Because of this fact divisions have developed between citizens 
of the north and south, between farmers, and the urban dwellers, 
between developers and environmentalists, and between politi¬ 
cians and the lay public. These groups became more polarized, 
when the Bureau of Reclamation in about 1951, and the State 
Department of Water Resources in about 1968, began diverting 
water from rivers in the northern part of the state, such as the 
Sacramento and the San Joaguin, for use in the south. 
One can make three basic points about California water and 
its management as it relates to fish and wildlife resources in 
California: (1) California is divided in many ways on many 
environmental issues, but government cooperation and coordina¬ 
tion, at both the state and Federal levels is beginning to 
mitigate the impact of this division; (2) multi-agency, scienti¬ 
fic fish and wildlife studies are documenting the importance of 
freshwater flows and water project activities on the Bay system; 
and (3) continued studies are needed, in addition to continued 
financial and political support, if divisive environmental 
issues are to be adequately resolved. 
Government Cooperation and Coordination 
In 1970, when it became common knowledge that fish and 
wildlife problems existed in the estuarine system, and that one 
of the factors responsible for those problems was the Federal 
Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, four state 
and Federal agencies executed an Interagency Memorandum of 
Agreement. These agencies were: the Department of Water 
Resources (DWR), California Department of Fish and Game (DF & G), 
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service (USFWS). The purpose of this agreement was to 
provide for the performance of studies that would be necessary 
to obtain a thorough understanding of the requirements of the 
fish and wildlife resources in the estuary. These studies also 
represented significant follow-up efforts to cooperative work 
that began early in the 1960s between the DWR and DF & G. 
All the agencies in this group agreed that it was necessary 
to define design and operation criteria for the projects, in 
order that resource protection could be assured. This coopera¬ 
tive alliance between water development agencies and fish and 
wildlife agencies was the first major fish and wildlife accom¬ 
plishment associated with water policy in California. 
The intent of this so-called "Interagency Ecological Study 
Program" was good, but true to California's divisive nature, the 
estuary was divided into two components, and only the upstream 
Delta portion of that system was studied in detail. Cooperative 
work was carried out during the early 1960s and 1970s and 
yielded much information about fishery resources and their 
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