LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — After two meetings and nine hours of hearings and public testimony, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday evening voted unanimously to declare an emergency in an effort to save the Clear Lake hitch — a fish at the heart of Pomo culture — from extinction.
The board’s proclamation of a local emergency, which can be read in its entirety below, cites drought and habitat loss as factors in the potential extinction of the hitch, known to the Pomo as the chi.
The hitch is a native minnow that lives up to seven years, spawns in creeks and then makes its way to Clear Lake.
Supervisor Moke Simon, a member of the Middletown Rancheria, fished for them with his family and tribe growing up, and on Tuesday recalled seeing the creeks run black with the fish.
However,on Tuesday and on Jan. 24 — the meeting when the matter was first discussed — testimony from scientists and tribal members pointed out that the hitch’s numbers are in free fall.
On Tuesday afternoon, as prelude to the board continuing its discussion of the emergency proclamation, it heard a presentation from Fred Feyrer of the U.S. Geological Survey’s California Water Science Center.
Feyrer and his team started monitoring the hitch’s population in 2017 at the request of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They come to the lake every summer and conduct sampling with nets during the last two weeks of June, looking for fish one year old and older. The whole effort operates on a shoestring budget, he explained during the presentation.
Since the monitoring started, Feyrer said they’ve seen a major decline in fish numbers. In 2017 and 2018, they caught up to 70 fish at a time as the hitch is a schooling fish. By 2022, they caught only six.
“The population is not doing well,” he said. “We don’t know exactly what’s causing this population decline.”
However, Feyrer said it seems to be a “recruitment failure,” due to no new babies being born into the hitch population, but they don’t know what’s causing that failure. With hitch living five to seven years, he said it’s analogous to no human babies being born for 50 or 60 years.
“There’s a lot of concern that the fish does not have a lot of time left on the landscape if conditions and the situation does not change,” Feyrer said.
Feyrer cited work by the University of California, Davis, that shows that a primary driver of problems for all fish in Clear Lake is dissolved oxygen in the water, which leads to fish kills. The last large one on Clear Lake occurred in 2017.
He said the geological diversity of the watershed of the lake translates into unique chemical signatures for the streams and drainages. Those chemical signatures, in turn, are recorded naturally in the ear bones of fish.
Scientists can analyze the chemical composition of those signatures, take on an “ecological CSI” role and reconstruct where the fish have lived and which streams they were born in. As a result, Feyrer said they know the hitch uses the entire watershed.
Feyrer said the hitch are spawning in shallow water which can lead to their eggs being exposed to the elements, getting stranded and becoming desiccated so they don’t survive.
But perhaps the most alarming information Feyrer shared is that the Clear Lake fish community — a combination of native and nonnative fish — as a whole is in decline.
Along with hitch, the native tule perch, as well as introduced fish such as the largemouth bass, black crappie, bluegill and channel catfish, are all in dramatic decline, Feyrer said.
What’s particularly striking about the situation, Feyrer said, is that this is a suite of fish with very different life histories and reproductive processes.
“There’s something going on in the lake. We don't know what it is,” he said.
He said scientists don’t yet have the information and data to understand what the factors are that are causing this across-the-board decline.
“There’s no silver bullet. There’s no smoking gun. It’s not one particular factor,” but a combination of factors, Feyrer said.
A working group of numerous agencies is now developing a hypothesis about what is driving decline and exploring specific research avenues, Feyrer said.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier asked Feyrer if the situation is unique to Clear Lake or if similar issues are happening elsewhere.
“The simple answer is, no,” said Feyrer. While he doesn’t do a lot of work in other lakes, he said what is happening seems to be unique to Clear Lake itself.
Feyrer also noted, “It’s definitely not just a water issue,” explaining that there have been both wet and dry years since the monitoring started in 2017.
Sarah Ryan, environmental director for the Big Valley Pomo, said this was the first time the tribes had heard there were problems with the other fish in the lake.
“Why are we just hearing that now?” asked Ryan, who called it “really shocking.”
Chris McCloud, a Big Valley Tribal Council member and treasurer, pointed out that the hitch was listed as a species of special interest in 1980, then the state listed the hitch as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.
