Anthony Canales is the President of the
San Fernando Valley NRA Member’s Council.
He works as a Quality Control Manager in Glendale, California. He is married with one son.
The opinions expressed in 'News Briefs' belong solely to the author
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Rifle Association of America or the NRA Members' Councils of California.
This is for my "homies" in Fresno, and for all of La Raza that
are out of work right now because the gringoes
in Frisco like a little fish, or a pet vulture, more than hungry kids:
Fool Me Once, Shame On You...:
My friend Jim called me
the other day. "What was that you said about them being able to grow Delta
Smelt? You know, that's a hot topic up here".
Jim lives in Fresno near CA-99, but I had also seen the other day what had seemed like a
couple hundred miles of signs blasting the "drought caused by Congress"
along I-5 headed north to the Sacramento area. Water has been cut to
California's farmers because some say The Powers That Be need to dilute
ammonia runoff from the expanded population in the Sacramento area. Others
blame some pumps in a water project as being something like a "Smelt-O-Matic"
whenever they are turned on. Still more say that the smelt's food has dropped off
due to waterweed invasions, or invasive species supplanting their normal
food sources.
"Uh, yeah, I ran into it doing research on UC Davis," I said. "They at least
had fish tanks and everything, and potentially a capacity to grow up to, I
think, 600,000 Delta smelt a year. At least they did about a year ago or
so.".
"Well," he said, "some
folks just can't believe it and I wonder if you can get me that information
again?".
"Sure, no problem, I think I have it here," I said. Like somewhere between
files labeled "Johnson study revised" and "tail number of a certain Cessna 210 tied
down in the Carmel Valley" (FAA ID omitted here because "chin music" is not
called for in this occasion). But after fumbling for a couple of cell
phone minutes worth of extra charges trying to type with 1 finger, I told
him "Let me call you back, it won't be long".
Once freed of the chore of holding a Verizon cell phone to my ear, I ran
some strings through a search engine and once again found the information
that continues to amaze me to this day.
As noted at a California
Department of Water Resources website, this "smelt farm" (which seems to
have plenty of water, no?) in the state photo provides Delta smelt to
researchers trying figure out how to save a species that, among other
things, striped bass probably would find very tasty (Another Hint- try no
bag limits on striped bass fishing. Either that, or figure out how to breed
a smelt that tastes like an habanero
to every predator in the Delta.).
Inside, one sees tanks arranged in rows, like so many washing machines from
a "Leave It To Beaver" July 4 Marathon on TVLand.
Well, further digging found that the 600,000 smelt a year number was way
off. Combined between two facilities, the UC Davis Fish Culture and
Conservation Lab and the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery, they say
that some
75,000-80,000 delta smelt could be raised per year under laboratory
conditions. It would have to probably take finding one
down-on-his-luck-domestic-catfish-farmer, who had been aced out of a living
by Southeast Asian catfish imports, to probably have the capacity and the
experience in handling turbid water fish to zap this into the previously
thought 600,000 per year.
Still, when one is used
to condor breeding rates of one per pair every other year, starting at age 6
or so, Delta smelt look like comparative bunny rabbits from the
proliferation standpoint. It's clear that Delta smelt are not near
extinction when one combines the captive breeding effort with the more
scattered, and potentially thinner, wild populations still likely to be
floating around in the Delta.
Yet for some strange reason, despite these precautions a decade in the
making, water is being held back from the Central Valley over this issue. It
sort of makes one wonder what the kangaroo rats of Bakersfield tractor fame
(or deer, or elk, or quail, or pheasant, or dove, or ducks, or...) are going
to do for the wet stuff. Or, that matter, what condors are going to do for
"wild" cattle to eat if the water table is drawn down to the point that the
ranchers close up shop and move to the Midwest (I had previously thought that
Dr. Loft's "biomass" model was fairly accurate, despite the
current disagreement over the availability of raw data on condor blood lead
levels to the public at large.).
It will take more then political effort to change this situation, perhaps even
outrage the likes we have not seen since Federal Law Enforcement hauled off
a combine to jail for running over that famous jerboa so long ago. But until
the city swells of California's urban jungles start figuring out that they
cannot eat food that's not being grown, we might continue to see the
Birkenstock Tyranny at it's worst over the coming months. Until regulations
are made more rational, and bureaucrats given the leeway to both preserve
and be given authority to allow for folks to make a living, we are going to
be in a common sense drought for years to come. Stay tuned.
So, what did happen up in Woodland during the Fish & Game hearings
on June 24 and June 25? Folks who knew I was going there to present the
first set of documents from PRAR's and FOIA's in progress on the condor issue
for up to 5 months say they were interested in learning what happened.
