For more information on Dr. Moyle, please visit his webpage at UC-Davis.

The abstract of his April 6 talk is below:

California dreaming: the conservation of fish and aquatic ecosystems in the hydraulic society.

Peter B  Moyle, Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, University of California, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis CA 95616.  pbmoyle@ucdavis.edu.

California is a zoogeographic island and home to a unique and productive native fish fauna, including large runs of Chinook salmon and other anadromous fishes. Most of this fauna is in decline, reflecting degradation of aquatic ecosystems, the result of California having a bigger economy and faster human population growth than most countries of the world. California is a hydraulic society, depending on a massive water redistribution system for its economic well-being. The water system is an engineering marvel and an ecological disaster. Within the state, however, are a number of projects that represent creative solutions to the problems of conserving aquatic ecosystems and native aquatic life, which I have been documenting.  Putah Creek is a regulated stream where a change in flow releases from a dam has brought back a complex native fish assemblage. The lower Mokelumne River is a highly regulated and channelized river where restoration of spawning of Chinook salmon has resulted in transfer of ocean nutrients to riparian wildlife and to vineyards. The Cosumnes River has a restored floodplain that is demonstrating the importance of floodplains to declining native fishes, leading to broader proposals for floodplain restoration. These three studies have in turn provided background for a proposal (and basis for legal action) to restore 150 miles of the mostly-dry San Joaquin River to a living river once again. Suisun Marsh is the largest estuarine marsh in California and my 26 yr study shows the conditions needed to prevent further declines in native estuarine fishes. In particular, they suggest the need for radical changes in policy for the management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta through which about half of southern California’s water supply flows. An additional problem is adjusting such conservation projects to the realities of climate change and sea level rise. I may be dreaming, but California could become the model for world to follow in maintaining healthy, if reconciled, ecosystems, just as it has been the model for materialistic life styles in the past.