A lawsuit filed by Stanford law school has asked for an injunction to stocking non native species of fish in California waters. A California Superior Court Judge has ask the DFG to seek a solution to the fish stocking program by meeting with the petitioners.
 
The lawsuit is over fish stocking programs that have been conducted by DFG without an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the programs. The DFG, however, is conducting EIRs because of a 2006 lawsuit. It was filed by the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity. These studies will not be completed until 2010. Hmm ... I wonder if there has been any EIRs completed for the illegal stocking of humans that deplete the fisheries, native and otherwise, in California? Or, the lack of law enforcement personal to protect native species.
 
If an agreement is not reached between the DFG and the petitioners, an injunction could be issued to halt stocking of non-native trout and salmon. It would seem the environmental impact of this would be devastation of native populations by legally and non legally established humans who wouldn't have stocked trout to prey on.
 
Most of all the trout stocked in California are not native to the waters. Of course, most all of the lakes in California are not "native" either. Does stocking trout in a man made lake have any significant effect compared to the man made lake itself? The trout stocked in rivers like our Santa Ynez and local creeks are stocked with a non native trout strain. To stock native fish, they would have to raise a Steelhead strain.
 
I believe an agreement will be reached and stocking will continue. The economic impact will play a larger role than the environmental impact; it usually does. That's why the judge is asking the parties to reach an agreement.
 
Some reading on the subject:
 
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/news08/08124.html
 
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/pubnotice/hatchery/
 
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2008/fish-stocking-11-11- 2008.html

And Joe by the way....Thanks Joe for bringing this issue to light for us. I agrre with your observations on this issue.  
 Sorry I  did not mean to repeat that for  no other reason other than the difference of a cut and copy and trying to make my post "more readable".        LEW

Yeah the Bass Guys are starting to whine about this as well.        There have not been the usual fall plants going  on in the "feed the bass" lakes.  They don't have anything nice to say about the kids at Stanford Law!     LEW

The red legged frog item #2 will stop planting in the Santa Ynez very possibly. There is a large protected area(declared habitat) just to south of the Los Prietos crossing. Here we have some incongruency that has to be worked out. Maybe it will be taken care of. We will see when they get this list out. I don't get the rainbow v.s. red legged frog issue  since they both naturally occur in the same habitat. Leave it to lawyers  and neurotic biologists to get to real truth...not!
 
 Possibly it could be that planting makes for an over abundance of trout that may disseminate red leg frogs. The proponents of this recent suit are very biased toward amphibians as the indicator species of a healthy riparian habitat and really don't like us fishermen near frogs and toads.  
 
While it looks like this issue is not as bad as first feared, the plaintive parties involved are not out to protect fisheries for recreation. It is for their cause which to protect the environment on a diversity basis. This cause seeks to change our fisheries back to a more natural state. A noble cause which gets hijacked all to often by large foundations and large salaries that run them. That is the gorilla in the corner to keep an eye on here.  
 
                                                                                                       LEW

I'm surprised about the Santa Ynez and even more so that Lion Canyon Creek is going to be stocked. I did notice that Davy Brown and Manzana were not on the list.
 
The Kern not being stocked is a bit surprising but they were planning to stock the native Kern River Rainbow any way so we may see stocking of them soon. I have seen some of these native fish (Kern River Rainbow) being raised in the hatchery and they are quite different than the standard hatchery fish. They would shy away and hunker down when they were approached. In sharp contrast, the standard hatchery fish would just about jump out and try to grab your hand if placed over the fish; they would boil on the surface looking like a Hollywood version of a school of Piranha. I look forward to seeing "real" trout being re-established in the Kern.
 
It should also be noted that Lake Isabella will be planted and many of the plants will travel up the Kern. In the winter and early spring the Kern has a good run of lake fish coming up to spawn.

I've been meaning to do just that but haven't had time; hopefully I will later today.