LAST EDITED ON Jul-11-06 AT 08:57AM (MST)[p]This is something that every sportsman in Southern California (I know there are a few here) needs to know about. This is huge, and requires our immediate and intense action. Please read this article and then contact the CVWD and tell them your feelings.
OUTDOOR TALES: New canal poses a danger to deer
By AL KALIN, Staff Columnist
Thursday, June 29, 2006 2:53 PM PDT
Dozens of deer may have already perished as a result of the upgrading of a new section of concrete canal lining being installed on the Coachella branch of the All- American Canal east of the Salton Sea.
The Coachella Valley Water District is in the process of completing the concrete lining of their northern section of the Coachella Branch of the All American Canal. Twenty-five years ago CVWD lined the southern portion of their canal. At that time hundreds of deer, desert bighorn sheep and burros perished when drinkers were not installed on both sides of the lined canal and animals became trapped in the steep concrete canal and either drowned or died from exhaustion when they couldn't get out during the hot summer months.
Leon Lesicka of Brawley, along with his friends, came to the rescue and installed emergency drinkers along the new canal to keep other animals from perishing. Of the deer that were rescued, many eventually died because of stress and infection from torn hooves and knees from trying to climb out of the canal. At the time Lesicka and California Fish and Game biologists attached tracking collars on four of the deer that had been rescued from the canal before they were released. Within a week three of the four deer had died from stress and infection-related causes.
When CVWD proposed to fence the new canal to keep the animals out and install 40 drinkers along the 40-mile stretch of new canal lining, Lesicka argued that one drinker every mile was not enough. He felt deer would not walk that far along the fence to gain access to a drinker. To prove his point he personally tracked deer during a three-day period in August 2004 and recorded the GPS coordinates where the deer accessed the dirt canal from the desert to get water during the hot summer months. In some instances there were dozens of access points per mile.
Somewhere along the line CVWD changed its plans and decided to build the fence on the desert side of the canal and allow openings to a drinker every mile at the bottom of the canal. In an e-mail to California Fish and Game biologist Jerry Mulcahy, CVWD assured him that it would not install any fencing until December 2006 when the deer would not be threatened by high temperatures and there would be plenty of water in the desert for them to survive without having to use the canal as a water source.
Last week it was discovered that not only had the fence been installed during the hottest part of the summer, but the deer entering from the south and western side of the canal were already being lured into the canal in search of water because there were no drinkers for them to use. New sections of the lined canal are currently filled with two feet of water to help cure the concrete.
The first deer was discovered in the newly lined canal on May 12 and it was successfully herded to a temporary earthen dam in the bottom of the canal where it escaped back into the lower desert. CVWD was contacted shortly after the incident. Since then five other deer have become trapped in the canal. One of the deer died before it could be herded out of the lined canal.
Even worse, the newly installed fence on the desert side of the old dirt canal now keeps deer from entering the old canal to drink. These are deer that have learned the old dirt canal is where they can get water during the hot summer months but when they reach the canal they find a new fence that keeps them from reaching the water only 50 feet away. Recently many have been tracked, showing that they follow the fence along the canal and then give up when they find no openings and head back out into the desert. How many will die from thirst is unknown.
CVWD has known about this problem since the first deer was discovered in the canal on May 12 but apparently has taken no steps to rectify the situation. During this past weekend Desert Wildlife Unlimited members installed 30 small emergency drinkers along an eight-mile stretch of the newly lined canal between drops eight and 15, to provide water for deer on the desert side of the old canal that is now fenced.
It is not known why CVWD installed the fence in the hottest part of the year and not in December like they promised the California Fish and Game. Surely their biologist, Monica Swartz, should have realized fencing off the existing dirt canal from the deer in the desert would have disastrous consequences to the deer herd. There is no doubt CVWD should be held accountable. As a result of wide-spread negligence on their part dozens, maybe even hundreds, of deer may have already perished and the entire herd decimated.
