Having grown up as a Boy Scout in the Bay Area, I have many fond memories of fishing in Santa Clara County lakes. Many of my afternoons were spent lazing next to the water with a cool drink and a snack, joking with friends as we caught a few fish. Dinner was the best. We would roast our fresh catches over the campfire and enjoy a delicious meal together.
Had waters not been stocked with fishery-reared trout, I may not have those childhood memories.
The California Department of Fish and Game can no longer stock trout easily. Two non-profit conservation groups, The Center for Biological Diversity and the Pacific Rivers Council, brought suit against the DFG in 2006, alleging the DFG was not determining the ecological impact of stocking waters with hatchery-reared fish with sound science.
Of the eight lakes in the county, half of them have yet to be reviewed, including Stevens Creek Reservoir, leaving them on the “do not stock” list.
“No surveys are currently being conducted,” said George Neillands, senior environmental scientist supervisor of the fishing game departments – Bay Delta Region. “The Department does not have the manpower and time.
The Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp Program, a local tax for the sale of sport fishing licenses, was developed to benefit “sport fishing opportunities, and anglers within the stamp’s geographic range,” according to the department’s website. The program could spend up to $1 million a year on projects. Santa Clara County waters did not fall within the geographic range, though part of the Bay Delta Region.
“The purpose of the stamp was to fund projects that benefit sport fisheries, sport fishing opportunities, and anglers in the San Francisco Bay Delta and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their major tributaries up to the most downstream dam,” said Karen Mitchell, environmental scientist at the departments fisheries branch.
The department funded ecological studies of Sierra Nevada Wilderness lakes, assessing over 90 percent of waters by 2008. About one third of these waters were placed under aquatic biodiversity plans.
But Santa Clara County waters did not receive such treatment.