Well, it's safe to say that DFG and Commission staff seemed surprised,
to say the least, to see the legal binders full of "Bates-Stamped" documents
being handed in. (For those not addicted to the television law shows,
"Bates-Stamping" is the way lawyers identify pages of documents when they
are prepared for a legal action).
It's also not often one sees the Condor Studbook, December 2008 revision, put
into the public record for all to see (The Studbook is supposedly a record of all
movements, releases, recaptures, and end result dates of all California Condors since
the recovery program started capturing them for study). And if Dale Steele and
Dr. Eric Loft had not gotten the latest copy from the San Diego Wild Animal Park,
well, suffice it to say they now have access to up to eight of them (5 for the
Commissioners, 3 for staff).
But perhaps what may be peaking bureaucrat interest up at 1416 9th Street, or
for that matter among any sextuagenerian lap dogs at their beck and call, is that
a number of fairly interesting emails have also been placed in the public record for
reference purposes.
As mentioned in the June 27 News Briefs linked Here, a communication from Dr.
Robert Risebrough dated August 5, 2008 to the entire Condor Recovery Team deserves
"special" consideration when one tries to take the whole condor mess into account:
"...Open Letter to the
Members of the Blue Ribbon Panel:
I
must respectfully but strongly disagree with some of the scientific
rationale
used in the
preparation of your report. This rationale lacks the rigor expected from
a committee of
scientists. As a result your report loses credibility.
You conclude 'that condors suffer lead poisoning from ingestion of spent
ammunition in
carcasses and gut piles upon which they feed sufficiently frequently
to raise mortality
rates well above those required for sustainability', that rate assumed
to be 10%.
Furthermore 'The evidence on this point is overwhelming'. This is what
we believe happened
in the 1980's and what would happen if the supplemental
feeding program were
to end, but it is not an accurate description of the present
situations. For the
birds released in California the evidence in support of this is
somewhat less than
'overwhelming'. In fact there is no support at all; over the past
four years
mortalities from all causes have been less than 10%...
...Ratios of
207Pb/206Pb in the kidney and liver of condor 132 were 0.8048 and
0.8058, marginally
below 97.5% of the ammunition sampled, and significantly
lower than the ratio
of 0.8207 recorded in the bone. More than one source of
lead is therefore
indicated; I would find it very difficult to state on a witness stand
that ammunition was
the source of lead that killed the bird, although I believe
that this is almost
certainly the case...
...The death of
Condor 175 was originally attributed to an attack by a golden eagle
that was feeding on
the carcass. A remaining portion of the liver was not analyzed
at the time. Later
analysis of a bone sample at UCSC recorded a concentration of
6.3 ppm, equivalent
to that in the bone of Condor 165 which died from lead
poisoning in Arizona
with about 16 lead pellets in it's gizzard. The isotope ratio
was 0.886, very
different from that in the ammunition measured so far. These
findings prompted
analysis of the liver, which had a lead concentration indicating
a lethal exposure.
At the present time, pending analysis of more ammunition
samples, we can not
conclude or even assume that this lead had an ammunition
source. The
hypothesis that it came from microtrash can not be excluded...
...Three condors,
170, 245, and 238 died at the Los Angeles Zoo after field tests
indicated lead
concentrations in the blood exceeding the capacity of the instrument
and after the
initiation of chelation therapy. There were no clinical symptoms other
than the high blood
concentrations. Very low lead concentrations were later recorded
in the livers,
indicating low body burdens. The most recent death, of 238, is
attributed to renal
failure associated with the kind of chelation therapy used. Until
now the deaths of
245 and 170 have been attributed to lead poisoning, with
complications
associated with the chelation therapy...
...Granted, some of the
disappearances with unknown causes of death could have
been caused by lead
poisoning. Debilitation from effects of lead could have
contributed to
deaths. But we must distinguish between Science and Speculation.
So far the
scientific evidence limits the number of California deaths attributed to
lead poisoning to
the range of 2-4, depending on the interpretation...
...But even the highest
estimate of lead-induced mortalities would not bring the
annual mortality to
10%. Beginning in 2000 total mortalities in California have
been 17, 13, 8, 22,
0, 2, 4 and 6% of the wild population including birds fledged
in the wild but not
including chicks in the nest, with two mortalities so far this
year, a flying
population of 82, and 8 chicks hatched in the wild.
Yes, this is
an artificial situation, with supplemental feeding and treatments for
lead and microtrash,
but by your definition the population would be considered
self-sustaining
since 2003..."
While I personally do not grow tired
reading these excerpts, perhaps one needs to put these in context for the
non-"condor-obsessed" out there.
