Latest news with #KevinButler
CBS News
2 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Oakland organization helping Black youth find mentors, community
A program in Oakland is connecting Black youth with mentors in the community to help them navigate and succeed in life, and the leaders of that program said they believe the key to that lies in reclaiming their people's past. "We offer them support in whatever they're going through in life," said Kevin Hill, with the Brotherhood of Elders Network. "We're working with young boys to help them develop as individuals. To help them develop their leadership skills. To help them develop their learning skills. To help them develop their spiritual and moral skills," said CEO Gregory Hodge. Hodge has been involved with the Brotherhood since its founding 15 years ago. He has been a mentor and friend to Kevin Butler since he was invited to join the organization six years ago. "They saw my heart and where I was coming from. I saw their hearts and where they were coming from in terms of being able to unite on that mission of uplifting the community and fostering environments for young Black boys and men to thrive," said Butler. Butler said he lost his grandparents around the time he joined, and that the bonds of Brotherhood helped fill the void. And within the organization, he found the encouragement and guidance to start his own business. "It's like, yeah, we come from different backgrounds. We come from different generations. And of course, it's easy to slip into that habit of let's focus on all the ways that we're different. But when we go to the retreat, and we're having these deep conversations and we're being vulnerable with each other, all that kind of fades away," Butler said. The Brotherhood is now trying to build upon that foundation of community and culture by connecting with other like-minded organizations in Oakland. They recently published the first edition of the "Black Youth Development Book." The book's website described it as a "directory for Black-led education programs for youth in Oakland." "I asked myself, 'Who's helping our young people navigate these modern times,'" Hill told KPIX. Hill said he hopes the book amplifies the Brotherhood's message, putting information at parents' fingertips. "I think it's very important, and I see it as part of our mission to make sure our young people have culturally affirming programming and mentors and adults that they are exposed to so they can grow up with cultural pride." They said pride, purpose and a sense of history is the key to the community's future. "People say this all the time, but 'change happens at the speed of trust.' And trust is based on healthy, strong relationships, in my opinion," Hodge said.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Climate
- ABC News
BlazeAid pays hay transport costs for Victorian farmers struggling with drought
Road trains laden with hay are travelling thousands of kilometres to keep livestock alive in southern Australia amid ongoing feed shortages. Drought-stricken farmers are transporting fodder from as far north as Bundaberg in Queensland to feed their animals. But Victorian farmer and BlazeAid founder Kevin Butler said freight costs were prohibitive. "It's doubled in price and it's still skyrocketing even further … the big issue is freight," he said. BlazeAid is offering to cover the fodder freight bills for cattle farmers doing it tough. The disaster relief charity is helping to organise the loads of hay and farmers are encouraged to arrange collection points in their area. The Victorian government has announced a range of support options for drought-affected farmers but has not committed to subsidising fodder. Agriculture Minister Ros Spence told the Victorian Country Hour earlier this month that "fodder subsidies don't work." "The first thing that happens is they drive up price and then that doesn't help farmers' cash flow," she said. But Mr Butler said farmers were in "dire straits" and that freight assistance made sense. "So if the government won't do it, then BlazeAid will do it," he said. Mr Butler said feeding animals was the biggest concern at the moment. "[Farmers] are just not going to sleep at night because they know their cows are starving and they don't know where the next bale of hay is going to come from," he said. "I just can't sit by and hear about all these [breeding animals] getting their heads chopped off and I certainly can't sit by and see my fellow farmers going broke." Recent rain has turned brown paddocks green across many of the drought-affected areas, but feed for animals is still scarce. John Davison, who runs an agriculture business and small farm at Sugarloaf Creek near Seymour, is coordinating the BlazeAid freight support. He said livestock owners would have to truck hay in well into spring. "It's nice to keep the moisture in the soil, but because of the cold temperatures we won't get growth," Mr Davison said. "What we can classify this now [as] is a green drought. "The paddocks may look green … but you won't get any higher than an inch [of grass]. "There's so many ongoing issues now — farmers are selling their breeding stock. "If you think you're living in the metropolitan areas and it doesn't affect you, eventually it will, when you start to go buy lamb and beef and see the prices go up. "It will take a couple of years to get back up to the [breeding stock] level we're at now."
