Photo: Thomas O’Rourke, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, speaks at a protest in defense of tribal rights at a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg on July 21.

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by Dan Bacher 

Officials from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and their supporters keep repeating the mantra that the process is “open, transparent and inclusive” and “science-based” as part of a well-funded propaganda campaign to greenwash Schwarzenegger’s abysmal environmental legacy before he leaves office. 

The 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 current 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.” 

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 also 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). 

Furthermore, the law also defines a “Marine life reserve,” as “a marine protected area in which all extractive activities, including the taking of marine species, and, at the discretion of the commission and within the authority of the commission, other activities that upset the natural ecological functions of the area, are prohibited. While, to the extent feasible, the area shall be open to the public for managed enjoyment and study, the area shall be maintained to the extent practicable in an undisturbed and unpolluted state” (Fish and Game Code 2852, section d). 

However, the implementation of the law under Schwarzenegger has become a parody of real marine protection. 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. 

Here are the questions: 

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? Do we want to see oil rigs off Point Arena, Fort Bragg and other areas of some of the most beautiful coastline of North America? 

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 MLPA also violates Article 26, Section 3, that declares, “States shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources. Such recognition shall be conducted with due respect to the customs, traditions and land tenure systems of the indigenous peoples concerned.” 

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.

“The fall run salmon population has declined from nearly 800,0000 fish in 2002 to only 39,500 fish in 2009,” said Pool. “This is the largest salmon crash in US history. It is a 97 percent crash – the run in 2009 was only 3 percent of what it was in 2002.” 

Photo: Caleen Sisk-Franco, chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, urges fishermen to support the Tribe’s plan to reintroduce winter-run chinook salmon into the McCloud River above Shasta Dam. Photo by Dan Bacher. 

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by Dan Bacher 

On December 15, the Obama administration officially announced its support for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal/tunnel. 

A coordinated report issued by six federal agencies calls for the construction of a “new water conveyance system” – the peripheral canal/tunnel – to move water from north of the California Bay-Delta to corporate agribusiness on the side of the San Joaquin Valley and to Southern California water agencies. 

The federal report, which complements a related report issued Wednesday by the Schwarzenegger administration, urges “continued progress toward completion of the California Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and supports major elements of the plan as a promising means of addressing the critical needs of both the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the state’s water delivery structure,” according a news release from the Department of Interior. 

“After years of drought, growing stress on water supplies, and with the Bay-Delta in full environmental collapse, it has become clear to everyone that the status quo for California’s water infrastructure is no longer an option,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. 

Salazar went on to praise Governor Schwarzenegger for developing “forward-thing solutions,” in spite of the fact the Schwarzenegger administration has presided over the collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and young striped bass populations by exporting record amounts of Delta water from 2004 to 2006. 

“Governor Schwarzenegger and the State of California have worked tirelessly and in partnership with us to develop responsible, forward-thinking solutions that can help us break the cycle of shortages and water conflicts,” Salazar gushed. “This is the moment to push forward with solutions, apply the best science available, and build a water future for California that is good for our economy, guards against the impacts of catastrophic earthquakes and other natural disasters, and helps restore California’s Bay-Delta to health.” 

Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke also lauded the release of the “coordinated report,” repeating the “co-equal goals” rhetoric that defined the failed CalFed process and now defines the BDCP. 

“Through the Interim Federal Action Plan for the Bay Delta, the Obama Administration has made significant progress working with California to address the State’s complex and long-standing water issues,” stated Sutley. “However, there is still much more work to do. Finalizing a Bay Delta Conservation Plan is a key part of establishing a long-term sustainable future for California’s water system. Any solution must address the dual goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem health, be science-based, and be developed with the full engagement of stakeholders. We look forward to working with Governor-Elect Brown to continue and accelerate our progress.” 

“Over the long-term, rebuilding the ecology of the Delta and securing the reliability of California’s water delivery systems carries huge promise for growing jobs across California, from the salmon-dependent fishing communities of coastal California to the farming communities of the Central Valley to Los Angeles basin,” said Locke. “We will continue to focus on critical next steps, including applying the best scientific research available to inform sound decisions and long-term planning.” 

Locke failed to indicate how two mutually exclusive goals – restoring salmon populations and the jobs that depend on them and providing increased, more “reliable” supplies of water for unsustainable corporate agribusiness on drainage impaired land and land developers in southern California – can possibly achieved at the same time. 

“The progress we’ve made together is historic,” gushed California Secretary for Natural Resources Lester A. Snow, the man who has prosecuted Schwarzenegger’s “scorched earth” policy towards fish and the environment, welcoming the federal support. “No group of federal, state and local interests, diverse stakeholders and committed individuals has ever come this far with a strategy to restore the Delta ecosystem and develop a more modern way to deliver our water. This is another important step we take together, but there is more to be done.” 

