Endangered Species
February 11, 2010--Judge: CA pumping limits needed to protect smelt (Denver Post)
A federal judge turned down California farmers' emergency request Wednesday to suspend water pumping restrictions in the state's delta in a ruling aimed at keeping a threatened fish species from being ground up in the pumps. The decision by U.S.
February 6, 2010--California: Limits on pumping are lifted (New York Times)
A federal judge on Friday temporarily lifted pumping limits designed to protect endangered wild salmon in order to speed more irrigation water to California’s drought-parched fields. Some of the country’s largest farms had pressed for the protections in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to be suspended because the persistent drought has caused job losses and other economic woes.
February 5, 2010--Central Valley water pump wars continue on capitol hill (New York Times)
Partisan bickering continues over water pumping restrictions in California's Central Valley, as Republicans attacked a Democratic bill meant to shore up area farmers. The agriculture-heavy area has seen unemployment skyrocket to 40 percent in some parts as a three-year drought has forced farmers to fallow their fields.
January 29, 2010--Grape growing, fish protection clash in California (Washington Post)
Grape growers in Northern California's cool, fertile Sonoma County wine region are stomping mad at a new plan to limit the amount of water vineyards can pump from local rivers and streams to protect crops from frost - a proposed regulation meant to safeguard coho salmon, a species on the brink of local extinction.
January 27, 2010--U.S. speeds up water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley farmers (Los Angeles Times)
Federal managers said Tuesday they are speeding up delivery of irrigation water to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley because recent storms have boosted the state's water supply. "Essentially we're saying we're confident enough right now that we can provide this as an assured water supply . . .
January 25, 2010--National science panel convenes on Calif. delta (Denver Post)
An expert in California's delta told a panel of the National Academies of Sciences on Sunday that their decisions about the largest estuary on the West Coast could alter how Californians use water.
January 7, 2010--Feds take flack over water releases for Colo. fish (Denver Post)
Federal officials say endangered fish trump other fish and the anglers who chase them when it comes to flows on the Fryingpan River in western Colorado. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S.
November 25, 2009--Group sues to win protection for Colorado River trout (Vail Daily)
An Oregon-based environmental group is suing to gain federal protection for the Colorado River cutthroat trout, found in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, D.C., by the Center for Biological Diversity challenges a 2007 decision that kept the fish off the endangered species list. The U.S.
November 25, 2009--Bureau: Little flexibility on releases of water from Ruedi (Aspen Times)
Trout fishing suffered on the Fryingpan River above Basalt for six weeks last summer because water from Ruedi Reservoir was needed to assist endangered fish, federal authorities said Monday. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it released water purchased from Ruedi by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when the agency demanded, or “called,” it in August.
November 23, 2009--Warming's impacts sped up, worsened since Kyoto (Denver Post)
Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated—beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then. As the world has talked for a dozen years about what to do next, new ship passages opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic.
