Ag Alert January 3, 2024

State readopts curtailment for Scott, Shasta tributaries

graze our fall regrowth and drink out of our ditches in the fall.” Sari Sommarstrom, a retired watershed consultant and a founder of the Scott Valley Agriculture Water Alliance, told the board she wanted to set the record straight about board staff’s fish population data. “The state water board draft resolution facts do not support some of the find- ings,” Sommarstrom said, adding that Department of Fish and Wildlife reports contain more accurate data. “Asserting that steelhead adult returns

showed a record low in 2022 is disingenu- ous at best,” she said. “The department’s out migrant reports of juvenile steelhead leaving the river offer a more complete picture, and they also do not show a significant decline.” Many farmers, including Scott Valley rancher Theodora Johnson, a founder of the Scott Valley Agriculture Water Alliance, thanked the board for adopt- ing revisions to the curtailment regu- lation. These include helping irrigators improve groundwater through recharge

By Christine Souza Even though the clock doesn’t run out on winter for another eight weeks, state water officials are bracing for another dry year for the Scott and Shasta rivers in Siskiyou County. At its Dec. 19 meeting, the California State Water Resources Control Board unanimously readopted an emergen- cy drought regulation that curtails water rights in the Scott and Shasta rivers, affect- ing farmers and ranchers. The emergency regulation had expired last summer. Readopted every year since May 2021, when Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency, the order limits sur- face-water diversions and groundwater pumping. It also prioritizes minimum flow recommendations from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect threatened coho and other fish. The regulation ensures water supplies for human health and livestock and en- courages the use of voluntary efforts in lieu of curtailments. Individual groundwater users can enter a number of different local cooperative solutions to avoid curtailment. One example is a general water-use reduc- tion of 30% in the Scott River or 15% in the Shasta River. Speaking on behalf of affected farmers, Siskiyou County Farm Bureau President Ryan Walker discussed the ongoing water cutbacks, including in 2023, a year he said broke the cycle of drought but in which curtailments continued. Walker asked water board members to reconsider readopting the curtailment or- der. He told the board adopting the emer- gency order allows the state to sacrifice due process and environmental review in favor of single-species management. “The governor’s refusal to rescind his emergency drought declaration for the Scott and Shasta watersheds is nothing less than an authoritarian attempt to cir- cumvent the legal protections afforded to the citizens of California, including the

residents of Siskiyou County,” said Walker, a rancher from Montague. “California law imposes a public trust obligation on this board to fully review the impact of your actions on wildlife, including the sandhill cranes that feed in our irrigated pastures, the ducks that nest in our wetlands sup- ported by our irrigation, and the elk that

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January 3, 2024 Ag Alert 3