[env-trinity] River advisory group axed

[Tom Stokely]

River advisory group axed

  
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River advisory group axed
 By By AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal The Interior Department has taken an action that effectively dissolves the advisory group that provides input on...  |   |

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River advisory group axed
   
   - By AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal
 The Interior Department has taken an action that effectively dissolves the advisory group that provides input on Trinity River Restoration Program decisions.“We don’t know why they did it,” said Tom Stokely, who was chair of the advisory group known as the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG). Stokely and other members were advised in November that the Interior Department had declared the group “administratively inactive.”The effect of that, Stokely said, is “we’re not allowed to meet” and soon the terms of existing members will expire.Formation of the TAMWG was called for in the Trinity River Record of Decision signed by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2000.The group had 15 stakeholder members with a variety of interests. Stokely represented commercial fishermen. The group made recommendations to the Trinity Management Council, which is the agency/tribal board of directors for the river restoration program.The TAMWG last met in March. Soon after, it was suspended by the new Trump administration along with many other federal advisory commissions. Their charters and charges were being reviewed to ensure compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and Trump’s executive orders, Interior Department Press Secretary Heather Swift told the Journal at the time.Members had hoped the suspension would be lifted, and Stokely said he knows of other groups where that happened. But not for the TAMWG.The Interior Department did not respond to queries from the Journal over the past few days.Swift, the public affairs officer, was quoted in the Eureka Times-Standard last week as saying the stakeholder group was deactivated because the group didn’t file paperwork justifying why it should continue operating.“Their decision to not seek continuation led to the group becoming inactive,” Swift said in an email to the paper.“I was never asked for anything,” Stokely responded, but he added that staff from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife in Arcata submitted paperwork on multiple occasions seeking approval for the group to resume meeting.“Something’s fishy,” Stokely said.Or, this could be a case of bureaucratic mix-up. “That may well be the case,” Stokely said, and if that’s so then Interior could reconsider.Another possibility, he said, is the TAMWG’s criticism of the Trinity Management Council. The stakeholder group drafted a letter this year to the TMC chair stating, “The self-dealing nature of the TMC whereby member entities can vote on their own funding and block motions to do otherwise because of supermajority voting rules is inherently corrupt.” The TAMWG also said its recommendations are consistently rejected and the fact that its chairman can’t be a voting member of the TMC is a source of frustration.Yet another possibility, Stokely said, is his work on behalf of commercial fishermen and in opposition to the Westlands Water District.“It may just be I’m the chairman and I’m a troublemaker,” he said.Rep. Jared Huffman has sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke saying that the stakeholder group is “an important oversight committee” and essential to the restoration program. The group made up of Trinity River area residents, sport and commercial fishermen, water users and utility interests must be restored to its former status, Huffman’s letter states.Last Thursday, the topic came up at the TMC meeting as Stokely requested a letter supporting reactivation of the stakeholder group.TMC representatives of agencies under the Interior Department, including Don Bader of the federal Bureau of Reclamation, noted they’ve been told to refer any questions on the issue to the Interior Department where the decision was made.Several TMC members said they would support signing a letter. Trinity River Restoration Program Executive Director Caryn DeCarlo, who is not on the TMC, said she hopes the matter gets resolved and “as executive director I recognize the incredible value of the TAMWG.”At one point Bader, from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, noted that the decision has been made, and he and the representative from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “need to be considerate of the decision.”However, all four federal employees on the TMC, even those from agencies that are not under the Interior Department, said they would have to recuse themselves from the vote.State and tribal representatives indicated they would sign such a letter. However, there was no point in a vote after that, Stokely said, because under the TMC bylaws a motion can’t be passed with four of the eight recusing.   
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