Trout in river bring cheers from nearby businesses, lawsuit from environmental group
| Wednesday, Feb 10 2010 06:20 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Feb 11 2010 05:36 PM
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Ted Panos, left, retired California Department of Fish and Game worker, and DFG worker, Greg Kollenborn, toss in a couple of buckets of large rainbow trout in the Kern River from the bank in Riverside Park in Kernville, Wednesday. Residents and business owners are happy the DFG is resuming the stocking of the Kern River after not doing it for the past 15 months.
Jerry Payne releases a large rainbow trout he caught Wednesday, in Riverside Park fresh out of the Kern River after the California Department of Fish & Game plant close to 1,050 pounds of the colorful fish.
About 1,050 pounds of rainbow trout were tossed into the Kern River, Wedesday, by the California Department of Fish and Game from the Kern River Fish Hatchery in Kernville. The have started stocking the river with fish after a 15 month layoff. They put most of them in the Riverside Park area of Kernville, with the help of local volunteers and residents in the area.
Kernville resident, Jerry Payne, was happy Wednesday after landing a large freshly planted rainbow trout, Wednesday, in the Kern River in Riverside Park in Kernville. The California Department of Fish and Game from the Kern River Fish Hatchery in Kernville put in 1,050 pounds of rainbow trout.
California Department of Fish & Game volunteer, Mike Mencarini, releases several of the 1,050 pounds of rainbow trout into the Kern River, Wednesday, along with retired DFG employee, Ted Panos, right. Many volunteers, residents and business owners were out Wednesday in Kernville at Riverside Park to witness the event that is making residents, tourists and business owners thankful after they have not stocked the river with fish in 15 months.
As hundreds of trout were stocked in the Kern River Wednesday for the first time in more than a year, an environmental group filed a second lawsuit to stop the practice.
Filed in Sacramento by the Center for Biological Diversity, the lawsuit says the California Department of Fish & Game failed in its environmental impact report in two major ways, center spokesman Noah Greenwald said. First, the department didn't consider alternatives to fish stocking; and second, it didn't make a commitment to mitigate negative effects.
Fish & Game spokesman James Starr could not be reached for comment.
The center and Pacific Rivers Council first sued the agency in 2006, saying the fish stocking program endangered the survival of native fish species. A judge then ordered Fish & Game to complete an environmental impact report and, when the department said the report wouldn't be finished until January of this year, a court order in late 2008 forced them to suspend fish stocking.
Greenwald said species affected by fish stocking include several types of frogs and the long-toed salamander.
Legal wrangling, however, seemed to be far from the minds of Kernville residents on Wednesday as they celebrated that fish were once again flowing into the river. About 80 residents showed up to watch as trout were deposited into the river, Kern River Hatchery Manager Marvin Waters said.
Business dropped about 40 percent at the Sequoia Lodge during the months fish weren't being stocked, manager Rebecca Hunter said. She's hoping customers will return when they hear the trout are back.
"Everybody in this valley is so happy about it," Hunter said.
Cathy Cunningham, co-owner of Camp James Campground, said many people come to Kernville to either raft or fish. Potential customers call ahead asking if the river has been stocked, and if it hasn't they'll go somewhere else.
She said the trout bring a tremendous amount of business to the area.
"Stocking fish is huge for little old Kernville."
Wednesday's lawsuit is just the latest in legal battles between environmentalists and government agencies. In 2007, a federal judge sided with environmentalists and ordered severe restrictions to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps, which supply the Central Valley with vast amounts of water. The environmentalists claimed the pumps were harming the habitat of the Delta smelt.
Just last year, a lawsuit brought by a Shafter-based environmental group against the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District suspended an air pollution rule limiting emissions from dairies. The group, Association of Irritated Residents, claimed the rule wasn't tough enough and argued it needed to be repealed while a stronger rule was developed.
