“Our hope is that Governor Brown will take heed of what Tribal people and recreational anglers are saying about the MLPA and other water issues,” said Georgiana Myers, organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribe member. “I encourage the Governor-elect to have not just big oil and corporate interests at heart, but to listen to the real Californians who use the ocean.” 

Members of North Coast Indian Tribes and their allies peacefully took control of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg on July 21. 2010. Photo by Matt Mais, Yurok Tribe 

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Arnold’s Legacy: Polluted Beaches and Fake Marine ‘Protection’ 

by Dan Bacher 

Outgoing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his supporters celebrated the decision by the California Fish and Game Commission on December 15 to create a network of so-called “marine protected areas” off the Southern California coast as a glorious, historic event. 

“This vote will help restore southern California’s legacy of abundant sea life,” said Kaitilin Gaffney of The Ocean Conservancy. “After decades of treating the ocean as inexhaustible, by protecting ocean jewels like South La Jolla, Point Dume and Naples Reef, the Commission has turned the tide towards conservation.” 

“California’s ocean habitats are every bit as dramatic as those on land. Just as we protected Yosemite and Kings Canyon on land, California is leading the way in preserving special places in the sea,” said Karen Garrison of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 

Likewise, Department of Fish and Game gushed in a press release, “Informed by recommendations generated through a two-year public planning process, the regulations will create 36 new MPAs encompassing approximately 187 square miles (8 percent) of state waters in the study region. Approximately 116 square miles (4.9 percent) have been designated as no-take state marine reserves (82.5 square miles/3.5 percent) and no-take state marine conservation areas (33.5 square miles/1.4 percent), with the remainder designated as state marine conservation areas with different take allowances and varying levels of protection.” 

However, what MLPA advocates fail to mention is Schwarzenegger actually eviscerated the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) in his implementation of the historic law. The MLPA Initiative, in a classic example of corporate greenwashing, took water pollution, oil drilling and spills, military testing, wave energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table. 

The analogy that MLPA advocates make of the so-called “marine protected areas” to National Parks like Yosemite and Kings Canyon is absurd and completely inaccurate. 

First, the national parks don’t prohibit fishing like the MLPA does. You can fish in Yosemite and Kings Canyon – it is one of the many recreational activities that visitors can enjoy when they go to these parks. 

Second, the creation of the National Parks wasn’t implemented through funding by a private corporation like the MLPA has been. The MLPA, setting a dangerous precedent for conservation and public policy in California, has been funded since 2004 by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, what John Lewallen, a longtime North Coast environmentalist, describes as a “money laundering” operation for corporations. 

Third, oil spills, oil drilling, military testing, aquaculture and water pollution aren’t allowed in National Parks. In contrast with the National Parks, the MLPA doesn’t prohibit human activities other than fishing and gathering in the “marine protected areas” that Schwarzenegger has relentlessly promoted. 

The absurdity of Schwarzenegger’s MLPA fiasco is exposed in Phil Friedman’s excellent commentary (http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_16980196?source=rss) today in the LA Daily News on the pollution and trash that has plagued southern California beaches since the record rainstorms hit the region this winter. The MLPA, if and when it is implemented under the Brown administration next year, will do nothing to stop this rampant water pollution. 

“The recent rains and subsequent urban runoff left Long Beach harbor and surrounding beaches a disgusting mess with trash and debris floating everywhere. 

Besides the usual plastic bags and styrofoam cups which remain on earth forever, there has been some dead animals, in addition to anything else that people put into storm drains. 

Some people think the proposed Marine Life Protection Act closures along our coast is the panacea that will ensure a healthy ocean. But until we address the real problems of urban runoff and pollution, we are doomed to polluted seas with terrible environmental consequences. 

Fishermen were an easy mark in the MLPA process. For the most part, they lacked the political clout and funds necessary to prevail. Anglers are more disgusted than anyone when they see acres of floating debris choking the life out of the sea they love so much. 

The MLPA process may have resulted in some chest thumping and high-fiving by those who think that they have done something important to protect our precious seas. Unfortunately, this is way more important that another hallow political victory or the legacy of a governor.” 

Thanks, Phil, for your insightful comments. 

Jerry Brown, who will be inaugurated as Governor in Sacramento on January 3, has not indicated what direction he will take regarding the implementation of the MLPA. However, I hope that he heeds the advice of fishermen, Indian Tribes and environmentalists to suspend or cancel the MLPA Initiative. 

The south coast study region is the third of five study regions to complete the planning process under the MLPA. Once implemented, the south coast marine protected areas (MPAs) will join the MPAs currently in place from the central and north central coast study regions to form a network ranging approximately 875 miles from the California border with Mexico to Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County, according to the DFG. 

The Fish and Game Commission will receive recommendations for the north coast study region from the North Coast Blue Ribbon Task Force at its February 2-3 meeting at the Resources Building Auditorium, 1416 Ninth Street, in Sacramento. “This will mark the start of the formal regulatory process and planning is under way to develop the planning process for San Francisco Bay, the fifth and final study region,” the DFG said. 

The Coastal Justice Coalition, Klamath Justice Coalition, Yurok Tribe and other North Coast Tribes will be mobilizing people to attend the Sacramento meeting to prevent the Commission from making any last minute attempt to terminate tribal fishing and gathering rights on the North Coast. For more information, go to:http://www.klamathjustice.blogspot.com 

Since the process was privatized in 2004, the MLPA has done its best to marginalize and exclude the input of California Indian Tribes. The MLPA Science Advisory Team included not one single tribal scientist, in spite of the fact that Tribes have resources departments filled with fishery biologists and other scientists. And the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force did not have a single Tribal representative on it until 2010. 

The task forces, which are supposedly designed to oversee the implementation of “marine protection” in California, have been dominated by oil industry, marina development, real estate and other corporate interests that have no place serving as “marine guardians.” In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who has called for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as chair of the South Coast task force and sat on the North Coast and North Central Coast panels. 

The Inter-Tribal Water Commission and California Indian Heritage Council exposed the MLPA Initiative for the farce that it is in a superb letter they sent to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco on December 8. 

“California Tribes and Tribal communities are vehemently opposed to the development of marine protected areas identified by the singular array recommended by the northcoast regional stakeholder group,” wrote Atta P. Stevenson, Randy Yonemura, Shanti Warlick and Bill Jacobson of the Inter-Tribal Water Commission and California Indian Heritage Council. “The MLPA assessment tool is flawed as it was developed by scientists excluding the socioeconomic, cultural, historic traditional fishing and stewardship practices of the California Tribes, which include stewardship of the land and all resources together and not separately as done by agency scientists and private contractors, as in ‘science for sale’ for the betterment of corporate America.” For more information, go to:http://www.itwatercommission.org. 

