Thursday March 27, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle —
The federal government has restored funding for a captive breeding program designed to ensure survival of California’s delta smelt, even as President Donald Trump has sharpened criticism of the endangered fish.
A five-year grant for the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory in Contra Costa County, which raises the smelt, expired last month, and many believed the funding would not be reinstated. Eleven of the lab’s 17 employees were let go.
This week, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and UC Davis confirmed that the federal funding, which makes up about three-quarters of the lab’s budget, would resume. Why the financing lapsed and why it ultimately returned amid the widespread funding cuts initiated by the Trump administration over the past two months was not immediately clear.
The delta smelt, once numerous in the San Francisco Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is now difficult to find in the wild. Because of water restrictions put in place to protect the fish, the smelt have become an emblem for conservatives lashing out against California’s regulatory climate.