At an unprecedented level, federal and state governments are advancing special interests at the expense of the public trust. Today more than ever, non-profit organizations must be leaders in enacting and enforcing policies that empower practical alternatives to the depletion and pollution of rivers, streams, estuaries, and aquifers.
The Opportunity
That’s where the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance comes in. CSPA has been navigating the state’s convoluted water bureaucracy since the 1980s, defending public interests in water governance, and making strides to replenish the ecosystems and fisheries of California’s once-regal rivers.
Over the last thirty years, CSPA has initiated and completed hundreds of water quality enforcement actions.
Drone view of fall-run Chinook salmon migrate and spawn in the Feather River near California Department of Water Resources infrastructure and the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville in October 2025. Image: Andrew Nixon and the California Department of Water Resources
Water is an essential public good, and environmental protection is a basic public service. But California has built its water system on the devaluation of water and the degradation of ecosystems. Even when California has been willing to adopt strong environmental laws, responsible agencies have rarely had the backbone to enforce them. In order to ensure water quality and water supply reliability for domestic, environmental, and recreational users, communities must participate in the public process to hold agencies accountable. They must ensure that industrial-scale users do not diminish the human right to water and a healthy environment.
A Systemic Problem
California’s water is overallocated and underregulated for special interests with deep pockets (industrial irrigators), and under-allocated and rarely regulated for public interests with shallow pockets (domestic water users, tribes, and ecosystems). Severe drought from 2012 to 2015 tested the state’s water system. For the first time in history, the state made widespread curtailments of water diversions. But the process revealed deep inequities in water allocation and use accountability.
The Newsom Administration has not learned the lessons of recent drought years by adjusting demands to meet supplies. Instead, it aggressively seeking to expand expensive and invasive infrastructure to quench the insatiable thirst of unsustainable water use and users. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is gutting laws that protect the environment and defunding the agencies that implement those laws.
In 2025, California was forced to close its commercial ocean salmon fishery, and most of its recreational salmon fishery, for the third year in a row. Steep declines in salmon populations over the past four decades have compromised ecosystems, devastated tribes, and decimated fishing communities.
CSPA Needs You
During this time of regulatory retreat, support for non-governmental organizations with a track record of success, integrity, and perseverance is more important than ever. With our expertise and your contributions, together we can correct course and replenish a harvestable surplus of salmon, steelhead, and other anadromous species. Please become a CSPA member and/or contributor today. Your investment will help enforce water quality laws, improve equitable water allocation, and ensure affordable access to cherished public resources.
As the saying goes; many have lived without love. None have lived without water.
Yours,
Chris Shutes
Executive Director
Please visit https://calsport.org/ and click the buttons at the top to Donate or Join today!
You may also download and print an online form to send donations and memberships to:
CSPA, P.O. Box 1061, Groveland CA 95321