstream from the City of Auburn ... why is NID surprised when public outrage and anger are directed at them. The knew the salmon were coming since at least 2008 and yet the barriers still exist and still kill salmon. So the salmon run in Auburn Ravine is forced to die while NID works to provide passage for fish over its three remaining barriers in the Auburn Ravine.
Auburn Ravine will become a major spawning tributary for Fall Run Chinook when NID provides fish passage over its three remaining barriers.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Water Supply Forecast Boosted After Wet Fall
By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 - 10:15 am
Last Modified: Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 - 11:25 am
The state on Friday boosted its water supply forecast to 50 percent for water contractors who draw water from the Delta.
The move represents a large increase so early in the winter, a measure of confidence in water supplies thanks to a very wet fall in California.
"We don't want to be overly optimistic with most of the winter ahead of us, but recent storms have given us the best early season water supply outlook in five years," said Mark Cowin, director of the California Department of Water Resources.
The forecast indicates to agencies that buy water from the State Water Project that they can expect to get half of the maximum amount of water available to them under existing contracts with the state, which total about 4.2 million acre-feet.
These contractors include 29 public agencies, including urban water agencies in Southern California and the Silicon Valley, and the Kern County Water Agency. Collectively, they serve more than 25 million Californians and close to a million acres of irrigated farmland.
The forecast does not affect water availability in the Sacramento area, which holds its own water rights in the Sacramento and American rivers. It does, however, serve as a general measure of water availability statewide. Thanks to a wet fall, the statewide snowpack stood at 122 percent of average as of Friday.
The State Water Project stores water in Lake Oroville on the Feather River and delivers it to customers primarily via pumps and canals that extract from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The forecast is usually updated monthly in winter and spring as hydrologic conditions change. The season's first forecast in November indicated a 25 percent supply.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
mweiser@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 - 10:15 am
Last Modified: Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 - 11:25 am
The state on Friday boosted its water supply forecast to 50 percent for water contractors who draw water from the Delta.
The move represents a large increase so early in the winter, a measure of confidence in water supplies thanks to a very wet fall in California.
"We don't want to be overly optimistic with most of the winter ahead of us, but recent storms have given us the best early season water supply outlook in five years," said Mark Cowin, director of the California Department of Water Resources.
The forecast indicates to agencies that buy water from the State Water Project that they can expect to get half of the maximum amount of water available to them under existing contracts with the state, which total about 4.2 million acre-feet.
These contractors include 29 public agencies, including urban water agencies in Southern California and the Silicon Valley, and the Kern County Water Agency. Collectively, they serve more than 25 million Californians and close to a million acres of irrigated farmland.
The forecast does not affect water availability in the Sacramento area, which holds its own water rights in the Sacramento and American rivers. It does, however, serve as a general measure of water availability statewide. Thanks to a wet fall, the statewide snowpack stood at 122 percent of average as of Friday.
The State Water Project stores water in Lake Oroville on the Feather River and delivers it to customers primarily via pumps and canals that extract from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The forecast is usually updated monthly in winter and spring as hydrologic conditions change. The season's first forecast in November indicated a 25 percent supply.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Salmon Make a Comeback in Central Valley Rivers by Matt Weiser of Sacbee Nov. 13, 2010
Salmon Make a Comeback in Central
Valley Rivers
mweiser@sacbee.com
Published Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010
Salmon are returning to Central Valley rivers and streams in impressive numbers this fall,
restoring hope that years of shortages and fishing closures are over.
It's a dramatic turnaround from last year, when the Central Valley fall chinook salmon run
hit a historic low. Scientists blamed poor ocean conditions and a century of habitat
degradation in freshwater spawning areas.
It got so bad that federal officials closed commercial fishing in 2008 and 2009, taking
California salmon off dinner menus for the first time ever.
Now the fish are surging back. The numbers are not nearly as robust as in decades past. But
ocean conditions have improved, and myriad small habitat projects are starting to bear fruit.
Bryon Harris, 26, saw the results. He was walking along Auburn Ravine in Lincoln recently
with a friend. The stream runs through Placer County before emptying into the Sacramento
River via the Natomas Cross Canal.
"We hear this flopping and it sounded like the rocks were crashing," said Harris. "We look
over and there's a big old salmon right there … and there's a few more trapped in there,
trying to make it. It was jaw-dropping, almost."
The salmon made it that far because this is the first year in decades that a number of small,
seasonal diversion dams have been removed from the stream. As a result, 3-foot salmon
have been seen thrashing upstream behind mini-malls and housing tracts in suburban
Lincoln.
The volunteer group Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead persuaded landowners –
with a nudge from law enforcement – to remove the irrigation dams. Federal law requires
removal between Oct. 15 and April 15 so salmon can pass. But before they were reminded
this year, many owners either didn't know or forgot.
"I've fished the Auburn Ravine for 10 years at least, and I've never seen a salmon in there,
ever," said Harris. "I was shocked."
The Central Valley's major salmon hatcheries are reporting big increases in spawning fish
compared with last year. This includes hatcheries on Battle Creek and the Feather River,
among the biggest contributors to the population.
"We're very pleased with the run," said Brett Galyean, deputy manager at Coleman National
Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's just been
a good year."
Salmon make a comeback in Central Valley rivers - Sacramento Sports - Kings, 49ers, Ra... Page 1 of 3
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/13/v-print/3181995/salmon-make-a-comeback-in-central... 11/13/2010
The Shasta County hatchery, the Central Valley's biggest producer, has spawned about
16,000 chinook so far. That compares with about 6,500 last year.
The Feather River hatchery in Butte County, operated by the California Department of Fish
and Game, had spawned about 2,600 salmon as of Nov. 6. That is about double last year's
count at the same time.
The Mokelumne River hatchery, a smaller producer in San Joaquin County, had spawned just
over 700 fish as of the same date, or five times more than in 2009.
Nimbus Hatchery on the American River opened just two weeks ago and doesn't have
comparative results yet.
"The run to date is encouraging," said Doug Demko, president and biologist at FISHBIO, a
consulting firm based in Oakdale that monitors the run. "We've seen improvements in ocean
conditions the last few years, so we expect next year we're going to see even more fish
back."
Scientists studying the salmon crash that began in 2007 placed blame largely on poor ocean
health. Salmon in the ocean that year found little to eat, and many died.
The problem was a shift in a Pacific upwelling current that normally drives deep water to the
surface, fertilizing a crop of tiny zooplankton at the base of the food chain.
That upwelling current is back, visible in the abundance of whales and dolphins that tourists
enjoyed off the Monterey coast this summer.
Scientists say poor freshwater habitat and inadequate flows also contributed to the salmon
crash. This, plus the abundance of homogenized hatchery fish, created a weak population
vulnerable to ocean changes.
Federal officials last year imposed new rules to improve water flows on rivers and in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Efforts are also under way to restore creeks that are still
good habitat, but have not seen big salmon numbers in many years.
These small waterways include not only Auburn Ravine but also Dry Creek, which flows
through Roseville and North Sacramento and empties into the American River near Natomas.
The creek saw hundreds of spawning salmon in past years before their numbers plunged
with the rest of the region. Now it seems to be rebounding.
"We're hopeful," said Gregg Bates of the Dry Creek Conservancy, which coordinated a
volunteer salmon survey on Friday. "It doesn't look to me like we're going to reach the
numbers we had four years ago. But if we saw 50 to 100, that would be pretty exciting."
The salmon that Bryon Harris saw in Auburn Ravine was halted by the Lincoln Gauging
Station, an antiquated flow-measuring device that blocks the flow like a dam.
His friend, Carlos Hernandez, jumped into the creek and managed to grab one of the
exhausted salmon. He lifted it over the small dam, and it swam on.
"It's sad to see those fish get stuck right there," Harris said. "The fish was big, man. It was
bigger than a skateboard. It really opened my eyes."
The Nevada Irrigation District owns the gauging station and plans to begin modifications
next year so salmon can pass, said General Manager Ron Nelson. Then it plans the same at
Hemphill Dam, a larger structure upstream.
"It's pretty cool to be hearing about the possibility of fish being up there," said Nelson.
"We're kind of jazzed about that. This is a good deal, I think, for everybody."
Valley Rivers
mweiser@sacbee.com
Published Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010
Salmon are returning to Central Valley rivers and streams in impressive numbers this fall,
restoring hope that years of shortages and fishing closures are over.
It's a dramatic turnaround from last year, when the Central Valley fall chinook salmon run
hit a historic low. Scientists blamed poor ocean conditions and a century of habitat
degradation in freshwater spawning areas.
It got so bad that federal officials closed commercial fishing in 2008 and 2009, taking
California salmon off dinner menus for the first time ever.
Now the fish are surging back. The numbers are not nearly as robust as in decades past. But
ocean conditions have improved, and myriad small habitat projects are starting to bear fruit.
Bryon Harris, 26, saw the results. He was walking along Auburn Ravine in Lincoln recently
with a friend. The stream runs through Placer County before emptying into the Sacramento
River via the Natomas Cross Canal.
"We hear this flopping and it sounded like the rocks were crashing," said Harris. "We look
over and there's a big old salmon right there … and there's a few more trapped in there,
trying to make it. It was jaw-dropping, almost."
The salmon made it that far because this is the first year in decades that a number of small,
seasonal diversion dams have been removed from the stream. As a result, 3-foot salmon
have been seen thrashing upstream behind mini-malls and housing tracts in suburban
Lincoln.
The volunteer group Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead persuaded landowners –
with a nudge from law enforcement – to remove the irrigation dams. Federal law requires
removal between Oct. 15 and April 15 so salmon can pass. But before they were reminded
this year, many owners either didn't know or forgot.
"I've fished the Auburn Ravine for 10 years at least, and I've never seen a salmon in there,
ever," said Harris. "I was shocked."
The Central Valley's major salmon hatcheries are reporting big increases in spawning fish
compared with last year. This includes hatcheries on Battle Creek and the Feather River,
among the biggest contributors to the population.
"We're very pleased with the run," said Brett Galyean, deputy manager at Coleman National
Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's just been
a good year."
Salmon make a comeback in Central Valley rivers - Sacramento Sports - Kings, 49ers, Ra... Page 1 of 3
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/13/v-print/3181995/salmon-make-a-comeback-in-central... 11/13/2010
The Shasta County hatchery, the Central Valley's biggest producer, has spawned about
16,000 chinook so far. That compares with about 6,500 last year.
The Feather River hatchery in Butte County, operated by the California Department of Fish
and Game, had spawned about 2,600 salmon as of Nov. 6. That is about double last year's
count at the same time.
The Mokelumne River hatchery, a smaller producer in San Joaquin County, had spawned just
over 700 fish as of the same date, or five times more than in 2009.
Nimbus Hatchery on the American River opened just two weeks ago and doesn't have
comparative results yet.
"The run to date is encouraging," said Doug Demko, president and biologist at FISHBIO, a
consulting firm based in Oakdale that monitors the run. "We've seen improvements in ocean
conditions the last few years, so we expect next year we're going to see even more fish
back."
Scientists studying the salmon crash that began in 2007 placed blame largely on poor ocean
health. Salmon in the ocean that year found little to eat, and many died.
The problem was a shift in a Pacific upwelling current that normally drives deep water to the
surface, fertilizing a crop of tiny zooplankton at the base of the food chain.
That upwelling current is back, visible in the abundance of whales and dolphins that tourists
enjoyed off the Monterey coast this summer.
Scientists say poor freshwater habitat and inadequate flows also contributed to the salmon
crash. This, plus the abundance of homogenized hatchery fish, created a weak population
vulnerable to ocean changes.
Federal officials last year imposed new rules to improve water flows on rivers and in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Efforts are also under way to restore creeks that are still
good habitat, but have not seen big salmon numbers in many years.
These small waterways include not only Auburn Ravine but also Dry Creek, which flows
through Roseville and North Sacramento and empties into the American River near Natomas.
The creek saw hundreds of spawning salmon in past years before their numbers plunged
with the rest of the region. Now it seems to be rebounding.
"We're hopeful," said Gregg Bates of the Dry Creek Conservancy, which coordinated a
volunteer salmon survey on Friday. "It doesn't look to me like we're going to reach the
numbers we had four years ago. But if we saw 50 to 100, that would be pretty exciting."
The salmon that Bryon Harris saw in Auburn Ravine was halted by the Lincoln Gauging
Station, an antiquated flow-measuring device that blocks the flow like a dam.
His friend, Carlos Hernandez, jumped into the creek and managed to grab one of the
exhausted salmon. He lifted it over the small dam, and it swam on.
"It's sad to see those fish get stuck right there," Harris said. "The fish was big, man. It was
bigger than a skateboard. It really opened my eyes."
The Nevada Irrigation District owns the gauging station and plans to begin modifications
next year so salmon can pass, said General Manager Ron Nelson. Then it plans the same at
Hemphill Dam, a larger structure upstream.
"It's pretty cool to be hearing about the possibility of fish being up there," said Nelson.
"We're kind of jazzed about that. This is a good deal, I think, for everybody."
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Big Ag Cries Big Tears; Salmon Run Dries Up
By Larry Collin
Special to The Bee
Published: Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010 - 10:00 pm | Page 5E
I've been a California commercial fisherman for almost three decades. For most of that time, Chinook salmon constituted 70 percent or more of my business. Salmon gave me a prosperous living, and they supported the communities that I called home. They fed my family – and helped feed America. I'm proud to be a salmon fisherman, proud to be part of a venerable tradition based on a sustainable – and delicious – resource.
Then in the past few years, everything changed. California's 2008 and 2009 salmon seasons were closed following a catastrophic crash in the stocks. In the area where I fish, we were allowed eight days of fishing this year. Obviously, it's tough to make a living working one week a year.
For the first four days of this year's "season," weather kept our fleet on shore. In the remaining four days, I caught one salmon.
What caused this disaster? Lack of water. Diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta south to corporate farms have deprived salmon of water they need in their spawning streams. Further, huge government-run Delta pumps that send taxpayer-subsidized water south destroy great numbers of young salmon trying to migrate downriver to the ocean.
The biological facts are bad enough. Even worse are the power plays of Big Agribusiness. Faced with modest restrictions on subsidized water deliveries to protect fish, Big Ag bleated like an old sheep, claiming economic ruin. Politicians rewarded their calculated hysteria, augmenting their supplies with "emergency" deliveries.
Foremost among the corporate crybabies is Westlands Water District, at 600,000 acres the country's largest irrigation district. Westlands is a junior water rights holder, meaning it's legally the last in line for water during drought. Only a few hundred corporate entities make up this agricultural empire – plus a battery of lawyers working to overcome their junior water right status.
From all the wailing, you'd have thought Westlands was in worse shape than the salmon fishing ports. But – surprise! Westlands not only had enough water for their crops – they had leftovers. In fact, they had a 2010 surplus of about 450,000 acre-feet, enough water to supply 1.8 million urbanites for one year. So, they decided to trade 150,000 acre-feet to the Metropolitan Water District and generate $30 million of benefit for themselves.
In other words, Westlands is receiving subsidized water at low rates, then peddling it to cities to generate a windfall. Meanwhile, salmon – a public resource – are going belly-up, fishermen are going bankrupt and the communities that depend on commercial fishing, recreational angling and seafood processing are hollowing out.
Wonder why west-side corporate farmers fight against reasonable water policy? While crying "wolf" over water, they continue to plant more orchard crops, which require plentiful irrigation. They then use these plantings to justify their demands for more water. But their real agenda isn't crop security: It's control over the water. They'd like to be middlemen in the transfer of subsidized water from the Delta to southland cities. They dream of the day when all they'll have to do is watch the water flow and listen to the "ka-ching" of the cash registers.
Salmon are resilient, but they can't live on sunlight alone. They need water, and we should give it to them. Salmon fishing is one of America's most regulated industries. Fishermen understand the necessity for resource protection – but we demand a level playing field. The regulations that apply to us must also apply to the westside's water buccaneers. It's a matter of law and fairness.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved
Special to The Bee
Published: Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010 - 10:00 pm | Page 5E
I've been a California commercial fisherman for almost three decades. For most of that time, Chinook salmon constituted 70 percent or more of my business. Salmon gave me a prosperous living, and they supported the communities that I called home. They fed my family – and helped feed America. I'm proud to be a salmon fisherman, proud to be part of a venerable tradition based on a sustainable – and delicious – resource.
Then in the past few years, everything changed. California's 2008 and 2009 salmon seasons were closed following a catastrophic crash in the stocks. In the area where I fish, we were allowed eight days of fishing this year. Obviously, it's tough to make a living working one week a year.
For the first four days of this year's "season," weather kept our fleet on shore. In the remaining four days, I caught one salmon.
What caused this disaster? Lack of water. Diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta south to corporate farms have deprived salmon of water they need in their spawning streams. Further, huge government-run Delta pumps that send taxpayer-subsidized water south destroy great numbers of young salmon trying to migrate downriver to the ocean.
The biological facts are bad enough. Even worse are the power plays of Big Agribusiness. Faced with modest restrictions on subsidized water deliveries to protect fish, Big Ag bleated like an old sheep, claiming economic ruin. Politicians rewarded their calculated hysteria, augmenting their supplies with "emergency" deliveries.
Foremost among the corporate crybabies is Westlands Water District, at 600,000 acres the country's largest irrigation district. Westlands is a junior water rights holder, meaning it's legally the last in line for water during drought. Only a few hundred corporate entities make up this agricultural empire – plus a battery of lawyers working to overcome their junior water right status.
From all the wailing, you'd have thought Westlands was in worse shape than the salmon fishing ports. But – surprise! Westlands not only had enough water for their crops – they had leftovers. In fact, they had a 2010 surplus of about 450,000 acre-feet, enough water to supply 1.8 million urbanites for one year. So, they decided to trade 150,000 acre-feet to the Metropolitan Water District and generate $30 million of benefit for themselves.
In other words, Westlands is receiving subsidized water at low rates, then peddling it to cities to generate a windfall. Meanwhile, salmon – a public resource – are going belly-up, fishermen are going bankrupt and the communities that depend on commercial fishing, recreational angling and seafood processing are hollowing out.
Wonder why west-side corporate farmers fight against reasonable water policy? While crying "wolf" over water, they continue to plant more orchard crops, which require plentiful irrigation. They then use these plantings to justify their demands for more water. But their real agenda isn't crop security: It's control over the water. They'd like to be middlemen in the transfer of subsidized water from the Delta to southland cities. They dream of the day when all they'll have to do is watch the water flow and listen to the "ka-ching" of the cash registers.
Salmon are resilient, but they can't live on sunlight alone. They need water, and we should give it to them. Salmon fishing is one of America's most regulated industries. Fishermen understand the necessity for resource protection – but we demand a level playing field. The regulations that apply to us must also apply to the westside's water buccaneers. It's a matter of law and fairness.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved
Monday, October 4, 2010
Brainstorm Session on How to Get the Salmon From Wise Powerhouse on Tuesday, October 19 at 1pm at the Domes, 175 Fulweiler Avenue, Auburn CA95603
All interested people are invited to take part in a Brainstorming Session exploring how the Auburn community can get salmon from Wise Powerhouse to Auburn. Salmon are not yet to Wise Powerhouse but will be there shortly so advanced planning is imperative.
SARSAS will show a brief power point presentation describing the Auburn Ravine streambed and riparian habitat from Wise Powerhouse, along Ophir Road which the Auburn Ravine goes under three times, and the culvert where Auburn Ravine goes under Highway 80 and under Historic Auburn behind Courthouse Coffee and under Auburn Folsom Road, to Auburn School Park. The north fork of Auburn Ravine runs along Auburn Ravine Road and passes Ashford Park.
The meeting will begin at 1 pm, Tuesday, October 19, at the Domes, 175 Fulweiler in CEO 1. Please bring your thoughts and ideas and share them for the advanced planning.
Please respond to jlsanchez39@gmail.com to RSVP.
Thanks
SARSAS will show a brief power point presentation describing the Auburn Ravine streambed and riparian habitat from Wise Powerhouse, along Ophir Road which the Auburn Ravine goes under three times, and the culvert where Auburn Ravine goes under Highway 80 and under Historic Auburn behind Courthouse Coffee and under Auburn Folsom Road, to Auburn School Park. The north fork of Auburn Ravine runs along Auburn Ravine Road and passes Ashford Park.
The meeting will begin at 1 pm, Tuesday, October 19, at the Domes, 175 Fulweiler in CEO 1. Please bring your thoughts and ideas and share them for the advanced planning.
Please respond to jlsanchez39@gmail.com to RSVP.
