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Fisheries Policy
Fisheries Policy is a vast and complex area. In this website you can review reports, letters and scientific articles concerning the impacts upon our vanishing salmon species. This part of our website is new and still under development The Lompico Watershed Conservancy is a local organization that directs its attention to the Santa Cruz Mountains and most specifically the San Lorenzo River area including Lompico Creek. Lompico is a small stream but it has demonstrated a remarkable ability to rear relatively large populations of juvenile steelhead. In the 2007 fall juvenile steelhead survey conducted by Don Alley for Santa Cruz County and the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, this creek showed the highest survey site density of juvenile fish in the entire 138 square mile San Lorenzo watershed. The survey covers the main stem and several important tributaries. This is good news for Lompico but it is probably not a good sign of the health of the entire watershed. Many larger tributaries such as Zayante Creek and the San Lorenzo River main stem should at least rival the numbers in a small trib like Lompico Creek. In the fall 2008 survey Lompico was not the "winner" but it still showed good numbers.
Recent Letter/Report to the CA Dept. of Fish and Game: Concerning Damage to Endangered Salmon Habitat Caused by Pacific Gas and Electric Line Clearing This 2009 report describes damage to salmon habitat caused by PG&E and its contractors including Davey Tree. The power line tree cutting that they do has rapidly expanded and they are now removing trees that provide shade to streams and that protect stream banks from erosion. This activity appears to be completely unregulated and is a new and expanding threat to these beleaguered fish. In the past PG&E crews cut only once a year but they are now returning twice a year to remove more and more trees that are essential for stream health. This is a major and increasing problem for Lompico Creek and may affect your home as well. Please contact us if you have personal experience with this problem. Everyone is annoyed when the lights go out, but we do not have to sacrifice our wildlife to have electric power.
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