Inexplicably in light of the collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, the federal agencies are completely abdicating their mandate to protect the public trust by supporting this peripheral canal/tunnel plan. They are doing this even though the best available science, including the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt point to the key role that water exports and declining water quality play in fish declines. 

The release claims that “Preliminary modeling results summarized in the state’s BDCP Highlights suggest that a new north-south water conveyance facility could be operated in a manner that would generate average annual water exports over the long term that are more reliable, and greater, than the average annual exports that would be achievable under current constraints. For context, this modeling also suggests that these quantities may be comparable to the average annual Delta exports that have occurred since the Bay-Delta Accord, 15 years ago.” 

The key word here is “greater.” As environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes and scientists have pointed out for many years, what the Delta needs is less water exported out of it, not more. 

The Obama and Schwarzenegger administrations have instead committed themselves to increasing Delta exports, while calling for the “restoration” of tens of thousands of acres of marshes, wetlands, and habitat to greenwash the destruction of the Delta ecosystem. The building of the canal and this “restoration” farce will result in kicking many family farmers and Delta residents off their land in order to deliver water to rich water privateers like Stewart Resnick of Paramount Farms, who has made millions of dollars in selling subsidized water back to the public for an enormous profit.  

The peripheral canal/tunnel will cost an estimated $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to an economic analysis conducted by Steven Kasower and Associates in 2009. Fishermen, Tribes and grassroots environmentalists fear that increased exports of water from the Delta will lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other collapsing populations of fish.

As Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, told me at a rally against the peripheral canal at the State Capitol in Sacramento in July 2009, “The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn’t make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective. Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand– it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die.” 

The Obama administration has definitely signed on to “change” – change for the worse. Fishermen, Indian Tribal members, conservationists, family farmers and Delta residents must rise up and organize to stop this abdication of the public trust to serve the interests of agribusiness, southern California land developers and water privatizers.

The DOI press release is available at: http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Obama-Administration-Announces-Support-for-Essential-Elements-of-the-California-Bay-Delta-Conservation-Plan.cfm.

Photo: In yet another example of a corporate environmental NGO greenwashing the deplorable environmental legacy of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 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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North Coast Environmentalists Ask Brown to Cancel MLPA Initiative

by Dan Bacher 

John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, two of Mendocino County’s most dedicated and respected environmental leaders, are asking Governor-elect Jerry Brown to terminate Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s widely-contested Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. 

“We ask you to cancel the illegal and unconstitutional memorandum of understanding signed under the Schwarzenegger administration transferring powers of the State of California to the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private foundation, to control the process of creating Marine Protected Areas in California State lands and ocean waters under the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative,” the Philo-based couple stated in a letter to Brown. 

“The corrupt, privatized Marine Life Protection Act Initiative process scorns state laws and sovereign tribal rights,” they wrote. “Marine Protected Areas enacted under the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative threaten great environmental and economic harm to present and future generations of Californians.” 

“Please act to cancel the memorandum of understanding with Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, and to nullify the Marine Protected Areas already enacted by this corrupt private process. Californians need and deserve access to sustainable food from our public ocean waters and intertidal zone. We do not consent to being governed by private foundations,” they concluded. 

The Stephens-Lewallens have fought offshore oil drilling, the clear cutting of forests, military testing, wave energy projects and other threats to coastal ecosystems for decades. John was the co-founder of the Ocean Protection Coalition and Seaweed Rebellion, two prominent grassroots environmental organizations. 

The Marine Life Protection Act, signed by Governor Gray Davis into law in 1999, was designed to create a comprehensive network of marine protected areas along the California coast. However, the Schwarzenegger administration, in a grotesque parody of marine “protection,” has taken water pollution, oil drilling, oil spills, military testing, wave energy projects, habitat destruction and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table. 

Schwarzenegger appointed an oil lobbyist, real estate executive, marina developer and other corporate interests to preside over the implementation of so-called marine protected areas on the California coast. This process has been characterized by conflicts of interest, corruption 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 People. 

During the annual fisheries forum at the State Legislature in Sacramento in April 2009, It was John who exposed the alarming role that a top oil industry lobbyist, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, now the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, was playing in the MPLA process. 

“Why is Catherine Reheis-Boyd, CEO and Chief of Staff for the Western States Petroleum Association, a key member of the five-member MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force which has decreed new zones where people can take no food from state waters?” Stephens-Lewallen asked the Senators and Assemblymembers. “Is it coincidence that the Point Arena Basin offshore from Point Arena is the area of highest oil industry interest in Northern California, and the only tract here now open to Minerals Management Service offshore oil leasing process?” 

In August of 2009, Reheis-Boyd in fact became the chair of the South Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force and also served on the North Coast task force. Isn’t having a oil industry lobbyist, who has repeatedly called for new drilling off the California coast, a huge conflict of interest? 

