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KERN RIVER PLANTS RESUME -- matthews-ONS -- 11feb10
Kern River trout plants resume just in time for Whiskey Flats Days event
By JIM MATTHEWS - Outdoor News Service
Trout plants on the Kern River, which has not been stocked with hatchery rainbows since November, 2008, resumed this week with Wednesday plants in the Kern River Park area in Kernville and on the river below the dam that creates Lake Isabella.
The Department of Fish and Game’s hatchery trout stocking program was halted on many waters throughout the state in 2008 because of a lawsuit filed by the Pacific Rivers Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity. The suit forced the DFG to prepare a full-blown Environmental Impact Report on the statewide hatchery program, and stocking guidelines were imposed by the court. These interim guidelines stopped trout plants on waters throughout the state where native fish and amphibians could be impacted by stocking. These guidelines were in force until the EIR was complete.
The EIR was completed in early January, and with a plan in place, the staff in the Fresno DFG office moved to act under the new guidelines to try to get trout back into the Kern River. Stocks were made Wednesday in Kern River Park area (known as Section 4). The plant consisted of 400 pounds of one-pound rainbows along with 60 trophy trout. Another 400 pounds of catchables were planted below the Lake Isabella Dam (known as Sections 1 and 2). These are the areas where water temperatures met historic planting criteria.
“Today’s plant was similar to plants the DFG has done in the past to help enhance fishing opportunity for the 10 to 20,000 visitors to the area over the annual Whiskey Flats Days celebration this President's Day weekend,” said Jeff Single, regional manager in Fresno.
Ironically, on the same day, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit contesting the DFG’s newly released EIR, the last day of the comment period on the plan.
Noah Greenwald, a spokesman for the CBD, said that the group would not likely contest the plants on the Kern River. The two issues on the Kern, the threatened hardhead minnow and the native Kern River rainbow trout, were being addresses by the state and neither was likely harmed by the DFG’s current stocking regime on the Kern.
“We haven’t made any decisions on what waters we’d go after with a preliminary injunction, if a judge agrees to that, but I think we’d have a hard time saying the [planting the] Kern is an issue. Our main concern there was with the hardhead minnow and our scientists say they are doing pretty good in the Kern,” Greenwald said.
The DFG is also working on plans to identify pure-strain Kern River rainbows, collect broodstock, and use the Kern River Hatchery to raise and stock only this strain of fish in the entire Kern River drainage, almost completely negating any concerns about hatchery stocking in this region.
Kernville region businesses have been heavily impacted by the cessation of trout plants in the Kern River, and visitation to the area was way down from past years, especially in the summer months when the river was stocked heavily in alternating weeks throughout the fishing season.
The move by the DFG on the Kern could also open the door for trout plants to resume in other waters that had been at least temporarily shut down by the lawsuit, but it is unlikely that high elevation lakes, especially those in yellow-legged frog habitat, are ever likely to see DFG plants again.
Very few waters in Southern California or the Eastern Sierra Nevada were affected by the lawsuit, but the northeast part of the state and Western Sierra saw many traditionally stocked waters lose their plants. [A complete list of waters formerly planted but currently not being stocked is available on the DFG web site.]
There was some concern initially whether the DFG had the authority to resume plants without final court approval of the EIR, but a spokesperson for the agency said the decision to move quickly on the Kern was because Fresno staff felt confident they met the terms of the court order and had the authority to resume plants under the guidelines outlined in the EIR. The CDB did not contest those beliefs.
Kern River trout plants resume just in time for Whiskey Flats Days event
By JIM MATTHEWS - Outdoor News Service
Trout plants on the Kern River, which has not been stocked with hatchery rainbows since November, 2008, resumed this week with Wednesday plants in the Kern River Park area in Kernville and on the river below the dam that creates Lake Isabella.
The Department of Fish and Game’s hatchery trout stocking program was halted on many waters throughout the state in 2008 because of a lawsuit filed by the Pacific Rivers Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity. The suit forced the DFG to prepare a full-blown Environmental Impact Report on the statewide hatchery program, and stocking guidelines were imposed by the court. These interim guidelines stopped trout plants on waters throughout the state where native fish and amphibians could be impacted by stocking. These guidelines were in force until the EIR was complete.
The EIR was completed in early January, and with a plan in place, the staff in the Fresno DFG office moved to act under the new guidelines to try to get trout back into the Kern River. Stocks were made Wednesday in Kern River Park area (known as Section 4). The plant consisted of 400 pounds of one-pound rainbows along with 60 trophy trout. Another 400 pounds of catchables were planted below the Lake Isabella Dam (known as Sections 1 and 2). These are the areas where water temperatures met historic planting criteria.
“Today’s plant was similar to plants the DFG has done in the past to help enhance fishing opportunity for the 10 to 20,000 visitors to the area over the annual Whiskey Flats Days celebration this President's Day weekend,” said Jeff Single, regional manager in Fresno.
Ironically, on the same day, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit contesting the DFG’s newly released EIR, the last day of the comment period on the plan.
Noah Greenwald, a spokesman for the CBD, said that the group would not likely contest the plants on the Kern River. The two issues on the Kern, the threatened hardhead minnow and the native Kern River rainbow trout, were being addresses by the state and neither was likely harmed by the DFG’s current stocking regime on the Kern.
“We haven’t made any decisions on what waters we’d go after with a preliminary injunction, if a judge agrees to that, but I think we’d have a hard time saying the [planting the] Kern is an issue. Our main concern there was with the hardhead minnow and our scientists say they are doing pretty good in the Kern,” Greenwald said.
The DFG is also working on plans to identify pure-strain Kern River rainbows, collect broodstock, and use the Kern River Hatchery to raise and stock only this strain of fish in the entire Kern River drainage, almost completely negating any concerns about hatchery stocking in this region.
Kernville region businesses have been heavily impacted by the cessation of trout plants in the Kern River, and visitation to the area was way down from past years, especially in the summer months when the river was stocked heavily in alternating weeks throughout the fishing season.
The move by the DFG on the Kern could also open the door for trout plants to resume in other waters that had been at least temporarily shut down by the lawsuit, but it is unlikely that high elevation lakes, especially those in yellow-legged frog habitat, are ever likely to see DFG plants again.
Very few waters in Southern California or the Eastern Sierra Nevada were affected by the lawsuit, but the northeast part of the state and Western Sierra saw many traditionally stocked waters lose their plants. [A complete list of waters formerly planted but currently not being stocked is available on the DFG web site.]
There was some concern initially whether the DFG had the authority to resume plants without final court approval of the EIR, but a spokesperson for the agency said the decision to move quickly on the Kern was because Fresno staff felt confident they met the terms of the court order and had the authority to resume plants under the guidelines outlined in the EIR. The CDB did not contest those beliefs.
