The San Joaquin River: Litigation, Settlement and Ongoing Restoration

HAMILTON (HAL) CANDEE is a Partner at Altshuler Berzon LLP. Hal’s practice consists primarily of efforts to restore ecosystems, protect endangered species, encourage water conservation, and promote other environmental reforms in federal and state water policy. He has briefed and argued numerous cases at the trial and appellate level. Hal represents a variety of nonprofit conservation organizations as well as local public agencies.

Hal is a member of the Board of Directors of the NRDC Action Fund. For over twenty years, he served as a Senior Attorney in the San Francisco Office of the Natural Resources Defense Council and as Co-Director of NRDC’s Western Water Project. Previously he was a legislative assistant in the United States Senate.

Hal received a CLAY Award as one of California’s “Lawyers of the Year” in 1999 for his work pursuing restoration of the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam. Hal graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and cum laude from New York University Law School, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar.

DR. DONALD PORTZ has been the Program Manager for the San Joaquin River Restoration Program for nearly six years. He officially joined the office in 2015 as Lead Fish Biologist but had been working for the Program since 2010 through Reclamation’s Denver Technical Service Center. Dr. Portz has over 23 years of experience working with Bureau of Reclamation on fisheries issues throughout the western United States with particular focus on California’s Central Valley after receiving a doctorate in Fish Ecology from the University of California, Davis. Throughout his career, Dr. Portz has contributed greatly to fisheries research and survival of Chinook salmon and has been instrumental in the effort to reintroduce spring-run Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River, where they had been absent for over 60 years.

Throughout his tenure, Dr. Portz has developed strong relationships with the diverse set of stakeholders associated with Restoration Program and has come to appreciate the competing demands on water for fisheries, wildlife, agriculture, industry, and domestic needs. He is known for his determination and holds a strong belief that good science should inform decision making. He is steadfast on moving the Program’s implementation of the Settlement forward and is excited about construction of large in-river fish passage and fish protection projects in the near future, as well as having salmon back in the river!

MONTY SCHMITT is an elected Director serving on the Marin Municipal Water District Board and a senior project director with The Nature Conservancy’s California Water Program. Monty has over three decades of experience in California working collaboratively with water districts, farmers, state and federal agencies and conservation groups on water resource management issues. With the Nature Conservancy, Monty oversees the development and implementation of strategies to restore the health of rivers and improve water supply reliability for communities in Northern California. Previously, Monty worked for the NRDC as a senior scientist and led the organization’s efforts to restore flows and salmon to California’s second largest river, the San Joaquin. Monty also specializes in the effect of climate change on water resources and has co- authored reports on water management strategies to increase resiliency against the effects of global warming. Monty is also an expert on state and national flood management issues. In California, he served on the Governor’s Taskforce on Floodplain Management in 2001 and has worked on the development and implementation of the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan. Monty has a B.S. in Biology from UC Santa Cruz and a Master in Natural Resource Management from Cal Poly Humboldt.