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SALMON PROTECTION AND WATERSHED NETWORK
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Action Alerts! Do a Pesticide Survey for Salmon In Your Local Store General Information: Stores that sell pesticides are now required to post a warning sign (see #2 below). We are asking folks to check at as many stores as possible to see if the signs are up. This information will be used to ensure compliance. Please return completed forms ASAP to: SPAWN * P.O. Box 400 *Forest Knolls, CA 94933 Or Fax: (415) 663-9534 Questions: tsteiner@tirn.net; for more info: Phone: (415) 663-8590 x103
Bush Administration Drops Protections posted December 15th, 2004 On November 30th, 2004 the Bush Administration proposed slashing habitat protections for steelhead and chinook by 80%. The federal proposal can be found on the NOAA fisheries website at http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/salmon.htm. Please write today and urge the National Marine Fisheries Service not to bow to industry pressure, and to ensure that protections necessary to the survival and recovery of endangered salmon are adopted. **The public comment period closes at the end of January, 2005** Identify the proposal in your written statement using: Mailing Address: Fax: Email: Online letter submission: Pesticides
Banned Near Salmon Bearing Streams January 22, 2004 Court Stops Pesticide Spraying Along Salmon Streams See Attached:
For more information on how this affects the San Francisco Bay Area, Contact your local watershed group, county officials or SPAWN. In a precedent-setting ruling, Seattle, Washington federal district court Judge John Coughenour has restricted the use of 38 pesticides near salmon streams and has required point-of-sale warnings on products containing pesticides that may harm salmon. The ruling came in a case brought by the fishing and conservation groups, Washington Toxics Coalition, Northwest Coalition for the Alternative to Pesticides, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources. The ruling followed Judge Coughenour's 2002 decision that found EPA out of compliance with the Endangered Species Act for failing to protect salmon from harmful pesticides. Other pesticides may be added in the future based on this ruling. The ruling puts in place no-spray buffers of 100 yards for aerial applications and 20 yards for ground applications, with exceptions for certain uses that are unlikely to pollute water. The court order also requires this warning for products containing seven pesticides that have polluted urban salmon streams: SALMON HAZARD This product contains pesticides that may harm salmon or steelhead. Use of this product in urban areas can pollute salmon streams. These warnings must be provided to purchasers in urban home and garden stores throughout Washington, Oregon, and California. The interim measures imposed in the court's ruling will protect salmon from these pesticides during the time it will take EPA to comply with the law. The judge found "with reasonable scientific certainty, that the requested buffer zones - 20 yards for ground applications, 100 yards for aerial applications - will, unlike the status quo, substantially contribute to the prevention of jeopardy" to salmon. He further found that the evidence "demonstrate[s] that pesticide-application buffer zones are a common, simple, and effective strategy to avoid jeopardy to threatened and endangered salmonids." The buffer zones will become effective in early 2004 and will apply to salmon streams that support threatened and endangered salmon throughout Washington, Oregon, and California. Adapted and Reprinted by: Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) PO Box 400 (415) 488-0370 x102 WWW.SPAWNUSA.ORGSPAWN is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting threatened coho salmon and steelhead trout and the environment on which we all depend. The protection of these keystone species leads to the protection of all wildlife of our community, and indeed the protection of ourselves and the land on which we live. Marin’s Creeks Need Your Help! Urge the Marin County Supervisors to Attend hearing or Send a letter to the supervisors by 9am on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003. Thanks to the dedication of agencies, the County of Marin, environmental organizations and our community the coho salmon and steelhead continue to return and spawn in West Marin’s creeks. We commend the Supervisors for enacting new ordinances to further protect creekside habitat within the Stream Conservation Area. However, homes, sheds, driveways and even wells, for example, can still be placed within the Stream Conservation Area. Send a letter and urge the supervisors to work with the environmental community to further these protections. Our recent legal victory hopefully heralds a new era of working with the County Supervisors. The supervisors are planning to meet, in closed session, on Tuesday, November 25, 2003 to decide what to do about this legal decision. Let’s show the Supervisors that we as a community support the need to comprehensively consider past, present and future impacts to the creek system through CEQA before allowing more developments. Ask them to enact a building moratorium on creekside parcels until such a study can be completed. Please send a letter (see sample letter below) to the Board of Supervisors via US mail, FAX or Email by 9am on November 25! PLEASE SEND US A COPY TOO. County of Marin Board of Supervisors Supervisors Susan Adams, Hal Brown , Annette Rose,
Steve Kinsey and Cynthia Murray (415) 499-3645 fax Email Sample Letter
BECOME A VOLUNTEER NATURALIST Learn
about the Coho Salmon’s Life History Join this highly successful program that has allowed hundreds of people to marvel at the magnificent return of the coho salmon to the Lagunitas Watershed in Marin County. Through a training session of two evening seminars, readings from a specially prepared workbook and 2 field trainings, participants will learn about the natural history of coho salmon, steelhead trout and other species in the Lagunitas Watershed and the threats to these species and their critical habitat. Participants will also learn the fundamentals of the art of “nature interpretation” and will become equipped to share their newfound knowledge with the public. The season runs November- January,
when participants will lead creek walks to view spawning and migrating
salmon in the San Geronimo Valley, West Marin County, CA and/or
occupy viewing stations to share information with the public and/or
classes of students. There is a $50 fee for the class but if naturalists
devote 12 hours to educating the public through the program they
will receive a $25 stipend at the end of the season. Classroom Training: Wednesday, Oct. 29, 7-9 pm Wednesday, Nov 5, 7-9 pm Field Training: Sunday, October 26, 2003 9–1:30 pm/ 2-4 Creek Restoration Project Sunday, November 16, 2003 9–4:30 pm *All Trainings will meet at the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center at 6350 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., (5 miles west of Fairfax) Apply for the Fall 2003 training now! Call Reuven Walder at SPAWN 488-0370 x 102 or email: |
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