If any deer are left to save it may necessary to remove the newly installed fence so they can enter the existing dirt canal at any point they choose to get water
OUTDOOR TALES: New canal poses a danger to deer
By AL KALIN, Staff Columnist
Thursday, June 29, 2006 2:53 PM PDT
Dozens of deer may have already perished as a result of the upgrading of a new section of concrete canal lining being installed on the Coachella branch of the All- American Canal east of the Salton Sea.
The Coachella Valley Water District is in the process of completing the concrete lining of their northern section of the Coachella Branch of the All American Canal. Twenty-five years ago CVWD lined the southern portion of their canal. At that time hundreds of deer, desert bighorn sheep and burros perished when drinkers were not installed on both sides of the lined canal and animals became trapped in the steep concrete canal and either drowned or died from exhaustion when they couldn't get out during the hot summer months.
Leon Lesicka of Brawley, along with his friends, came to the rescue and installed emergency drinkers along the new canal to keep other animals from perishing. Of the deer that were rescued, many eventually died because of stress and infection from torn hooves and knees from trying to climb out of the canal. At the time Lesicka and California Fish and Game biologists attached tracking collars on four of the deer that had been rescued from the canal before they were released. Within a week three of the four deer had died from stress and infection-related causes.
When CVWD proposed to fence the new canal to keep the animals out and install 40 drinkers along the 40-mile stretch of new canal lining, Lesicka argued that one drinker every mile was not enough. He felt deer would not walk that far along the fence to gain access to a drinker. To prove his point he personally tracked deer during a three-day period in August 2004 and recorded the GPS coordinates where the deer accessed the dirt canal from the desert to get water during the hot summer months. In some instances there were dozens of access points per mile.
Somewhere along the line CVWD changed its plans and decided to build the fence on the desert side of the canal and allow openings to a drinker every mile at the bottom of the canal. In an e-mail to California Fish and Game biologist Jerry Mulcahy, CVWD assured him that it would not install any fencing until December 2006 when the deer would not be threatened by high temperatures and there would be plenty of water in the desert for them to survive without having to use the canal as a water source.
Last week it was discovered that not only had the fence been installed during the hottest part of the summer, but the deer entering from the south and western side of the canal were already being lured into the canal in search of water because there were no drinkers for them to use. New sections of the lined canal are currently filled with two feet of water to help cure the concrete.
The first deer was discovered in the newly lined canal on May 12 and it was successfully herded to a temporary earthen dam in the bottom of the canal where it escaped back into the lower desert. CVWD was contacted shortly after the incident. Since then five other deer have become trapped in the canal. One of the deer died before it could be herded out of the lined canal.
Even worse, the newly installed fence on the desert side of the old dirt canal now keeps deer from entering the old canal to drink. These are deer that have learned the old dirt canal is where they can get water during the hot summer months but when they reach the canal they find a new fence that keeps them from reaching the water only 50 feet away. Recently many have been tracked, showing that they follow the fence along the canal and then give up when they find no openings and head back out into the desert. How many will die from thirst is unknown.
CVWD has known about this problem since the first deer was discovered in the canal on May 12 but apparently has taken no steps to rectify the situation. During this past weekend Desert Wildlife Unlimited members installed 30 small emergency drinkers along an eight-mile stretch of the newly lined canal between drops eight and 15, to provide water for deer on the desert side of the old canal that is now fenced.
It is not known why CVWD installed the fence in the hottest part of the year and not in December like they promised the California Fish and Game. Surely their biologist, Monica Swartz, should have realized fencing off the existing dirt canal from the deer in the desert would have disastrous consequences to the deer herd. There is no doubt CVWD should be held accountable. As a result of wide-spread negligence on their part dozens, maybe even hundreds, of deer may have already perished and the entire herd decimated.
If any deer are left to save it may necessary to remove the newly installed fence so they can enter the existing dirt canal at any point they choose to get water
