Judge Orders State to Protect Salmon Species

Ruling that the state Fish and Game Commission violated the California Endangered Species Act, a Superior Court judge has ordered the state to protect a species of salmon inhabiting the Sacramento River Delta.

If the commission does not appeal the order won by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), it must declare the spring-run Chinook salmon an endangered species candidate. That would afford the fish the full protection of the state’s strongest conservation law for at least a year.

The salmon’s protected status could affect how much water is diverted from the sprawling delta, which provides a major portion of Southern California’s water. Several other rare species also feed or spawn in the delta, a factor that guides the state’s decisions on how much water is left there for wildlife.

Last April, the Fish and Game Commission voted 4 to 1 that spring-run Chinook do not warrant candidacy as an endangered species. But Hayden and a consortium of environmentalists sued, charging that the commissioners had ignored scientific evidence.

Judge William Cahill of San Francisco Superior Court agreed in a ruling released Monday, ordering the commission to declare the species a candidate for endangered species listing. Once a species is named a candidate, the state has a year to review whether to declare it endangered. During that year, harming the species is against the law.

In his ruling, Cahill criticized the commissioners for a weak defense of their decision.

“There is evidence that the spring-run salmon was in decline, it has been in decline for several years, it is no longer even present in many parts of California in which the salmon lived even a few years ago. There was practically no evidence presented in opposition to this evidence,” Cahill wrote.

The judge’s decision is unusual in that he did not simply remand the issue back to the commissioners. Instead, he ordered them to name it as a candidate.

“It’s a complete and total victory,” said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which joined Hayden in suing the commission. “It’s a clear recognition of just how strong the case is and just how wrong the commission was.”

Robert Trainor, executive director of the Fish and Game Commission, said the commissioners are “somewhat surprised by the judge’s decision,” and will decide, perhaps at their March 6 meeting, whether to appeal.

Trainor said the commission believes there is insufficient cause to protect the Chinook because its population has been fairly stable for 20 years--increasing in 1995--and several enhancements of streams it inhabits are underway.

Reynolds said that if the state appeals he will seek a court order for immediate protection because a delay could bring the fish closer to extinction. Spring-run Chinook spawn in only five tributaries of the Sacramento River. Once numbering as high as 1 million, its population in 1995 was estimated at 7,000 and fell last year to 2,000.

Winter-run Chinook are already a federal endangered species.

“This is an endangered species, and with the passage of time, its fate becomes more and more at risk,” Reynolds said.

Hayden--who is head of the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee and is running for Los Angeles mayor on a platform that includes environmental protection--petitioned the commission to protect spring-run Chinook in 1995.

On Monday, he criticized Gov. Pete Wilson for appointing people to the commission who make political decisions to protect special interests and who have refused to list species as endangered despite persuasive scientific evidence.

Under the state Endangered Species Act, the commission must list a species, regardless of the economic impact, if the best available scientific evidence shows it is at risk of extinction. The salmon’s case is one of several recent instances in which the commissioners rejected the advice of biologists from the state Fish and Game Department.

The commission in the past has appealed several controversial court decisions on species--including the California gnatcatcher and a squirrel found largely in Kern County.