The movement against the privately-funded MLPA Initiative is one of the most significant grassroots political movements on the North Coast since the Redwood Summer of 1990. On July 21, over 300 people including members of 50 Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers and environmentalists peacefully took control of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) meeting in Fort Bragg to demand that the initiative respect tribal gathering and fishing rights. 

Under political pressure from the Yurok Tribe and other North Coast Tribes, the task force decided on Thursday, December 10 not to approve a motion that would have effectively terminated Tribal gathering and fishing rights. 

The Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists insisted that there be no changes to the unified marine protected area proposal developed by stakeholders in a long, grueling and controversial process. The Klamath and Coastal Justice coalitions launched a campaign to urge the panel to stop any attempt to deny tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights – and this political pressure, along with a strongly worded letter by Yurok Tribal Chair Thomas O’Rourke and a letter from a coalition of other North Coast Tribes, apparently worked. 

The North Coast proposal will be presented to the Fish and Game Commission on February 2, 2011, after Governor-Elect Jerry Brown takes office. 

Meanwhile, the Commission (FGC) in Santa Barbara on December 15 voted 3-2 to approve a wide-ranging array of marine protected areas (MPAs) along the southern California coast. The Central Coast and North Central Coast marine reserves are already in place. 

“We hope that sovereign tribal rights will stay in the forefront of the MLPA process,” said Georgiana Myers, organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribal member. “This should be true in every region that is impacted by the MLPA, especially on the North Coast. We will be organizing people to show up in numbers for the Commission meeting in February.” 

Brown has to date made no comment on his position on the MLPA Initiative, a process that Governor Schwarzenegger privatized in 2004. While NRDC, the Ocean Conservancy and other big environmental NGOs avidly support the privately funded process, grassroots environmentalists, fishermen, Tribal members and pro-democracy activists strongly oppose the corrupting influence of private Resources Legacy Fund Foundation money on a public process. 

The MLPA process was privatized by 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.

Photo: Caleen Sisk-Franco, chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, urges fishermen to support the Tribe’s plan to reintroduce winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Shasta Lake. Photo by Dan Bacher.

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Salmon Water Now Covers Salmon Summit in Half Moon Bay 

by Dan Bacher 

Bruce Tokars took the Salmon Water Now video camera to Half Moon Bay on Saturday, December 4, 2010 to capture the Salmon Summit hosted by Representatives Jackie Spier and Mike Thompson. Over 200 people, including recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribal members and environmental activists, attended the standing room-only event in the Maverick’s Lodge and Conference Center. 

Here is the link and the details: 

HMB Salmon Summit – 12/4/10 – (Parts 1 – 4) 

“They came to Half Moon Bay, California to talk about wild salmon and the reasons for their near extinction,” said Tokars. “The overflow crowd heard from fishery scientists, fishermen, business owners, and people who just want salmon back in their diet. It was a remarkably powerful event and it gives hope that salmon can be saved, if we act now.” 

This video is in four parts. See it here: http://vimeo.com/channels/hmbsamsum 

Part 1 (16:40) features opening remarks by Congresswoman Jackie Spier and Congressman Mike Thompson. Representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources describe the state of salmon. There are lively exchanges between these presenters and the attending crowd. 

Part 2 (20:06) spotlights presentations by Christina Swanson, chief scientist of The Bay Institute and Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA). 

Dr. Swanson explains the state of salmon and their troubled habitat and what must be done to reverse the collapse of salmon. Grader’s comments address the human suffering caused by the loss of salmon and forcefully points to the forces in government and agriculture that have been responsible for the decline of the salmon fishery. 

Part 3 (15:20) covers legendary charter boat skipper, Jacky Douglas (FV Wacky Jacky), describing her love of salmon and the need to reverse their decline. 

Marc Gorelnik of the Coastside Fishing Club makes a passionate presentation about the importance of salmon to recreational anglers and the need to stop the “criminal” policies and actions of big agriculture on the West side of the Central Valley that has been the main cause of the decline of salmon. 

Duncan MacLean, a commercial salmon fisherman, describes how the loss of salmon impacts his life. His forceful comments and call to action are a rallying cry that anyone who cares about salmon should hear. 

Part 4 (21:04) features Peggy Beckett, owner of Huck Finn Sport Fishing in Pillar Point, describing the hardships she has been dealing with since the collapse of salmon. 

Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, explains her people’s connection to salmon and their efforts to be heard by the U.S. Government. Over 30 members of the Tribe went to New Zealand in the spring of 2010 to conduct joint ceremonies with the Maori Nation and to arrange the reintroduction of the eggs of winter run chinook from the Rakaira River back to the McCloud River, their native river, above Shasta Dam. 

Following these two presentations, the Representatives wrap up the summit with a call to have additional meetings in all 74 harbors throughout the state to keep the public spotlight on the plight of salmon. 

