The "Green Governor" Slashes Funding for Endangered Species
Schwarzenegger continues his war on fish and the environment.
http://www.truthout.org/092908EA
When he signed California's long-overdue state budget last week,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, true to his role as the "Fish
Terminator," blue penciled $3.1 million in funding from a key program
run by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to restore endangered and
threatened salmon, steelhead and other species.
Although some deluded reporters and editors in the corporate media
still portray Governor Schwarzenegger as the "Green Governor" for his
grandstanding over global warming and "sustainability," more and more
Californians are waking up to the fact that the Schwarzenegger
administration has been an unprecedented environmental disaster.
In the latest episode in his apparently relentless zeal to destroy
California fisheries, Schwarzenegger has axed critical funding for
DFG's Biodiversity Program staff. This staff is responsible for
administering and enforcing California's Endangered Species Act (CESA)
as well as reviewing and approving timber harvesting plans and
applications for "incidental take" permits. The state's efforts for
recovery of threatened and endangered species, including CESA-listed
species of declining salmon, are also budgeted under this program,
according to a statement from California Trout.
California Trout, a prominent watershed and fish conservation
group, strongly opposes Governor Schwarzenegger's line-item veto of
$3.1 million in funding for these critical DFG activities.
"We are deeply disappointed that the governor would opt to
severely limit DFG's ability to protect our environment at this
critical time," said California Trout Chief Executive Officer Brian
Stranko. "Particularly given the dramatic recent reductions in salmon
populations and other threatened and endangered species, this action
seems especially shortsighted. His action is particularly troublesome
given the relatively minor savings achieved to our multibillion-dollar
state budget."
California Trout said it hopes to work with the legislature and
the governor to identify "alternative funding sources" for these
crucial programs as soon as possible.
The latest move by Schwarzenegger must be seen in context of a
series of attacks by his administration against fish and the
environment over the past several years. Schwarzenegger has presided
over the worst fishery crisis in West Coast history - the closure of
salmon fishing in ocean waters off California and Oregon and in
Central Valley rivers. The closure by the state and federal
governments was spurred by the unprecedented collapse of the Central
Valley fall run chinook salmon population, which until recently was
the most robust of West Coast salmon runs and the driver of West Coast
fisheries.
Though the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations claim that
"ocean conditions" are responsible for the collapse, all available
evidence points to increasing water exports out of the California
Delta and declining water quality as the main factors behind the
dramatic decline of Sacramento River salmon. At the same time, an
unholy trinity of increased water exports, toxic chemicals and
invasive species combined to drive four Delta pelagic fish species -
delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and juvenile striped bass -
to the lowest-ever-recorded population levels.
Rather than trying to restore these rapidly dwindling fish
populations, Schwarzenegger has only worked to make matters worse by
campaigning for a environmentally destructive and enormously costly
water bond with Senator Diane Feinstein. Although Schwarzenegger and
Feinstein failed to generate the political momentum to place the bond
measure on the November ballot, there is no doubt that they will be
working to get the bailout bond for corporate water contractors on the
March or June ballot this coming year.
Schwarzenegger's $9.3 billion water bond, opposed by a broad
coalition of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian
Tribes, conservation groups and outspoken farmers, would provide for
the construction of two new reservoirs and "improved water conveyance"
- the governor's code language for a peripheral canal.
These proposed dams and the canal would create the infrastructure
to export even more water out of the imperiled Delta, when what we
actually need is reduced pumping and reduced water exports!
In addition to his push for a water bond, the governor's war on
fish and the environment has included:
The refusal of his appointed officials on the State Water Resources
Control Board and regional boards to hold agricultural polluters to
the same standards as industry and municipalities, in spite of pleas
by fishermen, conservationists and farmworkers.
His veto of historic suction-dredge mining legislation, sponsored by
the Karuk Indian Tribe and California Trout, last year. More recently,
the governor pressured the legislature to remove interim suction-
dredge mining restrictions that were to have been incorporated as part
of an omnibus resource trailer bill, AB 1338 (Huffman) that was
adopted by the legislature last Monday night as part of the state
budget package and sent to the governor.
His persistent fast-track advocacy of "no fishing zones" on the
California Coast, under the guise of "Marine Protected Areas." These
areas kick sustainable commercial and recreational fishermen off the
water while doing nothing to stop water pollution, habitat
degradation, water diversions and water exports that have resulted in
huge fishery declines. Could it be that Schwarzengger is removing
fishermen from the water, forcing them to find work elsewhere, in
order to eliminate the most persistent critics of his water policies?
Failure by the DFG under the Schwarzenegger administration to support
a volunteer rescue of tens of thousands of striped bass, Sacramento
blackfish, Sacramento splittail, largemouth bass and other species
last November when the Bureau of Reclamation drained Prospect Island
in the California Delta. Before the volunteers were finally allowed to
do the rescue, thousands of fish had died, making Prospect Island the
largest fish kill ever documented on the Delta and one of the largest
fish kills in California history.
The governor also engaged in more high-profile "green washing" by
issuing a statement on the "Western Climate Initiative's Regional
Climate Change Program, again trying to portray himself as the "Green
Governor" when his actual record on fish and the environment is the
worst of any governor in the state's history.
"We're sending a strong message to our federal government that
states and provinces are moving forward in the absence of federal
action, and we're setting the stage for national programs that are
just as aggressive," Schwarzenegger gushed. "This proposal goes hand-
in-hand with California's landmark climate change efforts and is an
essential part of helping us meet our AB 32 goals. With all our states
and provinces equally committed, we can achieve the largest amount of
emission reductions in the world while spurring renewable energy
development and creating green jobs."
If Schwarzenegger is really concerned about creating "green jobs,"
why is he slashing the DFG budget for endangered species programs,
kicking sustainable recreational and commercial fishermen off the
water and campaigning for the destruction of the West Coast's largest
and most significant estuary, the California Delta?
As Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the
Delta, told me last year, "Schwarzenegger is as green as a silk plant.
When you get up close, you realize that is all a big fake."
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