One needs to remember that AB 821, the lead ammunition "ban" while hunting
certain kinds of game in "Condor Country" (Deer zones D-7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13,
and South A), was predicated upon claims of certainty that lead ammunition
was the primary source of mortality in California condors in the modern
time. Not lead from any other sources, just lead ammunition.
Now, these claims were not only being made despite the Condor Recovery Team
knowing internally that condors are garbage hounds with a habit of eating
just about any junk lying around in the environment (That's what comes from
reading emails received through a public act request). These claims were
also being made despite RKBA activists calling peer reviewed studies to the
attention of such authorities as the California Fish & Game Commission in
public meetings in August 2007 (barely a year before the above screed was
written and secretly distributed to the Condor Elite), and being ignored by
some appointees too "certain" to read the documents presented, or listen to
the one experienced appointee sharing the same dais with them.
As such, the state of the science, in Dr. Risebrough's mind and in his own
writing, in 2008, was that the American Ornithological Union/California
Audubon's "hand-picked" panel could not substantiate a number of statements
made as part of an "independent blue ribbon panel". (Drs. Fry and Haig were
either previously involved, or actively involved at the time of the writing
of the AOU/CA Audubon, in the California Condor Recovery effort. Dr. Fry had
done previous work, a 2003 report with a 2004 follow-up on lead threats in
the condor environment. Dr. Haig was, at least at the time of the AOU/CA
Audubon report, actively involved in site evaluation studies for possible
condor release sites in Oregon.).
He starts with the general denial of lack of rigor, and then points out the
key fact that all condor mortalities combined in California after
re-releases were initiated did not even add up to 10% mortality. That means
power line collisions (as many as 11), West Nile, predation (it seems that
Wile E. Coyote can catch condors, if not Road Runners...), all heavy metal
poisonings from all types of environmental metals (copper, zinc, and lead
are reported in a number of unsigned reports released to the public...), and
even pesticide poisonings (Some squirrels previously reported as shot with
shotgun shot were also apparently contaminated with rodenticide. Add this to
DDE residues, and the Condor Recovery Program has a BIG problem out there.).
If all mortalities combined do not add up to 10%, he is effectively pointing out that
the AOU folks cannot be right in claiming that ammunition lead alone would
exceed that very number.
Another revelation is that there were different isotopic ratios of lead
found in different parts measured from Condor # 132. For those out there
with better things to do than read the Final Environmental Document Final Document,
# 132 was the one condor noted by DFG staff to have known to have died from
lead poisoning as of December 2007. He notes that with more isotopic
ratios of lead were found in the bird, he would have a hard time "...on
the witness
stand..." saying it twas lead
ammo that killed the beast (Subsequent emails from Dr. Bruce Rideout to Dr.
Risebrough submitted at Woodland would describe the potential source of lead
that killed # 132 as a wood-grey object, and not describable as something
made of metal.).
Likewise in the case of Condor # 175, where once again ammunition as a
source of lead is not certain, and that "microtrash" (wheel weights, or
foils, or paints or other environmental detritus) cannot be eliminated from
consideration as the "culprit" from the CRT's "armchair" forensic
quarterbacking.
As for Condors 175, 245, and 238, the revelation of chelation-related injuries in the California
flock was more than interesting given that reports so far have led one to believe that only
veterinarians (specially qualified ones declared on the Memorandum of Understanding signed
with the State, to be exact) have performed medical treatments on condors. Given that chelation
has lead to mortalities in human children when mis-applied, it perhaps was to be expected
given the differences in protocols (Humans get it by intravenous injection, generally, but
condors get it through intra-muscular injection in the chest muscle.). Whether these chelation
events turn out to be simple veterinary error with an Endangered Species, or something more
problematic, remains to be determined.
Risebrough continues with his estimates regarding lead mortalities, noting that depending
upon definitions, at the most 2-4 condors can be attributed to have died due to lead. That
does not mean, given the findings for Condor # 132 or #175 (at least half of his estimate), that
these birds died due to lead from ammunition from any source. The case against lead ammunition,
thought instinctual even in Dr. Risebrough's case, cannot be distinguished better than speculation
unless one decides to suspend scientific rigor in a program involving $ 40 million in taxpayer dollars,
and an unknown amount in charitable contribution-cum-tax-deductions to recovery "partners" with
a strange reluctance to have their work released to the public (We are still waiting, Ms. Flick...).
Remember, the Risebrough "Open Letter" is but one of a number of documents available to
the public through a request to the DFG and the Commission through normal channels. As the
days progress and additional submissions are discussed in this blog, interested parties can
contact the Commission or the DFG staff and respectfully request copies from the public record
for the documents as labeled in the June 27 posting. After all, seeing is believing. Though, in
this case of the Condor Recovery Program, you won't believe it when you see it.