Thanks
Thursday, July 15, 2010
SARSAS General Meetings, Fourth Monday of each Month, 175 Fulweiler, Auburn, CA95603 at 10 am
Agenda for July 26, 2010 SARSAS General Meeting
Agenda for July 26, 2010 - Monday 10-11:00 a.m.
175 Fulweiler Avenue, Auburn, CA 95603 (The Domes)
Contact: Jack at 530-888-0281.
Meetings are Fourth Monday of each month at 10-11 a. m
I. Self- introductions
II. SARSAS Philosophy – We believe by working together with
many individuals and agencies at the same table we can make
progress working collaboratively to make Auburn Ravine navigable for anadromous fishes.
III. Monday, July 26 - Confirmed speakers are Brett Storey, Placer County Senior Management Analyst -- “The Middle Fork and Joint Powers Authority: What They Are and How They Work”.
V. Stan Nader, SARSAS Board Member and Calling Back the Salmon Celebration Chairperson – “Update”
V. Greg Nelson, SARSAS Event Coordinator– “Summary of June 7 Rubino’s Dinner”
VI. Gen Sparks, RWB, “CVRWQCB Update”
VII. Ron Ott, SARSAS Board Member, “Meeting with FWS and GPS Map of Auburn Ravine Update”
VIII. Next Meetings Scheduled:
Monday, September, 27, Confirmed speaker is Mike Brenner, District Conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Service, “What NRCS Can Do for SARSAS and the General Public”.
Monday, October 25, 2010, Confirmed speaker is Robert Hane, “Creating Your Own Fish Runs and Habitat” – Robert owns and operates an environmentally friendly Christmas Tree Farm on the North Ravine, a tributary of the Auburn Ravine.
Monday, November 22, Confirmed speakers, Bernie Schroeder, City of Auburn Engineer, and Dan Rich, Nexgen Utility Management
Monday, August 23, Confirmed speaker is Katherine Hart, Chairperson of the California Valley Water Quality Control Board -- “How the Board Protects California’s Water Quality” and Colin Bear, Auburn Journal, “Salmon in the Classroom”.
Agenda for July 26, 2010 - Monday 10-11:00 a.m.
175 Fulweiler Avenue, Auburn, CA 95603 (The Domes)
Contact: Jack at 530-888-0281.
Meetings are Fourth Monday of each month at 10-11 a. m
I. Self- introductions
II. SARSAS Philosophy – We believe by working together with
many individuals and agencies at the same table we can make
progress working collaboratively to make Auburn Ravine navigable for anadromous fishes.
III. Monday, July 26 - Confirmed speakers are Brett Storey, Placer County Senior Management Analyst -- “The Middle Fork and Joint Powers Authority: What They Are and How They Work”.
V. Stan Nader, SARSAS Board Member and Calling Back the Salmon Celebration Chairperson – “Update”
V. Greg Nelson, SARSAS Event Coordinator– “Summary of June 7 Rubino’s Dinner”
VI. Gen Sparks, RWB, “CVRWQCB Update”
VII. Ron Ott, SARSAS Board Member, “Meeting with FWS and GPS Map of Auburn Ravine Update”
VIII. Next Meetings Scheduled:
Monday, September, 27, Confirmed speaker is Mike Brenner, District Conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Service, “What NRCS Can Do for SARSAS and the General Public”.
Monday, October 25, 2010, Confirmed speaker is Robert Hane, “Creating Your Own Fish Runs and Habitat” – Robert owns and operates an environmentally friendly Christmas Tree Farm on the North Ravine, a tributary of the Auburn Ravine.
Monday, November 22, Confirmed speakers, Bernie Schroeder, City of Auburn Engineer, and Dan Rich, Nexgen Utility Management
Monday, August 23, Confirmed speaker is Katherine Hart, Chairperson of the California Valley Water Quality Control Board -- “How the Board Protects California’s Water Quality” and Colin Bear, Auburn Journal, “Salmon in the Classroom”.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Ron Ott Holds Key to Auburn Ravine Restoration
By Colin Berr Journal Staff Writer
Ron Ott may soon hold the key to the Auburn Ravine restoration in his hands.
After months of tireless research, Ott is creating a unique book on the Auburn Ravine which lists every dam, diversion and pump from Auburn to Verona on the Sacramento River.
“Ron’s book will allow us to completely restore the Auburn Ravine to salmon and steelhead runs for spawning and return to the Pacific for maturation,” said Jack Sanchez, president of SARSAS (Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead). “His work is absolutely key to what we’re doing.”
Salmon have been a major part of Ott’s life. Growing up on the Sacramento River, Ott went on to receive three advanced degrees from Stanford, which included specialties in hydrology, hydraulics and water resources.
He has since worked nationwide on stream, river and lake restoration projects for fisheries for 43 years.
“One of the most exciting parts of my career happened when I was jogging through a neighborhood in Seattle. I turned to go by a stream that was no bigger than 6-feet-by-3-feet, and I saw hundreds of salmon thrashing and spawning,” Ott said. “It was just incredible to see nature flourishing within the confines of an urban community.”
Ott’s work seeks to counter the damage created by human diversions, such as flashboards and dams, which are set to divert water flow during certain times of the year. Salmon and steelhead are caught in the diverted water flow, and end up dying, often on the banks of farmland.
Illustrated with photographs, the book describes the maximum flows and owners of each pump, diversion and dam, cost of screening, and more extensive details.
With the information supplied by Ott, SARSAS will work to implement fish ladders and screens throughout the Ravine to divert the salmon and steelhead back along their desired route to the ocean.
“So far, SARSAS has been successful in phase one of its mission, which is to remove diversions from the Sacramento area to the city of Lincoln,” Sanchez said. “Ron’s really boosting up phase II, which runs from Auburn to the Sacramento River.”
If all goes as planned, Auburn will be one of two cities in California to see salmon spawn within city limits.
“Seeing salmon spawn and travel upstream in large numbers is very uplifting for the community,” Ott said. “In a way, the health of a salmon run can reflect the health of society.”
---------------------------
Get to know
Ron Ott
Profession:
• Started his career working for the California Department of Water Resources
• Joined major international consulting firm CH2M HILL and served as Director of Environmental Sciences, followed by Director of Water Resources and lastly the Director in Integrated Water Management.
• Fish Facility Coordinator for the California Bay Delta Program (CALFED) for 12 years
• Stared his own firm, Ott Water Engineers, which specialized in anadromous fishery restoration projects, especially fish passage projects.
• Currently owns and operates a hydro-electric plant in Northern California
Resumé highlights:
• Led science and engineering studies for water supply, water quality and fisheries on major river and estuary systems in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Wisconsin and Alaska.
• Published extensively in professional journals
• A registered civil engineer in eight states
• Received several awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers for his publications on fish passage engineering.
Favorite Pastimes:
Gold prospecting while swimming in streams; also riding ATVs throughout Northern California and Nevada with his family.
Ron Ott may soon hold the key to the Auburn Ravine restoration in his hands.
After months of tireless research, Ott is creating a unique book on the Auburn Ravine which lists every dam, diversion and pump from Auburn to Verona on the Sacramento River.
“Ron’s book will allow us to completely restore the Auburn Ravine to salmon and steelhead runs for spawning and return to the Pacific for maturation,” said Jack Sanchez, president of SARSAS (Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead). “His work is absolutely key to what we’re doing.”
Salmon have been a major part of Ott’s life. Growing up on the Sacramento River, Ott went on to receive three advanced degrees from Stanford, which included specialties in hydrology, hydraulics and water resources.
He has since worked nationwide on stream, river and lake restoration projects for fisheries for 43 years.
“One of the most exciting parts of my career happened when I was jogging through a neighborhood in Seattle. I turned to go by a stream that was no bigger than 6-feet-by-3-feet, and I saw hundreds of salmon thrashing and spawning,” Ott said. “It was just incredible to see nature flourishing within the confines of an urban community.”
Ott’s work seeks to counter the damage created by human diversions, such as flashboards and dams, which are set to divert water flow during certain times of the year. Salmon and steelhead are caught in the diverted water flow, and end up dying, often on the banks of farmland.
Illustrated with photographs, the book describes the maximum flows and owners of each pump, diversion and dam, cost of screening, and more extensive details.
With the information supplied by Ott, SARSAS will work to implement fish ladders and screens throughout the Ravine to divert the salmon and steelhead back along their desired route to the ocean.
“So far, SARSAS has been successful in phase one of its mission, which is to remove diversions from the Sacramento area to the city of Lincoln,” Sanchez said. “Ron’s really boosting up phase II, which runs from Auburn to the Sacramento River.”
If all goes as planned, Auburn will be one of two cities in California to see salmon spawn within city limits.
“Seeing salmon spawn and travel upstream in large numbers is very uplifting for the community,” Ott said. “In a way, the health of a salmon run can reflect the health of society.”
---------------------------
Get to know
Ron Ott
Profession:
• Started his career working for the California Department of Water Resources
• Joined major international consulting firm CH2M HILL and served as Director of Environmental Sciences, followed by Director of Water Resources and lastly the Director in Integrated Water Management.
• Fish Facility Coordinator for the California Bay Delta Program (CALFED) for 12 years
• Stared his own firm, Ott Water Engineers, which specialized in anadromous fishery restoration projects, especially fish passage projects.
• Currently owns and operates a hydro-electric plant in Northern California
Resumé highlights:
• Led science and engineering studies for water supply, water quality and fisheries on major river and estuary systems in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Wisconsin and Alaska.
• Published extensively in professional journals
• A registered civil engineer in eight states
• Received several awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers for his publications on fish passage engineering.
Favorite Pastimes:
Gold prospecting while swimming in streams; also riding ATVs throughout Northern California and Nevada with his family.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Panel sets fishing seasons for West Coast salmon
By ABBY HAIGHT Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
April 15, 2010, 9:14PM
PORTLAND, Ore. — For the first time since 2007, commercial and recreational fishermen will be able to cast their lines for ocean salmon from the Canadian border to Mexico.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council approved seasons and quotas for chinook and coho salmon off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California on Thursday, as it completed a weeklong session establishing policy and seasons for ocean fisheries. The coast off California and much of Oregon has been closed to commercial fishing the last two seasons because of declining salmon runs.
The council's decision should bring some relief to an industry knocked down by the one-two punch of a dismal economy and dramatic losses in the once-healthy runs of Sacramento River Basin fall chinook — the large, flavor-rich salmon that is the cornerstone of Oregon and California coastal fisheries.
"This is nothing more than a token," said Zeke Grader, director of the San Francisco-based Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents about 1,500 individual members.
Coastal communities rocked by two years of closures to commercial salmon fishing have received $170 million in federal disaster relief to help deal with the losses.
"Fishing is a gamble," said Jeff Reeves, a fisherman from Charleston, Ore., and a member of the Oregon Salmon Commission, speaking by cell phone as he pulled in crab pots. "But this is as bad as it's gotten."
The most dramatic losses have been in the Sacramento River Basin, which has seen its numbers plummet from 769,868 returning chinook in 2002 to a record-low 39,500 fall chinook last year. The management council predicts 245,000 fall-run chinook will return this year.
Many in the fishing industry blame the diversion of the Sacramento River to irrigate the San Joaquin Valley.
"California and Oregon fishing jobs are just as important as those agricultural jobs," said Paul Johnson, president of the Monterey Fish Market, a wholesale and retail seafood company in San Francisco and Berkeley. "It would be criminal to lose something that is as spectacular as a wild chinook salmon to flood a cotton crop in the desert."
Despite the reduced numbers, commercial and recreational salmon fishing contributed $17 million to the West Coast economy in 2009, according to the council.
The commercial and recreational seasons for northern Oregon and Washington, which depend on Columbia River chinook stocks, will generally run from June to late September.
The recreational season for southern Oregon and California will run from April through early September.
Oregon's commercial chinook season will run limited days from May through the end of August and include a quota of 3,000 chinook from July 1 to Aug. 31 in southern Oregon.
California's commercial season opens coastwide for eight days in July. After that, it is limited through August to the Mendocino County area and carries a 27,000-fish quota.
Getting a chance to catch chinook again has raised hopes, especially in the small fishing community of Fort Bragg, Calif. For 40 years, the town of 6,000 has celebrated July 4 with the World's Largest Salmon Barbeque, a tourist draw that benefits salmon restoration projects. It has had to buy Oregon- and Washington-caught chinook the last two years.
This year, the 400 salmon will be locally caught, organizer Jim Martin said.
________________________________________
April 15, 2010, 9:14PM
PORTLAND, Ore. — For the first time since 2007, commercial and recreational fishermen will be able to cast their lines for ocean salmon from the Canadian border to Mexico.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council approved seasons and quotas for chinook and coho salmon off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California on Thursday, as it completed a weeklong session establishing policy and seasons for ocean fisheries. The coast off California and much of Oregon has been closed to commercial fishing the last two seasons because of declining salmon runs.
The council's decision should bring some relief to an industry knocked down by the one-two punch of a dismal economy and dramatic losses in the once-healthy runs of Sacramento River Basin fall chinook — the large, flavor-rich salmon that is the cornerstone of Oregon and California coastal fisheries.
"This is nothing more than a token," said Zeke Grader, director of the San Francisco-based Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents about 1,500 individual members.
Coastal communities rocked by two years of closures to commercial salmon fishing have received $170 million in federal disaster relief to help deal with the losses.
"Fishing is a gamble," said Jeff Reeves, a fisherman from Charleston, Ore., and a member of the Oregon Salmon Commission, speaking by cell phone as he pulled in crab pots. "But this is as bad as it's gotten."
The most dramatic losses have been in the Sacramento River Basin, which has seen its numbers plummet from 769,868 returning chinook in 2002 to a record-low 39,500 fall chinook last year. The management council predicts 245,000 fall-run chinook will return this year.
Many in the fishing industry blame the diversion of the Sacramento River to irrigate the San Joaquin Valley.
"California and Oregon fishing jobs are just as important as those agricultural jobs," said Paul Johnson, president of the Monterey Fish Market, a wholesale and retail seafood company in San Francisco and Berkeley. "It would be criminal to lose something that is as spectacular as a wild chinook salmon to flood a cotton crop in the desert."
Despite the reduced numbers, commercial and recreational salmon fishing contributed $17 million to the West Coast economy in 2009, according to the council.
The commercial and recreational seasons for northern Oregon and Washington, which depend on Columbia River chinook stocks, will generally run from June to late September.
The recreational season for southern Oregon and California will run from April through early September.
Oregon's commercial chinook season will run limited days from May through the end of August and include a quota of 3,000 chinook from July 1 to Aug. 31 in southern Oregon.
California's commercial season opens coastwide for eight days in July. After that, it is limited through August to the Mendocino County area and carries a 27,000-fish quota.
Getting a chance to catch chinook again has raised hopes, especially in the small fishing community of Fort Bragg, Calif. For 40 years, the town of 6,000 has celebrated July 4 with the World's Largest Salmon Barbeque, a tourist draw that benefits salmon restoration projects. It has had to buy Oregon- and Washington-caught chinook the last two years.
This year, the 400 salmon will be locally caught, organizer Jim Martin said.
________________________________________
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Stewart Resnick, California Billionaire, Sued For Selling Stored Water Illegally
LA billionaires sued over Calif. water sales
By GARANCE BURKE (AP) – Apr 10, 2010
An $11.1 billion water bond was signed last year by Schwarzenegger. Feinstein spent $1.5 million on UCD water conference at Resnick's urging.
FRESNO, Calif. — They grew their fortune in the California sun, turning pedestrian fruits and nuts into a vast and varied empire that secured their place in Hollywood.
Stewart and Lynda Resnick's flashy bottles of Fiji Water and POM Wonderful are now coveted across the globe. Their donations keep the lights on in art museums across the country. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arianna Huffington count them among their dearest friends.
But as their marketshare rises worldwide, one of the billionaires' competitors is fighting back, accusing the Western power couple of profiting at the public's expense, court records and interviews show.
Now, as drought-stricken California weighs whether to give private companies more control in managing its scarce water supplies, a new lawsuit claiming the Resnicks violated utilities law by making money from a vast, taxpayer-funded underground reservoir is causing a stir in the state Capitol.
"Water is a public resource, owned by the people," said Democratic Assemblyman Jared Huffman of San Rafael. "We shouldn't be giving away public funds to private sector interests, let alone choosing winners and losers in the business world."
The Resnicks, who live in a Beverly Hills mansion and have a second home in Aspen, Colo., are among the nation's largest corporate farmers and are generous philanthropists and political donors, giving $536,000 to Democratic and Republican California governors in the last decade.
The Los Angeles Business Journal estimates the couple's empire is worth $1.5 billion. It includes about 120,000 acres in California's Central Valley — where they say they own more fresh citrus, almond and pistachio trees than anyone else in the country — and a facility akin to the Fort Knox of water.
That kind of success, Lynda Resnick said in a telephone interview, can inspire jealousy, and likely motivated this most recent "nuisance" lawsuit. Her husband declined to be interviewed.
After growing up working class in Highland Park, N.J., Stewart Resnick started a business waxing floors while in law school at the University of California, Los Angeles. The couple bought farmland in the 1980s as a hedge against inflation, gaining access to water contracts attached to those parcels.
As drought has hammered the region, leading farmers to abandon their dry fields, the Resnicks' 48 percent stake in the Kern Water Bank, an underground pool that stores billions of gallons of freshwater, has become increasingly valuable.
Court records show that in early 2007, the Resnicks' companies' combined water holdings reached 755,868 acre feet — more than twice the size of San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy reservoir. In 2007, that volume would have qualified as California's 11th largest reservoir, but the firms' water holdings have diminished significantly since, company officials said.
That cache provided enough to nourish the Resnicks' orchards, but it also offered another benefit. From 2000 to 2007, records show the state paid the Resnicks an additional $30.6 million for water previously stored there as part of a program to protect fish native to the ecologically fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Lynda Resnick's marketing savvy helped build cachet around her otherwise obscure brands, such as POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, Cuties mandarins and Teleflora floral bouquets.
Revered among advertisers as the "Pom Queen," she has hired medical scientists to bear out health claims that their fruits and nuts help fight disease and extend life expectancy. Last year, following a nationwide recall of pistachios over salmonella fears, she hired Levi Johnston, the teen father of Sarah Palin's grandson, to promote the snack nuts. The domestic business grew by 40 percent over the last crop year.
"We've done more for the pistachio than anyone ever since it was planted in the Garden of Eden," she said in the phone interview. "My husband should be canonized for all the work he's done."
Others in agribusiness see it differently.
Ali Amin, a Persian immigrant who owns a competing processing plant, filed a lawsuit in late March in Fresno County Superior Court claiming the Resnicks violated California public utilities laws because they turned a profit by selling water to farmers who weren't members of their Bakersfield-based water company, Westside Mutual Water Co.
"You feel like David fighting Goliath," Amin said. "If they're allowed to keep doing this, the rest of the independents and small growers won't be able to compete."
Amin's lawsuit alleges he lost $5.5 million in revenue when growers lured by water supplies sold their nuts to the Resnicks' plant, which processes almost two-thirds of the nation's pistachios. Amin controls about 5 percent of the market.
Resnick and other water users in agricultural Kern County gained control of the Kern bank — the largest underground water storage facility in the nation — in the mid 1990s, following a round of negotiations with the state Department of Water Resources. Their position was that the state had shorted rural areas in allotting water in a previous drought.
To avoid potential litigation from unhappy water users, state officials ceded ownership of the Kern Water Bank — developed with $74 million from the department and $23 million in taxpayer-approved bonds — to a local water agency. In return, water users gave back 45,000 acre feet from the amount they contracted to receive each year.
The deal was a pivotal moment in the rise of the Resnicks' business interests. Ownership of the bank ultimately was transferred to a joint powers authority including the local water agency, the Resnicks' Westside Mutual Water Co. and four water districts.
Westside distributes water stored there to its members, the operations that grow Resnick's fruits and nuts, according to court records.
To prevent price-gouging, the California Public Utilities Commission requires most mutual water companies to register as public utilities and subject their rates to state regulation if they sell water to nonmembers for profit. There are some exceptions, such as a "water emergency," but the PUC rules require those sales to nonmembers to be at cost.
PUC staff attorney Fred Harris said Westside had not registered with the PUC. If the company skirted the law, by selling water to nonmembers at a profit — as the Amin suit alleges — Harris said Westside could be required to register and set up rates with the commission.
