News Archive

Snorkeling in an isolated pool on Ackerman Creek north of Ukiah in June, Pinoleville Pomo Nation Environmental Protection Agency Water Resources Specialist Dakota Perez Gonzalez discovered young Coho salmon. These fish, as well as juvenile steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, were disconnected from surface water flow and other suitable habitat and likely to perish when the pool eventually dried up.

In a move to protect red abalone populations that have suffered drastic population decline, the California Fish and Game Commission at its Dec. 10-11 meeting extended the red abalone recreational fishery closure 10 years. The Commission also approved listing Bear Lake buckwheat as an endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act and received the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s status review report for mountain lion in the central coast and southern parts of California.

The California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) has approved the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Plan, a living document that aims to conserve western Joshua trees pressured by habitat loss and a warming climate. Other matters acted on by the Commission at its Aug. 13-14 meeting include designating Quino checkerspot butterfly as a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), and adopting emergency regulations to reopen recreational rockfish, cabezon, greenling and lingcod fisheries north of Point Conception.

Recent results from white sturgeon monitoring surveys by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) suggest the white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) population has continued to decline. CDFW fisheries biologists now estimate there are approximately 6,500 white sturgeon between 40-60 inches long in California – down sharply from the previous estimate of approximately 30,000 fish in that size range, based on the 2016-2021 survey average.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is seeking data and public comments on a petition to list Morro manzanita under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).