Jerry Brown presses case on $6 billion water bond [Sacramento Bee]
Gov.
Jerry Brown, pressing his case Tuesday for a smaller water bond on the November
ballot, criticized the existing, $11.1 billion bond as “pork-laden” and “with a
price tag beyond what’s reasonable or affordable.” Brown has been pushing for a
$6 billion bond since June, with $2 billion of that amount for dams and other
water storage projects….Brown’s letter serves as a marker of the governor’s
position ahead of water bond talks in the Legislature this month….There are
sharp disagreements about how much money to allocate for dams and other storage
and about how to address the Delta. Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego,
said in a written statement that a $6 billion bond “would ultimately be too
small to meet the state’s dire needs.”
Feds
cut off irrigation to some Klamath Project farms [Eureka
Times-Standard/Associated Press]
In
a decision similar to last week's cessation of releases to the lower Klamath
and Trinity rivers, water is being cut off to about one-third of the farms on a
federal irrigation project in the drought-parched Klamath Basin of Oregon and
California. A July 31 letter from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to irrigation
districts says that the flows into the Klamath Reclamation Project's primary
reservoir have been below pre-season forecasts from the Natural Resources
Conservation Service, forcing a reduction in releases to districts with junior
claims on water in order to meet minimum water levels for endangered fish….Greg
Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association said Tuesday that the most
recent cutoff means no more water for 50,000 acres of the project. Most of
those farms produce hay, and losing irrigation will mean they lose up to half
their crop for the year, he said.
U.S.
Forest Service running out of money to fight fires [Associated Press]
The
U.S. Forest Service will soon have to scale back some projects designed to help
prevent wildfires so that it can meet the expenses of fighting this summer's
round of fires. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday that about $400
million to $500 million in projects will have to be put on hold in what has
become a routine exercise toward the end of the fiscal year. He predicted that
the money set aside strictly for firefighting will run out by the end of
August….Lawmakers from both parties generally agree the current funding model is
broken. They say it's self-defeating to curtail activities designed to prevent
forest fires, such as thinning overgrown forests and clearing underbrush, to
cover the full costs of fighting blazes that have become more destructive over
the past decade. But there is disagreement about how to fix the problem.
State
to consider emergency protection for tricolored blackbird [Los Angeles Times]
The
California Fish and Game Commission on Wednesday will consider an emergency
listing of the tricolored blackbird as a threatened or endangered species in
response to a statewide survey showing its population has plummeted 44% since
2011….As part of an effort to save the species, Audubon California and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service are leading
a program that pays dairy farmers to delay harvesting their silage crops
through the nesting season. “Without the cooperation and commitment of
farmers,” Brigid McCormack, executive director of Audubon California, said in a
prepared statement, “this bird would be even closer to extinction." So
far, however, that program has failed to stem the decline. Listing would help
provide funding for the development and implementation of additional new
strategies for stabilizing at-risk colonies.
Wildlife
refuges phasing out GMO crops, pesticides [Associated Press]
National
wildlife refuges around the country are phasing out genetically modified crops
and a class of pesticides related to nicotine in programs meant to provide food
for wildlife. A July 17 letter from James W. Kurth, chief of the national
refuge system, makes no specific mention of any concerns that the pesticides or
the crops pose risks to wildlife or pollinators, such as bees and butterflies.
It just says they don't fit refuge objectives, such as promoting natural
ecosystems. "We make this decision based on a precautionary approach to
our wildlife management practices, and not on agricultural practices," he
wrote.
Commentary: Pesticides are
critical to providing a safe, reliable food supply [Sacramento Bee]
…Many
Californians think of pesticides as something only farmers use. They don’t
realize that pesticides touch many other areas in their lives. We all reap the
benefits of pesticides. They are part of the complex processes required to
deliver safe food, water and health care, yet some consumers are reluctant to
accept the risks required to create those benefits. When something seems
foreign to us and we don’t understand its benefits, it becomes vulnerable to
attack by seemingly well-meaning people and organizations….Pesticides are
chemical compounds that are critical to providing a safe, reliable food supply,
maintaining public health, and managing open spaces and urban landscaping.
There are no current replacements that effectively deliver these services on a
wide scale. So society will continue to use them….Pesticides are among the most
regulated item in commerce in California. We are proud to have the most
protective pesticide regulations in the world. But the regulatory system
requires, indeed depends on, painstaking scientific research. California law
allows my department – the Department of Pesticide Regulation – to act based
only on science, not on current trends, opinion or fear.
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