Assemblyman Huffman and Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said those allegations in the Amin lawsuit touch on a broader debate about whether companies should be able to profit from taxpayer-funded waterworks amid a drought.
An $11.1 billion water bond signed last year by Schwarzenegger would allow private companies to partially own, operate and profit from dams, reservoirs and water banks built with billions in public funds. It won't become law unless voters approve it on the November ballot, and it's unclear how the bond proposal would interact with current laws on public-private partnerships.
"I don't think anyone wants to see this become a gift of public funds to private corporations," said Huffman, who is considering introducing a bond amendment to remove or clarify the language.
Bill Phillimore, who directs Resnick's water company, said the company has managed scarce water supplies responsibly, and he and his bosses have spent "a considerable amount of time to make sure we get value out of the last drop."
Rob Six, a spokesman for the couple's private holding company, Roll International Corp., said the Amin suit was "frivolous," and said the company would seek sanctions against Amin's processing business.
Both sides claim victory in a previous suit in which many of the same claims were raised. A jury awarded Amin $3.46 million late last month after deciding a pistachio grower who had supplied his plant breached his contract by later sending his nuts to the Resnicks. A Fresno County Superior Court judge granted the Resnicks' request to be dismissed from the suit.
After Amin's first suit was filed, two of Resnick's companies filed a federal suit in Los Angeles against Amin, his processing plant and his agricultural consultant, alleging Amin's plant engaged in false advertising that Resnick's companies to suffer up to $15 million in damages.
"There are very jealous people out there," Lynda Resnick said. "But we usually win because we have such good in-house counsel."
The Resnicks, who have had legal tangles with everyone from Tiger Woods to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, have a good track record at winning.
Their suit to kill the California Pistachio Commission, a board farmers paid to do generic marketing for the snack nut, proved so expensive that after spending more than $2 million in legal fees, farmers gave up and voted to disband the commission three years ago.
"Here you had one man who had the money and thought he knew what was best, and didn't want to take part in a democratic organization," said Brian Blackwell, president of the Western Pistachio Association, which now represents smaller growers. "Whatever he's doing, he's going to try to run the show."
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By GARANCE BURKE (AP) – Apr 10, 2010
An $11.1 billion water bond was signed last year by Schwarzenegger. Feinstein spent $1.5 million on UCD water conference at Resnick's urging.
FRESNO, Calif. — They grew their fortune in the California sun, turning pedestrian fruits and nuts into a vast and varied empire that secured their place in Hollywood.
Stewart and Lynda Resnick's flashy bottles of Fiji Water and POM Wonderful are now coveted across the globe. Their donations keep the lights on in art museums across the country. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arianna Huffington count them among their dearest friends.
But as their marketshare rises worldwide, one of the billionaires' competitors is fighting back, accusing the Western power couple of profiting at the public's expense, court records and interviews show.
Now, as drought-stricken California weighs whether to give private companies more control in managing its scarce water supplies, a new lawsuit claiming the Resnicks violated utilities law by making money from a vast, taxpayer-funded underground reservoir is causing a stir in the state Capitol.
"Water is a public resource, owned by the people," said Democratic Assemblyman Jared Huffman of San Rafael. "We shouldn't be giving away public funds to private sector interests, let alone choosing winners and losers in the business world."
The Resnicks, who live in a Beverly Hills mansion and have a second home in Aspen, Colo., are among the nation's largest corporate farmers and are generous philanthropists and political donors, giving $536,000 to Democratic and Republican California governors in the last decade.
The Los Angeles Business Journal estimates the couple's empire is worth $1.5 billion. It includes about 120,000 acres in California's Central Valley — where they say they own more fresh citrus, almond and pistachio trees than anyone else in the country — and a facility akin to the Fort Knox of water.
That kind of success, Lynda Resnick said in a telephone interview, can inspire jealousy, and likely motivated this most recent "nuisance" lawsuit. Her husband declined to be interviewed.
After growing up working class in Highland Park, N.J., Stewart Resnick started a business waxing floors while in law school at the University of California, Los Angeles. The couple bought farmland in the 1980s as a hedge against inflation, gaining access to water contracts attached to those parcels.
As drought has hammered the region, leading farmers to abandon their dry fields, the Resnicks' 48 percent stake in the Kern Water Bank, an underground pool that stores billions of gallons of freshwater, has become increasingly valuable.
Court records show that in early 2007, the Resnicks' companies' combined water holdings reached 755,868 acre feet — more than twice the size of San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy reservoir. In 2007, that volume would have qualified as California's 11th largest reservoir, but the firms' water holdings have diminished significantly since, company officials said.
That cache provided enough to nourish the Resnicks' orchards, but it also offered another benefit. From 2000 to 2007, records show the state paid the Resnicks an additional $30.6 million for water previously stored there as part of a program to protect fish native to the ecologically fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Lynda Resnick's marketing savvy helped build cachet around her otherwise obscure brands, such as POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, Cuties mandarins and Teleflora floral bouquets.
Revered among advertisers as the "Pom Queen," she has hired medical scientists to bear out health claims that their fruits and nuts help fight disease and extend life expectancy. Last year, following a nationwide recall of pistachios over salmonella fears, she hired Levi Johnston, the teen father of Sarah Palin's grandson, to promote the snack nuts. The domestic business grew by 40 percent over the last crop year.
"We've done more for the pistachio than anyone ever since it was planted in the Garden of Eden," she said in the phone interview. "My husband should be canonized for all the work he's done."
Others in agribusiness see it differently.
Ali Amin, a Persian immigrant who owns a competing processing plant, filed a lawsuit in late March in Fresno County Superior Court claiming the Resnicks violated California public utilities laws because they turned a profit by selling water to farmers who weren't members of their Bakersfield-based water company, Westside Mutual Water Co.
"You feel like David fighting Goliath," Amin said. "If they're allowed to keep doing this, the rest of the independents and small growers won't be able to compete."
Amin's lawsuit alleges he lost $5.5 million in revenue when growers lured by water supplies sold their nuts to the Resnicks' plant, which processes almost two-thirds of the nation's pistachios. Amin controls about 5 percent of the market.
Resnick and other water users in agricultural Kern County gained control of the Kern bank — the largest underground water storage facility in the nation — in the mid 1990s, following a round of negotiations with the state Department of Water Resources. Their position was that the state had shorted rural areas in allotting water in a previous drought.
To avoid potential litigation from unhappy water users, state officials ceded ownership of the Kern Water Bank — developed with $74 million from the department and $23 million in taxpayer-approved bonds — to a local water agency. In return, water users gave back 45,000 acre feet from the amount they contracted to receive each year.
The deal was a pivotal moment in the rise of the Resnicks' business interests. Ownership of the bank ultimately was transferred to a joint powers authority including the local water agency, the Resnicks' Westside Mutual Water Co. and four water districts.
Westside distributes water stored there to its members, the operations that grow Resnick's fruits and nuts, according to court records.
To prevent price-gouging, the California Public Utilities Commission requires most mutual water companies to register as public utilities and subject their rates to state regulation if they sell water to nonmembers for profit. There are some exceptions, such as a "water emergency," but the PUC rules require those sales to nonmembers to be at cost.
PUC staff attorney Fred Harris said Westside had not registered with the PUC. If the company skirted the law, by selling water to nonmembers at a profit — as the Amin suit alleges — Harris said Westside could be required to register and set up rates with the commission.
Assemblyman Huffman and Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said those allegations in the Amin lawsuit touch on a broader debate about whether companies should be able to profit from taxpayer-funded waterworks amid a drought.
An $11.1 billion water bond signed last year by Schwarzenegger would allow private companies to partially own, operate and profit from dams, reservoirs and water banks built with billions in public funds. It won't become law unless voters approve it on the November ballot, and it's unclear how the bond proposal would interact with current laws on public-private partnerships.
"I don't think anyone wants to see this become a gift of public funds to private corporations," said Huffman, who is considering introducing a bond amendment to remove or clarify the language.
Bill Phillimore, who directs Resnick's water company, said the company has managed scarce water supplies responsibly, and he and his bosses have spent "a considerable amount of time to make sure we get value out of the last drop."
Rob Six, a spokesman for the couple's private holding company, Roll International Corp., said the Amin suit was "frivolous," and said the company would seek sanctions against Amin's processing business.
Both sides claim victory in a previous suit in which many of the same claims were raised. A jury awarded Amin $3.46 million late last month after deciding a pistachio grower who had supplied his plant breached his contract by later sending his nuts to the Resnicks. A Fresno County Superior Court judge granted the Resnicks' request to be dismissed from the suit.
After Amin's first suit was filed, two of Resnick's companies filed a federal suit in Los Angeles against Amin, his processing plant and his agricultural consultant, alleging Amin's plant engaged in false advertising that Resnick's companies to suffer up to $15 million in damages.
"There are very jealous people out there," Lynda Resnick said. "But we usually win because we have such good in-house counsel."
The Resnicks, who have had legal tangles with everyone from Tiger Woods to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, have a good track record at winning.
Their suit to kill the California Pistachio Commission, a board farmers paid to do generic marketing for the snack nut, proved so expensive that after spending more than $2 million in legal fees, farmers gave up and voted to disband the commission three years ago.
"Here you had one man who had the money and thought he knew what was best, and didn't want to take part in a democratic organization," said Brian Blackwell, president of the Western Pistachio Association, which now represents smaller growers. "Whatever he's doing, he's going to try to run the show."
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Stewart Resnick, Governor Schwarzenegger, and Senator Diane Feinstein Collude to Destroy What Is Left of West Coast Salmon
The Water Bond: A Gift of Public Funds to Private Corporation
An $11.1 billion water bond was signed last year by Schwarzenegger.
April 17, 2010 in Water | Tags: $11.14 Billion water bond, Central Valley, illegally profits by selling water, Jared Huffman, No on water bond, November Ballot, Pistachio Farmer, Resnick, Water Bond, water bond opposition, water privatization, Westside Mutual Water Co. | by PCL Staff
This week, the Associated Press (AP) reported that a pistachio farmer in the Central Valley has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Westside Mutual Water Co. illegally profits by selling water to non-members. The Westside Mutual Water Co. is owned by billionaires Stewart and Linda Resnick, who control a 48 percent share of the publicly-funded Kern County Water Bank. In 2007, the Resnicks owned more than 755,868 acre-feet of water – twice the capacity of the massive Hetch-Hetchy reservoir that serves the city of San Francisco. Under California law, companies that sell water for a profit must register as public utilities and set rates with the oversight of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC); the Westside Mutual Water Co. is not registered with the PUC.
The AP report connected the lawsuit to a privatization clause included in the $11.14 billion water bond that will appear before voters this November. This clause would allow private companies to own water storage projects funded by the bond, essentially spending public funds to allow private companies to make profits on water. According to the report, Assemblymember Jared Huffman of San Rafael is considering introducing an amendment to remove the clause: “I don’t think anyone wants to see this become a gift of public funds to private corporations,” he said.
The privatization clause is one of many reasons why groups like the Planning and Conservation League, Sierra Club, and Food & Water Watch oppose the bond.
After spending another $750,000 on studies, Delta fish are still in trouble
March 22, 2010 | Lance Williams
It wasn’t sloppy science after all.
After spending $750,000 in taxpayers’ funds to assuage the suspicions of a grower with close ties to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the National Academy of Sciences says that the Delta’s fisheries are in deep trouble, all right.
Restricting the pumping of irrigation water from the Delta to try and save the Sacramento River’s storied Chinook salmon run “is scientifically justified,” the academy also declared Friday.
Those are the key conclusions of a rush-job scientific reconsideration of the shocking collapse of the Delta’s aquatic ecosystem and the efforts of federal wildlife agencies to save it – even as farmers clamored for more water during a crippling drought.
Feinstein persuaded the Obama administration to order the study last fall, a week after billionaire grower Stewart Resnick – owner of Kern County’s Paramount Farms, and her friend and political contributor for more than a decade – complained that the save-the-fish program was worsening the recession in the hard-hit Central Valley.
Besides, Resnick argued in a letter to Feinstein, there was no obvious connection between the diversions of Sacramento River water for irrigation in recent years and the disaster in the Delta, where the annual Chinook salmon run had declined from 800,000 fish to 40,000 in only eight years. Smelt and sturgeon are also in a bad way.
The pumping restrictions were based on “sloppy science,” he wrote. It was likely that urban water pollution, global warming and other factors were the real culprits, he wrote.
Resnick may be the most politically influential grower in California.
He has donated $29,000 to Feinstein over the years and also given $246,000 to Democratic political committees during years when she sought re-election. He, his wife and executives of his companies have donated nearly $4 million to favored candidates and causes, most of them in the Golden State, California Watch has reported.
Corporate farmer calls upon political allies to influence Delta dispute
December 6, 2009 | Lance Williams
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Wealthy corporate farmer Stewart Resnick has written check after check to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s political campaigns. He’s hosted a party in her honor at his Beverly Hills mansion, and he’s entertained her at his second home in Aspen.
And in September, when Resnick asked Feinstein to weigh in on the side of agribusiness in a drought-fueled environmental dispute over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, this wealthy grower and political donor got quick results, documents show.
On Sept. 4, Resnick wrote to Feinstein, complaining that the latest federal plan to rescue the Delta’s endangered salmon and smelt fisheries was “exacerbating the state’s severe drought” because it cut back on water available to irrigate crops. “Sloppy science” by federal wildlife agencies had led to “regulatory-induced water shortages,” he claimed. “I really appreciate your involvement in this issue,” he wrote to Feinstein.
One week later, Feinstein forwarded Resnick’s letter to two U.S. Cabinet secretaries. In her own letter, she urged the administration to spend $750,000 for a sweeping re-examination of the science behind the entire Delta environmental protection plan.
The Obama administration quickly agreed, authorizing another review of whether restrictions on pumping irrigation water were necessary to save the Delta’s fish. The results could delay or change the course of the protection effort.
To environmentalists concerned with protecting the Delta, it was a dispiriting display of the political clout wielded by Resnick, who is among California’s biggest growers and among its biggest political donors.
Resnick’s Paramount Farms owns 118,000 acres of heavily irrigated California orchards. And since he began buying farmland 25 years ago, Resnick, his wife, and executives of his companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees, mostly in the Golden State, a California Watch review of public records shows.
They have given $29,000 to Feinstein and $246,000 more to Democratic political committees during years when she has sought re-election.
“It is very disappointing that one person can make this kind of request, and all of a sudden he has a senator on the phone, calling up (U.S. Interior Secretary Ken) Salazar,” says Jim Metropulos, senior advocate for the Sierra Club.
Feinstein’s letter was “based on what she believes to be the best policy for California and the nation,” spokesman Gil Duran said in a statement. “No other factors play a role in her decisions.”
With the Valley’s economy battered by recession and drought, Feinstein believed it was important to reconsider the restrictions on pumping Delta water for irrigation, he said. Many farmers have urged such a review, he added.
In an interview, Resnick said he didn’t leverage his relationship with Feinstein to persuade her to intervene.
“Honestly, I’m not saying we could not have done that, but I don’t think that’s the way it happened,” he said. Feinstein long has had an interest in water issues, and “she just wanted to get to the bottom of this,” Resnick said.
A Troubled Estuary
The Delta provides drinking water for 20 million people and irrigation for the state’s vast agriculture industry. But after decades of water diversions, Delta fish populations are in catastrophic decline, scientists say.
Prodded by lawsuits from environmentalists, federal wildlife agencies commissioned scientific studies of the Delta’s ecological crisis. Based on the studies, the agencies launched a restoration program that curtailed pumping for irrigation and increased water flows for migrating fish.
Meanwhile three years of drought have forced big cuts in water allotments for farmers, and swaths of valley farmland lie fallow. The recession pushed the unemployment rate in some valley towns to 40 percent.
As a result, the restrictions on pumping Delta water became the target of a series of noisy protests that played out over the summer. Farmers and politicians blamed “radical environmentalists” – and the Obama administration – for ignoring the drought’s impact on the valley’s economy. “The government decided that the farmers come second and the delta smelt come first,” as Sean Hannity of Fox News put it on a visit to Fresno.
Farm groups filed 13 different lawsuits to overturn the restoration plans, arguing that climate change, urbanization, and discharges from sewers and factories are causing the Delta’s problems. One suit was filed in August by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a non-profit founded by three executives of Resnick’s Paramount Farms. Resnick said he is “on the periphery” of the non-profit.
People familiar with Resnick’s political operation say Feinstein’s letter is a reminder of the power he can wield on water issues.
“Paramount Farms is a huge player,” says Gerald Meral, former director of the Planning and Conservation League environmental lobby.
“They are just way different from the average farmer – far more strategic” in their thinking, Meral says.
Wealth and Philanthropy
In Los Angeles, Resnick, 72, is known as one of the city’s wealthiest men and among its most generous philanthropists. He’s given $55 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, millions more for a psychiatric hospital at UCLA and an energy institute at Cal Tech.
His wife and business partner, Lynda Resnick, is an entrepreneur, socialite and writer. Her 2008 marketing book, “Rubies in the Orchard,” had blurbs from Martha Stewart and Rupert Murdoch, and her “Ruby Tuesday” blog is sometimes featured on huffingtonpost.com. The couple live in a Beverly Hills mansion that writer Amy Wilentz called “Little Versailles.” It’s the scene of parties for celebrities, charities and politicians – governors, senators and presidential candidates.
Resnick said he worked his way through UCLA “washing windows,” and made his first million running a burglar alarm service. Since then, the couple’s Roll International holding company has profitably operated a long list of businesses: Teleflora florist wire service; POM Wonderful pomegranate juice; Franklin Mint, a mail-order collectibles firm; and FIJI bottled water, imported from the South Seas.
Underpinning their fortune is agribusiness – 70,000 acres of pistachios and almonds, 48,000 acres of citrus and pomegranates – most of it in Kern County at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley, and all requiring irrigation to survive.
Resnick said he makes political donations “without much real strategy,” other than to give to centrists from both parties. Water issues aren’t a major factor, he said.
Records show Resnick often contributes to politicians with power over the bureaucracies that make decisions affecting farming’s financial bottom line.
Since 1993, the Resnicks have given $1.6 million to California governors, key players in determining state water policy. Their donation pattern seems non-partisan, with the money following who’s in power.
In the 1990s, they gave $238,000 to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, records show, although Resnick says he doesn’t recall giving to Wilson and doesn’t think he ever met him.
The Resnicks also backed the Democrat who replaced Wilson, Gray Davis. They gave Davis $643,000 and $91,500 more to oppose Davis’ recall in 2003.
With Davis gone, Resnick began donating to Arnold Schwarzenegger – $221,000, records show – plus $50,000 to a foundation that pays for the governor’s foreign travel.
Other big donations include $776,000 to Democratic political committees; $134,000 to agribusiness political committees and initiatives; and $59,000 to Republican committees.
Hedging Bets
The Resnicks have developed easy access to some of the politicians to whom they donate.
Schwarzenegger has called them “some of my dearest, dearest friends,” and like Feinstein, he has urged a review of the science behind the Delta restoration plan. Davis appointed Resnick co-chair to a special state committee on water and agriculture.
A more enduring benefit came during Wilson’s administration, when Paramount Farms gained part ownership of what was to have been a state-owned storage bank for surplus water.
As recounted in a report by the advocacy group Public Citizen, in the 1980s state water officials devised a plan to ease the impact of future droughts by collecting excess water during rainy years and storing it underground.
The water was to be pumped south via the California Aqueduct, then put into a vast aquifer in Kern County that could hold a year’s water supply for one million homes.
The state spent about $75 million to buy a 20,000-acre site and to design the water bank. But in 1994, state water officials transferred the water bank site to the local Kern County Water Agency in exchange for significant water rights, Resnick said. The water agency developed the water bank in partnership with four other public agencies and one private business – a subsidiary of Paramount Farms. Paramount wound up controlling a 48 percent share of the bank.
Resnick said the state had been unable to develop the water bank and gave up on the project. The local agencies and his company spent about $50 million to engineer the project and make the bank a success, he said.
Paramount’s control of the bank continues to infuriate some environmentalists. In recent dry years, the bank sold some of its stored water back to the state at a premium, Public Citizen reported.
“Resnick likes to call himself a farmer, but he is in the business of selling public water, with none of the profits returned to the taxpayers,” says Walter Shubin, a director of the Revive the San Joaquin environmental group in Fresno.
A supportive community
When she first emerged as a statewide candidate in the 1990 governor’s race,Feinstein made little headway in the Central Valley, and she was defeated by Wilson. After she was elected to the Senate two years later, Feinstein set out to befriend farmers.