Finally, Salmon Moods (7:17) offers images of salmon fishing, salmon cooking and eating, salmon dreaming set to music. 

For more information, contact: Bruce Tokars, http://www.salmonwaternow.org. 

On the day of the summit, the San Francisco Chronicle ran my commentary supporting Speier’s call to save the salmon and outlining my solutions to the salmon collapse. 

Support fish, fishermen 

I applaud Rep. Jackie Speier for standing up for the salmon and salmon fishermen in her opinion piece, “No water, no salmon” (Open Forum, Dec. 2). 

California urgently needs the jobs that will be provided by the full recovery of Central Valley chinook salmon runs. 

To restore these iconic fish, three major actions are needed. 

First, the state and federal agencies must comply with the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, green sturgeon, delta smelt and southern resident killer whales. 

Second, the state and federal governments must abandon all efforts, including the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, to build a peripheral canal/tunnel to facilitate water exports to Southern California and corporate agribusiness. 

Third, the agencies must work cooperatively with Indian tribes, fishermen and environmentalists to reintroduce salmon and steelhead, wherever feasible, to Central Valley rivers above dams, including Shasta, Englebright, Folsom and New Melones dams. 

Dan Bacher, Sacramento 

This article appeared on page A – 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/03/EDB61GLH1N.DTL 

I will be publishing an indepth article about the salmon summit in several days.

by Dan Bacher 

Under political pressure from the Yurok Tribe and other North Coast Indian Tribes, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force decided on Thursday, December 10 not to approve an amendment that would have effectively terminated Tribal gathering and fishing rights. 

The decision is a victory for the Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists who insisted that there be no changes to the unified marine protected area proposal developed by 33 stakeholders in a long, grueling and controversial process. The Klamath and Coastal Justice coalitions launched a campaign on Monday to urge the panel to stop any attempt to deny tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights – and this political pressure, along with a strongly worded letter by Yurok Tribal Chair Thomas O’Rourke and a letter from a coalition of other North Coast Tribes apparently worked. 

“The MLPA is trying to ban any and all gathering along our coastline, including no traditional gathering whatsoever, in marine protected areas,” wrote Georgiana Myers, organizer of the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribal member, in Monday’s action alert. “I urge people to speak out against this insane idea of taking away what is not theirs to take!” 

The task force held a teleconference call at three locations – Fort Bragg, Eureka and Crescent City to discuss the amendment. Though Tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders attended the session at the different locations, there was no public comment period. 

Task force member Greg Schem, in explaining his reasons for his amendment to the “Enhanced Compliance Alternative,” said he was concerned when he read strong statements from a DFG briefing document that stated in essence that the Unified MPA Array didn’t follow the science guidelines of creating a marine protected area network and that something needed to be done. 

In a letter to task force chair Cindy Gustafson on November 16, Schem stated, “After initially reviewing the two documents I went back to the October 26 video and reviewed the deliberations, as the language staff developed does not appear to capture the intent of my motion for the North Coast Enhanced Compliance Alternative MPA Proposal. My intent was to provide to the California Fish and Game Commission an alternative MPA proposal that came closer to meeting the science guidelines to ensure that the statewide system of MPAs would help achieve the goals of the MLPA.” 

The DFG briefing document claimed, “The current proposal has low prospects of meeting network goals within the study region, or effectively contributing to the coastwide network of MPAs established in California.” 

However, all of the other task force members spoke in opposition to any changes to the unified proposal, noting the unique nature of the remote, lightly fished North Coast and all of the effort that Tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders made in coming up with a unified proposal, the first time it has been done in the widely-contested MLPA process. 

“I don’t think we should adopt further action,” said task force member Roberta Reyes Cordero. “The motion would, in essence, deprive the tribes of harvesting rights and would also destroy the trust that has been carefully built up over this process.” 

Task force member Virginia Strom-Martin emphasized, “I just can’t get over the fact that the proposal was accepted by every community on the North Coast.” 

After an hour of discussion, the task force decided to leave their motions from the October 26 meeting as they stand, with no additional alternatives or changes proposed. The task force on that day approved a unified proposal for marine protected areas on the North Coast from Fort Bragg to the California/Oregon border. 

The proposal will be presented to the Fish and Game Commission on February 2, 2011, after Governor-Elect Jerry Brown takes office. 

Georgiana Myers, organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribal member, was glad to see that the task force failed to approve the motion to terminate tribal rights. 

“We hope that sovereign tribal rights will stay in the forefront of the MLPA process,” Myers emphasized. “This should be true in every region that is impacted by the MLPA, especially on the North Coast. We will be organizing people to show up in numbers for the Commission meeting in February.” 

After the MLPA teleconference, members of the Coastal Justice Coalition conducted a direct action off Redwood Creek as a way of showing that tribal people will not comply with so-called marine “protected” areas created under the MLPA. “We urge people to take direct action in their own areas by continuing tribal gathering along the coast,” she added. 

