Unfortunately to become a water board member does not require much. You need to get elected and thats about it. You would think that as important as water is to humans there would be some major qualifications required that would bring a scientific element to the water boards. I was blown away attending the Casitas board meetings at the apparent lack of scientific knowledge on such a subject as the quaggas.

Maybe we need to let our legislators know that we want these water board personell to meet some qualifications. All I heard was conjecture and hearsay when you would like to think they would hire some specialists. At the last meeting it sounded like a quagga commitee may be formed but who will they be and what qualifications will they have. There have been numerous studies done on the quagga and I would like to think that information and those individuals will be utilized for the best possible extent.

It is a trip, they are working hard to save the steel head trout and I do not think it can be done. I do not think we have the water in the river for it. We will spend plenty of money on that though and we let a lot of fresh water flow to the ocean to try and make room for them. There is not much difference between steel head and rainbows except the steel head get washed down to the ocean when fry and come back up to spawn. I believe they are the same as rainbows which we grow at the Fillmore fish hatchery. So isnt that saving that species.

I guess evolution is open to interpretation and the powers that be make the decision based on their perspective. Lets hope they use science and study facts and disregard emotion. A lot is going on in the world today and though this seems relevant to me it pales in comparison to the Trans Texas Highway and the Security and Prosperity Partnership that will ruin the middle class and is hardly being talked about.

Peace

Rich