Her attention to agriculture and water issues has paid off, says Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former Wilson aide
“That community has been very supportive of her, much more for her than for most statewide Democrats,” Schnur says.
The Resnicks contributed $4,000 to Feinstein’s 1994 re-election campaign. When she ran again in 2000, they gave her $7,000. Resnick also donated $225,000 to Democratic political committees that were active in key Democratic races.
Resnick said he first got to know Feinstein personally 10 or 12 years ago because the senator also has a second home in Aspen.
In August 2000, when the Democratic National convention was in Los Angeles, the Resnicks hosted a cocktail party for Feinstein in their home. Among the guests were the singer Nancy Sinatra, then-Gov. Davis and former President Jimmy Carter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In 2007, they gave $10,000 to the Fund for the Majority, Feinstein’s political action committee. In June, another committee to which Resnick has contributed, the California Citrus Mutual PAC, spent $2,500 to host a fundraiser for Feinstein, records show.
Feinstein also socializes with the Resnicks. Arianna Huffington, the blog editor and former candidate for governor, told the New York Observer in 2006 that she has pent New Year’s with Feinstein at the Resnicks’ home in Aspen. “We wore silly hats and had lots of streamers and everything,” she said of the party.
On Aug. 26, Feinstein met with growers and water agency officials in Coalinga, Fresno County. While there, she told the Fresno Bee that she wanted the U.S. Interior Department to reconsider the biological opinions underlying the Delta protection plan.
The following week, she received the letter from Resnick, which was first reported by the Contra Costa Times. She then sent her own letters to Interior Secretary Salazar and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Days later, the administration agreed to pay $750,000 to have the National Academy of Sciences re-study the scientific issues underlying the Delta protection plan.
Last month, state lawmakers enacted a package of measures aimed at reforming the state’s outmoded water allocation system. The centerpiece – an $11 billion bond to build new dams and canals – must be approved by voters.
•
Lance Williams reported this story.
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Resnick and associates spend nearly $4 million on campaigns
December 6, 2009
Stewart Resnick, his wife, and executives of his companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees, mostly in the Golden State since 1993. Here are the recipients of contributions of $10,000 or more. You can sort by clicking on any of the column headers.
Recipient Campaigns Party Amount
DEMOCRATIC PARTY COMMITTEES INCLUDES DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE DEM $776,638
GRAY DAVIS GOVERNOR UNTIL 2003; LT. GOV.; CONTROLLER DEM $643,030
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER GOVERNOR REP $271,990
PETE WILSON GOVERNOR UNTIL 1998 REP $238,500
RICHARD RIORDAN LOS ANGELES MAYOR UNTIL 2001; INCLUDES BALLOT MEASURES REP $135,000
OPEN-PRIMARY INITIATIVE FAILED 2004 BALLOT MEASURE NP $150,000
AGRICULTURE PACS INCLUDES WESTERN GROWERS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE NP $134,889
KATHLEEN BROWN FORMER STATE TREASURER; LOST 1994 GOVERNOR'S RACE DEM $118,437
JERRY BROWN ATTORNEY GENERAL; INCLUDES DONATIONS TO A CHARTER SCHOOL HE FOUNDED DEM $85,800
REPUBLICAN PARTY COMMITTEES INCLUDES REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE REP $59,276
FOSTER-CARE REFORM INITIATIVE PROPOSED STATE INITIATIVE NP $50,000
STEM-CELL-RESEARCH INITIATIVE BALLOT MEASURE PASSED IN 2004 NP $50,000
STEVE WESTLY LOST 2006 PRIMARY FOR GOVERNOR DEM $48,600
RECALL OPPONENTS FAILED MEASURE TO STOP RECALL OF GOV. DAVIS IN 2003 NP $91,500
ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA LOS ANGELES MAYOR DEM $41,500
JANE HARMAN CONGRESSWOMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $37,900
DIANNE FEINSTEIN SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA DEM $29,950
ED RENDELL GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA DEM $29,000
JAMES HAHN LOS ANGELES MAYOR UNTIL 2005 DEM $28,000
GAVIN NEWSOM SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR DEM $27,150
PHIL ANGELIDES TREASURER; LOST 2006 GOVERNOR'S RACE DEM $27,000
HILLARY CLINTON SECRETARY OF STATE, FORMER NEW YORK SENATOR AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DEM $26,950
CLASS-SIZE-REDUCTION INITIATIVE STATE MEASURE PASSED 1998 NP $25,000
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF HUFFINGTON POST, CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR IN 2003 IND. $25,000
DON PERATA STATE SENATE LEADER; RETIRED IN 2008 DEM $25,000
BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL AND ILLINOIS SENATE CAMPAIGNS DEM $22,150
JOHN MCCAIN PRESIDENTIAL AND ARIZONA SENATE CAMPAIGNS REP $20,750
KEVIN DE LEON ASSEMBLYMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $19,200
DARRELL STEINBERG SENATE PRESIDENT PRO TEMP, CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE DEM $18,600
GARY CONDIT CONGRESSMAN FROM CENTRAL VALLEY; DEFEATED IN 2002 DEM $17,700
BARBARA BOXER SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA DEM $17,000
DAN LUNGREN CONGRESSMAN FROM SACRAMENTO; LOST 1998 GOVERNOR'S RACE REP $17,000
GIL GARCETTI LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY UNTIL 2000 NP $16,000
ROCKY DELGADILLO LOS ANGELES CITY ATTORNEY UNTIL 2009 DEM $15,200
PLANNED PARENTHOOD PAC FEDERAL AND STATE COMMITTEES NP $15,000
TOBACCO TAX INITIATIVE 1998 STATE BALLOT MEASURE NP $15,000
JIM COSTA CONGRESSMAN FROM FRESNO; FORMER STATE SENATOR DEM $14,950
BRAD SHERMAN CONGRESSMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $13,650
ED MARKEY CONGRESSMAN FROM MASSACHUSETTS DEM $13,300
RUSTY AREIAS FORMER STATE SENATOR FROM LOS BANOS DEM $13,000
DEAN FLOREZ STATE SENATOR FROM BAKERSFIELD DEM $13,000
DENNIS CARDOZA CONGRESSMAN FROM MERCED; FORMER ASSEMBLYMAN DEM $12,800
CHUCK POOCHIGIAN FORMER FRESNO LAWMAKER; DEFEATED FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL IN 2006 REP $12,425
TOM HARKIN SENATOR FROM IOWA DEM $12,200
HENRY WAXMAN CONGRESSMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $12,000
KEVIN MCCARTHY CONGRESSMAN FROM BAKERSFIELD REP $11,150
TOM LANTOS LATE CONGRESSMAN FROM SAN MATEO DEM $11,100
JOE BIDEN U.S. VICE PRESIDENT; FORMER SENATOR FROM DELAWARE DEM $11,000
HOWARD BERMAN CONGRESSMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $10,900
CAL DOOLEY FORMER CONGRESSMAN FROM VISALIA DEM $10,250
MICHELA ALIOTO-PIER SF SUPERVISOR; LOST SECRETARY OF STATE RACE IN 2002 DEM $10,000
JOHN GARAMENDI CONGRESSMAN FROM THE EAST BAY, DEFEATED FOR GOVERNOR IN 1994, NOW RUNNING FOR CONGRESS DEM $10,000
JOHN KERRY SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS; LOST PRESIDENTIAL RACE IN 2004 DEM $10,000
REDISTRICTING INITIATIVE STATE INITIATIVE PASSED IN 2008 NP $10,000
Sources: Federal Election Commission; California Secretary of State; California State Archives; San Francisco and Los Angeles ethics commissions; Pennsylvania Department of State.
Produced by Lance Williams, Agustin Armendariz and Lisa Pickoff-White
Within a week, Feinstein wrote to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, dropping Resnick’s name and urging a new look at the science. Salazar promptly agreed.
The transaction dispirited environmentalists. They argued that another study was pointless, especially given that this latest save-the-Delta effort was only a few years old.
After its results were announced, the Environmental Defense Fund’s Ann Hayden told the San Francisco Chronicle, "We're looking forward to moving on from this whole fish vs. farm focus.”
But the urge to ridicule environmental-protection efforts that cost working people their jobs may be irresistible this election year.
There’s even a right-to-life angle, says GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard executive who hopes to run against Sen. Barbara Boxer in the fall.
Boxer, like most state Democrats, took the environmentalists' side in the dispute.
“Isn’t it ironic that Barbara Boxer worked so hard to protect a 2-inch fish, but she can’t find it in her heart to protect the lives of the unborn?” the L.A. Times quoted Fiorina as saying.
Corporate farmer calls upon political allies to influence Delta dispute
December 6, 2009 | Lance Williams
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Wealthy corporate farmer Stewart Resnick has written check after check to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s political campaigns. He’s hosted a party in her honor at his Beverly Hills mansion, and he’s entertained her at his second home in Aspen.
And in September, when Resnick asked Feinstein to weigh in on the side of agribusiness in a drought-fueled environmental dispute over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, this wealthy grower and political donor got quick results, documents show.
On Sept. 4, Resnick wrote to Feinstein, complaining that the latest federal plan to rescue the Delta’s endangered salmon and smelt fisheries was “exacerbating the state’s severe drought” because it cut back on water available to irrigate crops. “Sloppy science” by federal wildlife agencies had led to “regulatory-induced water shortages,” he claimed. “I really appreciate your involvement in this issue,” he wrote to Feinstein.
One week later, Feinstein forwarded Resnick’s letter to two U.S. Cabinet secretaries. In her own letter, she urged the administration to spend $750,000 for a sweeping re-examination of the science behind the entire Delta environmental protection plan.
The Obama administration quickly agreed, authorizing another review of whether restrictions on pumping irrigation water were necessary to save the Delta’s fish. The results could delay or change the course of the protection effort.
To environmentalists concerned with protecting the Delta, it was a dispiriting display of the political clout wielded by Resnick, who is among California’s biggest growers and among its biggest political donors.
Resnick’s Paramount Farms owns 118,000 acres of heavily irrigated California orchards. And since he began buying farmland 25 years ago, Resnick, his wife, and executives of his companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees, mostly in the Golden State, a California Watch review of public records shows.
They have given $29,000 to Feinstein and $246,000 more to Democratic political committees during years when she has sought re-election.
“It is very disappointing that one person can make this kind of request, and all of a sudden he has a senator on the phone, calling up (U.S. Interior Secretary Ken) Salazar,” says Jim Metropulos, senior advocate for the Sierra Club.
Feinstein’s letter was “based on what she believes to be the best policy for California and the nation,” spokesman Gil Duran said in a statement. “No other factors play a role in her decisions.”
With the Valley’s economy battered by recession and drought, Feinstein believed it was important to reconsider the restrictions on pumping Delta water for irrigation, he said. Many farmers have urged such a review, he added.
In an interview, Resnick said he didn’t leverage his relationship with Feinstein to persuade her to intervene.
“Honestly, I’m not saying we could not have done that, but I don’t think that’s the way it happened,” he said. Feinstein long has had an interest in water issues, and “she just wanted to get to the bottom of this,” Resnick said.
A Troubled Estuary
The Delta provides drinking water for 20 million people and irrigation for the state’s vast agriculture industry. But after decades of water diversions, Delta fish populations are in catastrophic decline, scientists say.
Prodded by lawsuits from environmentalists, federal wildlife agencies commissioned scientific studies of the Delta’s ecological crisis. Based on the studies, the agencies launched a restoration program that curtailed pumping for irrigation and increased water flows for migrating fish.
Meanwhile three years of drought have forced big cuts in water allotments for farmers, and swaths of valley farmland lie fallow. The recession pushed the unemployment rate in some valley towns to 40 percent.
As a result, the restrictions on pumping Delta water became the target of a series of noisy protests that played out over the summer. Farmers and politicians blamed “radical environmentalists” – and the Obama administration – for ignoring the drought’s impact on the valley’s economy. “The government decided that the farmers come second and the delta smelt come first,” as Sean Hannity of Fox News put it on a visit to Fresno.
Farm groups filed 13 different lawsuits to overturn the restoration plans, arguing that climate change, urbanization, and discharges from sewers and factories are causing the Delta’s problems. One suit was filed in August by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a non-profit founded by three executives of Resnick’s Paramount Farms. Resnick said he is “on the periphery” of the non-profit.
People familiar with Resnick’s political operation say Feinstein’s letter is a reminder of the power he can wield on water issues.
“Paramount Farms is a huge player,” says Gerald Meral, former director of the Planning and Conservation League environmental lobby.
“They are just way different from the average farmer – far more strategic” in their thinking, Meral says.
Wealth and Philanthropy
In Los Angeles, Resnick, 72, is known as one of the city’s wealthiest men and among its most generous philanthropists. He’s given $55 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, millions more for a psychiatric hospital at UCLA and an energy institute at Cal Tech.
His wife and business partner, Lynda Resnick, is an entrepreneur, socialite and writer. Her 2008 marketing book, “Rubies in the Orchard,” had blurbs from Martha Stewart and Rupert Murdoch, and her “Ruby Tuesday” blog is sometimes featured on huffingtonpost.com. The couple live in a Beverly Hills mansion that writer Amy Wilentz called “Little Versailles.” It’s the scene of parties for celebrities, charities and politicians – governors, senators and presidential candidates.
Resnick said he worked his way through UCLA “washing windows,” and made his first million running a burglar alarm service. Since then, the couple’s Roll International holding company has profitably operated a long list of businesses: Teleflora florist wire service; POM Wonderful pomegranate juice; Franklin Mint, a mail-order collectibles firm; and FIJI bottled water, imported from the South Seas.
Underpinning their fortune is agribusiness – 70,000 acres of pistachios and almonds, 48,000 acres of citrus and pomegranates – most of it in Kern County at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley, and all requiring irrigation to survive.
Resnick said he makes political donations “without much real strategy,” other than to give to centrists from both parties. Water issues aren’t a major factor, he said.
Records show Resnick often contributes to politicians with power over the bureaucracies that make decisions affecting farming’s financial bottom line.
Since 1993, the Resnicks have given $1.6 million to California governors, key players in determining state water policy. Their donation pattern seems non-partisan, with the money following who’s in power.
In the 1990s, they gave $238,000 to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, records show, although Resnick says he doesn’t recall giving to Wilson and doesn’t think he ever met him.
The Resnicks also backed the Democrat who replaced Wilson, Gray Davis. They gave Davis $643,000 and $91,500 more to oppose Davis’ recall in 2003.
With Davis gone, Resnick began donating to Arnold Schwarzenegger – $221,000, records show – plus $50,000 to a foundation that pays for the governor’s foreign travel.
Other big donations include $776,000 to Democratic political committees; $134,000 to agribusiness political committees and initiatives; and $59,000 to Republican committees.
Hedging Bets
The Resnicks have developed easy access to some of the politicians to whom they donate.
Schwarzenegger has called them “some of my dearest, dearest friends,” and like Feinstein, he has urged a review of the science behind the Delta restoration plan. Davis appointed Resnick co-chair to a special state committee on water and agriculture.
A more enduring benefit came during Wilson’s administration, when Paramount Farms gained part ownership of what was to have been a state-owned storage bank for surplus water.
As recounted in a report by the advocacy group Public Citizen, in the 1980s state water officials devised a plan to ease the impact of future droughts by collecting excess water during rainy years and storing it underground.
The water was to be pumped south via the California Aqueduct, then put into a vast aquifer in Kern County that could hold a year’s water supply for one million homes.
The state spent about $75 million to buy a 20,000-acre site and to design the water bank. But in 1994, state water officials transferred the water bank site to the local Kern County Water Agency in exchange for significant water rights, Resnick said. The water agency developed the water bank in partnership with four other public agencies and one private business – a subsidiary of Paramount Farms. Paramount wound up controlling a 48 percent share of the bank.
Resnick said the state had been unable to develop the water bank and gave up on the project. The local agencies and his company spent about $50 million to engineer the project and make the bank a success, he said.
Paramount’s control of the bank continues to infuriate some environmentalists. In recent dry years, the bank sold some of its stored water back to the state at a premium, Public Citizen reported.
“Resnick likes to call himself a farmer, but he is in the business of selling public water, with none of the profits returned to the taxpayers,” says Walter Shubin, a director of the Revive the San Joaquin environmental group in Fresno.
A supportive community
When she first emerged as a statewide candidate in the 1990 governor’s race,Feinstein made little headway in the Central Valley, and she was defeated by Wilson. After she was elected to the Senate two years later, Feinstein set out to befriend farmers.
Her attention to agriculture and water issues has paid off, says Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former Wilson aide
“That community has been very supportive of her, much more for her than for most statewide Democrats,” Schnur says.
The Resnicks contributed $4,000 to Feinstein’s 1994 re-election campaign. When she ran again in 2000, they gave her $7,000. Resnick also donated $225,000 to Democratic political committees that were active in key Democratic races.
Resnick said he first got to know Feinstein personally 10 or 12 years ago because the senator also has a second home in Aspen.
In August 2000, when the Democratic National convention was in Los Angeles, the Resnicks hosted a cocktail party for Feinstein in their home. Among the guests were the singer Nancy Sinatra, then-Gov. Davis and former President Jimmy Carter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In 2007, they gave $10,000 to the Fund for the Majority, Feinstein’s political action committee. In June, another committee to which Resnick has contributed, the California Citrus Mutual PAC, spent $2,500 to host a fundraiser for Feinstein, records show.
Feinstein also socializes with the Resnicks. Arianna Huffington, the blog editor and former candidate for governor, told the New York Observer in 2006 that she has pent New Year’s with Feinstein at the Resnicks’ home in Aspen. “We wore silly hats and had lots of streamers and everything,” she said of the party.
On Aug. 26, Feinstein met with growers and water agency officials in Coalinga, Fresno County. While there, she told the Fresno Bee that she wanted the U.S. Interior Department to reconsider the biological opinions underlying the Delta protection plan.
The following week, she received the letter from Resnick, which was first reported by the Contra Costa Times. She then sent her own letters to Interior Secretary Salazar and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Days later, the administration agreed to pay $750,000 to have the National Academy of Sciences re-study the scientific issues underlying the Delta protection plan.
Last month, state lawmakers enacted a package of measures aimed at reforming the state’s outmoded water allocation system. The centerpiece – an $11 billion bond to build new dams and canals – must be approved by voters.
An $11.1 billion water bond was signed last year by Schwarzenegger.
April 17, 2010 in Water | Tags: $11.14 Billion water bond, Central Valley, illegally profits by selling water, Jared Huffman, No on water bond, November Ballot, Pistachio Farmer, Resnick, Water Bond, water bond opposition, water privatization, Westside Mutual Water Co. | by PCL Staff
This week, the Associated Press (AP) reported that a pistachio farmer in the Central Valley has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Westside Mutual Water Co. illegally profits by selling water to non-members. The Westside Mutual Water Co. is owned by billionaires Stewart and Linda Resnick, who control a 48 percent share of the publicly-funded Kern County Water Bank. In 2007, the Resnicks owned more than 755,868 acre-feet of water – twice the capacity of the massive Hetch-Hetchy reservoir that serves the city of San Francisco. Under California law, companies that sell water for a profit must register as public utilities and set rates with the oversight of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC); the Westside Mutual Water Co. is not registered with the PUC.
The AP report connected the lawsuit to a privatization clause included in the $11.14 billion water bond that will appear before voters this November. This clause would allow private companies to own water storage projects funded by the bond, essentially spending public funds to allow private companies to make profits on water. According to the report, Assemblymember Jared Huffman of San Rafael is considering introducing an amendment to remove the clause: “I don’t think anyone wants to see this become a gift of public funds to private corporations,” he said.
The privatization clause is one of many reasons why groups like the Planning and Conservation League, Sierra Club, and Food & Water Watch oppose the bond.
After spending another $750,000 on studies, Delta fish are still in trouble
March 22, 2010 | Lance Williams
It wasn’t sloppy science after all.
After spending $750,000 in taxpayers’ funds to assuage the suspicions of a grower with close ties to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the National Academy of Sciences says that the Delta’s fisheries are in deep trouble, all right.
Restricting the pumping of irrigation water from the Delta to try and save the Sacramento River’s storied Chinook salmon run “is scientifically justified,” the academy also declared Friday.
Those are the key conclusions of a rush-job scientific reconsideration of the shocking collapse of the Delta’s aquatic ecosystem and the efforts of federal wildlife agencies to save it – even as farmers clamored for more water during a crippling drought.
