New Loveland Updates

[Everydog]

Making good progress and really getting into the nitty gritty with the CalEPA caseworkers and even DFW getting drawn in at high levels.
One possible problem with my CalEPA case is that I made a complaint of an "actionable threat" in 2020. That should have been processed and Sweetwater stopped from draining Loveland. It wasn't, Instead, it seemed very likely that someone at State Water Resources control boards gave Sweetwater a green light mistakenly, or that Sweetwater is claiming that they did. Remember we are talking about a case that has been being investigated for 7 months now. I believe that the outcome will be that Sweetwater is ordered to restock fish or CalEPA will pay for it. That is what I have asked.

It is inevitable that the fish will be restocked. Sweetwater can not meet its obligations which we have reversed its escape from without putting those fish back. If CalEPA made a mistake that is considered a big factor in what Sweetwater did, I believe they will pay for it. If Sweetwater is the one to take responsibility, which is the only other route, Sweetwater will put them back, or one of their preferred CA legislators will pay for it.

[Everydog]

Hell yeah.
To the victors go the spoils
We are the victors
The spoils go to us.

Man, I hope I don't have to walk back those words. But that's what post-stupid humility is for.

[Everydog]

Loveland update;
This is potentially really good news.
Update From the Meeting with Andrew Hayes for Senator Jones' office on Friday.
“Round table” meeting with Sweetwater Authority on or about October 18th in Alpine. (Apparently not an Alpine Community Planning Group meeting)
This is to discuss access and trail enhancements at Loveland Reservoir. We planted seeds for a lot of improvements including potentially ADA access with a park that gives a nod to veterans.
Apparently, besides Senator Jones' office, Congressman Issa's staff and County Supervisor Anderson's staff are considering proposals, or are at least interested in the meeting.
Thanks to everyone who has participated in this series of meetings since Andrew started mediating for us with Sweetwater and the Forest Service. Special thanks to Andrew, of course.
My wife Carolyn put together a great PowerPoint presentation for pre-meeting dispersal to the participants at Andrew's meeting and improved it for the proposed "round table". She is a very important player in Loveland Advocacy!

[Everydog]

.

The new Descanso Ranger, Kyle Smith, is answering emails now, not mine but other people's....which is good progress.
Please write him something...anything about Loveland, How we are glad to have the Forest Service back for us as a voice for Loveland Hiking and Fishing.

He is here to GRADUALLY unwind the failures and some encouragement is good at this time.
Smith Kyle - FS CA

kyle.smith4@usda.gov
(619) 743-1929

[Everydog]

Good news,
CalEPA, It's possible that the CalEPA investigation case managers can be trusted. Nobody can blame me for acting like there is a big doubt about that. I refused to take my update on the investigation alone over the phone, as has been offered, and asked for a Zoom meeting with various people including four more people who have recently submitted complaints, DFW, CalEPA, Senator Jones' staff, and a reporter. We might not get all that, but there is no chance I will get beat up and dumped in a dark alley as our bureaucrats and politicians so consistently attempt. I call it being "bureaucratically disappeared" ....they fail to 'disappear you" if you are consistent and get witnesses helping you.

The good news part!
A great investigative reporter just let my CalEP case managers know that the video-recorded update meeting on the investigation should be put forward by CalEPA.... this is in place of the private phone call offered to me. This is for power in numbers and a public record....fantastic.

[Everydog]

The CalEPA case managers told us 'no way" to the request for the public meeting! LOL took back the offer of an update completely. I don't want a phone call anyway so it was worth a try to push a bigger ask. They are going to tell me the results when it's over. Maybe one of the other 5 or 6 complainants will get an update. At least there is supposed to be an investigation. Sweetwater probably calculated the penalty and found it so weak that they went ahead and drained the lake. They lost a lot of clout and money from the public backlash ....and according to their FEMA claims caused as much expense in damage to the reservoir as the amount of water they got was worth. We win with that knowledge. So.

Sweetwater, you are going to kill everything wreck public recreation, and lose money by draining the lake and you think it's worth doing again?

[Everydog]

There are a lot of fish in Loveland.

