Delta rivers top U.S. most-troubled list

From the Sacramento Bee:

"The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers will be named today as the nation's most endangered waterways by the environmental group American Rivers.

It will be a news flash mainly for the other 49 states.

Many Californians are already well aware of the myriad problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its two main rivers. They've lived for several years with water shortages caused by the Delta's environmental problems, and with the threat of its declining fish populations, aging levees and problem plumbing."

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As salmon go, so go the killer whales

Fascinating article in the Sacramento Bee about how the decline of Sacramento River salmon is impacting Orcas along the Pacific coast. Fewer salmon, fewer Orcas it seems.



Also, Tom Stienstra, the San Francisco Chronicle's outdoors writer, has this tidbit in his February 22nd column:

"Now get this, from the fine print inside a report by the National Marine Fisheries Service: Of the salmon that spawn or are released from hatcheries in the Sacramento River downstream of Redding, only 20 percent make it to the Delta because of water projects. Of that 20 percent that make it to the Delta, 60 percent die because of more water projects. So for the juvenile salmon that start their journey in Northern California, only 8 percent make it to the Bay to head out to the ocean."