One promising sign by the incoming Brown administration is that he has told Lester Snow, Schwarzenegger’s Natural Resources Secretary, that he won’t be allowed to stay under the Brown administration. Snow has been a strong backer of the MLPA Initiative and plans to build a peripheral canal and new dams. 

“Our hope is that Governor Brown will take heed of what Tribal people and recreational anglers are saying about the MLPA and other water issues,” said Georgiana Myers, organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribe member. “I encourage the Governor-elect to have not just big oil and corporate interests at heart, but to listen to the real Californians who use the ocean.”

Outgoing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his collaborators have waged a campaign to greenwash his absymal environmental legacy through a plethora of press releases, photo opportunities and puff pieces before he leaves office. One of the most shameful examples of these efforts to rewrite history by casting Schwarzenegger in the role of “green governor” is Terry Tamminen’s Huffington Post puff piece, “He’ll Be Back” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-tamminen/hell-be-back_b_802128.html). 

“In ‘Terminator’, Arnold Schwarzenegger famously utters ‘I’ll be back.’ The world should hope that he’ll be back to keep working on these issues with the unique style of public service that is the basis of his unprecedented green legacy,” Tamminen claims. 

In stark contrast, Patrick Porgans, a longtime advocate for the public trust, has written a superb piece exposing the Governor’s last ditch petition to sell 11 state office properties to private corporations before leaving office. The plan was supposedly designed to pay off a portion of the state’s multi billion deficit and increasing debt load. 

“Ironically, the debt is partially the result of the Governor’s ‘don’t raise taxes’ rhetoric, while at the same time promoting and securing approval of record-amounts of General Obligation bonds,” said Porgans. “Ironically, the governor’s bond promotion scheme was one of the primary factors contributing to the state’s sea of rising debt.” (http://www.planetarysolutionaries.org [California Bondage]) 

However, it appears that the real motive behind the attempted sale of the properties and the passage of the General Obligation bonds was to benefit rich corporations at the expense of the California public. 

“Raising nearly $144 million from private contributors implies there more than a coincidental link between the campaign contributions, the sale of the property and the windfall profits that have and continued to be realized by the Governor’s supporters,” said Porgans. “Critics argue that the sale of the 11 properties, along with the wholesale-General Obligation bond bonanza, which taxpayers are responsible to repay, makes the Bernie Madoff Ponzie scam look like mere child’s play.” 

Schwarzenegger’s campaign to build a peripheral canal/tunnel, a project projected to cost $23 billion to $53.8 billion, is nothing other than an effort by the outgoing Governor to enrich corporate agribusiness, southern California water privateers and corporate “environmental” NGOs such as the Nature Conservancy at tremendous expense to collapsing Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, fishing communities, California Indian Tribes and family farmers.

Those of us who have suffered under Schwarzenegger’s war on fish and the environment hope that, contrary to Tamminen’s wish that “He’ll Be Back,” that the “Fish Terminator” will never again play any role in public policy anywhere.

Dan

For Immediate Release: December 31, 2010 

Press Release: Supreme Court Terminated Governor’s Last Ditch Petition to Sell State Properties 

For further information, contact Patrick Porgans at www.planetarysolutionaries.org, 916-833-8734 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his campaign supporters received a major setback Dec. 28, when the California Supreme Court’s Acting Chief Justice Patricia Benke ruled against his petition and plan to complete the sale of 11 state office properties before leaving office. 

The court’s ruling was a correct one. Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to sell 11 of the state’s iconic properties – including the Ronald Reagan building in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Civic Center – supposedly was to help pay off a portion of the State’s multi-billion dollar deficit and increasing debt load. 

Ironically, the debt is partially the result of the Governor’s “don’t raise taxes” rhetoric, while at the same time promoting and securing approval of record-amounts of General Obligation bonds. Ironically, the governor’s bond promotion scheme was one of the primary factors contributing to the state’s sea of rising debt. (http://www.planetarysolutionaries.org [California Bondage].) 

California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, in two separate reports, characterized the deal as “poor fiscal policy.” It also indicated that the sale of the 11 office properties will wind up costing California as much as $6 billion, as proposed in the lease-back option favoring the buyers. The $1.2 billion realized from the sale will only have a minimal effect on the overall deficit-ridden budget. 

Critics argue that the budget cuts are just another means to make more room to issue the billions of dollars in Governor Schwarzenegger’s sponsored GO bonds and to entice the bond syndicators and investors to purchase more GO bonds. 

According to Louise Renne, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, “The deal has a smell that just won’t quit.” The complaint filed with the court states “this deal is not only ‘imprudent’” but unwise. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer called the proposed sale “patently illegal.” (http://www.publiclawgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/MPAs-ISO-Preliminary-Injunction1.pdf.) 

Whatever the case, The Public Law Group firm of Renne, Sloan, Holtzman and Sakai, and its clients, Jerry B. Epstein and A. Redmond Doms are to be commended for filing the suit to stop this sale for all the reasons stated in their case. Intervenor Donald A. Casper and Stan Moy, were both members of the San Francisco Building Authority, they were purportedly fired by the order of Governor Schwarzenegger for raising questions about the sale of the 11 properties. 

Casper was quoted in the press as being against the sale as it raised serious questions of waste of public property. The Authority is a three-person body established to plan, finance and oversee the construction and management of state office facilities in San Francisco. 

According to a recent report in the Sacramento Bee, in 2006 the governor successfully promoted and got voters to approve $37.3 billion in publicly-financed General Obligation Bonds, for a myriad of “public” works projects and programs; i.e., water supply reliability, water for fish, drought and flood relief. 

According to the State Treasurer’s Office, the total debt repayment obligation to the public will exceed $50 billion, when interest payments are included. The money to repay this debt comes directly out of the state’s General Fund; this is the same fund that has been subjected to the Governor’s draconian budget cuts in jobs, essential services and safety-net programs. 

In late 2009, the Governor and his campaign contributors were successful in getting an $11 billion “Water Package” passed by the Legislature, which, if approved by the voters in 2012, will cost the public an estimated $20 billion. There again, many of his supporters with be the recipients of windfall profits from the syndication, sale, and revenues realized from the issuance of those bonds. It doesn’t end there. 

In 2003, in his first year of office, the Governor persuaded voters to approve two General Obligation bond propositions, which involved borrowing $15 billion to pay off some of the state’s budget debt, while purportedly placing a cap on spending. The end result was that the borrowing exacerbated the State’s deficit problems and the cap on spending just did not happen. 

According to the Office of the Treasurer, in November 2010, the State’s total outstanding bond debt was $157.8 billion; $88.2 billion in principal and $69.5 billion in interest; about $128.4 billion are General Obligation Bonds. (http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/bonds/debt/201011/summary.pdf.) There is an additional $41.5 billion of authorized but unissued GO bonds. 