Feinstein persuaded the Obama administration to order the study last fall, a week after billionaire grower Stewart Resnick – owner of Kern County’s Paramount Farms, and her friend and political contributor for more than a decade – complained that the save-the-fish program was worsening the recession in the hard-hit Central Valley.
Besides, Resnick argued in a letter to Feinstein, there was no obvious connection between the diversions of Sacramento River water for irrigation in recent years and the disaster in the Delta, where the annual Chinook salmon run had declined from 800,000 fish to 40,000 in only eight years. Smelt and sturgeon are also in a bad way.
The pumping restrictions were based on “sloppy science,” he wrote. It was likely that urban water pollution, global warming and other factors were the real culprits, he wrote.
Resnick may be the most politically influential grower in California.
He has donated $29,000 to Feinstein over the years and also given $246,000 to Democratic political committees during years when she sought re-election. He, his wife and executives of his companies have donated nearly $4 million to favored candidates and causes, most of them in the Golden State, California Watch has reported.
Corporate farmer calls upon political allies to influence Delta dispute
December 6, 2009 | Lance Williams
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Wealthy corporate farmer Stewart Resnick has written check after check to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s political campaigns. He’s hosted a party in her honor at his Beverly Hills mansion, and he’s entertained her at his second home in Aspen.
And in September, when Resnick asked Feinstein to weigh in on the side of agribusiness in a drought-fueled environmental dispute over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, this wealthy grower and political donor got quick results, documents show.
On Sept. 4, Resnick wrote to Feinstein, complaining that the latest federal plan to rescue the Delta’s endangered salmon and smelt fisheries was “exacerbating the state’s severe drought” because it cut back on water available to irrigate crops. “Sloppy science” by federal wildlife agencies had led to “regulatory-induced water shortages,” he claimed. “I really appreciate your involvement in this issue,” he wrote to Feinstein.
One week later, Feinstein forwarded Resnick’s letter to two U.S. Cabinet secretaries. In her own letter, she urged the administration to spend $750,000 for a sweeping re-examination of the science behind the entire Delta environmental protection plan.
The Obama administration quickly agreed, authorizing another review of whether restrictions on pumping irrigation water were necessary to save the Delta’s fish. The results could delay or change the course of the protection effort.
To environmentalists concerned with protecting the Delta, it was a dispiriting display of the political clout wielded by Resnick, who is among California’s biggest growers and among its biggest political donors.
Resnick’s Paramount Farms owns 118,000 acres of heavily irrigated California orchards. And since he began buying farmland 25 years ago, Resnick, his wife, and executives of his companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees, mostly in the Golden State, a California Watch review of public records shows.
They have given $29,000 to Feinstein and $246,000 more to Democratic political committees during years when she has sought re-election.
“It is very disappointing that one person can make this kind of request, and all of a sudden he has a senator on the phone, calling up (U.S. Interior Secretary Ken) Salazar,” says Jim Metropulos, senior advocate for the Sierra Club.
Feinstein’s letter was “based on what she believes to be the best policy for California and the nation,” spokesman Gil Duran said in a statement. “No other factors play a role in her decisions.”
With the Valley’s economy battered by recession and drought, Feinstein believed it was important to reconsider the restrictions on pumping Delta water for irrigation, he said. Many farmers have urged such a review, he added.
In an interview, Resnick said he didn’t leverage his relationship with Feinstein to persuade her to intervene.
“Honestly, I’m not saying we could not have done that, but I don’t think that’s the way it happened,” he said. Feinstein long has had an interest in water issues, and “she just wanted to get to the bottom of this,” Resnick said.
A Troubled Estuary
The Delta provides drinking water for 20 million people and irrigation for the state’s vast agriculture industry. But after decades of water diversions, Delta fish populations are in catastrophic decline, scientists say.
Prodded by lawsuits from environmentalists, federal wildlife agencies commissioned scientific studies of the Delta’s ecological crisis. Based on the studies, the agencies launched a restoration program that curtailed pumping for irrigation and increased water flows for migrating fish.
Meanwhile three years of drought have forced big cuts in water allotments for farmers, and swaths of valley farmland lie fallow. The recession pushed the unemployment rate in some valley towns to 40 percent.
As a result, the restrictions on pumping Delta water became the target of a series of noisy protests that played out over the summer. Farmers and politicians blamed “radical environmentalists” – and the Obama administration – for ignoring the drought’s impact on the valley’s economy. “The government decided that the farmers come second and the delta smelt come first,” as Sean Hannity of Fox News put it on a visit to Fresno.
Farm groups filed 13 different lawsuits to overturn the restoration plans, arguing that climate change, urbanization, and discharges from sewers and factories are causing the Delta’s problems. One suit was filed in August by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a non-profit founded by three executives of Resnick’s Paramount Farms. Resnick said he is “on the periphery” of the non-profit.
People familiar with Resnick’s political operation say Feinstein’s letter is a reminder of the power he can wield on water issues.
“Paramount Farms is a huge player,” says Gerald Meral, former director of the Planning and Conservation League environmental lobby.
“They are just way different from the average farmer – far more strategic” in their thinking, Meral says.
Wealth and Philanthropy
In Los Angeles, Resnick, 72, is known as one of the city’s wealthiest men and among its most generous philanthropists. He’s given $55 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, millions more for a psychiatric hospital at UCLA and an energy institute at Cal Tech.
His wife and business partner, Lynda Resnick, is an entrepreneur, socialite and writer. Her 2008 marketing book, “Rubies in the Orchard,” had blurbs from Martha Stewart and Rupert Murdoch, and her “Ruby Tuesday” blog is sometimes featured on huffingtonpost.com. The couple live in a Beverly Hills mansion that writer Amy Wilentz called “Little Versailles.” It’s the scene of parties for celebrities, charities and politicians – governors, senators and presidential candidates.
Resnick said he worked his way through UCLA “washing windows,” and made his first million running a burglar alarm service. Since then, the couple’s Roll International holding company has profitably operated a long list of businesses: Teleflora florist wire service; POM Wonderful pomegranate juice; Franklin Mint, a mail-order collectibles firm; and FIJI bottled water, imported from the South Seas.
Underpinning their fortune is agribusiness – 70,000 acres of pistachios and almonds, 48,000 acres of citrus and pomegranates – most of it in Kern County at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley, and all requiring irrigation to survive.
Resnick said he makes political donations “without much real strategy,” other than to give to centrists from both parties. Water issues aren’t a major factor, he said.
Records show Resnick often contributes to politicians with power over the bureaucracies that make decisions affecting farming’s financial bottom line.
Since 1993, the Resnicks have given $1.6 million to California governors, key players in determining state water policy. Their donation pattern seems non-partisan, with the money following who’s in power.
In the 1990s, they gave $238,000 to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, records show, although Resnick says he doesn’t recall giving to Wilson and doesn’t think he ever met him.
The Resnicks also backed the Democrat who replaced Wilson, Gray Davis. They gave Davis $643,000 and $91,500 more to oppose Davis’ recall in 2003.
With Davis gone, Resnick began donating to Arnold Schwarzenegger – $221,000, records show – plus $50,000 to a foundation that pays for the governor’s foreign travel.
Other big donations include $776,000 to Democratic political committees; $134,000 to agribusiness political committees and initiatives; and $59,000 to Republican committees.
Hedging Bets
The Resnicks have developed easy access to some of the politicians to whom they donate.
Schwarzenegger has called them “some of my dearest, dearest friends,” and like Feinstein, he has urged a review of the science behind the Delta restoration plan. Davis appointed Resnick co-chair to a special state committee on water and agriculture.
A more enduring benefit came during Wilson’s administration, when Paramount Farms gained part ownership of what was to have been a state-owned storage bank for surplus water.
As recounted in a report by the advocacy group Public Citizen, in the 1980s state water officials devised a plan to ease the impact of future droughts by collecting excess water during rainy years and storing it underground.
The water was to be pumped south via the California Aqueduct, then put into a vast aquifer in Kern County that could hold a year’s water supply for one million homes.
The state spent about $75 million to buy a 20,000-acre site and to design the water bank. But in 1994, state water officials transferred the water bank site to the local Kern County Water Agency in exchange for significant water rights, Resnick said. The water agency developed the water bank in partnership with four other public agencies and one private business – a subsidiary of Paramount Farms. Paramount wound up controlling a 48 percent share of the bank.
Resnick said the state had been unable to develop the water bank and gave up on the project. The local agencies and his company spent about $50 million to engineer the project and make the bank a success, he said.
Paramount’s control of the bank continues to infuriate some environmentalists. In recent dry years, the bank sold some of its stored water back to the state at a premium, Public Citizen reported.
“Resnick likes to call himself a farmer, but he is in the business of selling public water, with none of the profits returned to the taxpayers,” says Walter Shubin, a director of the Revive the San Joaquin environmental group in Fresno.
A supportive community
When she first emerged as a statewide candidate in the 1990 governor’s race,Feinstein made little headway in the Central Valley, and she was defeated by Wilson. After she was elected to the Senate two years later, Feinstein set out to befriend farmers.
Her attention to agriculture and water issues has paid off, says Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former Wilson aide
“That community has been very supportive of her, much more for her than for most statewide Democrats,” Schnur says.
The Resnicks contributed $4,000 to Feinstein’s 1994 re-election campaign. When she ran again in 2000, they gave her $7,000. Resnick also donated $225,000 to Democratic political committees that were active in key Democratic races.
Resnick said he first got to know Feinstein personally 10 or 12 years ago because the senator also has a second home in Aspen.
In August 2000, when the Democratic National convention was in Los Angeles, the Resnicks hosted a cocktail party for Feinstein in their home. Among the guests were the singer Nancy Sinatra, then-Gov. Davis and former President Jimmy Carter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In 2007, they gave $10,000 to the Fund for the Majority, Feinstein’s political action committee. In June, another committee to which Resnick has contributed, the California Citrus Mutual PAC, spent $2,500 to host a fundraiser for Feinstein, records show.
Feinstein also socializes with the Resnicks. Arianna Huffington, the blog editor and former candidate for governor, told the New York Observer in 2006 that she has pent New Year’s with Feinstein at the Resnicks’ home in Aspen. “We wore silly hats and had lots of streamers and everything,” she said of the party.
On Aug. 26, Feinstein met with growers and water agency officials in Coalinga, Fresno County. While there, she told the Fresno Bee that she wanted the U.S. Interior Department to reconsider the biological opinions underlying the Delta protection plan.
The following week, she received the letter from Resnick, which was first reported by the Contra Costa Times. She then sent her own letters to Interior Secretary Salazar and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Days later, the administration agreed to pay $750,000 to have the National Academy of Sciences re-study the scientific issues underlying the Delta protection plan.
Last month, state lawmakers enacted a package of measures aimed at reforming the state’s outmoded water allocation system. The centerpiece – an $11 billion bond to build new dams and canals – must be approved by voters.
•
Lance Williams reported this story.
This story was edited by Editorial
California Watch
A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
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Resnick and associates spend nearly $4 million on campaigns
December 6, 2009
Stewart Resnick, his wife, and executives of his companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees, mostly in the Golden State since 1993. Here are the recipients of contributions of $10,000 or more. You can sort by clicking on any of the column headers.
Recipient Campaigns Party Amount
DEMOCRATIC PARTY COMMITTEES INCLUDES DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE DEM $776,638
GRAY DAVIS GOVERNOR UNTIL 2003; LT. GOV.; CONTROLLER DEM $643,030
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER GOVERNOR REP $271,990
PETE WILSON GOVERNOR UNTIL 1998 REP $238,500
RICHARD RIORDAN LOS ANGELES MAYOR UNTIL 2001; INCLUDES BALLOT MEASURES REP $135,000
OPEN-PRIMARY INITIATIVE FAILED 2004 BALLOT MEASURE NP $150,000
AGRICULTURE PACS INCLUDES WESTERN GROWERS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE NP $134,889
KATHLEEN BROWN FORMER STATE TREASURER; LOST 1994 GOVERNOR'S RACE DEM $118,437
JERRY BROWN ATTORNEY GENERAL; INCLUDES DONATIONS TO A CHARTER SCHOOL HE FOUNDED DEM $85,800
REPUBLICAN PARTY COMMITTEES INCLUDES REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE REP $59,276
FOSTER-CARE REFORM INITIATIVE PROPOSED STATE INITIATIVE NP $50,000
STEM-CELL-RESEARCH INITIATIVE BALLOT MEASURE PASSED IN 2004 NP $50,000
STEVE WESTLY LOST 2006 PRIMARY FOR GOVERNOR DEM $48,600
RECALL OPPONENTS FAILED MEASURE TO STOP RECALL OF GOV. DAVIS IN 2003 NP $91,500
ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA LOS ANGELES MAYOR DEM $41,500
JANE HARMAN CONGRESSWOMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $37,900
DIANNE FEINSTEIN SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA DEM $29,950
ED RENDELL GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA DEM $29,000
JAMES HAHN LOS ANGELES MAYOR UNTIL 2005 DEM $28,000
GAVIN NEWSOM SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR DEM $27,150
PHIL ANGELIDES TREASURER; LOST 2006 GOVERNOR'S RACE DEM $27,000
HILLARY CLINTON SECRETARY OF STATE, FORMER NEW YORK SENATOR AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DEM $26,950
CLASS-SIZE-REDUCTION INITIATIVE STATE MEASURE PASSED 1998 NP $25,000
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF HUFFINGTON POST, CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR IN 2003 IND. $25,000
DON PERATA STATE SENATE LEADER; RETIRED IN 2008 DEM $25,000
BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL AND ILLINOIS SENATE CAMPAIGNS DEM $22,150
JOHN MCCAIN PRESIDENTIAL AND ARIZONA SENATE CAMPAIGNS REP $20,750
KEVIN DE LEON ASSEMBLYMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $19,200
DARRELL STEINBERG SENATE PRESIDENT PRO TEMP, CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE DEM $18,600
GARY CONDIT CONGRESSMAN FROM CENTRAL VALLEY; DEFEATED IN 2002 DEM $17,700
BARBARA BOXER SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA DEM $17,000
DAN LUNGREN CONGRESSMAN FROM SACRAMENTO; LOST 1998 GOVERNOR'S RACE REP $17,000
GIL GARCETTI LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY UNTIL 2000 NP $16,000
ROCKY DELGADILLO LOS ANGELES CITY ATTORNEY UNTIL 2009 DEM $15,200
PLANNED PARENTHOOD PAC FEDERAL AND STATE COMMITTEES NP $15,000
TOBACCO TAX INITIATIVE 1998 STATE BALLOT MEASURE NP $15,000
JIM COSTA CONGRESSMAN FROM FRESNO; FORMER STATE SENATOR DEM $14,950
BRAD SHERMAN CONGRESSMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $13,650
ED MARKEY CONGRESSMAN FROM MASSACHUSETTS DEM $13,300
RUSTY AREIAS FORMER STATE SENATOR FROM LOS BANOS DEM $13,000
DEAN FLOREZ STATE SENATOR FROM BAKERSFIELD DEM $13,000
DENNIS CARDOZA CONGRESSMAN FROM MERCED; FORMER ASSEMBLYMAN DEM $12,800
CHUCK POOCHIGIAN FORMER FRESNO LAWMAKER; DEFEATED FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL IN 2006 REP $12,425
TOM HARKIN SENATOR FROM IOWA DEM $12,200
HENRY WAXMAN CONGRESSMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $12,000
KEVIN MCCARTHY CONGRESSMAN FROM BAKERSFIELD REP $11,150
TOM LANTOS LATE CONGRESSMAN FROM SAN MATEO DEM $11,100
JOE BIDEN U.S. VICE PRESIDENT; FORMER SENATOR FROM DELAWARE DEM $11,000
HOWARD BERMAN CONGRESSMAN FROM LOS ANGELES DEM $10,900
CAL DOOLEY FORMER CONGRESSMAN FROM VISALIA DEM $10,250
MICHELA ALIOTO-PIER SF SUPERVISOR; LOST SECRETARY OF STATE RACE IN 2002 DEM $10,000
JOHN GARAMENDI CONGRESSMAN FROM THE EAST BAY, DEFEATED FOR GOVERNOR IN 1994, NOW RUNNING FOR CONGRESS DEM $10,000
JOHN KERRY SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS; LOST PRESIDENTIAL RACE IN 2004 DEM $10,000
REDISTRICTING INITIATIVE STATE INITIATIVE PASSED IN 2008 NP $10,000
Sources: Federal Election Commission; California Secretary of State; California State Archives; San Francisco and Los Angeles ethics commissions; Pennsylvania Department of State.
Produced by Lance Williams, Agustin Armendariz and Lisa Pickoff-White
Within a week, Feinstein wrote to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, dropping Resnick’s name and urging a new look at the science. Salazar promptly agreed.
The transaction dispirited environmentalists. They argued that another study was pointless, especially given that this latest save-the-Delta effort was only a few years old.
After its results were announced, the Environmental Defense Fund’s Ann Hayden told the San Francisco Chronicle, "We're looking forward to moving on from this whole fish vs. farm focus.”
But the urge to ridicule environmental-protection efforts that cost working people their jobs may be irresistible this election year.
There’s even a right-to-life angle, says GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard executive who hopes to run against Sen. Barbara Boxer in the fall.
Boxer, like most state Democrats, took the environmentalists' side in the dispute.
“Isn’t it ironic that Barbara Boxer worked so hard to protect a 2-inch fish, but she can’t find it in her heart to protect the lives of the unborn?” the L.A. Times quoted Fiorina as saying.
Corporate farmer calls upon political allies to influence Delta dispute
December 6, 2009 | Lance Williams
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Wealthy corporate farmer Stewart Resnick has written check after check to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s political campaigns. He’s hosted a party in her honor at his Beverly Hills mansion, and he’s entertained her at his second home in Aspen.
And in September, when Resnick asked Feinstein to weigh in on the side of agribusiness in a drought-fueled environmental dispute over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, this wealthy grower and political donor got quick results, documents show.
On Sept. 4, Resnick wrote to Feinstein, complaining that the latest federal plan to rescue the Delta’s endangered salmon and smelt fisheries was “exacerbating the state’s severe drought” because it cut back on water available to irrigate crops. “Sloppy science” by federal wildlife agencies had led to “regulatory-induced water shortages,” he claimed. “I really appreciate your involvement in this issue,” he wrote to Feinstein.
One week later, Feinstein forwarded Resnick’s letter to two U.S. Cabinet secretaries. In her own letter, she urged the administration to spend $750,000 for a sweeping re-examination of the science behind the entire Delta environmental protection plan.
The Obama administration quickly agreed, authorizing another review of whether restrictions on pumping irrigation water were necessary to save the Delta’s fish. The results could delay or change the course of the protection effort.
To environmentalists concerned with protecting the Delta, it was a dispiriting display of the political clout wielded by Resnick, who is among California’s biggest growers and among its biggest political donors.
Resnick’s Paramount Farms owns 118,000 acres of heavily irrigated California orchards. And since he began buying farmland 25 years ago, Resnick, his wife, and executives of his companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees, mostly in the Golden State, a California Watch review of public records shows.
They have given $29,000 to Feinstein and $246,000 more to Democratic political committees during years when she has sought re-election.
“It is very disappointing that one person can make this kind of request, and all of a sudden he has a senator on the phone, calling up (U.S. Interior Secretary Ken) Salazar,” says Jim Metropulos, senior advocate for the Sierra Club.
Feinstein’s letter was “based on what she believes to be the best policy for California and the nation,” spokesman Gil Duran said in a statement. “No other factors play a role in her decisions.”
With the Valley’s economy battered by recession and drought, Feinstein believed it was important to reconsider the restrictions on pumping Delta water for irrigation, he said. Many farmers have urged such a review, he added.
In an interview, Resnick said he didn’t leverage his relationship with Feinstein to persuade her to intervene.
“Honestly, I’m not saying we could not have done that, but I don’t think that’s the way it happened,” he said. Feinstein long has had an interest in water issues, and “she just wanted to get to the bottom of this,” Resnick said.
A Troubled Estuary
The Delta provides drinking water for 20 million people and irrigation for the state’s vast agriculture industry. But after decades of water diversions, Delta fish populations are in catastrophic decline, scientists say.
Prodded by lawsuits from environmentalists, federal wildlife agencies commissioned scientific studies of the Delta’s ecological crisis. Based on the studies, the agencies launched a restoration program that curtailed pumping for irrigation and increased water flows for migrating fish.
Meanwhile three years of drought have forced big cuts in water allotments for farmers, and swaths of valley farmland lie fallow. The recession pushed the unemployment rate in some valley towns to 40 percent.