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. panel calls for suspending commercial salmon fishing in California for third year
Fishery regulators on Tuesday called for shutting down commercial salmon fishing along the California coast for an unprecedented third year in a row in an effort to help the declining population of Chinook salmon recover. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along the West Coast, voted 13 to 1 to recommend banning all commercial salmon fishing off California, a decision the National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to adopt in May. As part of the vote, held at a meeting in San Jose, the council called for allowing some limited recreational salmon fishing for the first time since 2022. The ocean recreational fishing season will be restricted to several days in the summer and fall, and the total catch will also be strictly limited. The suspension of fishing for the last two years has brought major losses of income for those in the fishing industry, but some salmon boat skippers agree that extending the closure is needed. "We need to do everything we can to save the species," said Kevin Butler, a commercial fisherman in Santa Cruz. The fishing season typically runs from May to October, and in recent years the state's commercial salmon fishing fleet has numbered about 460 vessels. But many boat owners and crew members have recently turned to other work to make ends meet. Some have put their boats up for sale. Butler said salmon previously represented about three-fourths of his income. He has continued fishing for halibut and lingcod, earning much less. "Every fisherman has sacrificed everything for two years," Butler said. He said that for himself and others, being unable to catch salmon has meant 'insane financial hardship, stressing of your family's relationships, everything.' 'If the majority of your income disappeared, what would you do? Go find a new career? Well, that's a tough one for fishermen. We've fished our whole life,' he said. 'This is a life, this is a love.' Although severe drought from 2020-22 contributed to the decline, those who work in fishing also blame California's water managers and policies for the low salmon numbers, saying too much water has been pumped to farms and cities, depriving rivers of sufficient cold water at the times salmon need it to survive. 'It's a water mismanagement issue,' Butler said. He blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration, saying the state has prioritized water supplies for the $59-billion agriculture industry to the detriment of salmon. Biologists say salmon populations have declined because of a combination of factors including dams, which have blocked off spawning areas, the loss of vital floodplain habitats, and global warming, which is intensifying droughts and causing warmer temperatures in rivers. During the severe 2020-22 drought, the water flowing from dams sometimes got so warm that it was lethal for salmon eggs. And because salmon typically feed in the ocean for about three years and then return to their natal streams, the decline in the numbers of surviving juvenile fish during the drought left a reduced population of adult fish. The state's policy of pumping heavily from rivers is "killing entire salmon runs, and it's beating down hardworking men and women trying to make a living from fishing," said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Assn., a nonprofit group that represents fishing communities. "This closed commercial and token recreational fishing season is a human tragedy, as well as an economic and environmental disaster." He said his group is asking for "a little cold water to be left in our rivers for baby salmon so they can survive and return as adults." Read more: Low salmon numbers in California could prompt shutdown of fishing for a record third straight year State officials said that in addition to drought and global warming, salmon populations have been struggling because of wildfires, poor conditions in rivers, algae blooms and problems of thiamine deficiency in salmon linked to shifts in their ocean diet. 'Salmon populations are still recovering from severe drought and other climate challenges and have not yet benefited from our consecutive years of wet winters and other actions taken to boost populations," said Charlton 'Chuck' Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. 'After years of full closure for salmon fishing, the opportunity for limited recreational salmon fishing brings hope. We know, however, that this news brings little relief for California's commercial salmon fisheries.' Coastal salmon fishing was banned for two consecutive years once before, in 2008 and 2009. This is the first time the commercial season is set to be canceled for three years straight. The Pacific Fishery Management Council cited the latest state estimates showing the number of Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon remains very low, with an estimated 166,000 fish in the ocean this year — down from a preseason estimate of 214,000 last year, and similar to the 2023 estimate of 169,000 fish. Those figures represent a drop from the much larger numbers of salmon, in some years more than 1 million fish, that teemed along California's Pacific coast in the early 2000s. 'It's another unambiguous signal that salmon are declining in California, alongside many of the other native fishes,' said Andrew Rypel, director of Auburn University's fisheries school and former director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. 