It would be unfair to blame the Governor for all of the state’s deficit-ridden debt woes; however, it would be equally disingenuous not to impose blame for the debt he created. In 2007 – before the serious major fallout of the subprime mortgage scam and the Wall Street $700 billion banking bailout fiasco – California ranked as the world’s eighth-largest economy, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. (http://www.ccsce.com/PDF/Numbers-sep08-CA-Rank.pdf.) 

California’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that year was around $1.8 trillion. The GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in California. The state’s General Fund revenues in 2007 were around $120 billion. In 2008, the economic output of the state of California was $1.847 trillion; indicating a marginal increase in growth. During that period, the state’s credit rating was one of the best in the nation. In 2009, California’s credit rating was the lowest of all 50 states, amid the state government’s failure to close a $26 billion deficit that left the most-populous state issuing IOUs to creditors. 

In 2010, according to a report by Bloomberg, California became the lowest rated U.S. state as Standard & Poor (S&P) lowered California’s GO bond rating one grade because Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the lawmakers failed to close a record budget deficit. S&P downgraded California’s credit rating to A-minus. S&P maintained its negative outlook on the state’s $63.9 billion GO debt, indicating more downgrades are possible. Currently, the state’s credit rating is still ranked by S&P as A-minus. (http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/ratings/current.asp.) 

As a result of the Governor’s “fiscal austerity” and “GO bond saturation” California is paying more money each time the state issues GO bonds. For example, as of December 2009, California had $83.5 billion of outstanding long-term debt; 97.3% is fixed rate debt; $63.9 billion was GO bond debt. (http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/debt.pdf.) 

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the California State Treasurer’s office estimated that the amount of revenue in the General Fund at $88.09 billion, and the estimated debt service on the existing $63.9 billion in outstanding bonds (includes principle plus interest), and estimated the debt service on those bonds at $6.09 billion; about seven (7) percent of the General Fund’s annual revenue stream. However, in FY 2013, estimated revenue in the General Fund is projected at $91.6 billion, and the estimated total debt service on the on the GO bonds at $10.06 billion; 10.98 percent of the General Fund. 

GO bonds are a form of long-term borrowing in which the state issues municipal securities and pledges the full faith and credit to their repayment. The California Constitution set repayment of GO debt before all other obligations of the state except those for K-14 education. (http://sam.dgs.ca.gov/TOC/6000/6871.htm.) 

The repayment obligation associated with the issuance of such bonds is derived from the State’s deficit ridden General Fund. Draconian budget cuts have and continue to be made as a result of increased debt load, fending off new taxes, and the overall downturn in the economy have fueled the budget crisis, contributing to the proposed sale of the 11 properties in question. 

Still yet unclear are the links – financial, political or otherwise – between the increasing GO bond debt, annual repayment obligations, the increased costs associated with State borrowing, the primary promoters/backers/syndicators and beneficiaries involved in the proposed sale of the state properties. 

However, a cursory review of Governor Schwarzenegger’s campaign disclosure statement indicate that significant sums of money came from supporters that apparently benefited from the issuances of the GO bonds. Also, it appears that the Governor re-funneled a sizeable portion of his campaign funds back into the California Dream Team Budget Reform Committee; aimed at cutting the budget. 

Critics claim that the Governor’s motive to sell the buildings is a kickback to his campaign contributors. In his run for Governor, Schwarzenegger stated that he would not take campaign contributions from big vested interests. 

The governor was quoted on August 31, 2003 as saying, “Any of those kinds of real, big, powerful, special interests, if you take money from them, you owe them something.” 

According to http://www.arnoldwatch.org, Arnold has raised $143,839,604 up through June 21, 2010, not including personal money given to his committees. (http://www.arnoldwatch.org/special_interests/index.html. ) The major contributors listed are real estate, development, construction, finance and insurance entities. 

Raising nearly $144 million from private contributors implies there more than a coincidental link between the campaign contributions, the sale of the property and the windfall profits that have and continued to be realized by the Governor’s supporters. Critics argue that the sale of the 11 properties, along with the wholesale-General Obligation bond bonanza, which taxpayers are responsible to repay, makes the Bernie Madoff Ponzie scam look like mere child’s play. 

One thing is certain. California’s debt has Increased dramatically in the last decade. Since FY 1999-2000, annual debt service has increased 143% while General Fund revenues have increased only 22%. (http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/debt.pdf.) 

Despite the extraordinary amount of debt issued in 2009, the State still has $47.48 billion of voter authorized but unissued GO bonds, and $10.2 billion of Public Works Board lease revenue bonds authorized by the Legislature and unissued. 

On Dec. 29, Governor-elect Jerry Brown announced that the State’s projected 2011-2012 budget deficit is estimated at about $35 billion, one-third of the projected General Fund revenues. It is apparent that one way to cut the budget is to stop issuing GO bonds or to simply stop issuing any more bonds until the budget crisis is remediated. 

Also, in the case of estimated $19 billion in water- and water-related GO bonds issued between 2000 and 2006, the water beneficiaries, such as State Water Project contractors, should be required to repay the costs associated with water supply reliability, conservation, planning and mitigation, which are classified under the terms of their contracts, as reimbursable costs.

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Schwarzenegger’s ‘Gift’ to Californians: the Pelagic Organism Decline 

by Dan Bacher 

The results of the just-released California Department of Fish and Game annual survey of pelagic (open water) species in the California Delta continue to demonstrate an estuary in collapse. 

The Fall Midwater Trawl Survey, which produces indices of “relative abundance,” has been conducted since 1967. “The collapse of Delta species mirrors the decline of salmonids,” said Bill Jennings, chairman/executive director of the California Sportfishing Alliance (CSPA). 

Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon, numbering nearly 800,000 in 2002, dropped to 90,000 in 2007, to 66,264 in 2008 and to a record low of 39,530 in 2009 before rebounding slightly this year. The collapse resulted in the closure of commercial and recreational fishing off the California and southern Oregon coast in 2008 and 2009, a very limited commercial salmon fishing this year and severely restricted recreational salmon fishing seasons on the Sacramento over the past three years. 

The striped bass and Sacramento splittail populations reached record low population levels in this fall’s survey, while Delta smelt continued their journey towards extinction. Longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad populations showed slight increases from last year’s abysmal levels, but continue on the path to oblivion. 

Results of the 2010 Fall Midwater Trawl reveal that: 

Striped bass populations continue to collapse on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. “The 2010 index of 43 showed a 40% decline from last year’s historical low of 70,” said Jennings. “The index was 12,473 as recently as 1983.” 

