by Dan Bacher 

Three North Coast legislators have requested the California Fish and Game Commission to provide sufficient time for them, Tribes and fishermen to provide testimony during the Commission’s upcoming hearing in Sacramento regarding the implementation of the North Coast phase of the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. 

Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata), Chair of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, and Senators Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), also members of the Committee, made the request in a letter to Jim Kellogg, President of the California Fish and Game Commission, on January 25. 

The Commission will hold the special hearing in conjunction with the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force to receive recommendations regarding marine protected areas proposed for the North Coast on Wednesday, February 2, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at the Resources Building Auditorium, 1416 Ninth Street, First Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814. 

“As you are aware, the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture held a hearing on the North MLPA on January 21 in Eureka, California,” Chesbro, Evans and LaMalfa wrote. “We want to share with the Commission what we heard from our constituents and stakeholders.” 

The Legislators also asked the Commission to allocate time for representatives of North Coast Indian Tribes, as well from the regional stakeholders from the fishing, environmental and business communities, to speak before the Commission regarding their concerns regarding the MLPA process. 

“The Committee heard compelling testimony from North Coast Tribes that were unified in their concerns to protect their inherent rights to traditionally gather along the North Coast shoreline,” they stated. “We ask for the Commission to respect Tribal interests and provide for adequate testimony from the Tribal perspective. We encourage you to work with the Tribes to develop a workable format for their full participation at your hearing by providing a block of time for tribal testimony.” 

During the hearing, Thomas O’Rourke, chair of the Yurok Tribal Council, stated, “This act infringes on our rights. We will not surrender this right. Our rights are not negotiable.” 

Chesbro, Evans and LaMalfa requested a block of time of the Regional Stakeholder Group (RSG) to provide group input during a “brief presentation.” The RSG members, for the first time in the history of the contentious MLPA process adopted a unified proposal, rather than different proposals as was done in the Central Coast, North Coast and Central Coast MLPA processes. 

“Additionally, we urge you to allow for a briefing from Option Zero supporters,” the letter concludes. 

Supporters of Option Zero support managing fisheries on the Coast through existing regulations – and criticize the MLPA process for setting up marine protected areas that fail to protect the ocean from water pollution, oil spills and drilling, military testing, wave energy projects and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. 

MLPA critics also slam the process for its many conflicts of interest, including the domination of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served on both the North Central Coast and North Coast task forces and chaired the South coast task force. 

As required by Administrative Procedures Act, the Commission will hold three hearings on the North Coast marine protected areas prior to adoption. They hope to hold at least one hearing on the North Coast. 

At the February 3 meeting the Commission will adopt their calendar for the year – and it is likely a North Coast meeting will be scheduled for fall 2011, according to Chesbro’s office. 

The Commission will base public testimony time as per their guidelines on the agenda. It will be determined based on the number of people that desire to testify and the amount of time available. 

Generally, the Commission allows members of the legislature to speak first. Other elected officials speak next and are often provided 3-5 minutes. Public testimony follows. 

On the day of hearing, the public can view or hear the meeting via simultaneous webcast at http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings/FGCmeetingsvideolinks.asp. 

The complete coverage of the January 21 hearing, chaired by Assemblymember Chesbro, is available on-demand on Access Humboldt’s Community Media Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/AH-jcfa_1-21-11. In addition, an audio file of the hearing is also posted online:http://ia700409.us.archive.org/24/items/AH-jcfa_1-21-11/jcfa_1-21-11.mp3. 

To read the Inter-Tribal Water Commission’s Position Paper on the MLPA presented during the January hearing, go to: http://www.itwatercommission.org. 

Anglers launch lawsuit against illegal marine closures 

In other breaking MLPA news, member organizations of the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO), a coalition representing California’s recreational fishing and boating community, have filed a lawsuit in the San Diego County Superior Court seeking to set aside regulations established by the California Fish and Game Commission in connection with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. 