As a result, the restrictions on pumping Delta water became the target of a series of noisy protests that played out over the summer. Farmers and politicians blamed “radical environmentalists” – and the Obama administration – for ignoring the drought’s impact on the valley’s economy. “The government decided that the farmers come second and the delta smelt come first,” as Sean Hannity of Fox News put it on a visit to Fresno.
Farm groups filed 13 different lawsuits to overturn the restoration plans, arguing that climate change, urbanization, and discharges from sewers and factories are causing the Delta’s problems. One suit was filed in August by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a non-profit founded by three executives of Resnick’s Paramount Farms. Resnick said he is “on the periphery” of the non-profit.
People familiar with Resnick’s political operation say Feinstein’s letter is a reminder of the power he can wield on water issues.
“Paramount Farms is a huge player,” says Gerald Meral, former director of the Planning and Conservation League environmental lobby.
“They are just way different from the average farmer – far more strategic” in their thinking, Meral says.
Wealth and Philanthropy
In Los Angeles, Resnick, 72, is known as one of the city’s wealthiest men and among its most generous philanthropists. He’s given $55 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, millions more for a psychiatric hospital at UCLA and an energy institute at Cal Tech.
His wife and business partner, Lynda Resnick, is an entrepreneur, socialite and writer. Her 2008 marketing book, “Rubies in the Orchard,” had blurbs from Martha Stewart and Rupert Murdoch, and her “Ruby Tuesday” blog is sometimes featured on huffingtonpost.com. The couple live in a Beverly Hills mansion that writer Amy Wilentz called “Little Versailles.” It’s the scene of parties for celebrities, charities and politicians – governors, senators and presidential candidates.
Resnick said he worked his way through UCLA “washing windows,” and made his first million running a burglar alarm service. Since then, the couple’s Roll International holding company has profitably operated a long list of businesses: Teleflora florist wire service; POM Wonderful pomegranate juice; Franklin Mint, a mail-order collectibles firm; and FIJI bottled water, imported from the South Seas.
Underpinning their fortune is agribusiness – 70,000 acres of pistachios and almonds, 48,000 acres of citrus and pomegranates – most of it in Kern County at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley, and all requiring irrigation to survive.
Resnick said he makes political donations “without much real strategy,” other than to give to centrists from both parties. Water issues aren’t a major factor, he said.
Records show Resnick often contributes to politicians with power over the bureaucracies that make decisions affecting farming’s financial bottom line.
Since 1993, the Resnicks have given $1.6 million to California governors, key players in determining state water policy. Their donation pattern seems non-partisan, with the money following who’s in power.
In the 1990s, they gave $238,000 to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, records show, although Resnick says he doesn’t recall giving to Wilson and doesn’t think he ever met him.
The Resnicks also backed the Democrat who replaced Wilson, Gray Davis. They gave Davis $643,000 and $91,500 more to oppose Davis’ recall in 2003.
With Davis gone, Resnick began donating to Arnold Schwarzenegger – $221,000, records show – plus $50,000 to a foundation that pays for the governor’s foreign travel.
Other big donations include $776,000 to Democratic political committees; $134,000 to agribusiness political committees and initiatives; and $59,000 to Republican committees.
Hedging Bets
The Resnicks have developed easy access to some of the politicians to whom they donate.
Schwarzenegger has called them “some of my dearest, dearest friends,” and like Feinstein, he has urged a review of the science behind the Delta restoration plan. Davis appointed Resnick co-chair to a special state committee on water and agriculture.
A more enduring benefit came during Wilson’s administration, when Paramount Farms gained part ownership of what was to have been a state-owned storage bank for surplus water.
As recounted in a report by the advocacy group Public Citizen, in the 1980s state water officials devised a plan to ease the impact of future droughts by collecting excess water during rainy years and storing it underground.
The water was to be pumped south via the California Aqueduct, then put into a vast aquifer in Kern County that could hold a year’s water supply for one million homes.
The state spent about $75 million to buy a 20,000-acre site and to design the water bank. But in 1994, state water officials transferred the water bank site to the local Kern County Water Agency in exchange for significant water rights, Resnick said. The water agency developed the water bank in partnership with four other public agencies and one private business – a subsidiary of Paramount Farms. Paramount wound up controlling a 48 percent share of the bank.
Resnick said the state had been unable to develop the water bank and gave up on the project. The local agencies and his company spent about $50 million to engineer the project and make the bank a success, he said.
Paramount’s control of the bank continues to infuriate some environmentalists. In recent dry years, the bank sold some of its stored water back to the state at a premium, Public Citizen reported.
“Resnick likes to call himself a farmer, but he is in the business of selling public water, with none of the profits returned to the taxpayers,” says Walter Shubin, a director of the Revive the San Joaquin environmental group in Fresno.
A supportive community
When she first emerged as a statewide candidate in the 1990 governor’s race,Feinstein made little headway in the Central Valley, and she was defeated by Wilson. After she was elected to the Senate two years later, Feinstein set out to befriend farmers.
Her attention to agriculture and water issues has paid off, says Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former Wilson aide
“That community has been very supportive of her, much more for her than for most statewide Democrats,” Schnur says.
The Resnicks contributed $4,000 to Feinstein’s 1994 re-election campaign. When she ran again in 2000, they gave her $7,000. Resnick also donated $225,000 to Democratic political committees that were active in key Democratic races.
Resnick said he first got to know Feinstein personally 10 or 12 years ago because the senator also has a second home in Aspen.
In August 2000, when the Democratic National convention was in Los Angeles, the Resnicks hosted a cocktail party for Feinstein in their home. Among the guests were the singer Nancy Sinatra, then-Gov. Davis and former President Jimmy Carter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In 2007, they gave $10,000 to the Fund for the Majority, Feinstein’s political action committee. In June, another committee to which Resnick has contributed, the California Citrus Mutual PAC, spent $2,500 to host a fundraiser for Feinstein, records show.
Feinstein also socializes with the Resnicks. Arianna Huffington, the blog editor and former candidate for governor, told the New York Observer in 2006 that she has pent New Year’s with Feinstein at the Resnicks’ home in Aspen. “We wore silly hats and had lots of streamers and everything,” she said of the party.
On Aug. 26, Feinstein met with growers and water agency officials in Coalinga, Fresno County. While there, she told the Fresno Bee that she wanted the U.S. Interior Department to reconsider the biological opinions underlying the Delta protection plan.
The following week, she received the letter from Resnick, which was first reported by the Contra Costa Times. She then sent her own letters to Interior Secretary Salazar and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Days later, the administration agreed to pay $750,000 to have the National Academy of Sciences re-study the scientific issues underlying the Delta protection plan.
Last month, state lawmakers enacted a package of measures aimed at reforming the state’s outmoded water allocation system. The centerpiece – an $11 billion bond to build new dams and canals – must be approved by voters.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
SARSAS and Calling Back the Salmon Celebration, October 23, 2010
Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead Inc. (SARSAS), an all-volunteer 501C3 Non-profit, public benefit corporation, is doing with one stream, the Auburn Ravine, what must be done to all streams and rivers on the entire West Coast and that is to make the entire thirty–three mile length of the Auburn Ravine, starting in Auburn, flowing through Ophir and Lincoln and emptying into the Sacramento River at Verona, navigable for anadromous fishes.
The health and well-being of salmon and steelhead is directly linked to that of people. If we improve the health and well-being of anadromous fish, we improve the health and well-being of mankind and therefore ourselves.
Salmon are as resilient and adaptable as humans; when anadromous fishes can no longer adapt, neither can mankind. They need our help … now … and when we help them, we are really helping ourselves.
SARSAS is sponsoring the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration (CBTSC) in Lincoln, which will be held in McBean Park in the heart of Lincoln on the Auburn Ravine on Saturday, October 23, 2010. The all-day event is chaired by Stan Nader, SARSAS Board Member and former Lincoln City Councilman and School Board Member, who lives in Lincoln. To become a sponsor or a volunteer to help with CBTSC or to ask questions, contact Stan at 916 300 4335 or email him at stann@gtinternet.com. SARSAS urges local businesses and agencies to become Sponsors at any level (See CBTSC Flyer).
The mission of the SARSAS CALLING BACK THE SALMON CELEBRATION is to stimulate a collaborative relationship between our community, the Auburn Ravine Community of Auburn and Lincoln, and groups and government organizations to educate and engage all to the importance of returning the salmon and steelhead runs to the Auburn Ravine. The presence of healthy salmon and steelhead in a healthy Auburn Ravine is a nexus to a healthy community and environment.
SARSAS wishes to promote student and community Stream Teams, Salmon/steelhead and Watershed Stewards. Potential activities for these groups include tree planting, monitoring water quality, monitoring plant, survival, educational outreach such as raising anadromous fishes in the classroom and planting them in the Auburn Ravine, fish counts, observing fish morphology and other aquatic life beneficial and harmful to fishes.
Working collaboratively SARSAS wishes to develop partnerships with agencies, environmental organizations and, most of all, with individual members and groups of the Auburn Ravine community and promote Auburn Ravine community participation in local water quality and fish and wildlife enhancement and educational outreach programs.
Many activities are planned at the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration. Activities for Children include a Salmon Run(footrace), Treasure hunt Climbing Wall, Pony Rides, Face Painting, Carnival Games with a SARSAS bent, Crafts Projects (Painting, drawing, ceramics), and Watershed model interactive display.
Activities for Everyone include Multiple Musical Presentations including
Loping Wolf Flute Circle flutecircle@lopingwolf.com Dan Dicicco
http://www.lopingwolf.com/, Local Folk music performers and Commercial and non-profit vendors and informational displays. The CBTSC has something for everyone so come, learn and enjoy.
Local Indigenous People will be calling back the salmon and steelhead in numerous traditional ways throughout the day and in days leading up to the Celebration. The Auburn Ravine was the main stream for catching salmon and steelhead for Indigenous People for centuries. Salmon and steelhead were a major food source. Local Indigenous power will be added to the effort to call back salmon at the Celebration. SARSAS is delighted that Local Indigenous People are adding their strength and traditional insights and ways of returning the fishes to the Auburn Ravine. The Auburn Ravine is filled with evidence of the close relationship Indigenous People had the Auburn Ravine over the centuries.
Most important for the people of the Auburn Ravine Community is to come to the McBean Park on Saturday, October 23, 2010, and take part in the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration to learn what SARSAS is doing to return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine and to become part of that most enjoyable, uplifting and necessary local effort.
The health and well-being of salmon and steelhead is directly linked to that of people. If we improve the health and well-being of anadromous fish, we improve the health and well-being of mankind and therefore ourselves.
Salmon are as resilient and adaptable as humans; when anadromous fishes can no longer adapt, neither can mankind. They need our help … now … and when we help them, we are really helping ourselves.
SARSAS is sponsoring the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration (CBTSC) in Lincoln, which will be held in McBean Park in the heart of Lincoln on the Auburn Ravine on Saturday, October 23, 2010. The all-day event is chaired by Stan Nader, SARSAS Board Member and former Lincoln City Councilman and School Board Member, who lives in Lincoln. To become a sponsor or a volunteer to help with CBTSC or to ask questions, contact Stan at 916 300 4335 or email him at stann@gtinternet.com. SARSAS urges local businesses and agencies to become Sponsors at any level (See CBTSC Flyer).
The mission of the SARSAS CALLING BACK THE SALMON CELEBRATION is to stimulate a collaborative relationship between our community, the Auburn Ravine Community of Auburn and Lincoln, and groups and government organizations to educate and engage all to the importance of returning the salmon and steelhead runs to the Auburn Ravine. The presence of healthy salmon and steelhead in a healthy Auburn Ravine is a nexus to a healthy community and environment.
SARSAS wishes to promote student and community Stream Teams, Salmon/steelhead and Watershed Stewards. Potential activities for these groups include tree planting, monitoring water quality, monitoring plant, survival, educational outreach such as raising anadromous fishes in the classroom and planting them in the Auburn Ravine, fish counts, observing fish morphology and other aquatic life beneficial and harmful to fishes.
Working collaboratively SARSAS wishes to develop partnerships with agencies, environmental organizations and, most of all, with individual members and groups of the Auburn Ravine community and promote Auburn Ravine community participation in local water quality and fish and wildlife enhancement and educational outreach programs.
Many activities are planned at the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration. Activities for Children include a Salmon Run(footrace), Treasure hunt Climbing Wall, Pony Rides, Face Painting, Carnival Games with a SARSAS bent, Crafts Projects (Painting, drawing, ceramics), and Watershed model interactive display.
Activities for Everyone include Multiple Musical Presentations including
Loping Wolf Flute Circle flutecircle@lopingwolf.com Dan Dicicco
http://www.lopingwolf.com/, Local Folk music performers and Commercial and non-profit vendors and informational displays. The CBTSC has something for everyone so come, learn and enjoy.
Local Indigenous People will be calling back the salmon and steelhead in numerous traditional ways throughout the day and in days leading up to the Celebration. The Auburn Ravine was the main stream for catching salmon and steelhead for Indigenous People for centuries. Salmon and steelhead were a major food source. Local Indigenous power will be added to the effort to call back salmon at the Celebration. SARSAS is delighted that Local Indigenous People are adding their strength and traditional insights and ways of returning the fishes to the Auburn Ravine. The Auburn Ravine is filled with evidence of the close relationship Indigenous People had the Auburn Ravine over the centuries.
Most important for the people of the Auburn Ravine Community is to come to the McBean Park on Saturday, October 23, 2010, and take part in the Calling Back the Salmon Celebration to learn what SARSAS is doing to return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine and to become part of that most enjoyable, uplifting and necessary local effort.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
SARSAS Tax Exempt Number from IRS
Designated Locator Number: 1705 3278 3480 49 to be used for all donations to SARSAS for the tax exemption on your income tax form.
Official SARSAS Blog #1
http://www.auburnjournal.com/detail.html?sub_id=83086
Copy and paste into address bar.
Copy and paste into address bar.
SARSAS Mission Statement and Action Plan
SARSAS (Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead)
Action Plan
Mission Statement: to return salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine
Organization: SARSAS is an independent, nonprofit, non-governmental organization, whose goal is to work collaboratively and cooperatively to modify the
thirteen man-made barriers on the Auburn Ravine and the six or more beaver dams, making them passable for fishes.
Vision: This undertaking will take much time, effort, coordination and money, but it will have a permanent, lasting effect on the quality of the lives of those in this area and on the participants who will achieve something unique. We have an opportunity to create something no other town in California has: an anadromous fish run with salmon spawning in the center of the city.
Collaborative Technique: SARSAS is working with volunteers, students, local businesses, government agencies and other Non-Government Organizations and donations of money, time and in-kind services to achieve its goal of returning salmon and steelhead with them ultimately spawning in Auburn School Park Preserve in the center of Auburn. SARSAS is currently working with several individuals and agencies to realize its goal.
Locally, we are working with Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt and Loren Clark and Edmund Sullivan from Placer Legacy and the California Department of Fish and Game, NOAA, Auburn City Council and many others. We have been given stream access by property owners along the AR for volunteers to do fish studies. Placer Legacy and NID are modifying the Hemphill Dam and the Lincoln Gaging Station with work to be complete by summer of 2009. Ron Nelson, NID General Manager, plans to continue working with SARSAS to retrofit the Gold Hill Dam when these two are finished.
Operations: SARSAS plans to accept donations of cash and work and professional expertise and to work outside the usual channels of large financial grants. SARSAS has the ability to accept grant money as well as apply for grants through such non- profits as CABY (COSUMNES, AMERICAN, BEAR AND YUBA) and AmericanRivers.org, which already have monies available for grants to work on several of the barriers describe in Auburn Ravine/Coon Creek Eco-System Resources Plan. (http://www.placer.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/Planning/PlacerLegacy/AuburnRavine.aspx).
Model: The greatest stream/fish restoration ever is Fossil Creek in Arizona. All facets of the community worked together. SARSAS intends to make the Restoration of the Auburn Ravine the model for the State of California. In California our model is Butte Creek.
Philosophy: Actions achieve goals but actions are preceded by a dream: Robert F. Kennedy said, “Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’" SARSAS started with the dream, then the vision and now we have the plan. Together we can make SARSAS the model fish restoration IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA AND ENJOY ALL THE REWARDS AND THE ACCLAIM ATTENDANT THEREWITH.
Comments and questions as well as donations made out to SARSAS can be directed to: SARSAS, P.O. Box 4269, Auburn, CA 95604, or call 530 888 0281, jlsanchez39@gmail.com, www.sarsas.org and click on Blog.
Action Plan
Mission Statement: to return salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine
Organization: SARSAS is an independent, nonprofit, non-governmental organization, whose goal is to work collaboratively and cooperatively to modify the
thirteen man-made barriers on the Auburn Ravine and the six or more beaver dams, making them passable for fishes.
Vision: This undertaking will take much time, effort, coordination and money, but it will have a permanent, lasting effect on the quality of the lives of those in this area and on the participants who will achieve something unique. We have an opportunity to create something no other town in California has: an anadromous fish run with salmon spawning in the center of the city.
Collaborative Technique: SARSAS is working with volunteers, students, local businesses, government agencies and other Non-Government Organizations and donations of money, time and in-kind services to achieve its goal of returning salmon and steelhead with them ultimately spawning in Auburn School Park Preserve in the center of Auburn. SARSAS is currently working with several individuals and agencies to realize its goal.
Locally, we are working with Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt and Loren Clark and Edmund Sullivan from Placer Legacy and the California Department of Fish and Game, NOAA, Auburn City Council and many others. We have been given stream access by property owners along the AR for volunteers to do fish studies. Placer Legacy and NID are modifying the Hemphill Dam and the Lincoln Gaging Station with work to be complete by summer of 2009. Ron Nelson, NID General Manager, plans to continue working with SARSAS to retrofit the Gold Hill Dam when these two are finished.
Operations: SARSAS plans to accept donations of cash and work and professional expertise and to work outside the usual channels of large financial grants. SARSAS has the ability to accept grant money as well as apply for grants through such non- profits as CABY (COSUMNES, AMERICAN, BEAR AND YUBA) and AmericanRivers.org, which already have monies available for grants to work on several of the barriers describe in Auburn Ravine/Coon Creek Eco-System Resources Plan. (http://www.placer.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/Planning/PlacerLegacy/AuburnRavine.aspx).
Model: The greatest stream/fish restoration ever is Fossil Creek in Arizona. All facets of the community worked together. SARSAS intends to make the Restoration of the Auburn Ravine the model for the State of California. In California our model is Butte Creek.
Philosophy: Actions achieve goals but actions are preceded by a dream: Robert F. Kennedy said, “Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’" SARSAS started with the dream, then the vision and now we have the plan. Together we can make SARSAS the model fish restoration IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA AND ENJOY ALL THE REWARDS AND THE ACCLAIM ATTENDANT THEREWITH.
Comments and questions as well as donations made out to SARSAS can be directed to: SARSAS, P.O. Box 4269, Auburn, CA 95604, or call 530 888 0281, jlsanchez39@gmail.com, www.sarsas.org and click on Blog.
SARSAS Strategic Plan for Returning Salmon and Steelhead to the Entire 33 Mile Length of the Auburn Ravine, Located in Placer County Near Sacramento.
SARSAS Strategic Plan – Part I and II - for returning salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine
Part I. Strategic Plan
VISION STATEMENT: Restore Salmon and Steelhead to the Auburn Ravine
MISSION: It is the mission of the SARSAS Board to work in a collaborative MANNER with all individuals, groups and government organizations in order to restore salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine
Goals:
1. To RETROFIT FOR FISH PASSAGE all barriers impeding salmon and steelhead migration within the Auburn Ravine
2. To install screens on all downstream irrigation pumps and ditches
3. To study the feasibility of fish passage from the Auburn Ravine Cataract to the headwaters of the Auburn Ravine
4. To develop a strong support coalition through collaborative efforts
5. To restore stream bed and banks along the Auburn Ravine
6. To develop educational and marketing programs for the public at large regarding the development and maintenance of a healthy Auburn Ravine
7. To provide water necessary to support a healthy salmonid population
8. To assist in efforts increasing a healthy salmon population in the Pacific Ocean
9. To locate funds necessary to accomplish the goals of SARSAS
Objectives:
1.a By October of 2008 identify and provide an action plan for the RETROFITTING FOR FISH PASSAGE of each flashboard dam by October 15th of each year.