Splittail populations also matched their historical low. The 2010 index was 0, compared to last year’s index of 1. The splittail index was 281 in 1998. 

Delta smelt continued to be found at near record low numbers. The index of 29 was only slightly higher than last year’s 17. In 1993, the index was 1,078. 

Longfin smelt rebounded slightly to 191 from last year’s abysmal index of 65. “Of course, in 1982 the index reached 62,905,” Jennings pointed out. 

Threadfin shad numbers also increased slightly to 120 from last years record low of 13. In contrast the index was 15,267 in 1997 and 14,401 in 2001. 

The American shad index increased from last years 624 to 683, but this still the fourth lowest index since records have been kept. As recently as 2003, the index was 9,360. 

The state and federal Pelagic Organism Decline (POD) team that began studying the fish population collapse in 2005 has pinpointed three major factors behind the collapse: (1) increases and changes in Delta water exports, (2) toxic chemicals and (3) invasive species such as non-native zooplankton and clams. Another factor is ammonia discharges from the City of Sacramento’s sewage treatment plant and other municipalities. 

The Schwarzenegger administration allowed the Department of Water Resources to pump record levels of water out of the Delta from 2004 to 2006, resulting in the current Central Valley salmon and California Delta pelagic species collapses.The largest annual water export levels in history occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increasing to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent. 

Rather than trying to restore Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, outgoing Governor “Fish Terminator” Schwarzenegger did his very best to push these imperiled fish species over the abyss of extinction. He continually attacked the biological opinions protecting Central Valley chinook salmon and Delta smelt and campaigned relentlessly for a peripheral canal and new dams. 

He eviscerated the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) by implementing a privately funded MLPA process that took water pollution, oil drilling and spills, wave energy projects, corporate aquaculture, military testing and all other human impacts other than fishing and gathering off the table in its bizarre concept of “protection.” 

While corporate environmental NGOs and corporate-controlled politicians have praised Schwarzenegger as the “Green Governor” for his incessant grandstanding about cap and trade “green” energy scams, Schwarzenegger’s true environmental legacy is the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta pelagic fish species.

“The Big Sur River is designated as Critical Habitat for steelhead under the federal Endangered Species Act,” said Bill Jennings, chairman/executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “The hearing will provide a critical opportunity to restore flow, water quality and habitat for these endangered species.”

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Hearing Finally Scheduled on CSPA’s Big Sur River Protest 

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Brown Will Appoint New Natural Resources Secretary to Replace Lester Snow

by Dan Bacher 

Jerry Brown will replace Lester Snow, the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, after he takes office as Governor on January 3.

Brown’s transition team has already informed Snow, along with other Schwarzenegger appointees, that he will not be asked to stay on in the incoming administration. 

“A number of the current administration appointees have been informed that their appointment will conclude when the current Governor’s term ends,” said Evan Westrup, Brown’s spokesman. “The Governor-elect will be assembling a leadership team and will make additional appointments in the weeks ahead.” 

“As is standard in adminstration changes, the services of many of the current Governor’s appointees will no longer be needed,” he noted. “Our focus is on making sure that most qualified candidates are chosen for leadership positions.” 

Westrup said the incoming Brown administration hasn’t chosen a new Resources Secretary yet and a number of candidates are being considered to fill Snow’s position. 

California’s Natural Resources Agency is responsible for the state’s natural resource policies, programs and activities. It oversees 25 departments, commissions, boards and conservancies, according to the agency website. 

Fishing groups, Indian Tribes and environmentalists have criticized Snow, as Schwarzenegger’s head environmental official, for his support of the peripheral canal and new dams, the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and the annual dewatering of the Scott and Shasta rivers, key Klamath River tributaries, by irrigators. 

As the director of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) until Schwarzenegger appointed him as Resources Secretary earlier this year, Snow presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass, threadfin shad and other Delta fish species. Under his leadership, the state exported record amounts of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from 2004 to 2006. 

“Lester Snow’s removal from the Natural Resources Agency gives me hope that Jerry Brown will work on Delta issues with an open-minded attitude,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director for Restore the Delta. “I am hopeful that Brown that won’t perpetuate the party line that the Delta is nothing other than a transfer site for California water. I am hoping that Snow’s termination is a sign that Delta fisheries and Delta communities will be given equal weight in the discussion of California water policies.” 

“Our hope is that Governor Brown will take heed of what Tribal people and recreational anglers are saying about the MLPA and other water issues,” said Georgiana Myers, organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribe member. “I encourage the Governor-elect to have not just big oil and corporate interests at heart, but to listen to the real Californians who use the ocean.”

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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has received awards for his “green” leadership from NRDC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the “Beautiful Earth Group” and others in recent weeks in a carefully orchestrated campaign to greenwash his legacy before he leaves office. 

In spite of the claims of his collaborators, Schwarzenegger’s true legacy is the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, young striped bass, Sacramento splittail and other fish populations spurred by record water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from 2004 to 2006. 

Rather than taking the necessary measures to restore these imperiled these fish populations, the Governor only tried to make things worse by attacking the biological opinion protecting Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River spring and winter run chinook salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales, along with the biological opinion protecting the endangered Delta smelt. 

He relentlessly campaigned for a peripheral canal and new dams that are likely to lead to the extinction of many of these species while fast-tracking a corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative that does nothing to “protect” the ocean from water pollution, oil drilling and spills, military testing, corporate aquaculture, habitat destruction and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. 

Schwarzenegger will finally leave office on January 2, 2011 after waging an unprecedented war on California fish populations and fishing communities. Millions of us will celebrate the departure of Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor for fish, water and the environment in California history. 

Faced with the environmental wreckage that Schwarzenegger has left in his wake, Jerry Brown will have a monumental task ahead if he plans to restore California salmon and other fish populations. Here are seven immediate actions that I advise Brown to take to begin the recovery of California fish and fishing communities. 

First, issue an executive order mandating all state agencies to comply immediately with the provisions of the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other species. To comply with these decisions, the state and federal governments must reduce water exports, better manage water releases from dams, remove dams and provide fish passage for fish above dams. 

Second, direct all state agencies, in cooperation with the federal government, to comply with the “doubling goal” of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) of 1992. The law set as its goal the doubling of all natural spawning anadromous fish populations – chinook salmon, steelhead, white sturgeon, green sturgeon, American shad and striped bass – by 2002. However, rather than doubling, these populations of fish collapsed to record low levels because of abysmal management by the state and federal governments. 

