The risks to the ecosystem are clearly too great."
~Mike Kelly, ex-employee of NOAA Fisheries and whistleblower
In 2002, a federal fisheries biologist completed the formal "biological opinion" on proposed water levels in the Klamath River, concluding that these flow rates would jeopardize threatened salmon. Top officials ordered this finding changed, and the biologist blew the whistle, alerting the public that he considered the Bush Administration to be violating the Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, his warning was ignored, and the largest fish kill in the nation's history soon followed.
Now Mike Kelly is warning that a similar situation is developing in the Eel River estuary, where a proposed levee on public land would eliminate 120 acres of important saltwater habitat. In a stinging letter this May, Mr. Kelly resigned from the federal fisheries service over the project, saying that politics are again controlling it and other agency decisions (including its negative determination on EPIC's petition to protect the green sturgeon).
The California Dept. of Fish and Game (DFG) is proposing this Eel River project, aiming to reconstruct an old levee that was breached more than six years ago. The area has since reclaimed its natural saltwater habitat, which is increasingly rare along the Pacific coast. These tidally influenced wetlands are important to a broad range of fish and wildlife, but DFG intends to drain the saltwater marsh and create a freshwater pond in its place--a project that would solely benefit duck hunters.
Mr. Kelly concluded that the levee would jeopardize the chinook salmon, a finding supported by his local supervisors. In his resignation letter, Mr. Kelly explained that together, they "tried to negotiate with Fish and Game to point out the high ecosystem cost and low benefit of this project." However, the Regional Manager "intervened and has apparently concluded that this project does not jeopardize the chinook population, and that we will no longer try to negotiate with Fish and Game to help them understand the folly of this undertaking."
TAKE ACTION!
EPIC applauds Mike Kelly's courageous acts, standing up to defend imperiled species in the face of tremendous political pressure. Taxpayers are paying millions of dollars to restore saltwater marshes in California; here, the marsh is restoring itself. This habitat is now reclaimed for Dungeness crab, herring, salmon, and hundreds of species of birds. The Dept. of Fish and Game--the very agency charged with protecting these creatures--must not be allowed to now destroy it. Please contact the agency and urge them to heed Mike Kelly's warning,and abandon this ill-advised project!
Karen Kovacs
Dept. of Fish and Game
619 Second Street, Eureka, CA 95501