The commission approved regulations for the North Central and South Coast study regions in August 2009 and December 2010, respectively, establishing marine protected areas – essentially no-fishing zones – in large areas of the state’s coastal waters. 

The lawsuit, filed by United Anglers of Southern California, Coastside Fishing Club and Robert C. Fletcher, cites a lack of statutory authority for adopting the regulations, and, in the case of the South Coast regulations, numerous violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in the commission’s environmental review of the regulations, according to a news release from the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans. 

“From the outset, it was clear that the MLPA process was set up to reach a predetermined outcome under the fiction of an allegedly open and transparent process,” said Bob Fletcher, former president of the Sportfishing Association of California. “In a rush to establish regulations based on political timelines and a pre-determined agenda, the Fish and Game Commission has ignored the legal requirements it must follow.” 

Most notably, the petition states that: 

• The commission does not have the statutory authority to adopt, modify or delete marine protected areas under the MLPA’s main rulemaking provisions until it has approved a final Master Plan for the state. The final Master Plan has yet to be written or approved. 

• The other statutory authorities that the commission relies on do not provide the commission with the authority it needs to adopt these MPAs. 

• The privately-funded “MLPA Initiative” process has been conducted in a manner inconsistent with the process the state legislature directed in the MLPA, and meetings held by MLPA planning groups that should have been open meetings were closed to the public. The shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation, funds the implementation of so-called marine protected areas through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the California Department of Fish and Game. 

• The South Coast study region regulations were adopted on the basis of an environmental review process that is in violation of CEQA. 

“Our concerns were presented to the commission prior to its December 2010 vote to approve regulations for the South Coast,” Fletcher said. “Ignoring the information before them, the commission went forward with approving regulations to close 116 square miles of southern California’s coastal waters to recreational fishing. Many of the best sportfishing areas are included in the closures. 

“These closures don’t just disappoint the fishermen – they take away jobs and income for many California small businesses along the coast and elsewhere,” Fletcher emphasized. ” Particularly concerning are the flaws in a regulatory process that has been fueled with private money from special interests. The end result of this process has been a rush by the commission to adopt regulations without the authority it has to have to adopt them, and without a proper review of the environmental consequences of what they’re doing. That should be a concern for all Californians, whether they fish for fun or for a living, or whether they’ve never been fishing at all.” 

“Much of the best fishing areas are now closed under the MLPA process,” noted Dan Wolford, Science Director for the Coastside Fishing Club. “Anglers in the North Central region are now suffering because of excessive, unnecessary closures that we believe were improperly established. We find it extremely concerning that anglers, who are the original conservationists, are being taken off the water through a seriously flawed process, while the real threats to the health of our ocean, such as contaminated stormwater runoff and industrial pollutants, are allowed to continue unabated.” 

The petition is the second lawsuit involving the MLPA by members of the PSO. In May 2010, Fletcher filed suit against the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force and Master Plan Team – also known as the Science Advisory Team – for failing to respond to a Public Records Act request, as state agencies are required to do. 

These groups claimed that they were not required to make their records available to the public on the ground that they are not “state agencies.” Last October, a California Superior Court ruled that the Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Science Advisory Team are indeed state agencies and therefore are compelled by California’s Public Records Act to share information that they were withholding from public view. 

“The good intentions of the MLPA have been derailed by private interests and political motivations,” said Fletcher. “We urge anglers, outdoors enthusiasts and anyone who supports good government and the public’s right to know what its government is doing, to visit http://www.oceanaccessprotectionfund.org and donate what they can to help us to continue to fight this flawed process in the courts.” 

Besides the two PSO lawsuits, David Gurney, an independent film maker from Fort Bragg, is suing MLPA officials and state agencies in Mendocino County Superior Court over his arrest for recording and speaking at a “work session” in Fort Bragg on April 20, 2010. 