Third, abolish the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) that was instituted under Schwarzenegger and all state plans to build a peripheral canal and new dams. Instead of continuing the BDCP’s path to the Delta’s destruction, Brown should establish the first ever “Blue Collar Task Force” (a concept inspired by Troy Fletcher, acting executive director of the Yurok Tribe), to recover fish populations and restore the Delta. The task force would be made up of representatives of California Indian Tribes, recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, grassroots conservation groups, family farmers, environmental justice organizations and those who have been marginalized in the BDCP and Delta Vision fiascos. 

Fourth, cancel or suspend the controversial MLPA Initiative and work with the Legislature to begin an investigation of corruption, conflicts and the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, under the process. The investigation would begin with an executive order by Brown, citing the provisions of the California Public Records Act, asking the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, MLPA officials, Department of Fish and Game to turn over all of their records relating to the implementation of the MLPA. 

Fifth, remove Lester Snow, Schwarzenegger’s Natural Resources Secretary, and appoint a new Secretary, a person with integrity and environmental ethics, who will work closely with Tribes, fishermen, conservationists and family farmers to restore California’s declining fish populations. While he’s at it, Brown should also immediately remove Jack Baylis, a Schwarzenegger stooge, from the California Fish and Game Commission. You can’t rebuild California fish populations by keeping the people appointed by the “Fish Terminator” in power! 

Sixth, Brown should meet with Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator, and demand she terminate the “catch shares” program being instituted on the West Coast, since it is a failed environmental strategy that will result in local, sustainable fisheries being replaced with corporate, unsustainable fisheries. This policy, if implemented, will result in the privatization of public trust resources and the concentration of West Coast fisheries in a few corporate hands. 

Seventh, Brown should officially oppose the Water Bond on the November 2012 ballot and should find an alternate source of money to finance California’s costs for removing the four PacifiCorp dams on the Klamath River, like the State of Oregon has done. Schwarzenegger stuck $250 million for Klamath dam removal in the water bond, an initiative that funds new dams in the Central Valley. 

These seven actions by Brown would help to reverse the fishery collapses that the Schwarzenegger administration helped to engineer and will begin to put California fish and fishing communities back on the path to restoration and sustainability. 

For more information about Schwarzenegger’s true environmental legacy, go to: http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2010/12/03/schwarzeneggers-abysmal-environmental-legacy-exposed.

Photo: In yet another example of a corporate environmental NGO greenwashing Schwarzenegger’s environmental legacy, the “Beautiful Earth Group” on December 9 gave Schwarzenegger the 2010 “Green Governor of the Year” Award. From left to right: Beautiful Earth Group President and Chief Executive Officer Lex Heslin, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Opportunity Green Co-founder Karen Solomon and Americas Region of Beautiful Earth Group Director Michael Clayton. Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office. 

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The questions that MLPA advocates refuse to answer 

by Dan Bacher 

Officials from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and their supporters have constantly repeated the false claims that the controversial process is “open, transparent and inclusive” and “protects” the ocean as part of a well-funded propaganda campaign to greenwash Schwarzenegger’s abysmal environmental legacy before he leaves office. 

In an editorial on December 20, the Sacramento Bee joined the campaign to greenwash the outgoing Republican Governor’s environmental record by praising Schwarzenegger’s MLPA initiative for taking “more bold steps on protecting state’s coast.” 

“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s environmental legacy certainly includes Assembly Bill 32, the law that aims to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020,” the editorial states. “Equally significant, and less well known, is his support for conserving Californrnia’s diverse coastal and marine wildlife habitats along the 1,100 mile coastline.” 

The Bee and other proponents of the process refuse to address the many criticisms that advocates of true ocean protection have leveled against the MLPA Initiative. I have challenged MLPA proponents to answer a series of hard questions that cut to the core of the MLPA process. 

None have responded yet to my specific questions, but only continue to repeat their unsubstantiated claims that the Initiative is “open, transparent and inclusive” and that anybody who criticizes the initiative is an opponent of “ocean protection.” 

Rather than address the many criticisms by grassroots environmentalists, Indian Tribes and fishing groups of the MLPA’s implementation under Schwarzenegger, the Bee stated, “Critics should cool the rhetoric and give this conservation effort a chance to work.” 

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a comprehensive, landmark law that was signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999. The MLPA, as amended in 2004, is very broad in its scope. 

The law was intended to not only restrict or prohibit fishing in a network of “marine protected areas,” but to restrict or prohibit other human activities including coastal development and water pollution. 

“Coastal development, water pollution, and other human activities threaten the health of marine habitat and the biological diversity found in California’s ocean waters,” the law states in Fish and Game Code Section 2851, section c. 

The law broadly defines a “marine protected area” (MPA) as “a named, discrete geographic marine or estuarine area seaward of the mean high tide line or the mouth of a coastal river, including any area of inertial or sub tidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora and fauna that has been designated by law, administrative action, or voter initiative to protect or conserve marine life and habitat” (Fish and Game Code 2852, section c). 

However, the implementation of the law under Schwarzenegger has become a parody of real marine protection, in spite of the claims by the Bee editors and other MLPA Initiative advocates. 

The Bee says, “Fishing and other activities in these protected areas are restricted or banned, allowing delicate reefs and kelp forests to recover.” What are these other activities? 

The MLPA process under Schwarzenegger has taken oil drilling, water pollution, wave energy development, habitat destruction and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table. The MLPA would do nothing to stop another Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon oil disaster from devastating the California coast. 

Acknowledging the lack of funding for monitoring and enforcement for the MLPA at a time the State of California is in its greatest ever budget crisis, the Bee urges the incoming Brown administration to find “creative new funding sources, such as voluntary contributions, private fundraising, income tax checkoffs.” 

What the heck? Proposition 21, the State Parks Initiative, could have funded implementation of the MLPA, but the public voted it down in November. Does the Bee really think that the public is now ready to shell out more money to a controversial program through voluntary contributions and income tax checkoffs? 

Here are the questions that I pose to the Sacramento Bee editorial board and other proponents of the MLPA fiasco. 

Why did the Governor and MLPA officials install an oil industry lobbyist, a marina developer, a real estate executive and other corporate interests as “marine guardians” to remove Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters from the water by creating so-called “marine protected areas” (MPAS)? Isn’t this very bad public policy? 

Why was Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, allowed to make decisions as the chair of the BRTF for the South Coast and as a member of the BRTF for the North Coast, panels that are supposedly designed to “protect” the ocean, when she has called for new oil drilling off the California coast? 

Why is a private corporation, the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, being allowed to privatize ocean resource management in California through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DFG? 

Why do the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) and Science Advisory Team continue to violate the California Public Records Act by refusing to respond to numerous requests by Bob Fletcher, former DFG Deputy Director, for key documents and records pertaining to the MLPA implementation process? 

