One of our guiding principles is that “What’s good for the salmon is good for the river”, but it has always been understood by our organization that humans come first, and in any allocation of water the good of human beings must always assume priority.
This assumption is implicit in all of our guiding principles, that whatever we do to preserve, protect, and strengthen the Parkway should be, ultimately, for the benefit of the human beings who enjoy it.
Consequently, we are pleased to see, in the oppositional response to this ruling, reported by the Sacramento Bee, about what water agencies must do to allow salmon to access upstream spawning sites, that human beings well-being is also being presented as worthy of consideration, a consideration all-too-rare in many previous legal cases involving the salmon.
An excerpt.
"They've addressed the big issues," said Kate Poole, attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "There's no question any more about the fact that the Bay-Delta ecosystem is in dire need of significant changes and fixes. This is one big step to do that."…
“NRDC and other environmental and fishing groups sued the government to overturn prior federal rules protecting Central Valley salmon and steelhead. Subsequent investigations showed those rules, adopted during the Bush administration, were influenced by politics and lacked scientific rigor.
“Thursday's new rules went through two independent reviews, but that didn't stop politicians and interest groups from pushing back.
"This federal biological opinion puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health and security of the world's eighth largest economy," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.
“Western Growers, a farm group, said the rules would cause "real and very serious harms to the human species."