McCloud said there has been 43 years of discussion, but still nothing is being done. She wanted to know what could be done today.
Lake County Water Resources Director Scott De Leon said that, since 2015, his department has applied for more than $9 million in state grants for projects that would have had positive impacts on hitch habitat. Yet none have been selected for funding.
“The county is certainly trying. We will continue to try,” De Leon said.
Patricia Franklin, a Scotts Valley Pomo tribal member who is a basket weaver, said she recently surveyed tribal elders about basket making materials but that the hitch’s importance came up in the conversations.
“I know that something needs to be done right away. We can't wait. We can’t wait. If we wait, this might be the last year,” Franklin said.
Board reaches agreement on final emergency proclamation
With those grim details in mind, the board then moved into consideration of the emergency proclamation itself.
Sabatier questioned where climate change fit into the situation, explaining that he felt it was missing from some of the information provided.
Simon said they knew the lake was sick, which is why they had asked Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry for help.
“We need to come together to save this species in the best way that we can,” Simon said.
During public comment, much of the concern the supervisors heard revolved around the sixth request in the proclamation, which asked the State Water Resources Control Board “to take regulatory steps such as issuing information orders or adopting emergency regulations in order to assure the continued viability of the Clear Lake hitch and other aquatic species upon receipt of stream-specific emergency flow recommendations from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or other fisheries agency.”
Rebecca Harper, executive director of the Lake County Farm Bureau, said the group supported the emergency proclamation without a call to the State Water Board for regulations. She said farmers planned to take voluntary actions.
At various points, Sabatier and Board Chair Jessica Pyska were directly criticized by public speakers who took their questions about the proclamation to mean they didn’t support it.
The situation was such that toward the end of public comment, business owner Toni Scully apologized to the board for the personal attacks on its members.
Scully also objected to the request to the water board, and said the agricultural community stood ready to help collect data necessary in the effort to save the hitch.
“We all want to protect the hitch. We respect the tribes. We respect your traditions and the desire and the necessity that’s part of our quality of life here to preserve that,” said Scully, adding that agriculture is also a part of Lake County’s quality of life.
She said that ag wanted to be at the table and not on the menu.
“If you want something fast to happen, I hope you don’t depend on the state to do it,” Scully said.
Sabatier also was concerned about the call to the state for regulations. “The state, I just don't trust.”
County Counsel Anita Grant provided a reworked version of that request to the State Water Resources Control Board that, rather than asking for regulatory steps, instead requested that the agency work directly with county stakeholders to consider regulations to ensure the hitch’s survival.
The board approved of the reworked language and reached consensus to make that change to the proclamation.
Supervisor EJ Crandell said he had been OK with the previous language because he doesn’t think the state is listening. “I just really don’t think the state’s going to do anything.”
Supervisor Michael Green, who along with Crandell authored and presented the proclamation, moved to approve it, with Simon seconding and the board voting unanimously to approve it.
After the vote, despite the previous criticism, the board received a round of applause.
Pyska said after the vote that it had been a little bit of a messy process — but that’s democracy.