“California’s open meeting laws guarantee that citizens and members of the press have a right to keep track of what goes on in a public process, and assures they will not be harassed at public meetings,” said Gurney and his lawyer Peter Martin in a news release. “Yet the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, funded by the secretive Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, often had secret, unrecorded meetings, changed the rules of their process at whim, and abided only by the laws of their own choosing.” 

The defendants in the complaint include the California Department of Fish and Game, California Natural Resources Agency, Eric Bloom, Ken Wiseman, Eric Poncelet and the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

Jon Walton, long time conservationist and owner of Walton’s Pond in San Leandro, relaxes after he and sixty volunteers finished the first phase of a fish habitat project at Rainbow Lake in the Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area in California on January 8. Photo by Dan Bacher.

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Fishermen, scouts recycle Christmas trees for fish habitat 

by Dan Bacher

On January 8, the fish and anglers at Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area, located on the border of Fremont and Union City, received a late Christmas present.

As a couple dozen anglers tried their luck for rainbow trout on Horseshoe Lake, over 60 people converged on Rainbow Lake to install 900 Christmas trees as fish habitat in the adjacent Rainbow Lake. The group included volunteers from the Black Bass Action Committee (BBAC) and local Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops, along with staff from the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD).

The group finished tying the trees to chains before 11:00 am and then went to a barbecue lunch organized by Carter Fickes of BBAC. 

“When you talk about a habitat project, most people assume that you’re building bass hotels, habitats for predators to hide,” said Jon Walton of Walton’s Pond, who came up with the idea for the project 21 years ago. “However it’s more complicated and more interesting than that.”

Walton said the intent of the project is to build the “food chain from the bottom up.”

“When you put the Christmas trees in, first the microorganisms, both zooplankton and phytoplankton, arrive,” he noted. “Then the small invertebrates come to feed on the plankton.”

“They are followed by small fish and crawfish, which are in turn followed by the predator fish that feed upon them. The intent is build the ecosystem up from the lowest plankton to the Apex predator,” Walton continued.

The Christmas trees create rearing habitat for small fish, as well as an ambush site for large fish. “The results of the habitat projects are not instantaneous – they take 2 to 5 years to develop,” said Walton.

He said that the installation of the Christmas trees has paid off with healthier ecosystem and an improvement in the warm water fisheries at East Bay reservoirs. The habitat project, originally started at Lake Del Valle, has expanded to Lake Chabot and Quarry Lakes in recent years. 

Over the past 21 years, volunteers have worked on 6 projects on Quarry, 12 habitat projects on Del Valle, and 5 on Chabot. The project started in 1990 to improve declining bass and sunfish populations, the results of a diminishing food chain, at Del Valle. 

Mike Riehl of the BBAC emphasized that project utilizes unsold Christmas trees donated from lots in the East Bay that are recycled to boost local fish populations while engaging volunteers from the community.

“The Scouts get credit for their merit badges, the students receive credit for public service and the Christmas tree operations are able to recycle their trees while getting tax exemptions for the unsold,” said Riehl. “And the fish are helped immensely by this project.” 

Pete Alexander, the park district’s fisheries program director, said the project has improved the largemouth and smallmouth bass fishery at the two lakes in the recreation area.

“Last year we put 1,000 Christmas trees in Horseshoe, so this year we decided to improve the habitat at Rainbow,” he stated. “Today we just put the trees on the shore – later in the season we will drag them into the lake and sink them. This project is working out well.”

The recreation area is a classic example of what can happen when government agencies do something right. The area that includes two fishing lakes, Rainbow and Horseshoe, was a culmination of many years of planning and partnership between the Alameda County Water District and EBRPD.

The first phase of park construction began in 1997, when the water district used grading equipment to flatten the slopes of the quarry pit to make the area more user-friendly. Then in August of 2000 the park district began creating the recreational facilities, including turfgrass lawns, picnic areas, shade pavilions, a swim beach, a boat launch ramp, the handicapped accessible fishing pier, and a trail network.

