Posts Tagged: salmon

Farm economy not as bad as reported

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein fanned a controversy earlier this month when she said she would propose legislation urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to raise the valley's water deliveries. Her idea was hailed by West Side growers and farmworkers - who say they are suffering economically because of short water supplies - and criticized by environmentalists and many of her fellow democrats - who believe the water is needed to protect delta smelt and salmon.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times bolstered the environmentalists' position with an article that said agriculture's reported economic difficulties have been exaggerated.

Times reporter Bettina Boxall wrote that crop and labor statistics for 2009 contradict the image of a withering farm economy teetering on the edge of collapse.

"People make a lot of claims, but the data you see is showing growth. We're just not seeing the job loss," the story quoted Paul Wessen, an economist with the California Employment Development Department.

Boxall also spoke to UC Davis agricultural economist Richard Howitt, who in early 2009 predicted that water cutbacks could cost the valley 80,000 jobs and up to $2.2 billion in revenue. He later revised those numbers to 21,100 farm-related jobs and $703 million in agricultural revenue.

Howitt said farm advocates keep repeating the higher estimates and blame most of the delivery cuts on environmental protections, when they can be more accurately explained by the drought.

Furthermore, the projected economic losses, Howitt said, are "not big" compared to the state's $36 billion farm economy

"But the story is not the aggregate. It's the concentration," Howitt was quoted.

Howitt's report on water supply and demand is available on the UC Agricultural Issues Center Web site.

Delta farmland.

Fish out of water

Fall rains came in just the nick of time for salmon in the Shasta and Scott rivers, according to an article in today's Redding Record-Searchlight. Before the most recent storms, salmon attempting to swim upstream to spawn were trapped in shallow, isolated pools. Agricultural water usage was getting the blame.

"The irrigation withdrawals are very clearly what is causing the extremely low flows on both rivers," the article quoted Scott Harding, executive director of Klamath Riverkeeper, a nonprofit watchdog group aimed at restoring the river and its tributaries.

Reporter Dylan Darling turned to UC Cooperative Extension advisors Steve Orloff and Dan Drake for comment on agricultural production in the Shasta and Scott river valleys.

Orloff told the reporter that the high-elevation valleys' short growing season places farmers' focus on producing alfalfa, pasture and small grains. Drake said most of the crops are grown to feed cattle. In the two valleys, there are about 40,000 head of cattle combined.

Erica Terence, a spokeswoman for Klamath Riverkeeper, told the reporter she doesn't want to wait for a dramatic fish kill to prompt changes to water use in the valleys.

"I don't think that means the end of farming," Terence was quoted. "I think that means that farming will look different."

Jim Morris, president of the Siskiyou County Farm Bureau and a member of a family with a 200-year farming history in the area, acknowledged that the river goes dry in years of light rain and snowfall.

"It is a natural process and it just happens," Morris was quoted.

Local farmers and ranchers, he said, have taken steps to improve the efficiency of their irrigation systems - such as shifting from flood irrigation to sprinkler systems.

"We'd like to be around for another 200 years," Morris said.

Shasta River (USFWS photo).

Read more