<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166299" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_82140370-dfaf-11e7-8002-a7d079573da2.html" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166783" class="enhancr2_c77562c7-6219-381c-9ca6-961041b5d288">River advisory group axed</a><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166792"><br></div><div id="enhancr2_c77562c7-6219-381c-9ca6-961041b5d288" class="yahoo-link-enhancr-card ymail-preserve-class ymail-preserve-style" style="max-width:400px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" contenteditable="false" data-url="http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_82140370-dfaf-11e7-8002-a7d079573da2.html" data-type="yenhancr" data-category="article" data-embed-url="" data-size="medium" dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_82140370-dfaf-11e7-8002-a7d079573da2.html" style="text-decoration:none !important; 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line-height:19px; margin:0 0 4px 0;font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;word-break:break-word;">River advisory group axed</h2> <div class="card-richinfo-primary" style="font-size:11px;line-height:15px;color:#999;">By By AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal</div> <div class="card-description" style="font-size:11px;line-height:15px;color:#999;word-break:break-word;">The Interior Department has taken an action that effectively dissolves the advisory group that provides input on...</div> </td> <td style="text-align:right;padding:16px 12px 16px 0;"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </a></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166840"><br></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lato; margin: 20px 0px 40px; position: relative;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166600"><header style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166601"><h1 itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 42px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 100px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1; color: inherit;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166602"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166603">River advisory group axed</span></h1><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 100px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166604"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166605"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 0;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166606"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166607"><span itemprop="author" style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166608">By AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal</span></li> </ul></span></div></header></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lato; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166633"><div style="position: relative; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; float: left; width: 780px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166634"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166635"><div data-asset-uuid="82140370-dfaf-11e7-8002-a7d079573da2" style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166637"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166638"><div data-subscription-required-class="col-xs-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; float: left; width: 519.984375px; left: 33.33333206176758%;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166639"><div data-subscription-required-class="asset-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166640"><div itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166669"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166670"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166671">The Interior Department has taken an action that effectively dissolves the advisory group that provides input on Trinity River Restoration Program decisions.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166672"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166673">“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.”</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166674"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166675">The effect of that, Stokely said, is “we’re not allowed to meet” and soon the terms of existing members will expire.</div></div><div data-refreshable="true" data-region="fixed-big-ad-top-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166676"></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166677"></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166678"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166679">Formation of the TAMWG was called for in the Trinity River Record of Decision signed by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2000.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166680"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166681">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166682"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166683">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166684"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166685">Members had hoped the suspension would be lifted, and Stokely said he knows of other groups where that happened. But not for the TAMWG.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166686"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166687">The Interior Department did not respond to queries from the Journal over the past few days.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166688"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166689">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166690"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166691">“Their decision to not seek continuation led to the group becoming inactive,” Swift said in an email to the paper.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166692"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166693">“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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166694"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166695">“Something’s fishy,” Stokely said.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166696"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166697">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166698"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166699">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166700"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166701">Yet another possibility, Stokely said, is his work on behalf of commercial fishermen and in opposition to the Westlands Water District.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166702"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166703">“It may just be I’m the chairman and I’m a troublemaker,” he said.</div></div><div data-refreshable="true" data-region="fixed-big-ad-middle-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166704"></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166705"></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166706"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166707">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166708"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166709">Last Thursday, the topic came up at the TMC meeting as Stokely requested a letter supporting reactivation of the stakeholder group.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166710"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166711">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166712"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166713">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.”</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166714"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166715">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.”</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166716"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166717">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.</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166718"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166719">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.</div></div><div data-refreshable="true" data-region="fixed-big-ad-bottom-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166720"></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166721"></div></div><div data-subscription-required-remove="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166722"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lato; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-type: none;" dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166723"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; opacity: 0.8; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; display: inline-block; padding: 0px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166724"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trinityjournal.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Farticle_82140370-dfaf-11e7-8002-a7d079573da2.html%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_campaign%3Duser-share" target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook" data-toggle="new-window" data-new-window-width="500" data-new-window-height="300" data-track="{"network":"Facebook","socialAction":"post","url":"/news/local/article_82140370-dfaf-11e7-8002-a7d079573da2.html"}" data-tncms-track-event="{"app":"editorial","metric":"social_share","id":82140370-dfaf-11e7-8002-a7d079573da2}" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; text-decoration: none; display: block; white-space: nowrap; margin-left: 1px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166725" title-off=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; display: inline-block; width: 2em; min-height: 2em; line-height: 2em; vertical-align: middle;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166726"></span></a></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="signature" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166308"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1513031989767_166310"><br></div></div></div></body></html>