However, in flattening the slopes, the park district had to eliminate much of the existing habitat of the willow-line, steep sided quarry pits. The habitat projects, along with the planting of a variety of trees and shrubs along the shoreline, provide needed habitat for an array of fish. 

Quarry Lakes first opened to fishing in December 2001. My cousin, Tom Mulderrig, and I were among the first anglers to fish Horseshoe. I fondly remember nailing my limit of chunky rainbows in 20 minutes and then showing them to Pete Alexander as he walked the shoreline that morning.

“Is that the first limit you’ve seen?” I asked Alexander. “Yes, it is,” he replied.

The lakes produced a half dozen smallmouth bass and between 20 to 25 fish over 6 pounds during the first year they were was open. However, most of these fish were taken home and eaten; Walton advises anglers to release their big bass to preserve this unique urban fishery.

Horseshoe Lake offers a year round trout fishery, since the rainbows are able to thrive in the lake’ deep waters during the summer. The park district and DFG together stock approximately 41,000 pounds of rainbow trout in the lake annually. During the summer, the district also plants channel catfish in Horseshoe.

One angler who frequently fishes the lake is Fred Mahakian, also known as “Fisherman Fred.” Sure enough, “Fishermen Fred’ was there the day of this year’s habitat project. He had already four rainbow trout to 3 pounds when I saw him fishing off the Peninsula with white Power Egg/Worm combos and had caught an 8.1 lb. rainbow the week before. “The fish lately have been biting early, right after 6 a.m. when I get here,” he advised.

At Quarry Lakes, you never know when that next bite may be from a trophy rainbow. Mike Cassell of San Jose landed the lake record 20 lb. rainbow while tossing out a Kastmaster from shore in December 2009. 

Other fish found in the lake include bluegill, carp, tule perch, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento sucker, Sacramento pike-minnow and Sacramento hitch. 

For more information about the habitat project, call Pete Alexander, EBRPD, 510-482-6030, Mike Riehl, BBAC, 925-443-8811 or Jon Walton , Walton’s Pond, (510) 352-3932. For general information, contact: Quarry Lakes Regional Park, 2100 Isherwood Way, Fremont, CA. 94536, (510) 795-4883.

by Dan Bacher 

Those who missed the State Legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture hearing in Eureka on January 21 concerning the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative now have a chance to watch on-line the testimony by Tribal leaders, fishermen, environmental representatives, MLPA officials and elected officials.

The complete coverage of the event is now available on-demand on Access Humboldt’s Community Media Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/AH-jcfa_1-21-11. In addition, an audio file of the hearing is also posted online: http://ia700409.us.archive.org/24/items/AH-jcfa_1-21-11/jcfa_1-21-11.mp3.

The hearing, chaired by Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast), was televised by Access Humboldt and streamed live on the Web. Held in the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors’ Chambers, the hearing focused on the North Coast Study Area of the MLPA Initiative and included testimony from MLPA Initiative staff, regional stakeholder groups, tribal representatives, environmentalists and local resource users.

During the hearing, Tribal representatives, fishermen and environmentalists gave passionate testimony regarding the unified proposal for a network of marine protected areas on the North Coast and the many flaws and deficiencies of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act Initiative.

North Coast residents have strongly criticized the MLPA process for its violation of tribal fishing and harvesting rights, numerous conflicts of interests and corruption of the democratic process. In contrast with the Central Coast, North Central Coast and Southern California coast regions, the stakeholders on the North Coast approved a unified single proposal for marine protected areas.

Thomas O’Rourke, Chair of the Yurok Tribal Council, “said the tribe does not accept any efforts of the state to subjugate a sovereign government by creating rules or regulations in tribal territory,” according to John Driscoll’s article in the Eureka Times-Standard (http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_17167399).

”This act infringes on our rights,” O’Rourke said. “We will not surrender this right. Our rights are not negotiable.”