Jim Martin, West Coast Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, was also relieved that the task force refused to second Schem’s motion. 

“This motion would have turned the intent of the stakeholders proposal backwards,” he noted. “Rather than allow tribal gathering as the unified proposal intended to do, this motion would have banned tribal gathering until the Legislature passed legislation allowing tribal members to gather along the coast.” 

For more information on the Coastal Justice Coalition, go to: http://www.klamathjustice.blogspot.com. 

A copy of the Motions, released on the California DFG website on November 16, 2010 can be found at:http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/recommendations_nc.asp. 

The Briefing Document Q2, California Department of Fish and Game Evaluation and Comments on the Final (Round 3) Stakeholder Proposal for Marine Protected Areas in the Marine Life Protection Act North Coast Study Region, is available online at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/meeting_102510.asp] The document is based on an oral presentation made on Oct. 25-26, 2010, was not available during the BRTF meeting and was not made available to the public until Nov. 30, 2010. 

Meanwhile, the California Fish and Game Commission at its December 15-16 in Santa Barbara could vote to enclose approximately 15 percent of southern California’s coastal waters within marine protected areas (MPAs) under the MLPA process. 

These MPAs will do nothing to “protect” the ocean from water pollution, oil spills, oil drilling, wave energy projects, military testing and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. 

Fishermen, tribal members and environmentalists have criticized the MLPA process for numerous conflicts of interests, mission creep and corruption of the democratic process. The task forces oversee the process are filled with oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. In a bad precedent for public policy in California, the initiative is privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation.

U.S., British use marine reserves as tool of imperialist policy  

Photo: Thomas O’Rourke, chair of the Yurok Tribal Council, speaks at a protest against the MLPA in Fort Bragg on July 21, 2010. 

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MLPA Attempts to Ban Traditional Tribal Gathering along North Coast 

by Dan Bacher 

A panel appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to implement his controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative will consider amending a motion that will, 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. 

This amendment will be discussed at Schwarzenegger’s Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) meeting this Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 10 am via teleconference. BTRF members will be distributed between locations in Crescent City, Eureka, and Fort Bragg, in a thinly-veiled attempt to prevent a unified protest by tribes, fishermen and environmental activists. 

“The MLPA is trying to ban any and all gathering along our coastline, including NO TRADITIONAL gathering whatsoever, in marine protected areas,” said Georgiana Myers, organizer of the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribal member. “I urge people to speak out against this insane idea of taking away what is not theirs to take!” 

Yurok Tribal representatives and other North Coast Tribes expressed strong opposition to the original motion four, the “Enhanced Compliance Alternative,” by Gregory F. Schem, at the October 25-26, Blue Ribbon Task Force, (BRTF) meeting in Fortuna. They did so on the specific grounds that once the BRTF started changing the unified proposal, “it would be an invitation to make further changes,” according to a draft letter to BRTF Chair Cindy Gustafson by Thomas O’Rourke, chairman of the Yurok Tribal Council. 

The unified proposal, developed by Tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders in a long and grueling process, included the recognition of traditional Tribal subsistence and ceremonial uses in a process that has been characterized by conflicts of interests, institutional racism, and the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws.

This recognition was only made possible under the pressure of non-violent direct action in Fort Bragg on July 21, when over 300 people including members of 50 Indian Nations, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists, and immigrant seafood workers peacefully took over the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting to protest the MLPA’s violation of tribal rights. 

Schem claimed in a letter to Gustafson on November 16, “After initially reviewing the two documents I went back to the October 26 video and reviewed the deliberations, as the language staff developed does not appear to capture the intent of my motion for the North Coast Enhanced Compliance Alternative MPA Proposal. My intent was to provide to the California Fish and Game Commission an alternative MPA proposal that came closer to meeting the science guidelines to ensure that the statewide system of MPAs would help achieve the goals of the MLPA.” 

Many feared that the task force, dominated by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other special interests, would renege on the unified proposal – and they apparently have done this by convening this meeting to amend the proposal. 

“Our worst fears have already been realized,” said O’Rourke. “The proposed additional motion for BRTF consideration is: ’only include proposed allowed uses with a moderate-high or high level of protection for any MPA…all proposed uses with a moderate moderate-low or low level of protection would not be included.’” 

“Almost all of the Native American traditional subsistence gathering species have been characterized as moderate or less in the level of protection,” said O’Rourke. “The net result of the motion and clarification would be the IMMEDIATE TERMINATION of Native American marine harvesting rights. The Yurok Tribe notes that you cannot fairly characterize yourself as being a supporter of Tribal Rights when your first action is to immediately terminate those Native American rights.” 