Why do MLPA staff and the California Fish and Game Commission refuse to hear the pleas of the representatives of the California Fish and Game Wardens Association, who oppose the creation of any new MPAs until they have enough funding for wardens to patrol existing reserves? 

Why did MLPA staff until recently violate the Bagley-Keene Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by banning video and audio coverage of the initiative’s work sessions? 

Why has the Initiative shown little or no respect for tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights? In fact, it was only because of massive opposition by North Coast Tribes and their allies that an amendment that would have terminated tribal fishing and gathering rights failed to pass during a special MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force teleconference meeting held in Fort Bragg, Crescent City and Eureka on December 9. 

Since the MLPA was privatized in 2004, the initiative has violated the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Article 32, Section 2, of the Declaration mandates “free prior and informed consent” in consultation with the indigenous population affected by a state action (http://www.iwgia.org/sw248.asp). 

The unified proposal adopted by North Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force is the first MLPA proposal that acknowledges tribal gathering and fishing rights, a tribute to the hard work of the Tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders. However, why did it take 6 years for this to happen? 

Why were there no Tribal scientists on the MLPA Science Advisory Team and why were there no Tribal representatives on the Blue Ribbon Task Forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast or South Coast MLPA Study Regions? Isn’t this a case of institutional racism on behalf of MLPA officials? 

Why does the initiative discard the results of any scientists who disagree with the MLPA’s pre-ordained conclusions? These include the peer reviewed study by Dr. Ray Hilborn, Dr. Boris Worm and 18 other scientists, featured in Science magazine in July 2009, that concluded that the California current had the lowest rate of fishery exploitation of any place studied on the planet. 

Finally, why did 300 Tribal members, fishermen, immigrant workers and environmentalists feel so left out of the MLPA process that they had to organize a march and direct action to take over a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg of July 21 so their voices would be finally heard? 

Proponents of the MLPA Initiative have failed to address the many criticisms of the MLPA process by Indian Tribes, recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen, conservationists and environmental justice advocates. 

Real environmentalists support true, comprehensive ocean protection as the MLPA originally intended, not the facade of protection that Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Initiative provides. 

Real environmentalists don’t support a process that has gone to great lengths to take oil drilling, water pollution, wave energy development, habitat destruction, military testing and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in its perverse concept of marine “protection.” 

Finally, real environmentalists oppose the privatization of ocean conservation that has occurred under the MLPA Initiative. 

The MLPA process must be seen in the context of the campaign by the Schwarzenegger administration, corporate media, some NGOs and political hacks to greenwash the environmental legacy of the worst Governor in California history for fish, water and the environment. 

This is the same Governor who presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other fish species, relentlessly campaigned for the construction of an environmentally destructive and enormously expensive peripheral canal and new dams and vetoed numerous laws protecting fish, water and the environment. 

Link to the Bee editorial: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/20/3269439/more-bold-steps-on-protecting.html. 

For more information about the true environmental legacy of Arnold Schwarzenegger, go to: http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=8731.

Photo of Chagos Islands courtesy of Trinicenter.com. 

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WikiLeaks reveals U.S., British use marine reserves as tool of imperialism  

Chagros Islanders denied right of return 

by Dan Bacher 

A U.S. State Department cable released through WikiLeaks reveals that that the British government cynically used the creation of a massive so-called marine “protected” area, the largest on the planet, as a tool to deny the native Chagros Islanders the right to return to their homeland in the Indian Ocean.

The U.K. Guardian published this US embassy cable on its website (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/207149) on December 2. “The cable, part of the massive stash acquired by WikiLeaks, quotes a British diplomat saying that creating the marine reserve would stymie the return of former islanders,” noted Science Magazine reporter Erik Stokstan on December 7. 

In May 2009, Colin Roberts, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) Director, Overseas Territories, told US embassy staff, “We do not regret the removal of the population,” since removal was necessary for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) to fulfill its “strategic purpose.” 

He also said removal of the indigenous people was the reason why the uninhabited islands in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and the surrounding waters are in “pristine” condition, adding that Diego Garcia’s “excellent condition” reflects the “responsible stewardship” of the U/S. and U.K. forces using it. 

In addition, the leaked cable stated, “Establishing a marine reserve might, indeed, as the FCO’s Roberts stated, be the most effective long-term way to prevent any of the Chagos Islands’ former inhabitants or their descendents from resettling in the BIOT.” 

The U.S. and British governments colluded in deporting over 2,000 islanders from the Chagos archipelago during the Cold War in the 1960’s and 1970’s when the U.S. built a military base on the island of Diego Garcia, according to the Guardian. The Chagossians are now fighting for their “right to return” in a lawsuit before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). 

While denying the Chagossians the right to return, the British official assured the State Department that U.S. military interests were protected in the creation of the marine protected area. 

“The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park – the world’s largest – would in no way impinge upon the USG (U.S. government) use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes,” the cable stated. “He agreed that the UK and U.S. should carefully negotiate the details of the marine reserve to assure that U.S. interests were safeguarded and the strategic value of BIOT was upheld. He said that the BIOT’s former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagros Archipelao were a marine reserve.” 

The cables also reveal how Greenpeace and other environmental NGOs supporting the creation of the Chagos reserve played into the British government’s attempt to thwart the return of the indigenous people. 

“However, Roberts stated that, according to the HGM’s (Her Majesty Government’s) current thinking on a reserve, there would be ‘no human footprints’ or ‘Man Fridays’ on the BIOT’s uninhabited islands,” according to the cable. “He asserted that establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resetlement claims of the former residents. Responding to Polcouns observation that the advocates of Chagossian resettlement continue to vigorously press their case, Roberts opined that the UK”s ‘environmental lobby’ is far more powerful than the Chagossians’ advocates.” 

The use of term “Man Friday,” one of the main characters of Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe, reveals the thinly-disguised racism of British government officials towards the Chagossians. Crusoe names the man, a native Carib with whom he cannot at first communicate, “Friday” because they first meet on that day. “The character is the source of the expression ‘Man Friday,’ used to describe a male personal assistant or servant, especially one who is particularly competent or loyal,” according to Wikipedia. 

After receiving Obama administration approval, the British government in April 2010 announced the creation of the park, in spite of protests by the Chagossians and human rights advocates throughout the world. 

Roch Evenor, secretary of the UK Chagos Support Association, who left his homeland when he was four, described the marine reserve when it was proposed as “a natural injustice.” “The fish would have more rights than us,” he told the the U.K. Guardian on March 29, 2010 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/29/chagos-island-marine-reserve-plans). 

“The conservation groups have fallen into a trap. They are being used by the government to prevent us returning,” said Evenor, as quoted by the Guardian. 

