| NATURAL HERITAGE INSTITUTE |
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| NHI e-newsletter |
September /October 2009 |
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| ANNOUNCEMENTS |
Mono Lake Committee honors NHI attorney, Richard Roos-Collins. Read more below!
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NHI Celebrates its 20  Year Anniversary!
This year marks the completion of NHI's first two decades of work restoring rivers and aquatic ecosystems in California, the nation, and around the world. NHI's president is "particularly proud of our efforts to restore key resources such as the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their Delta, Mono Lake, the Trinity River, the river systems defining the U.S-Mexican border, and the Okavango-projects that drew on the full range of legal and technical capacity of our staff, board, partners, clients and affiliates." We also wish to thank our funders who have supported us and our work. In celebration of this milestone, we are launching this bi-monthly newsletter to share recent accomplishments, new project developments, and noteworthy news from our board of trustees and staff. We hope you enjoy reading it! |
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Released Today: Draft Agreement for Restoration of Klamath River
The Klamath River Basin is on the verge of a comprehensive program to restore its fisheries and other public trust resources. In November 2008, the U.S., California and Oregon, tribes, agricultural and conservation interests and PacifiCorp released an Agreement in Principle (AIP) to remove PacifiCorp's hydropower dams, which block fish passage to most of the basin. A draft hydropower agreement to implement the AIP was released this morning. Final signing of both agreements will occur after public comment, likely by end of 2009. This will result in the largest dam-removal effort, and one of the most ambitious river restoration efforts, even undertaken. NHI has served as counsel to American Rivers and California Trout and as a lead drafter of these agreements. Read more >> |
| NHI Seeks Innovative "Fishmaster" Concept for the Bay Delta
As a member of the Steering Committee for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, NHI has proposed an innovative governance mechanism to sustainably manage water extractions from the vulnerable Bay Delta system. A group of regulatory agencies--called the "Fishmaster"--would make real-time decisions on the operations of the new diversion facility (and other water operations in the Delta). An accounting arrangement would assure water supply targets can be met through diversions during times of negligible impact to the Delta ecosystem. Read more >> |
| NHI Develops Tool to Evalute Reoperation Potential of Hydro Dams
As part of the Global Dam Reoperation Initiative, NHI developed a "Rapid Evaluation Tool for Screening the Potential for Reoptimizing Hydropower Systems" (REOPS) to quickly and efficiently screen a large number of dams to identify those that are the most promising candidates for beneficial reoptimization. The goal is to implement environmental flows to restore downstream ecosystem functions and services (e.g., floodplain livelihoods, food production systems), without significantly decreasing power production. The efficacy of our REOPS tool was demonstrated through a survey of 141 large hydropower dams in Africa. Read more >> |
Announcements - NHI Leader Wins Important Award!
Richard Roos-Collins, Director of Legal Services at NHI, received the 2009 Defender of the Public Trust Award on September 26th. The Mono Lake Committee began the award in 1993 to recognize individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to champion Mono Lake. Representing California Trout in the Mono Lake Cases, Richard was instrumental in negotiating a settlement with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to reduce water diversions from the lake and restore the habitat for water fowl, trout and other wildlife. For the first time in California's history, these cases applied the public trust doctrine to condition water rights to protect environmental quality. | |
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The Natural Heritage Institute is a non-profit public interest and conservation advocacy organization founded in 1989 and based in San Francisco, California. We work in watersheds worldwide that have been significantly altered and where intact aquatic systems of exceptional ecological value are subject to eminent development pressure.
For more information about NHI and to sign-up for our mailing list, please visit our website: www.n-h-i.org or contact:
Jessica Peyla Nagtalon
Manager of Administration & Development
(415) 693-3000 ext. 119
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