“O’Rourke said that the unified proposal is the only proposal acceptable — if not endorsed — to the tribe,” noted Driscoll.

“The Inter-Tribal Water Commission wholeheartedly supports and advocates the sovereign right of Tribal Peoples to practice religious rites integrated in natural origins with cultural traditions that are intertwined with water, physical environments, habitat, air, and the gathering of regalia from marine ecosystems for ceremonial continuity,” said Atta Stevenson, Representative of the California Indian Heritage Council and Inter-Tribal Water Commission, reading the Commission’s Position Paper (http://www.itwatercommission.org). “Religious aspects are private matters that should not be governed or interrupted nor limited by the ‘recreational’category currently used. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (42 U.S.C. 1996), must be recognized and brought into any discussions that may or will infringe upon that right.”

The unified proposal would close or restrict fishing and gathering in approximately 13 percent of state waters, located within 3 miles of shore, in 17 different marine protected areas. MLPA critics emphasize that the initiative has taken water pollution, oil drilling and spills, corporate aquaculture, military testing, wave energy projects and other human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in its strange concept of marine “protection.”

Schwarzenegger privatized the MLPA process in 2004 when he directed the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation, to fund MLPA implementation in a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Department of Fish and Game.

The perils of the privatization of conservation were dramatically demonstrated when Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, was appointed by Schwarzenegger to sit on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces for the North and North Central Coast and to chair the South Coast Task Force.

The California Fish and Game Commission will hold a special meeting with the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force to receive recommendations for the MLPA North Coast Study Region on Wednesday, February 2, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at the Resources Building Auditorium, 1416 Ninth Street, First Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814 and on the day of the meeting (for viewing or listening only) via simultaneous webcast at http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings/FGCmeetingsvideolinks.asp.

Public testimony will be taken following agenda item 1(F) below.

Here is the draft agenda for the meeting:

1. PRESENTATION OF THE MLPA BLUE RIBBON TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MARINE PROTECTED AREAS (MPA) IN THE NORTH COAST STUDY REGION, ANALYSES OF THE PROPOSALS, AND RECEIPT OF COMMISSION GUIDANCE.

(A) OVERVIEW OF THE NORTH COAST MLPA INITIATIVE PLANNING PROCESS.

(B) COMPARISON OF THE TWO RECOMMENDED MPA PROPOSALS.

(C) SCIENCE ADVISORY TEAM ANALYSES.

(D) DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS.

(E) DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION EVALUATION.

(F) BLUE RIBBON TASK FORCE PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RECOMMENDATIONS.

(G) COMMISSION GUIDANCE TO STAFF ON COMMISSION PREFERRED PACKAGE AND ALTERNATIVES FOR REGULATORY AND CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA) PROCESSES. (THE COMMISSION WILL ANNOUNCE THE START OF THE REGULATORY AND CEQA PROCESSES AT A FUTURE DATE.)

For more information, call (916) 653-4899 or go to: http://www.fgc.ca.gov

by Dan Bacher 

Governor Jerry Brown has appointed Gerald Meral, a long time supporter of the peripheral canal/tunnel on the California Delta, as the Deputy Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency in charge of the Bay Delta Conservation Planning and Funding program. He was sworn in on January 20. 

Meral served as deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources from 1975 to 1983 under Governor Brown – and pushed for the construction of canal, in spite of strong opposition by fishing groups, environmentalists and Delta residents. The proposition to build the canal was defeated by an overwhelming vote of the California public in November 1982. 

Dr. Meral is a well-known speaker and lecturer on environmental issues, according to Sandy Cooney, Deputy Secretary for Communications of the Natural Resources Agency. He served as the executive director of the Planning and Conservation League from 1983 to 2003. 

Meral was a director of the western water program of the Environmental Defense Fund from 1971 to 1975. Dr. Meral holds a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. He lives in Inverness, Calif. with his wife Barbara. 

