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Wolk Bill Will Provide Ecological Restoration, Recreation Access on North Delta
by Dan Bacher
Assembly Bill 2502, introduced by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, would create a "Delta Ecological Restoration and Recreation Area" on the north end of the California Delta. The area would include Prospect Island, where a massive fish kill took place in November 2007, as well as Liberty Island and Little Holland Tract. Wolk's bill is some much welcome good news in a time of fishery and ecological disasters created by state and federal mismanagement. Central Valley salmon populations are in a state of unprecedented collapse while four species of Delta pelagic (open water) fish - delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and juvenile striped bass - have reached record lows over the past several years. Although a number of factors are responsible for the salmon and Delta fish collapse, the number one factor in both fishery declines is massive increases in state and federal water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to subsidized agribusiness and southern California. Fortunately, federal and municipal court orders have for the first time imposed restrictions on water exports to protect salmon, delta smelt and other species. This bill will improve and preserve some of the best fish and wildlife habitat on the Delta for future generations as a coalition of sportfishing, commercial fishing, tribal and enviromental groups continues to fight plans by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state water contractors to build a peripheral canal and more dams to increase water exports out of the Delta. Photo: the draining of flooded Prospect Island as this levee was repaired resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, black bass, bluegill and other species in November and early December 2007. A crew of volunteers, coordinated by Bob McDaris and Jeff Nash, saved over 1800 striped bass and thousands of other species from certain death.