1b. By June 1st, 2009 establish the core group of individuals and groups or entities that will assist in the planning, implementation and completion of the restoration of salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine
1c. By August of 2010 reTROFIT FOR FISH PASSAGE the NID gauging station and the NID Hemphill Dam
1d. Develop an action plan during 2010 with the assistance of NID that will provide the planning, funding and resources necessary to provide fish passage at the Gold Hill Dam
1e. During the fall and winter of 2009/2010 develop a plan to mitigate fish passage issues caused by beaver within the Auburn Ravine
2. By September of 2010 implement a fish screening installation on all side ditches along the Auburn Ravine thus preventing the diversion of Smolt from the Auburn Ravine on their journey to the Sacramento River AND EVENTUALLY THE PACIFIC OCEAN
3. By September of 2010 provide $30,000.00 for a fish passage feasibility study inclusive of the area from the Auburn Cataract to the headwaters of the Auburn Ravine
4. During 2008 and culminating by June of 2009, identify and select a SARSAS
Board of Directors and identify coalition individuals, governmental bodies, and
other groups who will support and work to achieve the mission, goals and objectives of the SARSAS Strategic Plan.
5. Develop a plan addressing the streambed and bank restoration needs of the Auburn Ravine. Planning to be completed by August of 2011
6. During the period from January 2009 to September 2010 the SARSAS Board will develop and implement community outreach education programs for the general public. These programs will focus upon the SARSAS mission, goals and objectives.
7. By April 2010, the SARSAS Board will identify a source(s) of water sufficient to support salmonids in the Auburn Ravine. The SARSAS Board will establish meetings with Nevada Irrigation District, Placer County Water District, Pacific Gas and Electric and the State Water Board to NEGOTIATE necessary water during the fall of 2009.
8. During the entire life of the SARSAS organization, the goals and objectives will center primarily upon the restoration of salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine with secondary goals and objectives assisting in the restoration of healthy salmonid populations within the California Pacific Ocean boundaries.
9. During the period from January 2009 through June 2011, the SARSAS Board
will seek and locate funds necessary to support the goals and objectives of the
organization through various fund raising efforts, individual donations, business
sponsors and grants.
10. The SARSAS Board will develop and implement a marketing plan beginning in
The fall of 2009 to be completed by March of 2010. The plan shall include the development of a brochure, multiple power point presentations, a folder, an online newsletter, the use of Twitter, Facebook and other viable online sources, public presentations, newspaper articles, television news and other public forums.
11. During the period August 2009 through December 2009, the SARSAS Board will develop and implement a plan to assure the involvement of key agencies IN THE SARSAS MISSION. Agencies will be identified and focus meetings will be established with the agencies and the SARSAS Board in order to develop quality long term relationships focused upon the SARSAS mission.
12. SARSAS shall develop and implement a plan for monitoring water flow (CFS),
water temperature, water quality to include PH testing and organic material in
order to assure quality spawning conditions for all fishes. Monitoring locations
shall be determined, and at least three sites will be established. Monitoring to
begin during the winter and spring of 2009/2010.
13. The president of SARSAS shall establish a meeting with each individual
SARSAS Board member in order to determine each board members’ strengths
and desires, then develop plans with each member to assist in making SARSAS assignments specific to the SARSAS mission and strategic plan.
Timeline to span October 2009 through November 2009 with periodic updates.
14. During 2009/2010, SARSAS will develop and nurture working relationships
with key state legislators and the Governor in order to secure the support for legislation and support for the SARSAS Plan in order to secure an ongoing commitment for restoration of Salmon and steelhead in California’s streams
and IN the Pacific ocean bordering the state.
15. Complete a SWOT, and Strategic Plan by August of 2009
16. The SARSAS Board will work with representatives of the City of Lincoln,
native American groups, interested service organizations, business sponsors
and other interested parties in order to hold a SARSAS Salmon Festival WITH A CALLING BACK THE SALMON CEREMONY in the City of Lincoln in October of 2010.
17. The SARSAS Board shall strive to focus upon scientific data in order to meet
its mission. To that end, SARSAS shall reach out to the scientific community
in order to secure knowledge and information relevant to its goals, objectives
and Strategic Plan.
II.SARSAS STRATEGIC PLAN -- PROJECTS, RESPONSIBILITIES/TIMELINES/FUNDING
OBJECTIVE 1 a: GOALS 1 and 8
Project: Removal of flashboard dams on or before October 15th of each year
Responsibility: Owners of flashboard dams. NOAA and F&G- inspect for
removal and or notice to remove by officer.
Timeline: Annually on or before October 15th
Funding: Cost neutral
OBJECTIVE 1 b: GOALS 1-9
Project: SARSAS board has identified and established working relationships
with major stakeholders.
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: Ongoing
Funding: Cost neutral
OBJECTIVE 1 c: Goals 1-2-4-7-8-9
Project: Work with NID and Placer Legacy in order to develop plans and
funds necessary to retrofit Lincoln gauging station and Hemphill Dam.
Responsibility: Nevada Irrigation District. District will do both retrofits as state funds are released. Originally scheduled for summer 2009 but due to state funding issues, bond monies were not released.
Timeline: Summer 2010
Funding: State bond funds
OBJECTIVE 1 d: Goals 1-2-4-7-8-9
Project: Retrofit Gold Hill Dam with fish ladder ands screens
Responsibility: Nevada Irrigation District
Timeline: Uncertain 2010-2014
Funding: None to date. NID
OBJECTIVE 1 e: Goals 1-4-5-6-8-9
Project: Working with the City of Lincoln, local property owners and
appropriate water agencies, reduce the number of beaver dams on the Auburn Ravine. Remove and relocate beavers as necessary. Work with
citizens groups in order to educate the general public regarding beaver issues and potential solutions.
Responsibility: SARSAS, City of Linclon, water agencies
Funding: Grants, city funds, water agencies, SARSAS fundraising
OBJECTIVE 2: Goals 2-8-9
Projects: 1. Install appropriate screens on all irrigation ditches within the Ravine.
2. Notify all water users who have irrigation ditches of the issues related to
smolt and trout when ditches are not screened.
3. Develop grants that in part will provide funds for screening projects.
4. Provide water users with information that links unscreened ditches to the
Loss of smolt and trout in the Auburn Ravine.
5. Seek funding partners
6. Seek screening enforcement when necessary.
Responsibility: Water agencies, farmers, SARSAS, enforcement agencies.
Timeline: 2010-2012
Funding Sources: Grants, water agencies, water users
Cost: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 3: Goals 1-3-4-5-6-8-9-
Project: Raise $30,000.00 to be used for a feasibility study for fish passage from the
Auburn cataract to the headwaters of the Auburn Ravine.
Responsibility: SARSAS
Timeline: 2009 to September 2011
Funding: SARSAS fundraisers and donations
OBJECTIVE 4: Goals 1-9
Project: Establish a nine member working board and identify coalitions and partners.
Responsibility: SARSAS president and board members
Timeline: June 2009
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 5: Goals 4-5-6-8-9
Project: Identify the ten highest priority areas in need of streambed and bank restoration
and establish projects, timelines, volunteers and funds necessary to accomplish
restoration projects.
Responsibility: SARSAS, landowners, Placer Legacy, NOAA, Fish & Game
Timeline: August 2011
Funding: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 6 Goals 4-6-9
Projects: 1. Develop power point presentations
2. Develop a video for presentations
3. Develop presentations materials e.g. faq’s
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: June 2009 through September 2010 and beyond as necessary
Funding: $3000.00 to $4,000.00 SARSAS fundraisers and donations
OBJECTIVE 7: Goals 7-8-9
Project: 1. Work with appropriate agencies to determine the source of water and when it
is needed in order to assure sufficient water to support salmon, steelhead and
trout in the Auburn Ravine.
2. Establish meetings with PG&E, PCWA, NID and representatives of the state water board to accomplish the objective.
Responsibility: SARSAS and appropriate agencies
Timeline: August 2009 – April 2010
Funding: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 8: Goals 1-9
As the goals of SARSAS are met, there will be a corresponding increase in the California Pacific Ocean salmonid population.
Project: Meet with fishing industry representatives to demonstrate the SARSAS plan for
restoration as well as its application in other streams feeding the Sacramento
and San Joaquin Rivers in order to gain industry support and Pacific Ocean
salmonid restoration.
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Funding: None
Timeline: February 2010
OBJECTIVE 9: Goal 9
Projects: 1. Write grants
2. Establish SARSAS fundraisers
3. Locate donors
4. Seek business sponsors
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Funding: None
Timeline: 2008…ongoing
OBJECTIVE 10: Goal 6
Projects: 1. Develop Portfolio
2. Develop brochure 8X11 tri-fold
3. Update power point presentation
4. Develop on line newsletter
5. Post on Facebook, twitter and other internet sites
6. Continue public presentations
7. Develop media information for radio, television and newspapers
8. Develop a video presentation
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: August 2009 through March 2010
Funding: $6,000.00
OBJECTIVE 11: Goals 1-2-4-6-7
Projects: Identify Key agencies 8/08- 10/09
Establish focus meetings 9/09-4/2010
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 12: Goals 6-7-8-9
Projects: 1. Purchase hand held monitoring devices
2. Train volunteers for monitoring
3. Monitor weekly/monthly beginning October 2009
4. Select three locations for monitoring
5. Develop data base for collected information
Responsibility: SARSAS Board and monitoring volunteers
Timeline: 10/2009- 10/2012
Funding: Approximately $1,600.00 for equipment
OBJECTIVE 13: Goal 4
Project: SARSAS president shall meet with each Board member to determine
individual strengths and interests and make board assignments as necessary
Responsibility: SARSAS president
Timeline: 10/2009—11/2009
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 14: Goals 4-6-8-9
Projects: 1. Establish meetings with at least one key member of the senate and assembly
2. Meet with key leader and accomplish the following:
a. Present SARSAS plan
b. Solicit support for 503 c. legislation {simplify }
c. Gain support for SARSAS plan expansion across the north state
d. Expand support to other legislators
e. Get legislative resolutions from both houses
f. Explore legislation for salmonid restoration
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timelines: September 2009- May 2010
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 15: Goals 1-9
Project: Complete a SWOT and Strategic Plan
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: August 2009
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 16: Goals 4-6-8-9
Project: Develop a Return of the Salmon Festival in the City of Lincoln
Responsibility: SARSAS Board, City of Lincoln, Chamber of Commerce, Native
American groups, and other interested parties or individuals identified by SARSAS.
Timeline: October 2010
Cost: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 17: Goals 1-9
Project: Reach out to the scientific community to establish factual scientific facts and
information to help guide the SARSAS Board in achieving its mission, goals
and objectives.
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: Ongoing
Funding: Not required
Part I. Strategic Plan
VISION STATEMENT: Restore Salmon and Steelhead to the Auburn Ravine
MISSION: It is the mission of the SARSAS Board to work in a collaborative MANNER with all individuals, groups and government organizations in order to restore salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine
Goals:
1. To RETROFIT FOR FISH PASSAGE all barriers impeding salmon and steelhead migration within the Auburn Ravine
2. To install screens on all downstream irrigation pumps and ditches
3. To study the feasibility of fish passage from the Auburn Ravine Cataract to the headwaters of the Auburn Ravine
4. To develop a strong support coalition through collaborative efforts
5. To restore stream bed and banks along the Auburn Ravine
6. To develop educational and marketing programs for the public at large regarding the development and maintenance of a healthy Auburn Ravine
7. To provide water necessary to support a healthy salmonid population
8. To assist in efforts increasing a healthy salmon population in the Pacific Ocean
9. To locate funds necessary to accomplish the goals of SARSAS
Objectives:
1.a By October of 2008 identify and provide an action plan for the RETROFITTING FOR FISH PASSAGE of each flashboard dam by October 15th of each year.
1b. By June 1st, 2009 establish the core group of individuals and groups or entities that will assist in the planning, implementation and completion of the restoration of salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine
1c. By August of 2010 reTROFIT FOR FISH PASSAGE the NID gauging station and the NID Hemphill Dam
1d. Develop an action plan during 2010 with the assistance of NID that will provide the planning, funding and resources necessary to provide fish passage at the Gold Hill Dam
1e. During the fall and winter of 2009/2010 develop a plan to mitigate fish passage issues caused by beaver within the Auburn Ravine
2. By September of 2010 implement a fish screening installation on all side ditches along the Auburn Ravine thus preventing the diversion of Smolt from the Auburn Ravine on their journey to the Sacramento River AND EVENTUALLY THE PACIFIC OCEAN
3. By September of 2010 provide $30,000.00 for a fish passage feasibility study inclusive of the area from the Auburn Cataract to the headwaters of the Auburn Ravine
4. During 2008 and culminating by June of 2009, identify and select a SARSAS
Board of Directors and identify coalition individuals, governmental bodies, and
other groups who will support and work to achieve the mission, goals and objectives of the SARSAS Strategic Plan.
5. Develop a plan addressing the streambed and bank restoration needs of the Auburn Ravine. Planning to be completed by August of 2011
6. During the period from January 2009 to September 2010 the SARSAS Board will develop and implement community outreach education programs for the general public. These programs will focus upon the SARSAS mission, goals and objectives.
7. By April 2010, the SARSAS Board will identify a source(s) of water sufficient to support salmonids in the Auburn Ravine. The SARSAS Board will establish meetings with Nevada Irrigation District, Placer County Water District, Pacific Gas and Electric and the State Water Board to NEGOTIATE necessary water during the fall of 2009.
8. During the entire life of the SARSAS organization, the goals and objectives will center primarily upon the restoration of salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine with secondary goals and objectives assisting in the restoration of healthy salmonid populations within the California Pacific Ocean boundaries.
9. During the period from January 2009 through June 2011, the SARSAS Board
will seek and locate funds necessary to support the goals and objectives of the
organization through various fund raising efforts, individual donations, business
sponsors and grants.
10. The SARSAS Board will develop and implement a marketing plan beginning in
The fall of 2009 to be completed by March of 2010. The plan shall include the development of a brochure, multiple power point presentations, a folder, an online newsletter, the use of Twitter, Facebook and other viable online sources, public presentations, newspaper articles, television news and other public forums.
11. During the period August 2009 through December 2009, the SARSAS Board will develop and implement a plan to assure the involvement of key agencies IN THE SARSAS MISSION. Agencies will be identified and focus meetings will be established with the agencies and the SARSAS Board in order to develop quality long term relationships focused upon the SARSAS mission.
12. SARSAS shall develop and implement a plan for monitoring water flow (CFS),
water temperature, water quality to include PH testing and organic material in
order to assure quality spawning conditions for all fishes. Monitoring locations
shall be determined, and at least three sites will be established. Monitoring to
begin during the winter and spring of 2009/2010.
13. The president of SARSAS shall establish a meeting with each individual
SARSAS Board member in order to determine each board members’ strengths
and desires, then develop plans with each member to assist in making SARSAS assignments specific to the SARSAS mission and strategic plan.
Timeline to span October 2009 through November 2009 with periodic updates.
14. During 2009/2010, SARSAS will develop and nurture working relationships
with key state legislators and the Governor in order to secure the support for legislation and support for the SARSAS Plan in order to secure an ongoing commitment for restoration of Salmon and steelhead in California’s streams
and IN the Pacific ocean bordering the state.
15. Complete a SWOT, and Strategic Plan by August of 2009
16. The SARSAS Board will work with representatives of the City of Lincoln,
native American groups, interested service organizations, business sponsors
and other interested parties in order to hold a SARSAS Salmon Festival WITH A CALLING BACK THE SALMON CEREMONY in the City of Lincoln in October of 2010.
17. The SARSAS Board shall strive to focus upon scientific data in order to meet
its mission. To that end, SARSAS shall reach out to the scientific community
in order to secure knowledge and information relevant to its goals, objectives
and Strategic Plan.
II.SARSAS STRATEGIC PLAN -- PROJECTS, RESPONSIBILITIES/TIMELINES/FUNDING
OBJECTIVE 1 a: GOALS 1 and 8
Project: Removal of flashboard dams on or before October 15th of each year
Responsibility: Owners of flashboard dams. NOAA and F&G- inspect for
removal and or notice to remove by officer.
Timeline: Annually on or before October 15th
Funding: Cost neutral
OBJECTIVE 1 b: GOALS 1-9
Project: SARSAS board has identified and established working relationships
with major stakeholders.
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: Ongoing
Funding: Cost neutral
OBJECTIVE 1 c: Goals 1-2-4-7-8-9
Project: Work with NID and Placer Legacy in order to develop plans and
funds necessary to retrofit Lincoln gauging station and Hemphill Dam.
Responsibility: Nevada Irrigation District. District will do both retrofits as state funds are released. Originally scheduled for summer 2009 but due to state funding issues, bond monies were not released.
Timeline: Summer 2010
Funding: State bond funds
OBJECTIVE 1 d: Goals 1-2-4-7-8-9
Project: Retrofit Gold Hill Dam with fish ladder ands screens
Responsibility: Nevada Irrigation District
Timeline: Uncertain 2010-2014
Funding: None to date. NID
OBJECTIVE 1 e: Goals 1-4-5-6-8-9
Project: Working with the City of Lincoln, local property owners and
appropriate water agencies, reduce the number of beaver dams on the Auburn Ravine. Remove and relocate beavers as necessary. Work with
citizens groups in order to educate the general public regarding beaver issues and potential solutions.
Responsibility: SARSAS, City of Linclon, water agencies
Funding: Grants, city funds, water agencies, SARSAS fundraising
OBJECTIVE 2: Goals 2-8-9
Projects: 1. Install appropriate screens on all irrigation ditches within the Ravine.
2. Notify all water users who have irrigation ditches of the issues related to
smolt and trout when ditches are not screened.
3. Develop grants that in part will provide funds for screening projects.
4. Provide water users with information that links unscreened ditches to the
Loss of smolt and trout in the Auburn Ravine.
5. Seek funding partners
6. Seek screening enforcement when necessary.
Responsibility: Water agencies, farmers, SARSAS, enforcement agencies.
Timeline: 2010-2012
Funding Sources: Grants, water agencies, water users
Cost: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 3: Goals 1-3-4-5-6-8-9-
Project: Raise $30,000.00 to be used for a feasibility study for fish passage from the
Auburn cataract to the headwaters of the Auburn Ravine.
Responsibility: SARSAS
Timeline: 2009 to September 2011
Funding: SARSAS fundraisers and donations
OBJECTIVE 4: Goals 1-9
Project: Establish a nine member working board and identify coalitions and partners.
Responsibility: SARSAS president and board members
Timeline: June 2009
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 5: Goals 4-5-6-8-9
Project: Identify the ten highest priority areas in need of streambed and bank restoration
and establish projects, timelines, volunteers and funds necessary to accomplish
restoration projects.
Responsibility: SARSAS, landowners, Placer Legacy, NOAA, Fish & Game
Timeline: August 2011
Funding: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 6 Goals 4-6-9
Projects: 1. Develop power point presentations
2. Develop a video for presentations
3. Develop presentations materials e.g. faq’s
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: June 2009 through September 2010 and beyond as necessary
Funding: $3000.00 to $4,000.00 SARSAS fundraisers and donations
OBJECTIVE 7: Goals 7-8-9
Project: 1. Work with appropriate agencies to determine the source of water and when it
is needed in order to assure sufficient water to support salmon, steelhead and
trout in the Auburn Ravine.
2. Establish meetings with PG&E, PCWA, NID and representatives of the state water board to accomplish the objective.
Responsibility: SARSAS and appropriate agencies
Timeline: August 2009 – April 2010
Funding: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 8: Goals 1-9
As the goals of SARSAS are met, there will be a corresponding increase in the California Pacific Ocean salmonid population.
Project: Meet with fishing industry representatives to demonstrate the SARSAS plan for
restoration as well as its application in other streams feeding the Sacramento
and San Joaquin Rivers in order to gain industry support and Pacific Ocean
salmonid restoration.