Some observations from three trips over the last month.
At least one Prime Cove is sort of stacked with just under legal size bass and they seem to be pounding shad now and then, but the shad has not been 100% confirmed. Very typical behavior of busting and birds and then the cool-off period.

There are several other sizes of undersized bass besides these high numbers of just under-legal fish.
3" 5' 7' for instance. Those little ones can be seen along the main lake shoreline, but it doesn't seem like many bigger bass are out there.

Full-sized carp survived and there are tons of baby carp and baby bluegill.

Have not 100% proven Shad, Catfish, or Crappie.
Catfish had to have survived if the others did.

How much tougher is bluegill than crappie....because bluegill including some hand-sized ones are in there.

This is not from people throwing a few buckets of fish in there. There are too many for that.

[Everydog]

Werfless is helping me get a clue about what's going on at Loveland. It's carp the little bass have corraled.....not shad. No proof of shad anyway...but there was a big carp spawn this year with little predation. On my first trip, which was to do a survey with worms and a little hook, I caught so many baby carp. Bummed not to have proof there are shad in there. some of the little basses in the feeding frenzy are barfing up carp...no sign of dead shad like you always see.

[camobass]

Gotta eat

[Everydog]

Yep
It’s real interesting to watch the evolution of the ecological recovery.
There was an explosion of leopard frogs because there were low populations of pollywog scarfers
And few to pound the carp spawn too.
Well I am told that leopard frog tadpoles are edible to bass
Plenty of carp for the little bass to eat .

[Everydog]

Here is the https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... sp=sharingthat I envisioned/crowd-sourced and my wife and I put together as a wish list for trail and access improvements for Loveland. (Yes, it's okay to laugh at it)
This is part of the mediation/facilation process that Andrew Smith from State Senator Jones' office is leading.

Sweetwater Authority needs to have the Loveland trails meeting, or another meeting of the minds of our community's Loveland advocates in order to submit a "Work Plan" for the California funding agency Division of Water Resources.

There have been delays. We want them to agree that we are working on "Fishing Trails" with our efforts and money and have a commitment to that. While I hope for a better tone and tenor going forward, and used one and received that back at last night's Regular Sweetwater Board meeting, including extra time to talk, we can also clawback at the California Funding and other tax funding as needed to stand up against this chaos we have been experiencing at Loveland.

I spoke to the board of directors last night about the benefits of announcing fish restocking prior to coming back to our neighborhood for a meeting about "fishing trails" or anything else. It would be good to handle this resentment-causing problem.

I am not happy with the new Descanso Ranger yet. He is being selective about who he will commit to working with and not just excluding me.
The concern is that he wants to work with weaker hands. Not to say that others will fail, but that I trust myself and the people who fought before the lake was drained the most. Lots of the invited "leadership" didn't do a damn thing, or didn't do as much as independent advocates, for sunrise to sunset, excessive covid closures, the recent closures that would have gone on forever. Not a democratic look at all hiding from the people who got us here.

I have asked the Ranger to meet 5 such independent advocates at the Alpine VFW for lunch.

I trust me and these others to fight for Loveland and we should not be kicked to the side.

[Mcfish]

The County Supervisors promised us that our closed days at the city lakes would reopen and they've done nothing to accomplish that! It's hard to believe that they will do any work towards fixing Loveland! They have a reputation for doing nothing for the City Lakes!!! Hodges and El Cap would not have dam issues now if they hadn't kept kicking the can down the road! They can sure find money for the Illegals and homeless campers!

[Everydog]

The County Supervisors promised us that our closed days at the city lakes would reopen and they've done nothing to accomplish that! It's hard to believe that they will do any work towards fixing Loveland! They have a reputation for doing nothing for the City Lakes!!! Hodges and El Cap would not have dam issues now if they hadn't kept kicking the can down the road! They can sure find money for the Illegals and homeless campers!

Supervisor Anderson was set to give 600K to the lakes over 5 years but it was a horrible deal when they looked at it closer. To me, that's unfinished recreation promise, unfulfilled campaign promises, which is what he said.