The full text of the emergency proclamation is below.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE COUNTY OF LAKE, STATE OF CALIFORNIA
PROCLAMATION OF THE EXISTENCE OF A LOCAL EMERGENCY DUE TO PERSISTENT
DROUGHT, HABITAT LOSS AND POTENTIAL EXTINCTION OF CLEAR LAKE HITCH
RESOLUTION NO. 2023 – ____
WHEREAS, on May 6, 2021, the Lake County sheriff, in his capacity as the Director of Emergency Services for the County of Lake, proclaimed a local emergency due to drought conditions, with said proclamation being renewed most recently on Jan. 10, 2023; and
WHEREAS, on March 28, 2022, Gov. Newsom issued Executive Order No. 7-77, to provide guidance on emergency drought relief. The executive order (EO) states that “the ongoing drought will have significant, immediate impacts on communities with vulnerable water supplies, farms that rely on irrigation to grow food and fiber, and fish and wildlife that rely on stream flows and cool water”; and
WHEREAS, the Clear Lake hitch (Lavinia exilicauda chi), a fish species endemic to Clear Lake, has been a primary food and cultural resource for indigenous Pomo peoples for thousands of years in the lands and watersheds now encompassed by Lake County and nearby counties, and remains central to the health, food security and well-being of sovereign tribal nations within Lake County; and
WHEREAS, in August 2014, the California Fish and Game Commission determined the Clear Lake hitch to be “threatened” under the California Endangered Species Act (“CESA”) and subsequently adopted regulations to improve hitch habitat and water quality in 2016; and
WHEREAS, in 2017 the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake was established under the California Natural Resources Agency (pursuant to Assembly Bill 707) to develop strategies to help restore Clear Lake and revitalize local economies dependent on the health of the lake; and
WHEREAS, on Dec. 3, 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS”) published in the Federal Register its adopted findings that the proposed listing of the Clear Lake hitch under the federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) was “not warranted at this time”; and
WHEREAS, on Aug. 17, 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity (“Center”), an environmental advocacy organization, filed suit in the Northern District of California against USFWS and the U.S. Department of the Interior, claiming the agency’s “not warranted” decision was unlawful; and
WHEREAS, on April 14, 2022, the USFWS agreed, in a stipulated settlement agreement and order signed by the Hon. Richard Seeborg, Chief U.S. District Court Judge, to conduct additional analysis and submit, on or before Jan. 12, 2025, a new “12-month finding” as to whether the listing of the Clear Lake hitch as “threatened” or “endangered” is now warranted under the federal ESA; and
WHEREAS, on Oct. 12, 2022, the California Fish and Game Commission directed President Samantha Murray to send a letter to USFWS Director Martha Williams seeking emergency listing for the hitch. Murray’s letter, dated Nov. 3, 2022, requests Williams to implement “immediate, emergency protections to Clear Lake hitch to secure an adequate level of 2023 spring spawning for the species”; and
WHEREAS, on Dec. 5, 2022, the Center for Biological Diversity and four sovereign tribal governments located within Lake County – Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians and Robinson Rancheria Citizens Business Council – announced they also have requested emergency listing of the Clear Lake hitch by USFWS; and
WHEREAS, on Dec. 8, 2022, an emergency, intergovernmental summit was held at Big Valley Rancheria to help facilitate communications between sovereign tribal governments and their environmental protection agencies and analogous state, local and federal environmental agencies; and
WHEREAS, a proposed “Conservation Strategy for the Clear Lake Hitch” and implementation agreement has been drafted by an intergovernmental task force, but the draft strategy has not been presented to potential signatories, including Lake County, for review, public input or adoption; and
WHEREAS, notwithstanding the important and ongoing efforts of sovereign tribal governments and environmental protection agencies, the Blue Ribbon Commission for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake and California Natural Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Water Resources Control Board, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Lake County Water Resources and Public Works, many Lake County residents and interested parties, including agricultural and sport fishing interests, are not fully informed of the critical importance of the 2023 hitch spawning season, nor of the potentially significant voluntary and/or regulatory actions that may be proposed or implemented; and
WHEREAS, California Government Code § 8630 empowers the Board of Supervisors to proclaim the existence of a local emergency when the County is threatened or likely to be threatened by conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property that are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of this County; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors hereby finds that conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property presently exist in Lake County, caused by rapidly decreasing populations of Clear Lake hitch that could potentially result in extinction for the species; possible permanent loss of food security and cultural resources for indigenous Pomo peoples and sovereign nations within Lake County; potentially significant impacts upon agricultural, mining, recreational and tourism activities to the extent they may impact hitch habitat in Clear Lake and its tributaries; and potentially serious economic impacts should the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant the pending requests for emergency ESA listing; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors does find that the aforesaid conditions and the breadth of the peril the county and its residents face as a result require the proclamation of a local emergency and that local resources are unable to cope with the effects of the significant danger.
NOW THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Lake hereby declares the existence of a local emergency and said emergency shall be deemed to continue until its termination is declared by the Board of Supervisors.
BE IT FURTHER PROCLAIMED that this Proclamation is issued pursuant to the California Emergency Services Act, Government Code §§ 8550, et seq. and proclaimed and ordered that during the existence of said local emergency, the powers, function, and duties of the emergency organization of Lake County shall be those prescribed by state and local law and County resolutions, as approved by the Board of Supervisors.
