(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Tribal, fishing and conservation groups file comments on 2023 California Water Plan Update [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-22 SACRAMENTO – As a closure of salmon fishing on the state’s ocean waters and rivers continues to devastate fishing communities around California, a coalition of Tribal, fishing, and conservation organizations this week submitted official comments on the Department of Water Resources (DWR) on its 2023 Update of the California Water Plan (2023 Plan Update). The coalition includes Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the River, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Golden State Salmon Association, Restore the Delta, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Save California Salmon, Sierra Club California, and Tuolumne River Trust. “DWR needs to drastically amend the 2023 Plan Update to bring water supplies and demands into balance to truly achieve equity for all, to strengthen watershed resilience, and create a plan for addressing climate urgency,” according to the comments. “The revised Plan Update 2023 must eliminate problematic policy proposals that undermine these goals such as the Delta Conveyance Project, Sites Reservoir, and the Voluntary Agreements and support the long-overdue update process of the Bay-Delta Plan.” “The Plan Update must also acknowledge the importance of restoring our Chinook salmon populations alongside a commitment to ecosystem health through enforcement of regulatory protections. Finally, DWR must also describe robust plans to act on mitigation of HABs, to rethink backbone system operations to respond to changing climatic conditions in the present such as increased flood risk, and improve other pressing water quality conditions to protect Tribes and frontline Delta communities,” the comments stated. On a positive note, the Tribes and groups wrote, “It is also encouraging to see that DWR has a chapter on Tribal Resources and acknowledges that since time immemorial, Tribes have stewarded the land and waters of California. However, DWR needs to do a much better job of incorporating Tribal Ecological Knowledge into the decision-making process to help mitigate serious environmental impacts on Tribal Beneficial Uses. This includes recognizing the importance of HABs on Tribal Beneficial Uses of rivers and the Bay-Delta estuary.” “The California Water Plan is an important water management policy document, and while the draft 2023 update had admirable themes, it lacked consistent actions to achieve its goals of increasing watershed resilience and achieving equity,” said Ashley Overhouse, Water Policy Advisor for Defenders of Wildlife. “Defenders was also disappointed to see that the draft Plan declined to prioritize ecosystem health or even mention the state’s declining Chinook salmon populations while promoting scientifically inadequate and inequitable policy schemes such as the Voluntary Agreements and the Delta Conveyance Project.” “As a coalition, we strongly urge DWR to drastically amend the 2023 Water Plan Update,” stated Jann Dorman, Executive Director of Friends of the River. “This proposal does not match the urgency of California’s water crisis which has been exacerbated by the very policies previous Water Plans have authorized. We need to accept that small fixes to a broken system are not close to enough.” “California desperately needs to balance its water budget,” concluded Chris Shutes, Executive Director of California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “Sheer numbers require a modern California Water Plan to present a comprehensive roadmap to reduce aggregate agricultural water demand. This Draft Plan doesn't come close. Leaving the market to randomly weed out water use without consideration of the social consequences is the avoidance of a plan, and it is also deeply inequitable.” As the comments were submitted, all recreational and commercial fishing on the ocean in all of California and most of Oregon is closed, due to the collapse of Sacramento River and Klamath/Trinity River fall-run Chinook salmon populations spurred by poor water and fishery management by the state and federal governments, according to salmon advocates. Recreational salmon fishing on the Sacramento and Klamath rivers is closed and tribal fishing for salmon on the Hoopa Valley Reservation on the Trinity River and the Yurok Reservation on the Klamath River is severely restricted this year. The total tribal allocation for Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon on the Klamath River system is 1872 adult fish this year, according to NOAA Fisheries: www.fisheries.noaa.gov/.. The Yurok Tribe is allocated 80 percent of the salmon, while the Hoopa Valley Tribe is allocated 20 percent of the fish, according to Orcutt. That doesn’t make for many fish when you consider that there are 6,357 enrolled members of the Yurok Tribe, the largest Tribe in California, and 3,167 enrolled members of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. 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