LAKE COUNTY — Whether endangered frogs live in Lake County water bodies was the central issue Tuesday that spurred the Lake County Board of Supervisors to declare a local emergency and to pursue an exemption from a state fish stocking prohibition.
The trout that eat the frogs can no longer be stocked in Blue Lakes Upper, Cache Creek, the Indian Valley Reservoir and the Pillsbury Reservoir after a Nov. 6 Sacramento Superior Court ruling. A group of Stanford law students, representing the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, sued the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), claiming the department had never done an environmental impact report for state fish stocking programs more than 100 years old.
“We can”t just roll over and let some environmental and economic damage be done to Lake County because of some idiotic senior project. There”s no basis for it, other than it”s just busy work,” Supervisor Rob Brown said.
Grounds for the exemption included the expected loss of tourism dollars associated with trout fishing and the harmful affect on native birds that eat the fish. In addition, there was some uncertainty about whether Lake County is home to the species of red- and yellow-legged frogs that are considered endangered species.
“People have been looking in Lake County since 1890 for all kinds of frogs and have not found any red-legged frogs. There”s no historical basis to suggest that red-legged frogs were ever in Lake County,” University of California Davis Extension advisor Greg Giusti said.
Giusti, who has researched the distribution of the frogs throughout the state, said he was surprised that the foothill yellow-legged frog was listed as a protected species in the lawsuit against the DFG. He said he believed only the mountain yellow-legged frog was a protected species. He said the more common foothill yellow-legged frogs live in Lake County and many other counties, but not the protected foothill variety.
In a move that is being called a “big step,” the board, sitting as the Board of Directors of Lake County Watershed Protection District, entered into an agreement to formalize meetings with the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District concerning water management issues for both counties.
The Yolo water district has the right to release 150,000 acre-feet annually of Clear Lake”s surface water through the Cache Creek Dam when the lake is full. Talks between the two water districts ceased in May 2007, after the board conceptually approved the MOU and an amendment to the contract between the two districts. The amendment would allow Lake County limited water rights to Clear Lake for the first time.
“This MOU is always a work in progress. Even though this water issue has been here for hundreds of years, it”s going to continue to be an issue, and this is a big step,” Supervisor Brown said.
Outgoing board chairman Ed Robey said Brown had requested to take his place in the ongoing meetings with the Yolo water district.
Discussion of the contract amendment was tabled while Lake and Yolo counties work to keep the meetings going and establish a list of mutually beneficial water management projects.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