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS HEREBY MAKES THE FOLLOWING REQUESTS:
1. That the California governor proclaim a state of emergency in Lake County due to persistent drought and habitat loss such that the potential extinction of the Clear Lake hitch appears to be imminent unless immediate and direct action is taken, and local resources are inadequate to cope with the emergency;2. That the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS”) provide emergency funding and resources adequate to protect the Clear Lake hitch while its court-ordered review process is under way, and to promptly disclose any legal or financial constraints which would limit such emergency support;
3. That USFWS, among its other emergency actions, prioritize and expedite completion of the draft Clear Lake Hitch Strategy in coordination and cooperation with other government agencies and native sovereign nations and timely circulate the strategy for signatures and implementation;
4. That the chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake convene a meeting as soon as practical to consider the status of the Clear Lake hitch and threats to its 2023 spawning run, accept public testimony, and review and recommend hitch-related projects, activities and funding to the Office of the Governor, California Legislature and California Natural Resources Agency;
5. That the State Water Resources Control Board immediately order and direct enhanced compliance and enforcement activities to stop illegal water diversions affecting Clear Lake and its tributaries; and to enforce the adopted orders of the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program and Cannabis Cultivation Waste Discharge Regulatory Program to ensure they are protective of Clear Lake hitch habitats as applied;
6. That the State Water Resources Control Board work directly with county stakeholders to consider the promulgation of regulations to assure the continued viability of the Clear Lake hitch and other aquatic species upon receipt of watershed specific emergency flow recommendations from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or other fisheries agency;
7. That the California Fish and Game Commission or California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as may be appropriate, take reasonable steps to consider whether emergency regulations or amendments to sport fishing regulations are needed to reduce predation of Clear Lake hitch by carp and other non-native predatory fish; to consider whether establishment of one or more chi fish hatcheries or refuges within the County of Lake is feasible and warranted; to review and recommend short-term habitat improvement strategies and projects; and for the Fish and Game Commission to schedule and conduct at least one meeting within the County of Lake to accept public testimony regarding any chi-related actions;
8. That the Ukiah field office manager of the Bureau of Land Management take reasonable and prudent steps to identify and mitigate erosion and sediment transport attributed to fire, flood, off-highway vehicle use, abandoned mine locations, and any other conditions that may adversely affect Clear Lake hitch migration and survival within and downstream of BLM-managed lands and waterways, including Cache Creek Wilderness and North and South Cow Mountain Recreation areas;
9. That the forest supervisor of the Mendocino National Forest take reasonable and prudent steps to identify and mitigate erosion and sediment transport attributed to fire, flood, off-highway vehicle use, abandoned mine locations, and any other conditions that may adversely affect Clear Lake hitch migration and survival within and downstream of U.S. Forest Service-managed lands and waterways;
10. That the Lake County Water Resources Department develop and implement a plan to release water during the spring of 2023 from the Adobe Creek and/or Highland Springs reservoirs to supplement instream flows to the extent feasible during the hitch spawning season, including but not limited to coldweather events during which groundwater pumping occurs for agricultural crop protection; and submit a mid-year budget request authorizing reimbursement for unanticipated costs for chi-related projects and programs, such funding being contingent upon review and approval by the Board of Supervisors.
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS HEREBY ORDERS that a copy of this proclamation be provided to the Office of the California Governor; state director of the Office of Emergency Services; president of the State Water Resources Control Board; president of the California Fish and Game Commission; director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife; chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake; secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency; Ukiah field office manager of the Bureau of Land Management; forest supervisor of the Mendocino National Forest; director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior; and chair of each native sovereign nation within the County of Lake.
This proclamation was duly passed by the Board of Supervisors of the County of Lake at a regular meeting held on February 7, 2023, by the following roll call vote:
AYES: 5
NOES: 0
COUNTY OF LAKE
Jessica Pyska
CHAIR, Board of Supervisors
ATTEST:
SUSAN PARKER
Clerk of the Board of Supervisors
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
ANITA L. GRANT
County Counsel
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