“The Regional Stakeholders Group, (RSG) and Unified Proposal was a unique effort that brought consensus among all stakeholders of the North Coast Group. Such a consensus has not been achieved in any other MLPA Group area. The RSG made it very clear that they wanted a ribbon to provide for Native American harvesting. To the extent that also required recreational uses they were still in support of allowing both uses while the legislature was deliberating,” he stated. 

O’Rourke noted that throughout the process the Stakeholders Group was concerned that their nearly unanimous view was not always being properly or strongly enough portrayed to the task force. With its letter, the Yurok Tribe is including a petition signed by 28 members of the RSG. The purpose of the petition was to make sure Native American uses would be continued throughout the MLPA process. 

“The Unified proposal and Native American subsistence rights were supported by an amazing 31 public entities in Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties,” said O’Rourke. “Clearly, the proposed amendment completely changes the Unified proposal. It is ironic that there was so much praise for the North Coast Stakeholders coming up with a Unified proposal and so little adherence is now being proposed. Others areas of the State will no doubt conclude there is little value in working together to come up with a common proposal that can so easily be cast aside.” 

O’Rourke said the California Fish and Game Commission has provided for a “regulatory avoidance ribbon” for both Native American and recreational uses in other MLPA regions. For example, the Commission approved a proposal to amend subsection 632 (b) (11) Title 14 CCR Re Stewarts Point Marine Reserve to allow for Tribal and recreational use at the June 24, 2010 and September 16, 2010 Commission meetings. However, this was only done under the pressure of a historic Kashia Pomo blessing ceremony that was held at Stewarts Point (Danaka) on April 30, the day before this sacred site was scheduled for permanent closure. 

“After all the testimony and input from Native Americans and the support of thirty one North Group area governmental entities, the Yurok Tribe is frankly shocked that the proposed motion recommends that the North Group area have greater restrictions against Native American subsistence harvesting than has occurred anywhere else under the MLPA process,” said O’Rourke. “We believe a compelling case has been made about the number and strength of Tribes in the North Group Area and that a wise public policy would include Tribes as part of the management solution at all stages of the process.” 

“To come out with an interim policy so strong against the Tribal uses is worse than if you had stated nothing. When the California Fish and Game Commission considers Native American and recreational users avoidance, as in the Central Coast Region, the Commission will have to do so against expressed opposition by the BRTF. Such specific and express opposition to Native American avoidance has not existed in any other MLPA,” O’Rourke continued. 

The Yurok Tribe requests the following substitute motion be adopted: “The BRTF intends that Native American and recreational uses be continued in all North Coast Region MLPA designations until such time as the California legislature allows for separate Native American subsistence marine gathering.” 

The MLPA’s panel’s attempt to terminate Tribal gathering rights is a clear violation of 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 amendment also violates Article 26, Section 3, that declares, “States shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources. Such recognition shall be conducted with due respect to the customs, traditions and land tenure systems of the indigenous peoples concerned.” 

The Yurok, Tolowa, Kashia Pomo, Cahto and other North Coast Tribes have harvested seaweed, mussels, abalone and other marine life in a sustainable manner for thousands of years in the inter-tidal zones of the North Coast. There is no evidence whatsover that this traditional activity has “depleted” any species to warrant closures.  

Recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, seaweed harvesters and grassroots environmentalists are all appalled by the MLPA’s attempt to renege on the unified proposal and the protection of tribal rights. Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, said, “Schem’s amendment is outrageous. I have no idea what he is thinking. This amendment circumvents the local process.”

Schem, the sponsor of the controversial motion that would in effect ban tribal gathering, is no stranger to charges of conflicts of interest under the MLPA Initiative. During a Fish and Game Commission meeting earlier this year, Bob Fletcher, former Deputy Director of the DFG, claimed there was evidence that two members of the South Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force, Bill Anderson and Greg Schem, agreed “to sign off on everything else” in return for not putting a reserve in an area where both had marinas and business interests, according to Jim Matthews of http://www.OutdoorNewsService.com. 

Schem and Anderson, both appointed by Schwarzenegger, are strange choices for “marine guardians” Gregory F. Schem is president and chief executive officer of Harbor Real Estate Group, specializing in marina and waterfront real estate investments, including a marina, fuel dock, and boat yard in Marina del Rey, in addition to other California assets. William (Bill) Anderson has been president and chief operating officer of Westrec Marinas since 1989. Westrec Marinas is the nation’s largest owner and operator of waterfront marinas. 

Fletcher, the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans and United Anglers of Southern California are pursuing multi-layered litigation against the MLPA Initiative. On October 1, a Superior Court Judge in Sacramento issued a ruling confirming that two panels overseeing the MLPA Initiative must comply with the California Public Records Act. Judge Patrick Marlette ruled that the Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) and Master Plan Team (MPT) are state agencies and are therefore compelled by California’s Public Records Act to share information with representatives of angling/conservation organizations working to protect recreational ocean access. 

