LAKEPORT. Calif. – Last Tuesday the Board of Supervisors held a discussion on newly filed petitions with the state and federal governments to list the Clear Lake hitch as an endangered species.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed the petitions late last month to protect the hitch, which his native to Clear Lake, as Lake County News has reported.
Board Chair Rob Brown said he had the matter put on the Oct. 2 board agenda in order to make sure it was on the supervisors’ radar.
He said there is still time and opportunity for public input, although he added he was “still not really clear on how this happened,” or why the Center for Biological Diversity decided to pursue the petition.
Brown said he spoke with Peter Windrem, president of the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch, who said the group was not aware of the petitions until they were filed.
Brown said the Chi Council had suggested partnering with the Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee to hold forums for the purposes of educating the public and taking input from the community.
“I think we can count on that happening,” said Brown.
Brown said he’s also spoken to Lake County Farm Bureau’s executive director, Claudia Street, about the matter.
“It could have long-reaching impacts, either positive or negative,” Brown said. “We don’t know yet.”
Windrem, who attended the board meeting, explained that the Chi Council serves as a clearinghouse for information on the fish, and also supports monitoring programs and grant applications. Their objective is to gather information on the hitch.
He confirmed that the group hadn’t been notified of the petitions before they were filed.
The council met Sept. 26 to discuss the petitions. With help from Greg Giusti of the University of California Cooperative Extension, group members have gotten an understanding of the petition process, which can take years, Windrem said.
Victoria Brandon, who is a member of the Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee, said people around the county have been saying the hitch needed help for some time.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington thanked Brown for putting the discussion on the agenda.
“I think it’s best to get ahead of these types of issues,” he said.
Farrington suggested there may be opportunities to hold back more water from being released from Clear Lake during the summer months to help the hitch.
Tom Smythe, an engineer with the Lake County Water Resources Department who also sits on the Chi Council, said the lake level was mentioned in the petition as a potential issue. Most of the hitch’s spawning takes place in March.
Smythe said he has looked at lake levels prior to 1914, and the average lake levels today very closely follow what was occurring from 1873 through 1900.
“The lake operation doesn’t seem to be a whole lot different than what Mother Nature intended,” Smythe said.
Windrem said he wanted to say something in defense of bass, which have reportedly impacted the hitch.
“The environmental systems are immensely complex in this lake,” he said.
While there is no question that bass like to eat hitch, Windrem said there also are other fish – like silversides and threadfin shad – that compete with hitch for food.
He said the hitch live in two worlds – one is Clear Lake, where they reside for most of the year, and the second is the creeks where they spawn.
Windrem suggested that humans could have more potential impact on streams than the lake, adding that he wanted to approach the matter as soundly as possible and not have all issues for the hitch attributed to bass.
“Folks get really alarmed in connection with these applications,” he said.
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