NOTEBOOK: CONDITIONS FORCE MORE CLOSURES.

Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

Portions of the San Bernardino National Forest have been closed because fire and drought conditions are considered extreme, say federal officials. Previously, the Angeles National Forest was closed to all recreational use because of fire danger.

The closures could last at least a month, said Mike Dietrich, U.S. Forest Service chief for the San Bernardino National Forest. The vast majority of the 671,686-acre forest will be off-limits to the public, but towns such as Big Bear City and Lake Arrowhead will remain open.

``We do not like to close the forest to public use unless conditions are extreme,'' Dietrich said. ``We are stepping up to the plate and taking the appropriate action because of fire danger.''

The closures have hurt hunting and fishing. The California Department of Fish and Game has been scrambling to accommodate hunters who purchased tags for areas now closed.

--Russ Izor dies: Longtime sport fishing icon Russ Izor died Oct. 12. Known to friends as ``The Captain,'' the 79-year old Izor was a charter-boat captain for 50 years, taking an estimated quarter-million anglers fishing. Izor founded the tackle company Izorline 25 years ago in his garage.

Bill Kristufek, traffic manager at Izorline, said Izor should be remembered for his passion in protecting the resources off the Southern California coast.

Artificial reefs, informally known as Izor's Reefs, that Izor helped construct provide shelter for fish. Izor also helped replace kelp beds off the Palos Verdes coast. Kristufek said Izor frequently donated the use of his boat and crew for tagging and releasing sand bass to help researchers study these fish.

--Klamath River salmon die: An estimated 25,000 chinook and threatened coho salmon have died on the Klamath River in Northern California near the Oregon border after Bush administration officials lowered water flows to please Oregon farmers despite the protests of fishery biologists.

Paul Wertz with the California Department of Fish and Game said, ``There is no memory of loss of adult salmon of this magnitude before. It's horrible. The banks of the Lower Klamath were nose to tail with dead fish for hundreds of yards. We counted over 12,000 bodies.''

Glen Spain, a spokesman for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations said, ``The Bush administration policy is to get as much water to farmers, regardless of the impacts on salmon. It's that simple.''

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released more water from the Klamath Irrigation project to help the downriver salmon after first denying lowered flows killed the fish. The BOR had reduced water flows 24 percent, citing a National Academy of Sciences study that said water was not needed for the salmon's survival.

California Department of Fish and Game biologists said the fish are dying of gill rot because of a lack of cool water caused by the Bureau's cutbacks.

Congressman Mike Thompson (D-Eureka) held a news conference on the steps of the Department of Interior with 500 pounds of dead Klamath River salmon ``to showcase the Department's gross mismanagement of the river and to call upon Secretary Norton to end the practices that created this ecological and economic disaster.''

--Feds tell snakehead to take hike: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has banned the import or interstate transport of live snakehead fish or their eggs. The fish, also known as Chinese walking fish, have been found in California and other states.

USFWS Director Steve Williams said some species of snakehead are voracious eating machines that can devour anything in their path. When they run out of other fish, amphibians or even small mammals, they will cannibalize their own. Snakeheads have the ability to dramatically alter almost any ecosystem, according to Williams.