[env-trinity] Feds disband Trinity River project watchdog group

[Tom Stokely]

A note:
While it is true that I was not asked directly by the Interior Department to justify the TAMWG's existence, I do recall that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent in a substantial amount of paperwork to try and get approval for June, July, September and December TAMWG meetings (that were not approved), including a separate justification for the December meeting.  I never saw it, but I'm sure they did it.  I had informed the Times-Standard of that on Friday, but it apparently didn't get into the article.

Tom Stokely
Feds disband Trinity River project watchdog group

  
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Feds disband Trinity River project watchdog group
 A recent decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to effectively disband a watchdog group tasked with...  |   |

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Feds disband Trinity River project watchdog group
 In this Sept. 29, 2017, file photo, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke speaks at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. The Interior Department’s recent decision to disband a citizen’s watchdog group for the multi-million dollar federal Trinity River Restoration Program has come under scrutiny, with program leaders saying the move will reduce public oversight and involvement. Andrew Harnik — Associated PressBy Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardPOSTED:  12/02/17, 10:05 PM PST  |  UPDATED: 4 HRS AGO1 COMMENTA recent decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to effectively disband a watchdog group tasked with overseeing a multi-million dollar, publicly funded habitat restoration project for the Trinity River surprised and concerned group members, tribes and government agencies. “We now have a very controversial $15 million a year program with virtually no public oversight whatsoever,” the group’s Chairman Tom Stokely said to the Times-Standard on Wednesday.The Interior Department’s reasoning behind the group’s disbanding has also come under question.Interior Department Press Secretary Heather Swift said the department’s decision to deactivate the Trinity River Adaptive Management Working Group was made because the group did not file paperwork justifying why it should continue operating. The group was one of several federal advisory bodies the Interior Department froze earlier this year to allow the department to assess their purpose.“During review, the Trinity River Adaptive Management Working Group (who advise the [Trinity Management] Council) chose not to submit a short justification memo for continuation​ of their $100,000/year operation,” Swift wrote in an email to the Times-Standard on Friday afternoon. “Their decision to not seek continuation led to the group becoming inactive.”But Stokely said the group was never asked to submit such a memo by either the Interior Department or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has acted as a sort of liaison between the working group and the Interior Department. Stokely said he was contacted by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Program leader Nicholas Hetrick out of Arcata on Nov. 17 about the working group becoming inactive, but said that the Interior Department did not provide a reason as to why the decision was made.Stokely said Swift’s response to the Times-Standard on Friday was the first he had heard of the justification memo and the department’s reasoning behind disbanding the group.“Nobody asked me for that,” Stokely said Friday about the justification memo. “The Fish and Wildlife Service certainly would have had they known that. No one ever asked me for that. I would have been more than happy to fill it out if given the opportunity.”While the working group is now designated as “administratively inactive,” Stokely said the group members’ appointments will expire in January, making it “effectively disbanded.”The Times-Standard sent multiple follow up questions to the Interior Department inquiring about when the request for the justification memo was made, what entities it was sent to and for copies of other memos that had been submitted. No response was provided by Friday afternoon. Fish and Wildlife Service officials deferred all questions about the decision to the Interior Department.The 15-member working group is composed of a diverse group of people who work or live in the Trinity River area, including environmentalists, utility interests, landowners, raft guides and business owners to name a few. The group’s charge is to be the public adviser and overseer for the Trinity Management Council, which manages the Trinity River Restoration Program.The federal program was created in a 2000 record of decision under the Clinton administration for the purpose of restoring fisheries in the Trinity River that have been impacted by dam construction, water diversions to the Central Valley and historic mining and logging operations.The Trinity Management Council’s eight members include the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Forest Service, Trinity County and the California Natural Resources Agency.The Times-Standard contacted several of the council’s representatives about the department’s decision, with many expressing concern about there being a lack of public oversight. One council alternate, National Marine Fisheries Service fish biologist Seth Naman, said Friday that the input from the working group’s diverse membership has led to several changes on how the river is managed.“The [working group] provides really valuable insight,” Naman said Friday. “Many of the Trinity River Management Council members value their thoughts and opinions and insights. I know for myself, I’m disappointed that [the working group] is no longer able to do what they have done in the past to provide us recommendations and their thoughts and opinions.”Hoopa Valley Tribe Chairman Ryan Jackson said he was “shocked” by the decision, while the tribe’s Fisheries Director and management council representative Mike Orcutt said the group’s loss will represent a “missing link” in the program’s operations.Yurok Tribe Fisheries Department Director Dave Hillemeier said community involvement is a “vital part” of the restoration program’s success.“Absent the advisory board, the Trinity River Management Council should be diligent to hold extra public meetings (such as the one scheduled for last night to discuss flow management) to keep the public informed and to receive input regarding our effort to improve struggling spring and fall salmon stocks,” Hillemeier wrote in a statement Friday.California 2nd District Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) said he plans to register his concerns with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke “and make sure he understands that it’s important for interested members of the public to be able to stay engaged in this vital effort.”Trinity River working group member and CalTrout North Coast Program Director Darren Mierau called the Interior Department’s decision a “slap in the face,” especially given what he said the group was told after it was administratively frozen earlier this year.“The Department of Interior’s official line was they value the input from public stakeholder groups so much that they decided to put them all on hold to make sure they get it right with all these groups,” Mierau said.Mierau said that the working group is made up of all volunteers and is only reimbursed for travel expenses.The management council and working group have often been at odds with each other, especially about project funding, Stokely said. “The program has been troubled for many years,” Stokely said. “There has been a lot of dissatisfaction with the way the program has been run.” At its last meeting in March, the working group reasserted its concerns about conflicts of interest and self-dealing by the management council’s members. The working group voted 9-2, with one abstention, in March to place these concerns, which had already been raised several times over the last decade, on the record.“The self-dealing nature of the [council] whereby member entities can vote on their own funding and block motions to do otherwise because of supermajority voting rules is inherently corrupt,” the working group stated in its motion. “The [council] consistently rejects many of the [working group’s] recommendations and doesn’t even give the [working group] chair a vote on the [council], leading to tremendous frustration by [working group] members.”Orcutt said he does not see where the conflict of interest concerns fit into the working group being made inactive. Mierau said he does not have the insight to know whether the conflict of interest concerns played any role in the Interior Department’s decision.Stokely said he plans to attend the Trinity River Management Council’s upcoming meeting on Dec. 6 in Weaverville to call on the council to recommend Zinke reinstate the working group.“We’ve not given up,” Stokely said.Naman said that the various stakeholders from the working group will still have the ability to play a role in the restoration programs operations, but will now be limited to the public comment period of the meeting.“Basically, it’s going to make it more difficult and more challenging for these members to have a voice to make recommendations and it’s going to be more difficult for us to receive them in a coherent fashion and put it all together,” Naman said.Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.
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