As of this Earth Day, the verdict is in for Southern California steelhead. State wildlife officials have voted to list the fish all readers of lariverflyfishing love (fishing for carp, waiting for steelhead) as endangered. The listing, which echoes the federal listing in 1997, adds such protections as:

— Hands off. SoCal steelhead are off limits to angling.

—  State agencies must protect these steelhead and their habitat when approving projects.

—  Matilija Dam, Rindge Dam, Trabuco Creek, and the Santa Margarita River, Solstice Creek will all receive further scrutiny. Who knows if this will actually speed the process up of dam removal, fish passages and more water staying in our local watershed? I also wonder what this means for our own Brown Mountain Dam? Aren’t the trout in back of JPL the great-great-great- grandsons and daughters of ocean-going steelhead? Tear that sucker down as well.

George Sutherland, South Coast Chapter, Trout Unlimited’ s Conservation Chair and the co-founder, SC Steelhead Coalition, put it like this:

“I hope that this will lead to completion of many great projects of value to our watersheds, streams, estuaries, wetlands, ecosystems and habitats.

“The steelhead just need a bit more help. I’m proud to have been be a part of this focussed effort since 1980 and can’t wait to get moving forward.”

See you on the river, Jim Burns