Meral’s appointment received mixed reviews from fishermen and environmentalists. Elizabeth “Izzy” Martin, CEO of the Sierra Fund, praised the appointment of Meral, who served as a board member of her organization until his appointment. 

“Jerry Meral is one of the most visionary, hard working and practical environmentalists in California,” said Martin. “His knowledge of the complex legal, scientific, cultural and economic issues that shape the Bay Delta will be crucial to helping the state struggle with long term sustainability issues that must be solved to secure a safe water supply over the long term for all Californians. We will miss his expertise on our Board, but wish him well in this challenging new appointment.” 

On the other hand, Bill Jennings, chairman/executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), criticized the appointment. 

“By choosing Meral, Brown appointed a long time cheerleader for the peripheral canal as the deputy director in charge of the effort to push the canal through,” said Jennings. “Dr. Meral will be confronted with the same problems and morasse that his predecessors faced.” 

“If the canal is built, it will turn the Delta into a cesspool and send the remnants of Delta fisheries to the scaffold,” Jennings noted. 

Jennings did point out one difference with Meral and his predecessors in the Schwarzenegger administration. “We can disagree with Jerry, but we can still talk with him,” said Jennings. 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger initiated the Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) processes to build a peripheral canal and new dams to facilitate the export of more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California. A coalition of Tribes, environmentalists, fishermen, family farmers and Delta residents oppose the construction of the canal because they fear it will lead to the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish populations.

David Gurney, an independent film maker from Fort Bragg, is suing officials from the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and state agencies in Mendocino County Superior Court over his arrest for recording and speaking at a “work session” in Fort Bragg on April 20, 2010. 

“California’s open meeting laws guarantee that citizens and members of the press have a right to keep track of what goes on in a public process, and assures they will not be harassed at public meetings,” said Gurney and his lawyer Peter Martin in a news release. “Yet the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, funded by the secretive Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, often had secret, unrecorded meetings, changed the rules of their process at whim, and abided only by the laws of their own choosing.” 

The defendants in the complaint include the California Department of Fish and Game, California Natural Resources Agency, Eric Bloom, Ken Wiseman, Eric Poncelet and the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. 

Since the MLPA process was privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, the initiative has openly violated numerous state, federal and international laws. Just some of the many laws violated under the initiative, funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, include the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, the California Public Records Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Gurney is seeking a permanent injunction that will prevent further violations of Bagley-Keene, Constitutional and other laws by the MLPA Initiative, as well as damages suffered in the arrest. 

“Interestingly, the California Attorney General’s Office has declined routine service of papers in the complaint, possibly forcing attorneys to initiate default proceedings against the state,” the press release noted. 

MLPA officials, in their bizarre conception of marine “protection, have completely taken oil drilling and spills, water pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, coastal development and all other human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in the so-called marine protected areas that are created by the initiative. These marine protected areas also do absolutely nothing to stop the collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon and other anadromous fish populations imperiled by massive water exports out of the California Delta and declining water quality. 

Below is the complete press release:

Jugglestone Productions 
http://www.jugglestone.com 

Contacts: David Gurney
(707) 961-1339 
jugglestone [at] comcast.net 

Peter Martin, Attorney 
(707) 268-0445 
peterericmartin [at] hotmail.com 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Fort Bragg, California, Jan. 19, 2011 

REPORTER SUES STATE AGENCIES 

A journalist forcibly arrested for recording and speaking at a public meeting 
is suing the privately funded MLPAI, and state agencies. 

On April 20, 2010, David Gurney went to a Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative meeting in Fort Bragg, California, to record the “public/private” agency that was closing off large areas of state waters to fishermen and seaweed gatherers. Soon after the meeting began, it was announced that the public would not be allowed to record or speak at the meeting. 

“I was surprised,” Gurney says, “The managers had decided to split up the thirty-four local stakeholders into separate sub-groups, against their will. They apparently didn’t want it on tape.” 

But he had been working on a documentary of the MLPAI process for the past nine months, and the camera was rolling. 

