Charlie Rominger speaks on Cache Creek

What’s Growing This Week:  Bing Cherries Strawberries Valencia oranges Onions Snap peas Fava Beans English peas (M, L) Summer Squash (M, L) Cilantro (M, L) Grapefruit (L) all items are in all box sizes unless marked

Guest Comment by Charlie Rominger....          

The local wild and scenic debate is very frustrating for those of us who consider ourselves to be both farmers and conservationists.  Many of us have been involved for decades in the development and implementation of all kinds of on-the-ground habitat and agricultural conservation projects, through our local Resource Conservation District, Farm Bureau, Sierra Club, Audubon, Cache Creek Conservancy and others.  Three Sierra Club members and one Audubon member sit on the board of the local irrigation district.

W&S could have been a slam dunk.  But its fatal flaw from the start was the approach of the proponents, who failed to gather support from the local organizations most closely connected to the Creek.  While proponents of the bill did network with all these groups, they came to the table with a goal that no one else shared and they refused to give it up when they couldn’t convince anyone else to support it.  Not surprising, then, that W&S legislation was introduced by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, whose district does not include Cache Creek and who was unable to convince the local assemblyman to support the bill.  Locals were invited to comment on the language of the bill, but their suggestions were ignored. The irrigation district board unanimously opposed it.  The local Sierra Club and Audubon group gave only conditional support and even the local river rafters didn’t support it.

 Then there are the issues.  Five issues are most commonly mentioned to justify the need to make Cache Creek “Wild & Scenic”.  On three of those issues, there is no real disagreement between opponents and proponents of W&S status:  Declare Cache Creek off-limits to new dams, remove the invasive species, and clean up mercury contamination.   On the other two issues, there is sharp disagreement.  The first is that of water releases for fish in dry years.  This is the issue probably least understood at the beginning by the W&S proponents.  They wanted to prevent the district board from shutting off the water in dry years and killing fish. But Cache Creek does not fit many people’s concept of a wild and scenic river. It is not fed by melting snow, and throughout history stopped flowing during drought year summers.  Yet it maintains one of the most viable wild fish populations in the state, according to experts, so the fish must be fairly well adapted. Cache Creek is supplied by two sources.  One is Indian Valley Reservoir, from which the irrigation district is already required to release minimum flows to protect fish .  The other is Clear Lake, but if  the water level there is below a certain mark, the district cannot release any water.  It’s not uncommon for this to happen.  Two years since I have been farming they delivered no water.  Several other years we were on meager allocations.  These are very difficult years physically, financially, and emotionally. Native fish have survived innumerable dry years throughout history.  Many farmers have not survived these years.

W&S advocates thought that releasing water for fish in dry years would benefit farmers, who could then divert that water and irrigate. Unfortunately, the reality is that this amount of water would not even fill the delivery ditches with enough water to reach farmers.  To local farmers, it seemed that the proponents of Wild and Scenic clearly did not understand or appreciate all these complicated issues and were willing to ignore our concerns to fix something that wasn’t broken.

The fifth and final issue is that W&S advocates say there are no checks and balances on the irrigation district board.   Actually, the district’s actions are constrained by about a hundred years’ worth of lawsuits and court decrees.  There are conditions when they must release, and conditions when they can’t.  Trying to impose further conditions without understanding all of the existing constraints is wrong.  The board members, who are appointed by the supervisors for limited terms, know that what they do affects the environment.  They meet monthly, and they welcome public input.  Last week. Bob Schneider wrote that folks from San Diego should be able to rest easy that Cache Creek is protected.  It already is.  But do they really deserve the right to tell our local water district when to turn the water on and off?

So where are we now?  The attorneys on both sides are still working.   I hope and believe that as the proponents continue to learn the intricacies and complications of the situation, they will accept the language put forward by the locals, and won’t make life more difficult for farmers. We all need to get back together on issues where the threats are real, such as urban sprawl, population growth, and global warming.

Charlie Rominger is a fifth-generation Winters farmer whose family grows tomatoes, wheat, winegrapes, and other crops.  He’s also a TFF subscriber.

 Pablito

IN YOUR BOXES
All it took was a few days of 90 degree weather, but the asparagus has declared that summer is here.  Once this happens, it doesn’t wait for us to pick it, but rather begins to open up before it’s even tall enough to pick.  The spears get skinny and tough.

Along with the asparagus, we have also said goodbye to our spring salad crops.  It’s always a crapshoot when deciding when to stop planting spinach and lettuce; there’s a full month lag time and you need a crystal ball to known four weeks in advance when hot weather is going to arrive.  This year, though, I seem to have done well to call it quits in mid-April.

The weather hasn’t exactly pushed our summer crops along, though.  Sweet corn and beans are two weeks or more behind where they were last year.  Tomatoes are another story, since we got them planted much earlier this year.  We are picking summer squash, but nowhere near as many as we would like:  Small boxers will have to wait another week for their portion.

Into the gap between spring and summer veggies, we are piling fruit.  Cherries, berries, and citrus in abundance, along with a smattering of legumes.
 Cherries?  Didn’t they get rained on last week?  Yes, we ended up getting just under 1/2 inch of rain.  What we discovered is that a full inch of rain is a disaster for cherries, but 1/2 inch is just a bummer.  We ended up with about 10% of the cherries ripening last week splitting, as opposed to 100% of the prior week’s cherries that split.i
 

Thanks,
  Pablito

Recipes............................

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