SWFSC Fisheries Ecology Division researchers Churchill
Grimes, Brian Spence, and Steve Lindley attended the first meeting of a
National Research Council panel studying sustainable water and environmental
management in the California Bay-Delta. The panel’s study is motivated by the
recent NMFS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) jeopardy biological
opinions on the operation of the state and federal water projects in California’s
Central Valley, and was ordered by Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA).
The panel’s first report, due in
March of this year, will focus on whether there are conservation actions other
than those in the biological opinions that would protect species while using
less water, and whether the two opinions have measures to account for potential
conflict between the needs of NMFS and USFWS species. The panel will complete a
second report by November 2011 on how to most effectively incorporate science
and adaptive management concepts into holistic programs for management and
restoration of the Bay-Delta, and will address stressors outside the scope of
the opinions. The panel’s findings will likely be influential in numerous
lawsuits against the agencies which seek to prevent the increased use of water
for environmental purposes at the expense of agricultural and municipal uses.
Information on the study can be
found at the National Academy of Science website:
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49175 
(February 1, 2010)