9414

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9414
• Author: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
• Title: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Annual Report.
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

CALIFORNIA OFFICE

~

IT

i U hough much of

i its precious mineral wealth
I
i was tapped 150 years ago,
I
i California remains a state
I
i golden with potential.
! Home to the world's seventh
I
! largest economy, the largest
! population in the U.S., and
I
: wondrous and diverse natur-
I
: al beauty, California is truly a
special place. From the rein-
troduction of California con-
dors to the protection of the
Headwaters Forest to the
I
i restoration of entire aquatic
I
i ecosystems, California repre-
I
i sents the cutting edge in con-
i servation and invokes the
I
! need for an urgent stand to
I
i protect and restore the state's
I
i natural grandeur.
I
: Over the years, NFWF
i has been heavily involved in California
I
i conservation initiatives. This involve-
I
i ment was capped in January 1997 with
! the opening of NFWF's first regional
I
office. A summary of the major reasons
underpinning this bold step westward
include the following:
. The Foundation has awarded
California more projects and funding
than all of the other fifty states. To

. . . California rep-

@Gary R. Zanrn

resents the cutting

urgent stand to

date, NFWF has invested $15.1 million in 253 projects for a total
grant amount of $44.3 million. In fiscal year 1997 alone, NFWF
invested $2.4 million in sixty-nine projects for a total grant amount
of $8.6 million.
. The governor's office asked NFWF to act as the fish and game foun-
dation for the state of California and has since signed a memorandum
of understanding with the California Department of Fish and Game
in the spring of 1997.
. NFWF was asked to assume a key role as administrator of funds
allocated for ecosystem restoration under the state/federal Bay-Delta
program, possibly the most far-reaching conservation and water man-
agement program in the history of the United States.
Here are examples of the exciting conservation work in California
that was initiated or completed in fiscal year 1997:

edge in conmva-

tion and invokes

the need for an

protect and restore

the state's natural

grandeur.

CALIFORNIA GRASSROOTS SALMON INITIATIVE
Despite being overharvested, dammed, outcompeted by nonnative
species, diseased, and otherwise deprived of quality habitats over the
past century, the salmon still survives as a symbol of rugged individu-
alism; ironically, the same symbol associated with the people of the West who are col-
lectively responsible for the salmon's decline.
And the declines have been precipitous. In 1991, the American Fisheries Society
reported that 214 of approximately 400 runs of Pacific salmon were at risk of extinction,
and an additional 106 runs had already gone extinct. In California, listings under the
Endangered Species Act have driven home the exigency of the situation. In 1989, the
Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon was listed as threatened; in 1994, the
species was listed as a more dire endangered status. This year, listing decisions were
made for coho salmon and steelhead trout for the entire West Coast. In California, coho
salmon were listed as endangered in the central coast/southern regions of the state and

8 1997 Annual Report