[env-trinity] Feds decline to provide info on decision to disband Trinity River restoration watchdog group

[Tom Stokely]

Feds decline to provide info on decision to disband Trinity River restoration watchdog group

  
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Feds decline to provide info on decision to disband Trinity River restorati...
 President Donald Trump’s administration as of Friday has refused to provide more information behind its decision...  |   |

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Feds decline to provide info on decision to disband Trinity River restoration watchdog group

Department of Interior declines to provide info on decision to nix restoration program watchdog group
By Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardFriday, December 22, 2017President Donald Trump’s administration as of Friday has refused to provide more information behind its decision to disband a public watchdog group tasked with overseeing a multi-million dollar, publicly funded Trinity River restoration program.“I sent a letter to the [Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s] office and I haven’t heard anything back,” the group’s chairman Tom Stokely said this week. “I don’t expect to ... I really don’t think they care.”The department’s Press Secretary Heather Swift told the Times-Standard earlier this month that the department decided to disband the watchdog group, known as the Trinity River Adaptive Management Working Group, because the group failed to submit a short memo that justified why the department should continue to fund its $100,000 per year operations. However, Stokely said that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials — who have acted as a sort of liaison between the working group and the Interior Department — had submitted several requests for funding this year to continue the meetings. Stokely also said that the Interior Department never notified the working group that it needed to submit the memo. These circumstances have led to some working group members believing the Interior Department’s decision to disband the group was politically motivated. The working group was one of several federal advisory bodies the Interior Department froze earlier this year to allow the department to assess their purpose. The working group’s membership expires in March 2018, and has not met since March 2017 as a result of the federal action.The Times-Standard requested this month for the Interior Department to provide information on when and to which individuals it sent its request for a justification memo to and why the department did not view the Fish and Wildlife Service’s multiple funding requests as justification for continuing the group.Swift responded to the Times-Standard earlier this month that the request for a justification memo was sent “early this year,” but did provide any further details. “You have the Department’s statement on the matter. We have nothing to add at this time,” Swift wrote to the Times-Standard on Dec. 13. Swift did not reply to a follow-up email requesting further information. This reporter’s attempts to contact the department on Friday were not returned. The Times-Standard has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of the letter requesting the justification memo and all funding requests submitted by the Fish and Wildlife Service for the working group meetings. In a letter to the Interior Department, California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) requested similar information to be provided to his office by Friday. Huffman said Friday that he has not received a response.The Trinity River Adaptive Management Working group is composed of 15 members who reside or rely on the Trinity River, ranging from raft guides to utility company representatives. 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 management council is made up of six government agencies and two tribes — the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes.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 had been impacted by dam construction, water diversions to the Central Valley and historic mining and logging operations.Stokely said the working group had access to documents and other information about the restoration program that members of the public who attended the council meeting would not. By eliminating the working group, Stokely said the Trump administration has “effectively shut down public participation in the restoration program.” “[The council] still has a public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, but they don’t have to respond to you,” Stokely said. “They don’t have to do anything. [The Interior Department has] effectively excluded the public from participating in this program. And it’s sad.”The Trinity River restoration program’s working group and council have been at odds in recent years, with some members of the working group expressing frustrations that their recommendations are not being followed. Some working group members have raised concerns about conflict of interest and self-dealing by the council’s membership, which can allocate funding to their own departments for project.Stokely said he attended the management council’s meeting earlier this month to urge it to send a letter to the Interior Department asking for the working group to be reinstated. While Stokely said there was a lot of sympathy expressed by council members, half of the management council members — the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Forest Service — had to abstain from a vote on the letter because they are federal agencies that receive directives from the Interior Department. Stokely said that the council’s operating rules require five of the eight members to vote, meaning there was not a quorum to allow a vote on the letter.“I think this is another example of how the council is extremely dysfunctional,” Stokely said. “They weren’t even able to take a position on this because they had so many members that were conflicted.”Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.
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