The unified proposal, including any amendments to  the “enhanced compliance alternative, will be presented to the Fish and Game Commission on February 2, 2011, after Governor-Elect Jerry Brown takes office.

Georgiana Myers is urging everybody concerned about environmental justice and the protection of Tribal rights to show up at the teleconference locations on Thursday, December 9, at 10 a.m. to speak out in opposition to the task force’s attempt to terminate Tribal rights. The locations are: 

Flynn Center 
981 H Street 
Crescent City, CA 95531 

Red Lion Hotel 
1929 Fourth Street 
Eureka, CA 95501 

C.V. Starr Community Center 
300 South Lincoln Street 
Fort Bragg, CA 95437 

Please see the meeting agenda and the briefing documents at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/meeting_120910.asp. 

For more information about the Coastal Justice Coalition and Klamath Justice Coalition, contact: 
Georgiana Myers, Coastal Justice Coalition: (707) 951-5548, sregonlady [at] yahoo.com 
Frankie Myers, Klamath Justice Coalition: (707) 951-5052 
http://www.klamathjustice.blogspot.com.

by Dan Bacher 

Stormy Staats, an independent video journalist and member of the Klamath Justice and Coastal Justice coalitions, reports from Cancun, Mexico for the UNFCCC COP16 (United Nations Climate negotiations), where she is helping out with the COP16 Independent Media Centers. 

Stormy has covered numerous environmental justice battles in recent years, including the direct action protests by Klamath River tribes, fishermen and environmentalists in Portland, Oregon and Omaha, Nebraska to bring down PacifiCorp dams and the protests by North Coast tribes, fishermen and grassroots conservationists to defend tribal rights under assault by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s corrupt and unjust Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process. 

“We are posting stories and video from the voices of people outside the meeting who have the real solutions to climate change,” Stormy says. “We are trying to put the actual event in context for what it really is…a corporately hijacked, green washed vacation for those representing the governments who keep us on the track to profits over people.” 

Their videos cover rampant police surveillance of a permitted March “For Life and Climate Justice,” police harrassment of a Mayan Caravan headed to COP16, including the stopping of a religious ceremony, and other events. All posts are on the Mobile Broadcast News website.http://mobilebroadcastnews.com/MBN/story/Cancun-COP16. 

“I heard from members of a youth delegation inside the Moon Palace (the resort where the meeting is being held) that a lot of young people, among others are feeling dis-empowered,” she explained. “A few people from Friends of the Earth International said this is the same meeting as the last few COP meetings, just in a new location.” 

“The New Zealand youth delegates said that if you go by the rules (for fearing getting kicked out), you have to submit action plans to the event authorities 48 hours in advance of doing actions that make a statement in the Moon Palace,” she emphasizes. “Action plans are unsurprisingly being edited and denied. I encouraged them to just go for it, and join us on the outside. They got in trouble and were threatened with removal for standing in line wearing t-shirts that spell ‘Stop the Tar Sands’.” 

Stormy said it is “a lot more interesting” at the alternative forums (http://www.dialogoclimatico.org) and at the encampments where thousands of people from around the Americas are arriving and participating in alternative workshops and forums. Check out their videos to see whats happening in the streets! 

“Some of my favorite media-ninja friends and I have created a collective tactical media team, which means we are part of creating the history and future of this movement in our voice, the voice of those who believe in community rooted solutions to climate chaos,” Stormy reports. “If news media is reporting in a timely fashion, and documentary is telling a story long after an event, tactical media is telling the story fast enough to effect the future for change.” 

Community rooted solutions to “climate chaos” are much different from the “green energy” scams proposed by ruling elites throughout the world, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, corporate environmental NGOs and gas, oil and energy corporations. 

Each video you see is the product of 4-6 people filming, editing, and distributing media every day. “We are simultaneously filming ourselves working in this collective process to teach other people how to do the same. Sometimes it’s like the Mad Max thunder dome…two editors go in and only one comes out! We are having a great time challenging each other and ourselves to creatively go beyond the limits of our imaginations!” Stormy adds. 

These are the latest videos from independent journalists outside the COP16. Please pass on and post everywhere!! 

