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Friday, January 06, 2006 14:30:44 [View Source] To the Alameda Creek Alliance e-mail list: Happy New Year! 2006 promises to be a good year for restoration of Alameda Creek, as we have three dams scheduled to be removed from the creek this summer and we are negotiating with the SFPUC over stream flows that could ensure the long-term viability of restored steelhead and salmon runs in Alameda Creek.

THANK YOU to all our new and renewing members for supporting the Alameda Creek Alliance, allowing us to be an effective advocacy group. We are now 750 members strong and growing.

 1) Year End Storms Bring Fish, Near Flood Flows to Alameda Creek Last week’s storms provided sufficient flow to allow anadromous fish to move into lower Alameda Creek from the Bay. On January 29th and 30th an unidentified salmonid, either a chinook salmon or steelhead trout, was spotted at the BART weir in Fremont. Photos of this fish are on our web site at http://www.alamedacreek.org/Historical%20photos/recent%20fish%20documentation/Recent%20fish%20documentation.htm  The huge year-end storm brought Alameda Creek flow over New Year’s eve up to 10,000 cubic feet/second in lower Niles Canyon and 18,000 cfs in the flood control channel in Union City!!!!! Keep your eyes out for fish in the flood control channel when we get our next significant storm.

2) Bay Area media articles covering the recent resident trout listing decision: Fish policy splits feds, conservationists Fremont Argus 12-30-05 http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_3356418  No federal protection for landlocked trout San Jose Mercury News 12-28-05 http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/13503511.htm Fish Protection Making Waves Tri-Valley Herald 12-28-05 http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_3349709    Federal Steelhead Ruling Leaves Alameda Creek & Other Central Coast Trout Without Protection The Fishsniffer 12-23-05 http://www.fishsniffer.com/guest/051224alameda.html Alliance Objects to Listing Decision for Steelhead Trout CBS Channel 5 12-23-05 http://www.cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2005/12/23/n/HeadlineNews/STEELHEAD-TROUT/resources_bcn_html  A recent article on the coho salmon run in west Marin: Coho home for the holidays: San Geronimo Valley greets surge of spawning salmon S.F. Chronicle 12-26-05 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/25/BAGF6GDAE61.DTL   The full text of these latest Alameda Creek articles and others going back to 1997 can be found on the ACA web site at www.alamedacreek.org  – click on “Media Articles”

3) Cold Dead Fish Award to SFPUC Daniel Bacher of The Fish Sniffer Magazine has awarded the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission one of his “Cold Dead Fish” awards for 2005, for their lobbying against federal listing of resident trout in Alameda Creek: “For over 10 years, the Alameda Creek Alliance and other conservation organizations have been trying to restore the steelhead and king salmon populations of Alameda Creek. However, The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has lobbied against listing Alameda Creek trout, including landlocked populations of steelhead/rainbow trout behind Calaveras and San Antonio Dams that they operate, despite compelling genetic evidence that these fish are descendants of wild steelhead. As a result of their lobbying, the National Marine Fisheries Service under the Bush administration excluded Alameda Creek steelhead above the dams from federal protection. According to Jeff Miller of the Alliance, this decision is biologically unjustified since it arbitrarily divides steelhead populations, listing only adult anadromous fish yet excluding trout below dams that can interbreed with migratory steelhead and even juvenile trout that are the offspring of steelhead. For joining forces with NOAA Fisheries rather than working with the ACA and other fish restoration groups, the SFPUC gets the “Fishy Smelling Bedfellows” award!” www.fishsniffer.com/dbachere/index.html

If you would like to be removed from this list, notify me by return e-mail. The Alameda Creek Alliance is a non-profit community restoration group. Please support our efforts by becoming a member.

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 Jeff Miller, Director Alameda Creek Alliance (510) 499-9185 P. O. Box 192 Canyon, CA 94516 http://www.alamedacreek.org

"Protecting and restoring the natural ecosystems of the Alameda Creek watershed"

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