'It's really very sad. I think it's an indicator of how we've managed the resource over time, and that we're failing salmon.' The shutdown of fishing has taken a toll not only on the commercial fishing fleet but also on operators of charter fishing boats who were unable to fish for salmon in 2023 and 2024. Under the council's decision, recreational anglers are set to be allowed limited ocean fishing under state-administered quotas in two windows in the summer and fall, the first of which is set to open June 7-8 and allow for up to 7,000 salmon to be caught. State regulators also set rules for inland recreational fishing on rivers, and the California Fish and Game Commission will decide this year's season at meetings this month and in May. Before the shutdown, Jared Davis used to earn much of his income leading sportfishing tours out of Sausalito on his 56-foot boat Salty Lady. Lately, he has been turning to other types of cruises, leading whale watching tours and holding ash-scattering burials at sea. "It hurts that the salmon fishing has been shut down. It definitely hurts," Davis said. "I just did my taxes and my deckhand made more than I did over these last couple years." Read more: As salmon populations struggle, California bans fishing on rivers for a second year He said he supports the planned regulations, which he views as a conservative approach to help the population recover. The fishing industry depends on fall-run Chinook, which migrate upstream to spawn from July through December. Other salmon runs have suffered more severe declines. Spring-run Chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and winter-run Chinook are endangered. The pattern that has emerged in successive droughts is a long-term, 'stair-step' decline, in which salmon and other species suffer a drop during dry years and then fare somewhat better during wetter times, but their numbers don't come back up to what they were previously, Rypel said. Because the fish largely have a three-year life cycle, the population should improve somewhat next year because of the boost they received during 2023's historic wet winter, Rypel said, but in the long term, the fish are still struggling. Changes that would help salmon include having larger flows in rivers at the right times to support fish, and opening up more floodplain habitats to support their recovery, Rypel said. For decades, government-run hatcheries in the Central Valley have reared and released millions of salmon each year to help boost their numbers. State officials say the Newsom administration's ongoing efforts to help salmon populations recover include restoring tidal habitats, modernizing infrastructure, removing barriers that hinder fish migration and reintroducing salmon in traditional spawning areas upstream from dams. Despite those efforts, the situation facing California's salmon remains so dire, Rypel said, that agencies should be taking more chances to prevent the fish from suffering even larger declines. 'It is a huge emergency,' he said. 'We need to be trying big things at this point, big experiments." Rypel said he feels for the people whose livelihoods have been upended by the fishing closures. 'It's always been a California way of life, and it's very much in jeopardy,' he said. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
16-04-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
U.S. panel calls for suspending commercial salmon fishing in California for third year
Fishery regulators on Tuesday called for shutting down commercial salmon fishing along the California coast for an unprecedented third year in a row in an effort to help the declining population of Chinook salmon recover. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along the West Coast, voted 13 to 1 to recommend banning all commercial salmon fishing off California, a decision the National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to adopt in May. As part of the vote, held at a meeting in San Jose, the council called for allowing some limited recreational salmon fishing for the first time since 2022. The ocean recreational fishing season will be restricted to several days in the summer and fall, and the total catch will also be strictly limited. The suspension of fishing for the last two years has brought major losses of income for those in the fishing industry, but some salmon boat skippers agree that extending the closure is needed. 'We need to do everything we can to save the species,' said Kevin Butler, a commercial fisherman in Santa Cruz. The fishing season typically runs from May to October, and in recent years the state's commercial salmon fishing fleet has numbered about 460 vessels. But many boat owners and crew members have recently turned to other work to make ends meet. Some have put their boats up for sale. Butler said salmon previously represented about three-fourths of his income. He has continued fishing for halibut and lingcod, earning much less. 'Every fisherman has sacrificed everything for two years,' Butler said. He said that for himself and others, being unable to catch salmon has meant 'insane financial hardship, stressing of your family's relationships, everything.' 'If the majority of your income disappeared, what would you do? Go find a new career? Well, that's a tough one for fishermen. We've fished our whole life,' he said. 'This is a life, this is a love.' Although severe drought from 2020-22 contributed to the decline, those who work in fishing also blame California's water managers and policies for the low salmon numbers, saying too much water has been pumped to farms and cities, depriving rivers of sufficient cold water at the times salmon need it to survive. 