“The British government’s plan for a marine protected area is a grotesquely transparent ruse designed to perpetuate the banning of the people of Mauritius and Chagos from part of their own country,” stated Ram Seegobin, of the Mauritian party Lalit de Klas, in a letter to Greenpeace, an avid supporter of the “marine protected area.” 

On December 22, Amy Goodman on her Democracy Now television, reported on the latest development in the Chaggosians’ struggle – the announcement by the nation of Mauritius on December 21 to contest the legality of the Chagros Islands “marine reserve” (http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/22/headline). 

“There has been political fallout from a WikiLeaks cable related to the U.S. military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean,” said Goodman. “The nation of Mauritius announced plans on Tuesday to contest the legality of a new maritime reserve park around the disputed Chagos Islands after a leaked U.S. cable suggested the park was a ploy to stop uprooted islanders returning home.” 

“Britain leased the archipelago’s biggest island, Diego Garcia, to the United States in 1966, paving the way for the construction of a huge airbase which required the forced removal of some 2,000 Chagossians,” Goodman stated. “Publicly, the British portrayed the establishment of the marine park as a move to save the environment. But a U.S. diplomatic cable dated May 2009, disclosed by WikiLeaks, revealed that a British Foreign Office official had privately told the Americans that the decision to set up a marine protected area would “effectively end the islanders’ resettlement claims.” 

This cable discloses how in spite of the claims of their proponents that “marine protected areas” are designed to “protect” the ocean fisheries and ecosystem, they are in fact often used as racist tools to dispossess indigenous people of their human rights. The move by the British and U.S. governments to greenwash their imperialist policies by depriving the Chagossians their rights has a direct parallel to the violation of indigeous rights that have occurred in the creation of marine protected areas in the U.S and Mexico. 

California Tribes battle attempt by MLPA to terminate Tribal rights 

For example, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, funded privately by the shadowy Resources Legacy Foundation, has since 2004 railroaded the rights of California Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters. In contrast to false claims of Schwarzenegger officials and his corporate environmental NGO collaborators that the MLPA is an “open, transparent and inclusive” process, the initiative is anything but. 

Rather than truly protecting the ocean as the Marine Life Protection Act, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, intended to do, the MLPA process has does little or nothing to “protect” California marine waters from water pollution, oil drilling, oil spills, military testing, habitat destruction and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. The panels that implement the MLPA are filled with oil industry, marina development, real estate and other special interests than have no place on a body designed to “protect” the ocean. 

In fact, a panel appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to implement his controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative on December 9 considered amending a motion that would, in effect, ban traditional harvesting by Indian Tribes until the legal authority to regulate the Tribal uses is clarified by the State of California and California Tribes. 

Fortunately, strong opposition by the Klamath Justice Coalition, Coastal Justice Coalition, Yurok Tribe and other North Coast Tribes forced the MLPA officials to back down on the last-minute attempt to terminate tribal fishing and gathering rights. The motion by Gregory Schem, MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force member, to change a unified marine protected area (MPA) proposal developed by stakeholders failed to garner the necessary votes. 

The California Fish and Game Commission will be voting on the MPA proposal at its February 3 meeting in Sacramento – and members of the North Coast Tribes and Coastal and Klamath Justice Coalitions will be there in force to stop any last minute amendment of the Commission attempting to violate tribal rights. For more information, go to: klamathjustice.blogspot.com. 

Since 2004, MLPA officials have refused to appoint any Tribal scientists to the so-called “Science Advisory Teams” that oversee the controversial process, in spite of the many fishery biologists that work in the resource departments of California Indian Tribes. And it wasn’t until this year on the North Coast that a Tribal representative was finally appointed to the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force; the task forces that developed the marine reserves for the Central Coast, North Central Coast and South Coast had no Tribal representatives! 

“California Tribes and Tribal communities are vehemently opposed to the development of marine protected areas identified by the singular array recommended by the northcoast regional stakeholder group,” wrote Atta P. Stevenson, Randy Yonemura, Shanti Warlick and Bill Jacobson of the Inter-Tribal Water Commission and California Indian Heritage Council, in a letter to NOAA Administration Jane Lubchenco on December 8. “The MLPA assessment tool is flawed as it was developed by scientists excluding the socioeconomic, cultural, historic traditional fishing and stewardship practices of the California Tribes, which include stewardship of the land and all resources together and not separately as done by agency scientists and private contractors, as in ‘science for sale’ for the betterment of corporate America.” For more information, go to: http://www.itwatercommission.org 

Zapatista Peace Camp defends Cucapa fishing rights on Colorado Delta 

The Colorado River Delta and Sea of Cortez in Baja California, Mexico are also the scene of the battle for indigenous rights in a “marine reserve” that, in a similiar manner to California’s MLPA process, does nothing to stop the real reasons for fishery declines in the region. This so-called marine protected area does nothing to stop massive water diversions by US agribusiness and water pollution on both sides of the border that have led to fishery declines in recent years. 

In the winter and spring of 2007, the Cucapa Tribe in El Mayor, Baja California organized an historic Zapatista peace camp to defend their fishing rights against harassment and intimidation by the Mexican government on the Colorado Delta. The idea for the camp originated during a visit by Subcomandante Marcos, spokesman for the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation), to El Mayor during the Zapatista “Otra Campana” (Other Campaign) in October 2006. 

The efforts of the tribe to defend their rights against the Felipe Calderon government continue to to this day. For more information, go to:http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/20/18402415.php?show. 

There is no doubt that “marine protected areas” are being used as a tools of institutional racism and cultural genocide in at least three locations where they are being implemented – the Chagos Islands, the California coast and the Colorado River Delta in Mexico. 

As Frankie Joe Myers, Coastal Justice Coalition organizer and Yurok Tribe ceremonial leader, said during a historic protest against the MLPA in Fort Bragg on July 21, 2010, “Whether it is their intention or not, what the Marine Life Protection Act does to tribes is systematically decimate our ability to be who we are. That is the definition of cultural genocide.”

Photo of Feather Dancers of the Round Valley Indian Tribes by Friends of the Eel River.

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Largest salmon run on Eel River in 77 years arrives after Tribal ceremonies 

by Dan Bacher 

Over 2,300 fall run Chinook salmon, the largest number of fish counted at the Van Arsdale Fisheries Station on the Eel River below Cape Horn Dam since the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) began keeping records, arrived just a few months after members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo conducted dances and ceremonies to bring back the salmon. 

In July of 2010, the Feather Dancers of the Tribes joined Friends of the Eel River (FOER) at a swimming hole in the Hearst area, a few miles downstream of the PG&E Potter Valley diversion (PVP) to the Russian River. 

“Prayers and dances began just before dusk and continued well into the night,” said Nadananda, Executive Director of Friends of the Eel River. “Dances and ceremonies that had not happened in more than 100 years were done on the edge of the Eel River, prayers to bring back the salmon and for return of water natural to this river system.” 

