The "Green Governor" Slashes Funding for Endangered Species

Friday 19 September 2008

by: Dan Bacher, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the California state budget. (Photo: Dan Bacher)

Schwarzenegger continues his war on fish and the environment.

When he signed California's long-overdue state budget last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, true to his role as the "Fish Terminator," blue penciled $3.1 million in funding from a key program run by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to restore endangered and threatened salmon, steelhead and other species.

Although some deluded reporters and editors in the corporate media still portray Governor Schwarzenegger as the "Green Governor" for his grandstanding over global warming and "sustainability," more and more Californians are waking up to the fact that the Schwarzenegger administration has been an unprecedented environmental disaster.

In the latest episode in his apparently relentless zeal to destroy California fisheries, Schwarzenegger has axed critical funding for DFG's Biodiversity Program staff. This staff is responsible for administering and enforcing California's Endangered Species Act (CESA) as well as reviewing and approving timber harvesting plans and applications for "incidental take" permits. The state's efforts for recovery of threatened and endangered species, including CESA-listed species of declining salmon, are also budgeted under this program, according to a statement from California Trout.

California Trout, a prominent watershed and fish conservation group, strongly opposes Governor Schwarzenegger's line-item veto of $3.1 million in funding for these critical DFG activities.

"We are deeply disappointed that the governor would opt to severely limit DFG's ability to protect our environment at this critical time," said California Trout Chief Executive Officer Brian Stranko. "Particularly given the dramatic recent reductions in salmon populations and other threatened and endangered species, this action seems especially shortsighted. His action is particularly troublesome given the relatively minor savings achieved to our multibillion-dollar state budget."

California Trout said it hopes to work with the legislature and the governor to identify "alternative funding sources" for these crucial programs as soon as possible.

The latest move by Schwarzenegger must be seen in context of a series of attacks by his administration against fish and the environment over the past several years. Schwarzenegger has presided over the worst fishery crisis in West Coast history - the closure of salmon fishing in ocean waters off California and Oregon and in Central Valley rivers. The closure by the state and federal governments was spurred by the unprecedented collapse of the Central Valley fall run chinook salmon population, which until recently was the most robust of West Coast salmon runs and the driver of West Coast fisheries.

Though the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations claim that "ocean conditions" are responsible for the collapse, all available evidence points to increasing water exports out of the California Delta and declining water quality as the main factors behind the dramatic decline of Sacramento River salmon. At the same time, an unholy trinity of increased water exports, toxic chemicals and invasive species combined to drive four Delta pelagic fish species - delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and juvenile striped bass - to the lowest-ever-recorded population levels.

Rather than trying to restore these rapidly dwindling fish populations, Schwarzenegger has only worked to make matters worse by campaigning for a environmentally destructive and enormously costly water bond with Senator Diane Feinstein. Although Schwarzenegger and Feinstein failed to generate the political momentum to place the bond measure on the November ballot, there is no doubt that they will be working to get the bailout bond for corporate water contractors on the March or June ballot this coming year.

Schwarzenegger's $9.3 billion water bond, opposed by a broad coalition of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, conservation groups and outspoken farmers, would provide for the construction of two new reservoirs and "improved water conveyance" - the governor's code language for a peripheral canal.

These proposed dams and the canal would create the infrastructure to export even more water out of the imperiled Delta, when what we actually need is reduced pumping and reduced water exports!

In addition to his push for a water bond, the governor's war on fish and the environment has included:

The refusal of his appointed officials on the State Water Resources Control Board and regional boards to hold agricultural polluters to the same standards as industry and municipalities, in spite of pleas by fishermen, conservationists and farmworkers.

His veto of historic suction-dredge mining legislation, sponsored by the Karuk Indian Tribe and California Trout, last year. More recently, the governor pressured the legislature to remove interim suction-dredge mining restrictions that were to have been incorporated as part of an omnibus resource trailer bill, AB 1338 (Huffman) that was adopted by the legislature last Monday night as part of the state budget package and sent to the governor.

His persistent fast-track advocacy of "no fishing zones" on the California Coast, under the guise of "Marine Protected Areas." These areas kick sustainable commercial and recreational fishermen off the water while doing nothing to stop water pollution, habitat degradation, water diversions and water exports that have resulted in huge fishery declines. Could it be that Schwarzengger is removing fishermen from the water, forcing them to find work elsewhere, in order to eliminate the most persistent critics of his water policies?

Failure by the DFG under the Schwarzenegger administration to support a volunteer rescue of tens of thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, largemouth bass and other species last November when the Bureau of Reclamation drained Prospect Island in the California Delta. Before the volunteers were finally allowed to do the rescue, thousands of fish had died, making Prospect Island the largest fish kill ever documented on the Delta and one of the largest fish kills in California history.

The governor also engaged in more high-profile "green washing" by issuing a statement on the "Western Climate Initiative's Regional Climate Change Program, again trying to portray himself as the "Green Governor" when his actual record on fish and the environment is the worst of any governor in the state's history.

"We're sending a strong message to our federal government that states and provinces are moving forward in the absence of federal action, and we're setting the stage for national programs that are just as aggressive," Schwarzenegger gushed. "This proposal goes hand-in-hand with California's landmark climate change efforts and is an essential part of helping us meet our AB 32 goals. With all our states and provinces equally committed, we can achieve the largest amount of emission reductions in the world while spurring renewable energy development and creating green jobs."

If Schwarzenegger is really concerned about creating "green jobs," why is he slashing the DFG budget for endangered species programs, kicking sustainable recreational and commercial fishermen off the water and campaigning for the destruction of the West Coast's largest and most significant estuary, the California Delta?

As Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, told me last year, "Schwarzenegger is as green as a silk plant. When you get up close, you realize that is all a big fake."

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