For Immediate Release: January 21, 2025
Contacts: Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association, 925-550-9208, scott@goldenstatesalmon.org
If you’re writing about the implications of new executive orders by President Trump for California water and the Bay-Delta ecosystem, please consider the following statement from Scott Artis, Executive Director of the Golden State Salmon Association.
Background: In 2019, under the previous Trump Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service adopted new biological opinions under the Endangered Species Act that stripped away previous protections for salmon, Central Valley rivers and the Bay-Delta. In particular, the 2019 National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinions eliminated requirements designed to prevent the Bureau of Reclamation from draining all of the cold water from Shasta Dam in order to deliver even more water to Central Valley agriculture. Adequate cold water releases from Lake Shasta in the fall are essential to keeping salmon eggs and juveniles in the Sacramento River alive. That biological opinion also weakened protections for baby salmon as they migrated to the ocean down Central Valley rivers and through the Delta.
Statement by Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association Executive Director. “The 2019 National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to kill all of the baby salmon in the Sacramento River – the most important salmon producing system south of the Columbia River. This is a salmon extinction plan. The Bureau took advantage of that new authority. During the recent drought, the Bureau killed virtually all of the baby endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, as well as juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River. That salmon extinction plan is responsible for the collapse of Central Valley salmon runs, the closure of the California and coastal Oregon salmon fishing seasons in 2023 and 2024, and the loss of tens of thousands of salmon fishing jobs.
GSSA, our NGO allies, and the State of California challenged these 2019 biological opinions in court. At the end of 2024, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service adopted new biological opinions to replace the 2019 biological opinions. Those new biological opinions are far too weak, but do improve protections in some areas. President Trump’s new executive order on California water issues calls for the weakening of Endangered Species Act protections for the Bay-Delta ecosystem, Central Valley rivers, and salmon. Such a decision could further devastate fishing businesses, families, and communities.
The State of California has the authority to prevent the Bureau of Reclamation from killing all of our salmon runs and salmon jobs with lethal temperatures and inadequate releases when fish need water. Frankly, Governor Newsom and state agencies failed to do that in response to the 2019 biological opinions – it was a joint state and federal water grab that not only harmed ecologically and economically important salmon but thousands of people that directly or indirectly rely on fishing to feed their families. California’s policies since 2019 are remarkably similar to the federal salmon extinction plan – as the former General Manager of the Westlands Water District acknowledged in a recent news article.
Governor Newsom, California’s salmon fishing businesses, families, and communities call on your administration to ensure that new federal policies do not kill Central Valley salmon runs and California’s fishing jobs. You’ve followed these same policies before and now it’s time to save California’s rivers and fishing communities. California state agencies have the legal obligation to protect salmon. Please tell those agencies to do their job.”