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producing river, the ocean fishery off northern California and 

 southern Oregon is regulated for the protection of Klamath and 

 Trinity stocks and the river is important for sport fishing and 

 the culture and subsistence of four different native American 

 tribes. With up to 86% of the flow of this river being diverted, 

 salmon and steelhead populations declined over 80%. In 1980, then- 

 Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus did order flows increased in the 

 Trinity to 340,000 acre- feet, but still far less than the 700,000 

 acre-feet recommended at the time by PCFFA. In fact, recent flow 

 studies indicate that releases similar in size to those recommended 

 by PCFFA will be needed to restore Trinity River salmon and 

 steelhead runs. 



Last, operations of the project's Delta pumps, in concert with 

 the operation of the state water Project's pumps, have had a 

 devastating impact on the outmigration of baby salmon. Entrainment 

 at the pumps and the loss in the Delta of fish due to change in 

 flows has become such a large killer that most hatchery production 

 is now trucked around the Delta for release into San Francisco Bay 

 in order to improve survival. Unfortunately, there is no way to 

 truck the natural production; the only way to increase their 

 survival is to curtail Delta pumping during critical migration 

 periods. Again, curtailment has only come as a result of the 

 listing of the winter-run; the Bureau never felt compelled to take 

 any measures to protect the fish in the Delta prior to that. 



There has been considerable debate about takings legislation 

 in this Congress, particularly in regards to the Endangered Species 

 Act and the wetland provisions of the Clean Water Act. If this 

 Congress really wants to examine takings, however, and who the real 

 victims have been, it needs look no further than the salmon fishery 

 and the jobs and economies this industry once supported. And, 

 while many of growers south of the Delta complain of having their 

 supplies reduced by 25, 50, even 75% in recent years because of the 

 drought and curtailed Delta pumping, remember the fish have had 

 their flow reduced by 100% on the San Joaquin, as much as 85% on 

 the Trinity, and perhaps one-third to one-half overall through the 

 Delta. 



BALANCE AND REFORM 



PCFFA and other fishing groups have been enthusiastic 

 supporters of efforts to reform the Central Valley Project and 

 restore some balance into a system that for fifty years favored 

 out-of-stream divesrters, much of it for low value or subsidized 

 crops, over (or at the expense of) in-stream food production. The 

 Central valley Project Improvement Act, while not going as far as 

 PCFFA believed necessary to restore the fishery economy, 

 nevertheless contained many needed reforms to the west's largest 

 and as yet unpaid-for reclamation project. The CVPIA includes a 

 number of important provisions and reforms that are key to 

 restoring California and southern Oregon's salmon fishery; these 



