endangered fish species Archives

New California Water Permit Seeks to Balance Water Delivery with Environmental Protections

A new operating permit issued Monday for California’s state water project is expected to help protect fish and ensure almost 30 million people can access a reliable water supply.

“The new incidental take permit for the state water project issued today provides California with new tools and resources to better manage our water supply for endangered fish species and millions of Californians,” said Karla Nemeth, water resources department director, in a statement.

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California Pledges to Build Channel for Threatened Fish to Bypass Gold Rush-Era Dam

May 17, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /AP Newsby Adam Beam

California officials on Tuesday said they will spend about $60 million to build a channel along the Yuba River so that salmon and other threatened fish species can get around a Gold Rush-era dam that for more than a century has cut off their migration along the chilly waters of Sierra Nevada streams.

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Historic Partnership Penned to Help Save Endangered Salmon

May 3, 2023/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /CBS Bay Area by Wilson Walker

Over the past year we’ve been showing you California’s effort to save the winter run chinook salmon – a fish that has almost been lost to dammed rivers and warming waters.

It’s part of a growing partnership between state and federal wildlife agencies – and a small California tribe that’s been fighting to save those fish for years, and bring them back home.

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California Farmers Preparing for State Water Curtailment Orders

June 30, 2022/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Paso Robles Pressby Camille DeVaul

Farmers up and down California are once again facing an uncertain season ahead of them as a state water curtailment order issued in August 2021 continues to take its toll on farming and ranching families.

In July 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order calling a drought emergency and asking for water conservation. Soon after, farmers and ranchers in California received curtailment orders from the California Water Board (CWB) to either immediately or prepare to suspend their senior water rights.

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California Lawmakers Mull Buying Out Farmers to Save Water

June 6, 2022/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /AP Newsby Adam Beam

After decades of fighting farmers in court over how much water they can take out of California’s rivers and streams, some state lawmakers want to try something different: use taxpayer money to buy out farmers.

A proposal in the state Senate would spend up to $1.5 billion to buy “senior water rights” that allow farmers to take as much water as needed from the state’s rivers and streams to grow their crops.

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