Several Central California irrigators wanted to strip ESA protections from California's steelhead populations by arguing that rainbow trout and steelhead are essentially the same fish - and that rainbow trout populations could revitalize steelhead populations through interbreeding.

Yeah, right. From Yubanet:

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an attempt to strip protected status from wild steelhead trout in California's Central Valley. A group of Central Valley irrigators had argued that ocean-going Central Valley steelhead population should be removed from the endangered species list based on their opinion that freshwater rainbow trout – which never go to sea – might someday replace extinct steelhead populations.

It was yet another cynical, bald-faced attempt by Central Valley water users to avoid the shitstorm that's been coming for a long, long time.

And all this comes on the heels of a long-awaited report which found that way too much fresh water was being diverted from the California Delta- at least if we wanted the salmon and steelhead to survive. (From the Sacramento Bee):

This is hardly a shocker. Over the last several decades, cities and farms have diverted about 50 percent of the flow of the Sacramento River and nearly two-thirds of the San Joaquin River.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a fish scientist) to tell you that fish need water – preferably cool, unpolluted water. If you take that water away, or return it to the river laden with fertilizers, pesticides and higher temperatures, fish suffer. It is that simple.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/31/2926767/finally-deltas-flows-get-needed.html#ixzz0xFPN2gVV

Will we see the restoration of even a small portion of historical salmon & steelhead runs in our lifetime? Or the complete loss of them all?

Stay tuned, Undergrounders.