People’s Caravans Arrive in Cancun to offer Alternative Voice to COP16 Summit 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw9ULKRXt2g 

COP16: Rampant Police Surveillance of Legal, Permitted March “For Life and Climate Justice” 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzJJ7oeVZM 

Police Harass Mayan Caravan Headed to COP16, Stopping religious ceremony 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwgv4FjfJOM 

Glassbead Report from Espacio Mexicano 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BD3ZG80GCQ 

Great Links: 

Indigenous Environmental Network 
http://www.redroadcancun.com 

The Ruckus Society 
http://www.ruckus.org/blog 

Espacio Mexicano 
http://www.dialogoclimatico.org 

La Via Campesina 
http://viacampesina.org/en/ 

Risingtide North America 
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org 

INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK 
FOUR PRINCIPLES for CLIMATE JUSTICE 

“Industrialized society must redefine its’ relationship with the sacredness of Mother Earth” 

1. Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground 

Leave the coal in the hole – the oil in the soil – the tar sand in the land. Offshore accidents prove oil and water don’t mix. Climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels. Stop it at the source. Limit people’s consumption. Efficiency is meaningless without sufficiency. The transition to a low-carbon economy is not just about technology but about re-distributing economic and ecological space. In recognizing the root causes of climate change, people of the world must call upon the industrialized countries and the world to work towards decreasing dependency on fossil fuels. Demand a call for a moratorium on all new exploration for oil, gas and coal as a first step towards the full phase-out of fossil fuels, without nuclear power, with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment. 

2. Demand Real and Effective Solutions 

End the promotion of false solutions such as carbon trading, carbon offsets, using forests and agriculture as offsets, agro-fuels, carbon storage and sequestration, clean coal technologies, geoengineering, mega hydro dams and nuclear power. These allow the rich industrialized countries to avoid their responsibility to take major changes. False solutions allow polluting corporations to increase their profits; allow Northern countries to disregard their high levels of consumption and expand production and release of greenhouse gas emissions and conduct “business as usual” practices. Promote a just transition to a low-carbon society that protects people’s rights, jobs and well-being. 

3. Industrialized – Developed Countries take Responsibility 

The burden of adjustment to the climate crisis must be borne by those who created it. This means: 

o Demand industrialized countries agree to an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol for the second commitment period from 2013 to 2017 under which developed countries must agree to significant domestic emissions reductions of at least 50% based on 1990 levels, excluding carbon markets or other offset mechanisms that mask the failure of actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. 

o Based on the principle of historical common but differentiated responsibilities, demand 

developed countries to commit with quantifiable goals of emission reduction that will allow the return of the concentration of greenhouse gases to 300 parts per million (ppm), limiting the increase in the average world temperature to a maximum of 1 degree Celsius. 

o A minimum of 95% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized countries by 2050 based on 1990 levels. 

o An end to over-production for over-consumption, and a dramatic reduction in wasteful 

consumption and production of waste by Northern and Southern elites. 

o Developed countries, assuming their historical responsibility must recognize and honor their climate and ecological debt in all of its dimensions as the basis for a just, effective, and scientific solution to climate change. Restore to developing countries the atmospheric space that is occupied by their greenhouse gas emissions. This implies the decolonization of the atmosphere through the reduction and absorption of their emissions. 

o Demand financial support from the North to the South to help with the cost of adjusting to the effects of climate change and continuing to develop along sustainable lines and it must be subject to democratic control. 

o Honor these debts as part of a broader debt to Mother Earth by adopting and implementing the Cochabamba People’s Accord and the proposed Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. The focus must not be only on financial compensation, but also on restorative justice, understood as the restitution of integrity to our Mother Earth and all Life. 

4. Living in a Good Way on Mother Earth 

o Climate justice calls upon governments, corporations and the peoples of the world to restore, revaluate and strengthen the knowledge, wisdom and ancestral practices of Indigenous Peoples, affirmed in our experiences and the proposal for “Living in a Good Way”, recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with which we have an indivisible, interdependent, complementary and spiritual relationship. 

o The world must forge a new economic system that restores harmony with nature and among human beings. We can only achieve balance with nature if there is equity among human beings. The capitalist system has imposed upon us a mindset that seeks competition, progress and unlimited growth. This production-consumption regime pursues profits without limit, separating human beings from nature. It establishes a mindset that seeks to dominate nature, turning everything into a commodity: the land, water, air (carbon), forests, agriculture, flora and fauna, biodiversity, genes and even indigenous traditional knowledge. Under capitalism, Mother Earth is turned into nothing more than a source of raw materials. Human beings are seen as consumers and a means of production, that is, persons whose worth is defined by what they have, not by what they are. Humanity is at a crossroads: we can either continue taking the path of capitalism, depredation and death, or take the road of harmony with nature and respect for the Circle of Life. 

o The “shared vision” for “Long-term Cooperative Action” (UNFCCC Ad Hoc Working Group) must not be reduced in climate change negotiations to defining temperature-increase and greenhouse gas concentration limits in the atmosphere. Rather, it must undertake a balanced, comprehensive series of financial, technological and adaptation measures, measures addressing capacity building, production patterns and consumption, and other essential measures such as recognition of the rights of Mother Earth in order to restore harmony with nature.

Photo: Governor Schwarzenegger accepting an award from the U.S. EPA for his “environmental leadership.” From left to right: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. EPA Region 9 Administrator Jared Blumenfeld. Photo by Peter Grigsby, Office of the Governor.

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