california department of fish and game,    CalTrout,    chuck bonham,    News

Former CA Trout Unlimited Director Chuck Bonham Named As New Director of CA Fish & Game

By Tom Chandler 8/26/2011

This, Undergrounders, is great, great (really great) news. We give you the Official Press Release of Goodness:

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August 26, 2011

Today the Governor announced his appointment of Chuck Bonham to the position of Director of the Department of Fish and Game (DFG). Mr. Bonham has served in multiple positions at Trout Unlimited (TU) since 2000, including California Director and Senior Attorney.

As state director, Bonham was responsible for developing, implementing, and managing all of TU's programs in California. These programs include TU's California Water Project, Sportsmen's Conservation Project, and restoration and watershed projects in both northern and southern California.

Bonham also serves on the board of directors of the Delta Conservancy.

Mr. Bonham has been a leader in many of the most ambitious water, land, and fish restoration efforts in California in the last decade, including: the development of the Yuba Accord (winner of the 2009 Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award); the Klamath River restoration initiative to secure the nation's largest dam removal and river restoration project while ensuring sustainable local communities; and, the formation of the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council during the energy crisis in the early 2000s to permanently protect 140,000 remarkable acres of watershed lands and invest in outdoor programs that serve California's young people.

He received his J.D. and Environmental and Natural Resources Law Certificate from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, in Portland, Oregon. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, West Africa.

Mr. Bonham's appointment requires Senate confirmation.

(click here to link to the Governor's announcement)

AuthorPicture

Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

While serving as senior technical analyst for the Hoopa Valley Tribe on Klamath Settlement over a several-year period ending March of this year, I sat across from Chuck Bonham at many meetings. I was dismayed at his willingness to give away water critical to fisheries even as he pushed for dam removal; his choices played directly is flowsnto the hands of the water (and hydropower) powers that be. ... more From the early days of Settlement negotiations, Bonham chose - along with too many others - to set aside instream flow science in order to wheel and deal over dam removal. This was a weak choice. Chuck's demonstrated willingness to ignore science while risking public trust resources is worrisome as he steps into the CDFG Director role. He will be in my prayers. Long live the Klamath River.
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Bonham's appointment is good news, though the Klamath issue is one big mess. Fish and Game avoided that issue for far too long, then tried to fix it all at once with a blanket permit program that many ranchers thought was heavy handed. And while many of the ranchers would do what they could to protect salmon, there are more than a handful of the black helicopter types who think the United Nations ... more is coming for their water, and that salmon fishermen apparently have no right to make a living either.
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Thanks for posting this. I actually have not seen it published elsewhere. I hope that it is indeed really great news. I am not familiar with Bonham's view of Fish and Games role in the Klamath Watershed, but I can imagine a new level of anxiety amongst water diverters in the Scott and Shasta valleys. After reading that flows in the Scott are getting dangerously low again this summer (after such a ... more prodigious winter and spring), I can't help but think that a new approach from Fish and Game is needed.
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