Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Editor’s note: Below the post “Logue launches draft Texas Gov. for President campaign,” there’s a good discussion going on about how to improve California’s economy. Here are some suggestions from Truckee resident Steve Frisch. What are your thoughts?

Things we could do to improve California’s economy:

1) Establish an office of Economic Development to coordinate policy to encourage new business growth, within either the Governor’s office or the California Department of Business, Transportation and Housing.

2) Encourage regional economic development planning that is based on the natural subregions of the state that have economies based on geographic, demographic and economic similarities, such as Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, the Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada, etc.

3) Adopt policies that create a more stable governance structure with predictable revenue and costs, such as multiple-year budgeting, performance based budgeting and an increased level of local control.

4) Adopt a sane regulatory reform process that reviews, adjusts and/or eliminates regulatory policies that are not working, while respecting the core needs that the policy was adopted to address.

5) Increase investment in California’s critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water systems, energy networks, mass transit, etc.

6) Allow California corporations to calculate ‘wealth’ using a triple bottom line accounting system, measuring improvements in social and natural capital, along with financial capital, so shareholders can hold corporations accountable but corporations are not held liable for not maximizing financial capital.

7) Return control of non-essential state functions that can be more efficiently served at the local level to local government.

8 ) Reform the California Environmental Control Act to allow for streamlined permitting of projects that meet multiple local and state objectives.

9) Improve California’s vocational and secondary education system to better prepare young people for entry-level jobs, particularly with dramatic improvements in math, technical, engineering and since education.

10) Invest heavily in renewable, distributed, and locally generated energy.

11) Create local pools of capital for local business investment through community supported banks.

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“Mercury-tainted fish threaten health of Sierra fisherman,” read the alarmist headline in this morning’s The Union.

The article read “The Union staff,” but was a rewritten press release from the SierraFund.org — lacking needed context or detail about longstanding fish consumption advisories in Sierra waterways — and elsewhere.

It did not state or link to the best available information about how much and what kinds of fish to eat: For example, safe eating guidelines for rainbow trout in Donner Lake are that it’s safe to eat four servings per week for women and children and seven servings per week for men. And trout is high in Omega-3s, according to the state fish advisories.

A map — which indicates the guidelines are more focused on Central Valley and urban Coastal waterways — is here. Instead of “digging deeper,” it just relied on the press release:

•”As sunshine and warm breezes finally reach the Sierra Nevada foothills, anglers across California reach for fishing poles, line, bait, and tackle,” the “staff” report said. “And according to a new study by Nevada City-based nonprofit The Sierra Fund, 47 percent of anglers at Sierra water bodies plan to eat what they catch that day, and 92 percent report eating locally caught fish sometime in the last year.”

•”As sunshine and warm breezes finally reach the Sierra Nevada Foothills, anglers across California reach for fishing poles, line, bait, and tackle,” the SierraFund.org press release said. “And as people head to their favorite fishing holes, half have one other thing on their mind: dinner.

“According to the Gold Country Angler Survey, a new study by The Sierra Fund, 47% of anglers at Sierra water bodies plan to eat what they catch that day, and 92% report eating locally caught fish sometime in the last year.”

Then it reported: “When the mercury exposure of participants was calculated, 9% of people were exposed to more mercury than state safe eating guidelines recommend, and half these individuals were exposed to from two to over four times safe levels.”

When you read the report, the real crux — highlighted in bold — was: “Although there is still more information to be gathered on these issues, the message for Sierra anglers is clear: In the face of extensive mercury contamination, everyone eating fish from the Sierra needs to make educated choices about what kinds of fish they eat.”

I applaud the SierraFund in helping people make educated choices about what kind of fish they eat — and how much. But journalists and their editors who decipher the information for readers need to include more details for readers.

Never exaggerate a fish tale — or environmental reporting.

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