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Funding: None
Timeline: February 2010
OBJECTIVE 9: Goal 9
Projects: 1. Write grants
2. Establish SARSAS fundraisers
3. Locate donors
4. Seek business sponsors
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Funding: None
Timeline: 2008…ongoing
OBJECTIVE 10: Goal 6
Projects: 1. Develop Portfolio
2. Develop brochure 8X11 tri-fold
3. Update power point presentation
4. Develop on line newsletter
5. Post on Facebook, twitter and other internet sites
6. Continue public presentations
7. Develop media information for radio, television and newspapers
8. Develop a video presentation
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: August 2009 through March 2010
Funding: $6,000.00
OBJECTIVE 11: Goals 1-2-4-6-7
Projects: Identify Key agencies 8/08- 10/09
Establish focus meetings 9/09-4/2010
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 12: Goals 6-7-8-9
Projects: 1. Purchase hand held monitoring devices
2. Train volunteers for monitoring
3. Monitor weekly/monthly beginning October 2009
4. Select three locations for monitoring
5. Develop data base for collected information
Responsibility: SARSAS Board and monitoring volunteers
Timeline: 10/2009- 10/2012
Funding: Approximately $1,600.00 for equipment
OBJECTIVE 13: Goal 4
Project: SARSAS president shall meet with each Board member to determine
individual strengths and interests and make board assignments as necessary
Responsibility: SARSAS president
Timeline: 10/2009—11/2009
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 14: Goals 4-6-8-9
Projects: 1. Establish meetings with at least one key member of the senate and assembly
2. Meet with key leader and accomplish the following:
a. Present SARSAS plan
b. Solicit support for 503 c. legislation {simplify }
c. Gain support for SARSAS plan expansion across the north state
d. Expand support to other legislators
e. Get legislative resolutions from both houses
f. Explore legislation for salmonid restoration
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timelines: September 2009- May 2010
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 15: Goals 1-9
Project: Complete a SWOT and Strategic Plan
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: August 2009
Funding: None
OBJECTIVE 16: Goals 4-6-8-9
Project: Develop a Return of the Salmon Festival in the City of Lincoln
Responsibility: SARSAS Board, City of Lincoln, Chamber of Commerce, Native
American groups, and other interested parties or individuals identified by SARSAS.
Timeline: October 2010
Cost: To be determined
OBJECTIVE 17: Goals 1-9
Project: Reach out to the scientific community to establish factual scientific facts and
information to help guide the SARSAS Board in achieving its mission, goals
and objectives.
Responsibility: SARSAS Board
Timeline: Ongoing
Funding: Not required
The Next Step
The Next Step
Now that salmon can pretty much get to Lincoln, the next step is to get them back to the Pacific if and when they spawn. Between the Sac River and Lincoln, starting at the lower end moving upstream, the Auburn Ravine contains eight diversion dams: 1)Coppin, 2)Davis, 3)Tom Glenn, 4)Lincoln Ranch Duck Club, 5)Aitken Ranch, 6)Moore, 7)Nelson Dams and the 8)Lincoln Gaging Station. Please memorize these eight names.
In order for the fish returning to the Pacific to spend 3-5 years maturing, they must not be entrained into rice fields, pastures and other ag fields through the canals that divert water. Without screens on these diversions, the fish will end up in fields and die. These diversion canals must be screened so that the fish can stay in the Auburn Ravine to reach the Sac River and continue their odyssey to SF Bay and the open waters of the Pacific.
I am asking for your thinking and input on this plan. We are working with Brad Arnold of South Sutter Water District to get his Board’s commitment to begin screening the Coppin, Tom Glenn, and Aitken Ranch dams. We are working with Rich Arruda on the Lincoln Ranch Duck Club Dam. I will work with Don Tanner to gain access to the Moore and Nelson dams to contact the owners. Most of the eight dams have one diversion canal with the Davis Dam having three. So we are probably talking about at least ten screens needed and there may be multiple diversions on the Moore and Nelson Dams.
What I am thinking about is creating a community outreach program that secures one business in Auburn and/or Lincoln to adopt a diversion canal and raise money to pay for one screen. SARSAS will not ask the business to contribute any money itself but to find a way to raise money. The average cost Tim Buller told me would be $300,000 per screen, but Ron Ott believes many would cost much less. We would need at least ten businesses, each adopting a screen to make the plan work. How can businesses raise funds?
Ron Ott will be giving his presentation on Friday, November 13, at 9a.m. at John Rabe’s home, 980 Stonewood, Newcastle, CA 95658, to help us decide what type of screen is best for each diversion canal and what each screen costs. Please try to attend because our next major task is to become knowledgeable about screens and their costs. Then we can implement this plan.
What we need now is a name for the plan, i.e. Invite a Salmon to the Pacific, Send a Salmon Home, This is My Salmon … some name we all agree on. Then how do we do outreach to the communities to secure business sponsors, and what will SARSAS’ role be? Board Member Kathleen Harris of Harris Industrial Gasses likes the idea and is already working on some details.
No idea is too outlandish. We are brainstorming now so send me all your ideas.
Thanks, Jack
Now that salmon can pretty much get to Lincoln, the next step is to get them back to the Pacific if and when they spawn. Between the Sac River and Lincoln, starting at the lower end moving upstream, the Auburn Ravine contains eight diversion dams: 1)Coppin, 2)Davis, 3)Tom Glenn, 4)Lincoln Ranch Duck Club, 5)Aitken Ranch, 6)Moore, 7)Nelson Dams and the 8)Lincoln Gaging Station. Please memorize these eight names.
In order for the fish returning to the Pacific to spend 3-5 years maturing, they must not be entrained into rice fields, pastures and other ag fields through the canals that divert water. Without screens on these diversions, the fish will end up in fields and die. These diversion canals must be screened so that the fish can stay in the Auburn Ravine to reach the Sac River and continue their odyssey to SF Bay and the open waters of the Pacific.
I am asking for your thinking and input on this plan. We are working with Brad Arnold of South Sutter Water District to get his Board’s commitment to begin screening the Coppin, Tom Glenn, and Aitken Ranch dams. We are working with Rich Arruda on the Lincoln Ranch Duck Club Dam. I will work with Don Tanner to gain access to the Moore and Nelson dams to contact the owners. Most of the eight dams have one diversion canal with the Davis Dam having three. So we are probably talking about at least ten screens needed and there may be multiple diversions on the Moore and Nelson Dams.
What I am thinking about is creating a community outreach program that secures one business in Auburn and/or Lincoln to adopt a diversion canal and raise money to pay for one screen. SARSAS will not ask the business to contribute any money itself but to find a way to raise money. The average cost Tim Buller told me would be $300,000 per screen, but Ron Ott believes many would cost much less. We would need at least ten businesses, each adopting a screen to make the plan work. How can businesses raise funds?
Ron Ott will be giving his presentation on Friday, November 13, at 9a.m. at John Rabe’s home, 980 Stonewood, Newcastle, CA 95658, to help us decide what type of screen is best for each diversion canal and what each screen costs. Please try to attend because our next major task is to become knowledgeable about screens and their costs. Then we can implement this plan.
What we need now is a name for the plan, i.e. Invite a Salmon to the Pacific, Send a Salmon Home, This is My Salmon … some name we all agree on. Then how do we do outreach to the communities to secure business sponsors, and what will SARSAS’ role be? Board Member Kathleen Harris of Harris Industrial Gasses likes the idea and is already working on some details.
No idea is too outlandish. We are brainstorming now so send me all your ideas.
Thanks, Jack
Sunday, March 21, 2010
SARSAS Spring 2010 Update
Posted March 21, 2010
Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS) Update
Jack L. Sanchez, President
PO Bx 4269
Auburn, CA95604
530 888 0281
SARSAS General Meetings, which are open to the public, are held the fourth Monday of every month at the Domes, 175 Fulweiler in Auburn at 10am and are limited to one hour. SARSAS believes that many people sitting at the same table WORKING COLLABORATIVELY in the best way to accomplish the SARSAS mission which is to return salmon and steelhead to the entire thirty-three mile length of the Auburn Ravine.
SARSAS’ next fundraising dinner will be held at Rubino’s Italian American Cuisine Restaurant at 5015 Pacific Street in Rocklin on Monday, June 7, at 5:30 pm. Wine tasting and a raffle will be included. Contact SARSAS Event Coordinator Greg Nelson at 916-663-4914 for details. Then, the Second Annual SARSAS-Pescatore Winery Wild Salmon and Tri-Tips Dinner is scheduled for two evenings: Friday and Saturday, September 24-25 at Pescatore Vineyard and Winery, 7055 Ridge Road in Newcastle. Contact owner Dave Wegner at 916-663-1422 for details.
Many good things have taken place recently. To repeat, we had a documented sighting of a salmon in the Auburn Ravine on Monday, March 23, 2009, by three reliable people: Richard Harris, Lisa Thompson, a UC Berkeley Fish Biologist, and Edmund Sullivan, Placer Legacy. While looking for spawning sites, they spotted a Chinook salmon from the Fowler Bridge a few miles upstream from Lincoln. This sighting is a defining moment for SARSAS because no salmon has recently been spotted above Lincoln in a long time. Additionally, two fishermen reported to Board Member John Rabe they had sighted two large salmon below the Hemphill Dam upstream from Lincoln at the Turkey Creek Golf Course. If one salmon is sighted, how many more were not seen … ten, fifty or a hundred?
All flashboard dams downstream from Lincoln are now in compliance with NOAA regulations for upstream fish passage. That means from November 15 through April 15, all dams are removed so fish can swim upstream to spawning grounds. The next great push will be getting screens installed on all diversions that take water out of the Ravine for irrigation. Unless screens are installed, salmon smolt and steelhead returning to the ocean to grow up for three to five years, will be entrained into rice fields and pastures and die without ever returning even to the ocean. So SARSAS is now working with landowners and especially with General Manager Brad Arnold of the South Sutter Water District, which operates five diversion dams, to get screening in place. Ron Ott, SARSAS Board Member and one of the nation’s great authorities on fish passage, is currently working with SARSAS Grant Writer Cathie DuChene, to design, plan and fund fish screenings for the Pleasant Grove Diversion Canal a few miles downstream of Lincoln, which diverts at least fifty percent of the water in the Auburn Ravine for irrigation, and the dozen or so pumps that take water for irrigation and are perilous to fishes. Once the Pleasant Grove Canal and the pumps are screened, then the Ravine will be guaranteed a viable anadromous fish run to the City of Lincoln.
SARSAS’ current focus is to raise money to install these fish screens.
To get fish above the city of Lincoln, SARSAS is working with Placer Legacy and NID to create fish passage around the Lincoln Gaging Station, half mile downstream of Highway 65 in the center of Lincoln; the Hemphill Dam, adjacent to the Turkey Creek Gold Course two miles upstream from Lincoln; and finally the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, a mile upstream from Gold Hill Road in Newcastle. Ron Nelson, General Manager of NID, had planned to have these retrofitted for fish passage last summer but funding dried up. He is currently working for a fall 2010 target date. Once fish can pass these barriers, they can swim to the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, an NID Diversion Dam upstream from Gold Hill Road. This is the largest dam and diversion on the Auburn Ravine and has not yet been addressed for fish passage. Once Gold Hill Dam is retrofitted, fish can swim upstream through Ophir, up the Ophir Cataract, a half mile upstream from the Lozanos Bridge to Wise Powerhouse. Once salmon and steelhead reach Wise Powerhouse, one mile from the city of Auburn and the real work begins to get the salmon to Auburn School Park Preserve, behind Auburn City Hall to spawn.
NOAA Special Agent Don Tanner continues his low key, collaborative approach working with landowners to secure fish passage by comply with regulations that provide passage for the fishes to get to spawning gravels and are able to return to the Pacific. Don is currently working on identifying the owners of the pumping stations on the Cross Canal, the last four miles of the Auburn Ravine before it empties into the Sacramento River at the City of Verona.
SARSAS Board member and former Lincoln City Councilman and Lincoln School Board member Stan Nader has been methodically connecting us with the local fathers in Lincoln and plans are underway for a SARSAS-Lincoln Calling Back the Salmon Celebration to be held in Lincoln all day on Saturday, October 23, 2010, at McBean Park on the Auburn Ravine. Stan is the CBTSC Chairperson and if you would like to be a part of the Celebration call Stan at home at 916-645-1149 or his cell at 916-300-4335. The Celebration will include the Native American sacred and religious ceremony Calling Back the Salmon conducted by Bill Jacobson, who was taught the ceremony by Pacific Northwest tribes. Ty Gorre is working with Bill on the Ceremony.
Businesses can sponsor the Celebration by donating amounts from $25 to $2,500 with listings of the company logos and other benefits listed on the brochure on the callingbackthesalmoncelebration.org.
Speaking of Native Americans, SARSAS has finalized an Alliance with the Washoe Tribes of Nevada and California to mutually work to return anadromous fish to the Auburn Ravine. SARSAS is pleased that Darrel Cruz and the Washoe, headquartered in Gardnerville, NV, have joined us in our work on the Auburn Ravine.
The City of Auburn is still being penalized for its discharge from the Auburn Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Auburn Ravine, and Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln has been granted the right to triple its discharge into Orchard Creek, a tributary of the Auburn Ravine, but the decision by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board is being appealed to the State Water Board.
SARSAS Grant Writer Cathie DuChene has secured a five thousand dollar grant from the Tides Foundation to help return salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine, the SARSAS mission. Scott Johnson has secured grants of about fifteen hundred dollars for educational outreach to children in our local schools. And $1,000 has been donated by PC Supervisors Jim Holmes and Robert Weygandt for educational outreach.
.
The outpouring of community support such as Ken Clark offering the equipment of his excavating company is solidifying the realization of the SARSAS mission. If the entire communities of Lincoln and Auburn support SARSAS’ effort, the return of salmon and steelhead in the Ravine will quickly become a reality.
.
You can help return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine by sending donations to SARSAS, PO Box 4269, Auburn, CA 95604, or by volunteering to write grants, operate a SARSAS booth at local festivals, represent SARSAS at other functions, coordinate an activity, monitor a section of the Auburn Ravine, perform water quality tests, speak to service and other clubs on behalf of SARSAS, do clerical work or research on fishes, or just find a way to contribute what you do best to SARSAS, all by calling 530-888-0281.
Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead (SARSAS) Update
Jack L. Sanchez, President
PO Bx 4269
Auburn, CA95604
530 888 0281
SARSAS General Meetings, which are open to the public, are held the fourth Monday of every month at the Domes, 175 Fulweiler in Auburn at 10am and are limited to one hour. SARSAS believes that many people sitting at the same table WORKING COLLABORATIVELY in the best way to accomplish the SARSAS mission which is to return salmon and steelhead to the entire thirty-three mile length of the Auburn Ravine.
SARSAS’ next fundraising dinner will be held at Rubino’s Italian American Cuisine Restaurant at 5015 Pacific Street in Rocklin on Monday, June 7, at 5:30 pm. Wine tasting and a raffle will be included. Contact SARSAS Event Coordinator Greg Nelson at 916-663-4914 for details. Then, the Second Annual SARSAS-Pescatore Winery Wild Salmon and Tri-Tips Dinner is scheduled for two evenings: Friday and Saturday, September 24-25 at Pescatore Vineyard and Winery, 7055 Ridge Road in Newcastle. Contact owner Dave Wegner at 916-663-1422 for details.
Many good things have taken place recently. To repeat, we had a documented sighting of a salmon in the Auburn Ravine on Monday, March 23, 2009, by three reliable people: Richard Harris, Lisa Thompson, a UC Berkeley Fish Biologist, and Edmund Sullivan, Placer Legacy. While looking for spawning sites, they spotted a Chinook salmon from the Fowler Bridge a few miles upstream from Lincoln. This sighting is a defining moment for SARSAS because no salmon has recently been spotted above Lincoln in a long time. Additionally, two fishermen reported to Board Member John Rabe they had sighted two large salmon below the Hemphill Dam upstream from Lincoln at the Turkey Creek Golf Course. If one salmon is sighted, how many more were not seen … ten, fifty or a hundred?
All flashboard dams downstream from Lincoln are now in compliance with NOAA regulations for upstream fish passage. That means from November 15 through April 15, all dams are removed so fish can swim upstream to spawning grounds. The next great push will be getting screens installed on all diversions that take water out of the Ravine for irrigation. Unless screens are installed, salmon smolt and steelhead returning to the ocean to grow up for three to five years, will be entrained into rice fields and pastures and die without ever returning even to the ocean. So SARSAS is now working with landowners and especially with General Manager Brad Arnold of the South Sutter Water District, which operates five diversion dams, to get screening in place. Ron Ott, SARSAS Board Member and one of the nation’s great authorities on fish passage, is currently working with SARSAS Grant Writer Cathie DuChene, to design, plan and fund fish screenings for the Pleasant Grove Diversion Canal a few miles downstream of Lincoln, which diverts at least fifty percent of the water in the Auburn Ravine for irrigation, and the dozen or so pumps that take water for irrigation and are perilous to fishes. Once the Pleasant Grove Canal and the pumps are screened, then the Ravine will be guaranteed a viable anadromous fish run to the City of Lincoln.
SARSAS’ current focus is to raise money to install these fish screens.
To get fish above the city of Lincoln, SARSAS is working with Placer Legacy and NID to create fish passage around the Lincoln Gaging Station, half mile downstream of Highway 65 in the center of Lincoln; the Hemphill Dam, adjacent to the Turkey Creek Gold Course two miles upstream from Lincoln; and finally the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, a mile upstream from Gold Hill Road in Newcastle. Ron Nelson, General Manager of NID, had planned to have these retrofitted for fish passage last summer but funding dried up. He is currently working for a fall 2010 target date. Once fish can pass these barriers, they can swim to the Gold Hill Diversion Dam, an NID Diversion Dam upstream from Gold Hill Road. This is the largest dam and diversion on the Auburn Ravine and has not yet been addressed for fish passage. Once Gold Hill Dam is retrofitted, fish can swim upstream through Ophir, up the Ophir Cataract, a half mile upstream from the Lozanos Bridge to Wise Powerhouse. Once salmon and steelhead reach Wise Powerhouse, one mile from the city of Auburn and the real work begins to get the salmon to Auburn School Park Preserve, behind Auburn City Hall to spawn.
NOAA Special Agent Don Tanner continues his low key, collaborative approach working with landowners to secure fish passage by comply with regulations that provide passage for the fishes to get to spawning gravels and are able to return to the Pacific. Don is currently working on identifying the owners of the pumping stations on the Cross Canal, the last four miles of the Auburn Ravine before it empties into the Sacramento River at the City of Verona.
SARSAS Board member and former Lincoln City Councilman and Lincoln School Board member Stan Nader has been methodically connecting us with the local fathers in Lincoln and plans are underway for a SARSAS-Lincoln Calling Back the Salmon Celebration to be held in Lincoln all day on Saturday, October 23, 2010, at McBean Park on the Auburn Ravine. Stan is the CBTSC Chairperson and if you would like to be a part of the Celebration call Stan at home at 916-645-1149 or his cell at 916-300-4335. The Celebration will include the Native American sacred and religious ceremony Calling Back the Salmon conducted by Bill Jacobson, who was taught the ceremony by Pacific Northwest tribes. Ty Gorre is working with Bill on the Ceremony.
Businesses can sponsor the Celebration by donating amounts from $25 to $2,500 with listings of the company logos and other benefits listed on the brochure on the callingbackthesalmoncelebration.org.
Speaking of Native Americans, SARSAS has finalized an Alliance with the Washoe Tribes of Nevada and California to mutually work to return anadromous fish to the Auburn Ravine. SARSAS is pleased that Darrel Cruz and the Washoe, headquartered in Gardnerville, NV, have joined us in our work on the Auburn Ravine.
The City of Auburn is still being penalized for its discharge from the Auburn Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Auburn Ravine, and Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln has been granted the right to triple its discharge into Orchard Creek, a tributary of the Auburn Ravine, but the decision by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board is being appealed to the State Water Board.
SARSAS Grant Writer Cathie DuChene has secured a five thousand dollar grant from the Tides Foundation to help return salmon and steelhead to the entire length of the Auburn Ravine, the SARSAS mission. Scott Johnson has secured grants of about fifteen hundred dollars for educational outreach to children in our local schools. And $1,000 has been donated by PC Supervisors Jim Holmes and Robert Weygandt for educational outreach.
.
The outpouring of community support such as Ken Clark offering the equipment of his excavating company is solidifying the realization of the SARSAS mission. If the entire communities of Lincoln and Auburn support SARSAS’ effort, the return of salmon and steelhead in the Ravine will quickly become a reality.
.
You can help return salmon and steelhead to the Auburn Ravine by sending donations to SARSAS, PO Box 4269, Auburn, CA 95604, or by volunteering to write grants, operate a SARSAS booth at local festivals, represent SARSAS at other functions, coordinate an activity, monitor a section of the Auburn Ravine, perform water quality tests, speak to service and other clubs on behalf of SARSAS, do clerical work or research on fishes, or just find a way to contribute what you do best to SARSAS, all by calling 530-888-0281.
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