County Supervisors haven't pledged on Loveland specifically, or been able to follow through anyway, but We have had meetings with Supervisor Anderson's staff, and I have bugged Anderson and his staff since he got elected. It's hard for them to do something with the lake manager either want a windfall or treat their letters of willingness to do projects or support advocates like toilet paper. Sweetwater has shot the county down so much or dragged their projects out for decades like the loop trail at Sweetwater.

That PowerPoint is a wish list, for sure. But if nobody dares put stuff out there nothing will happen. The opportunity to ask and plant seeds was there, that's all. There is $750k for trails Sweetwater needs to make the work plan to submit to get funding from DWR.

[Everydog]

We had a pretty rowdy Zoom meeting yesterday with Andrew Hayes. As great as he is doing with the mediation he is attempting, we need Congressman Issa's staff to step up for continued Forest Service footdragging. Also, most of us are trying not to compromise on the fact that Sweetwater Should restock fish, and the commitment to the minimum pool should be there before taxpayer money is spent at Loveland for trails....trails to where and what?

We want fishing trails, but first, we want fishing as it should be. That's a Federal problem.

[Everydog]

Loveland update:

[Everydog]

Deleted, Kind of getting in the weeds with some stuff.

[Everydog]

The buckets of smaller fish that have been put into Loveland will spawn next year (if they aren't already getting busy). Their success depends on whether the water district screws around with the water level next spring and summer. "Genetics" aren't needed; with warm water, consistent water levels, and forage Loveland will be filled up with catchable bass in two years, and decent sized fish in three or four. Not my opinion, just science.

Edit: But....there's probably some grant money out there somewhere that could relocate some bigger bass and accelerate the process.

There are more than buckets of bass in Loveland, It seems a bunch of dinks survived in pools or something and swam out in the lake as it filled and are schooling in at least one prime spot, a cove. These bass are just under legal size now, and growing fast. There seem to be very few bass on the main lake.

There are a lot of carp you can kill. The Carp spawn and survival rate was off the hook. Bluegill spawn was significant. The bass are scarfing baby carp mostly up until now ....no evidence of shad in the lake yet.

[Everydog]

"Expect great things", he says, as he buries himself in bubble wrap.

[Everydog]

All CalEPA complaints and investigations have been closed.
They said "Better luck with DFW and the Forest Service easement".
The good thing that happened is that Waterboards confirmed that whatever water rights Sweetwater has, they are not mutually exclusive with our right to the Forest Service Land Swap Design fishing pool. California simply says that the Forest Service Fishing easement is out of their jurisdiction.
Issa's Legislative director is involved and I hope he won't allow the Forest Service to rely on the falsehood that Sweetwater Water rights trump our dedicated easement fishing program. The Forest Service should never have given Sweetwater the green light to do what it did.
Issa's director indicated that we are making progress on Sunrise to Sunset and he thinks we can get that. He told that to Senator Jones' aide who we are working with.


Back to CalEPA
What a hoax and con job the CalEPA team put on.
I already have some public records.
They allowed Sweetwater to win with the drought excuse. Insane.
State Water Resources Control Board made dubious excuses to nullify their own document for water management at Loveland.
I am going to challenge this and the drought bullshit and maybe a few other things.


What con job happened with CalEPA?
Establishment vs. the People happened....and with all kinds of manipulations of factors , the Establishment won, for now
Manufacture and escape for the political clout-wielding Sweetwater Authority happened.

[Everydog]

I filed a CalEPA complaint against the State Water Resources Control Board for failing to act on my 2020 complaint warning that Sweetwater was going to violate its capture limits and trash Loveland.
It says right on the Sweetwater license that this regulatory agency, the SWRCB can make the condition even "altering the quantity of water transferrable" to protect public trust, that's the environment and people's interests. I feel when I put the CalEPA complaint in 2020 they should have done something in the interest of environmental protection and public trust.

I don't have a lawyer yet, but will at a minimum go to the Attorney General, State Grand Jury, and State Auditor with complaints of failure to protect the environment per their mandates, and a coverup by SWRCB.