The Eel River Prayer Ceremony and Summit, a historic 2-day event held on the banks of the Eel River near Willits on July 17-18, 2010, drew Eel River advocates from San Francisco to the Oregon border, including biologists, hydrologists, fishermen and leading environmental groups. “We will not sit idly by,” was the central message of the event. 

The Round Valley Tribes, with century-long fishing rights on the Eel, have experienced “devastating economic and health-related hardships from the loss of the salmon fisheries,” according to a joint news release from the Tribes and FOER. 

Saturday, July 17 was devoted to the blessing of the river, which included all those attending, as well as tribal dancing and a shared traditional tribal meal of salmon. Ironically, the salmon was not fish from the Eel River, but salmon offered by an Alaskan Tribe in recognition of the plight of the Eel’s nearly collapsed salmon fisheries. 

“On Sunday, the participants, unwilling to rely solely on the agencies of the federal and state government to force PG&E to modify the flows on the Eel River, met to present observations and research on a wide range of legal and scientific issues that effect the Eel River and the health of its nearly 4000 square mile watershed, with the heart of the matter being the need to immediately increase the flows of water during peak late summer and fall spawning months,” stated Nadananda. 

“In the face of a very grave situation for the fish, all of the people attending the Eel River Prayer Ceremony were deeply inspired and empowered not to sit idly by,” she emphasized. “The sacred Tribal dances and prayers were so profound that it infused all of those attending with strength and perseverance. The amplified energy among the group was infectious.” 

“Water and salmon hold sacred value among the Tribes of the Round Valley, and both have been bankrupted,” according to Ernie Merrifield, past Round Valley Tribal Council member. “Like a person, if you block the free flow of blood in your veins you will die, just as PG&E’s dams are killing the Eel River.” 

Several months after the ceremony and summit, the fall run of Chinook surged in on the first rains by the thousands, the largest run on the river in 77 years. In addition to the fish counted at Cape Horn Dam, thousands more redds (nests) were counted below the dam and the confluence of Outlet Creek. 

“Some swam up other tributaries, but not in the unbelievable numbers we saw in the area described,” Nadananda stated. “In previous years runs were down to single digit numbers and then increased to 400 for several more years.” 

As of December 20, Van Arsdale Fish Count Station reported a total count of 2312 chinooks, including 812 adult males, 754 females and 746 jacks (two-year-olds), 

“Although the Chinook count for this season appears high (the highest recorded since 1933), caution should be taken when addressing the remainder of the Eel River watershed,” noted Scott L Harris, DFG Associate Fish Biologist. “We certainly haven’t seen record numbers of Chinook in the Tomki Creek or Outlet Creek watersheds.” 

What are the reasons for the increased return of chinooks to the main Eel this year? 

“Yes, ocean conditions are good, and more water released into the river starting in 2006, along with better river management practices, account for a lot of what we have seen,” concluded Nadananda. “However, one is hard pressed to disregard the presence of prayer. Hopefully this return to the Eel River will continue increasing for years to come.” 

The fish that return to the main Eel below Cape Horn are a fraction of the fish that return to the huge watershed, the third largest entirely in California. The river and its tributaries total 3,448 river miles, flowing through five counties and many diverse habitats, ranging from high elevation conifer forests to coastal redwoods. The South Fork of the Eel is renowned for its wild winter steelhead fishery, while the Middle Fork is one of the last sanctuaries for summer-run steelhead in California. 

Eel River salmon and steelhead have struggled against habitat destruction caused by logging in the geologically unstable watershed, road building, floods and water diversions for decades. The illegal introduction of Sacramento pike-minnows from Lake Pillsbury has also played havoc with the native fish populations. 

A 2010 report by the U.C Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, commissioned by California Trout, said estimated Chinook runs were between 100,000 and 800,000 fish in the late 1800s and 50,000 to 100,000 in the early 1900s. During the late 19th Century, the salmon were so abundant that fish canneries operated at the mouth of the Eel. 

In the 1960s, Chinook salmon averaged an estimated 56,000 spawners annually in the entire Eel River basin and coho salmon averaged 14,000 spawners annually, according to the report. 

Steelhead numbers during the early-1960s were estimated to have been 82,000 spawners for the entire Eel River system. The DFG counted thousands of steelhead at Van Arsdale every year until 1963-1964 when the run plummeted to 846 fish. This was the year that record floods devastated the heavily logged watershed – and the runs have never really recovered since then. 

The report said counts of up-migrating adult steelhead at the Van Arsdale Fish Facility in the upper mainstem Eel during the period 1967-1977 ranged from 2 fish in 1976, a drought year, to 1,863 fish in 1970, averaging about 725 fish annually. The DFG counted 324 steelhead last year. 

On May 4 of this year, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) under the Schwarzenegger administration rejected FOER’s petition to increase water flows on the Eel River. This is water that FOER believes is critical for the survival of state and federally listed endangered salmon on what was once the third largest salmon and steelhead producing river in California. 

About Friends of the Eel River: 

FOER was founded in 1994 and has been acknowledged and praised for its devotion to the monitoring, defense and advocacy of the Eel River watershed. Through the education and support of residents, businesses and visitors in this third largest watershed in California, FOER has become a formidable challenger of large corporations and public agencies in the interest of preserving California’s North Coast public trust resources. 

FOER is supported by over 2500 members, a solid volunteer base, a large contingent of scientists and fisheries experts, sportfishing alliances, river enthusiasts, and concerned citizens who are working together to meet the challenges to the Eel River’s watershed integrity. 

For more information about Friends of the Eel River, call Nadananda at 415 332 9810, nada [at] eelriver.org.http://www.eelriver.org , 2346 Marin Ship Way, Suite 102, Sausalito, CA. 94965, PO Box 2039, Sausalito, CA. 94966. 

About the Round Valley Tribes of Covelo: 

The Round Valley Reservation consists of the Covelo Indian Community. This community is a culmination of small Tribes; the Yuki, who were the original inhabitants of Round Valley, and the Nomlacki, Wylaki, Lassik, Sinkyone, Cahto, Kabeyo, Shadakai, Yokayo, Shokawa, Kashaya, Habenapo, Wappo, Concow Maidu, Colusa, and the Achamawi, who arrived during the forced march of Nome Cult 1863. 

The Round Valley Reservation borders three sides of the Eel River; the main stem, the Middle Fork and the North Fork. Fishing and water rights were granted to The Round Valley Tribes in 1873, under treaty with federal government. The Eel River and its salmon and steelhead are sacred in the Tribal community; it feeds life to all “civilization” on the river.  

For more information, go to: http://www.rvit.org.