'It's a water mismanagement issue,' Butler said. He blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration, saying the state has prioritized water supplies for the $59-billion agriculture industry to the detriment of salmon. Biologists say salmon populations have declined because of a combination of factors including dams, which have blocked off spawning areas, the loss of vital floodplain habitats, and global warming, which is intensifying droughts and causing warmer temperatures in rivers. During the severe 2020-22 drought, the water flowing from dams sometimes got so warm that it was lethal for salmon eggs. And because salmon typically feed in the ocean for about three years and then return to their natal streams, the decline in the numbers of surviving juvenile fish during the drought left a reduced population of adult fish. The state's policy of pumping heavily from rivers is 'killing entire salmon runs, and it's beating down hardworking men and women trying to make a living from fishing,' said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Assn., a nonprofit group that represents fishing communities. 'This closed commercial and token recreational fishing season is a human tragedy, as well as an economic and environmental disaster.' He said his group is asking for 'a little cold water to be left in our rivers for baby salmon so they can survive and return as adults.' State officials said that in addition to drought and global warming, salmon populations have been struggling because of wildfires, poor conditions in rivers, algae blooms and problems of thiamine deficiency in salmon linked to shifts in their ocean diet. 'Salmon populations are still recovering from severe drought and other climate challenges and have not yet benefited from our consecutive years of wet winters and other actions taken to boost populations,' said Charlton 'Chuck' Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. 'After years of full closure for salmon fishing, the opportunity for limited recreational salmon fishing brings hope. We know, however, that this news brings little relief for California's commercial salmon fisheries.' Coastal salmon fishing was banned for two consecutive years once before, in 2008 and 2009. This is the first time the commercial season is set to be canceled for three years straight. The Pacific Fishery Management Council cited the latest state estimates showing the number of Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon remains very low, with an estimated 166,000 fish in the ocean this year — down from a preseason estimate of 214,000 last year, and similar to the 2023 estimate of 169,000 fish. Those figures represent a drop from the much larger numbers of salmon, in some years more than 1 million fish, that teemed along California's Pacific coast in the early 2000s. 'It's another unambiguous signal that salmon are declining in California, alongside many of the other native fishes,' said Andrew Rypel, director of Auburn University's fisheries school and former director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. 'It's really very sad. I think it's an indicator of how we've managed the resource over time, and that we're failing salmon.' The shutdown of fishing has taken a toll not only on the commercial fishing fleet but also on operators of charter fishing boats who were unable to fish for salmon in 2023 and 2024. Under the council's decision, recreational anglers are set to be allowed limited ocean fishing under state-administered quotas in two windows in the summer and fall, the first of which is set to open June 7-8 and allow for up to 7,000 salmon to be caught. State regulators also set rules for inland recreational fishing on rivers, and the California Fish and Game Commission will decide this year's season at meetings this month and in May. Before the shutdown, Jared Davis used to earn much of his income leading sportfishing tours out of Sausalito on his 56-foot boat Salty Lady. Lately, he has been turning to other types of cruises, leading whale watching tours and holding ash-scattering burials at sea. 'It hurts that the salmon fishing has been shut down. It definitely hurts,' Davis said. 'I just did my taxes and my deckhand made more than I did over these last couple years.' He said he supports the planned regulations, which he views as a conservative approach to help the population recover. The fishing industry depends on fall-run Chinook, which migrate upstream to spawn from July through December. Other salmon runs have suffered more severe declines. Spring-run Chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and winter-run Chinook are endangered. The pattern that has emerged in successive droughts is a long-term, 'stair-step' decline, in which salmon and other species suffer a drop during dry years and then fare somewhat better during wetter times, but their numbers don't come back up to what they were previously, Rypel said. Because the fish largely have a three-year life cycle, the population should improve somewhat next year because of the boost they received during 2023's historic wet winter, Rypel said, but in the long term, the fish are still struggling. Changes that would help salmon include having larger flows in rivers at the right times to support fish, and opening up more floodplain habitats to support their recovery, Rypel said. For decades, government-run hatcheries in the Central Valley have reared and released millions of salmon each year to help boost their numbers. State officials say the Newsom administration's ongoing efforts to help salmon populations recover include restoring tidal habitats, modernizing infrastructure, removing barriers that hinder fish migration and reintroducing salmon in traditional spawning areas upstream from dams. Despite those efforts, the situation facing California's salmon remains so dire, Rypel said, that agencies should be taking more chances to prevent the fish from suffering even larger declines. 'It is a huge emergency,' he said. 'We need to be trying big things at this point, big experiments.' Rypel said he feels for the people whose livelihoods have been upended by the fishing closures. 'It's always been a California way of life, and it's very much in jeopardy,' he said.