Executive Director Ken Wiseman immediately stopped the meeting. 

“He and professional facilitator Eric Poncelet came up to me with an armed fish and game warden, and ordered me to quit filming,” Gurney says. “I was threatened with ejection and arrest if I didn’t.” 

He complied, but three other times during the two-day meetings, he continued to record. “I wanted to get some quick B-roll footage, to show how the stakeholders had been split up against their own vote,” he says. Each time seen, he was ordered to stop. 

Gurney also spoke up at the beginning of the proceedings when it was announced there would be no opportunity for public comment. “I knew that was also a violation of the law, to hold a public meeting and not allow any comment,” he says. “I simply told the MLPAI that I had not given up my rights by attending their meeting.” 

Finally, near the end of the second day, Gurney asked a question that the staff did not want to hear. 

“During the question and answer period, I asked whether the MLPAI would make any provisions to protect the ocean from other activities besides fishing. Things like oil drilling, wind and wave energy development, fish farms, etc. As the facilitator was telling me that no questions would be taken from the public, someone sent a Fish and Game Warden over to arrest me,” Gurney says. 

He was quickly escorted out of the meeting hall, handcuffed, and taken away in a Fish and Game pick-up truck. 

In 2004, the MLPA “Initiative” resurrected a ten-year old law with undisclosed private funding, to create it’s own, nebulous state-like agency. Director Wiseman at first said that California laws, including the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, did not apply because the process was “advisory” to state government. And yet the state supplied scientists, advisors and armed Fish and Game Wardens to act as security guards for public MLPAI meetings. Many feel that the blurring of lines between private and public interests opened the floodgates for corruption, and that illegal private influence of the democratic process runs rampant in the MLPAI. 

California’s open meeting laws guarantee that citizens and members of the press have a right to keep track of what goes on in a public process, and assures they will not be harassed at public meetings. Yet the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, funded by the secretive Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, often had secret, unrecorded meetings, changed the rules of their process at whim, and abided only by the laws of their own choosing. 

Mr. Gurney had earlier volunteered to serve on his community’s citizen watch-dog committee to keep an eye on the “Initiative.” Many in his town felt that the privately funded commission had repeatedly crossed the line of illegality. 

In addition to violating state open meeting laws, a 72-foot blue whale had been killed off Fort Bragg by an unlicensed mapping vessel, contracted by the MLPAI. Native American interests were negligently ignored. Shady stipends, favors and promises were handed out from the unregulated contributions of the Resources Legacy Foundation. Secret, unrecorded meetings continued to be held. Local folks complained loudly of ineptitude, conflict of interest and corruption. 

“I just wanted to get what I could on tape, for the historical record,” he said. 

He is seeking a permanent injunction that will prevent further violations of Bagley-Keene, Constitutional and other laws by the MLPAI, as well as damages suffered in the arrest. 

Interestingly, the California Attorney General’s Office has declined routine service of papers in the complaint, possibly forcing attorneys to initiate default proceedings against the state. 

###

by Dan Bacher 

“Everyone who wants to will have an opportunity to comment,” Chesbro said. “I urge all who have an interest in the Marine Life Protection Act and how it is implemented on the North Coast to attend this hearing and make their voices heard. We want to hear from everybody.” 

Photo: Thomas O’Rourke, Chair of the Yurok Tribal Council, speaks at a protest against the MLPA on July 21. O’Rourke and represesentatives of other North Coast Tribes, fishing groups, environmental organizations and local governments will testify at at special legislature hearing about the MLPA in Eureka on January 21. 

Wesley Chesbro to hold MLPA hearing in Eureka on January 21 

by Dan Bacher 

The California Legislature’s Joint Committee on Fisheries will convene in Eureka on Friday, January 21 to provide an opportunity for North Coast residents to talk to state lawmakers with their concerns about the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. 

Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast), in his capacity as chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, today announced the Committee will hold the hearing to examine the North Coast Marine Protected Area of the MLPA. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, in the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Chambers, Fifth and J streets, in Eureka. 

“The Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to consider the North Coast MPA next month in Sacramento,” Chesbro said. “It is critical we hold a local hearing in advance so that North Coast residents who can’t travel to Sacramento have a voice. It’s also an opportunity for us to focus on the unified proposal – the hard work of the North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group that has been supported by seventeen local government jurisdictions in three counties and adopted by the Blue Ribbon Task Force.” 

“I intend to take what I hear from constituents in the local community at Friday’s hearing and relay their suggestions and concerns to the Fish and Game Commission when it meets,” Chesbro added. 

North Coast residents, including Indian Tribal members, fishermen, seaweed harvesters and environmentalists, have strongly criticized the MLPA process for its violation of tribal fishing and harvesting rights, numerous conflicts of interests and corruption of the democratic process. In contrast with the Central Coast, North Central Coast and Southern California coast regions, the stakeholders on the North Coast approved a unified single proposal for marine protected areas. 

This proposal will be considered at the Fish and Game Commission meeting Wednesday, February 2, and Thursday, February 3 at the Resources Building Auditorium, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento.

The North Coast MPA Study Area starts at Alder Creek near Pt. Arena in Mendocino County and runs up to the Oregon border, encompassing the entire coasts of Humboldt & Del Norte counties. 

Under the Marine Life Protection Act statute, the Joint Legislative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture has the authority to hold hearings on the Act and its implementation, according to a news release from Chesbro’s office. 

The Committee is a joint body of the state Assembly and Senate, consisting of four members from each house. Chesbro has served as chair of the committee since last fall. Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez reappointed Chesbro chair this week. 

State Senator Noreen Evans, who represents Humboldt and Del Norte counties, is scheduled to attend the hearing, according to Chesbro’s office. State Senator Doug LaMalfa, who represents Del Norte County, will send his Crescent City field representative, Scott Feller, to attend the hearing. Evans and LaMalfa both serve on the Fisheries Committee. 

The hearing will open at 10 a.m. with a traditional native prayer by Cheryl Seidner, an elder of the Wiyot people. An introduction by Chesbro and an overview of the Protection Act by MLPA Initiative staff will follow. 

Eureka fisheries consultant Adam Wagschal will detail the unified proposal for the North Coast Marine Protected Area. 

Members of a Native American panel, consisting of several North Coast tribes and tribal organizations, are expected to provide testimony. The speakers will include Thomas O’Rourke, Chair of the Yurok Tribe, John Corbett, Yurok Tribe Senior Attorney, and Mike Belchik, Yurok Tribe biologists. 

Other tribal representatives set to testify include Jacque Hostler, Chief Executive Officer, Trinidad Rancheria; Russ Crabtree, Tribal Administrator, Smith River Rancheria; Dale Miller, Chairman, Elk Valley Rancheria; Stephen Kullmann, Director, Environmental Department, Wiyot Tribe; Nick Angeloff, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria; Hawk Rosales – Executive Director, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council; Atta Stevenson, Representative, California Indian Heritage Council; and Valerie Stanley, Representative, Noyo River Indian Community. 

Participants in the Regional Stakeholder Group and members of the Blue Ribbon Task Force will also speak. This panel includes local elected officials and representatives from the fishing community and environmental groups. 

The hearing will close with a public comment period. 

“Everyone who wants to will have an opportunity to comment,” Chesbro said. “I urge all who have an interest in the Marine Life Protection Act and how it is implemented on the North Coast to attend this hearing and make their voices heard. We want to hear from everybody.” 

For more information, contact: Andrew Bird, Chesbro communications director, (916) 319-2001, Tom Weseloh, fisheries committee consultant, 707 445-7014, ext. 10. 

The Marine Life Protection Act was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Gray Davis in 1999. The Schwarzenegger administration privatized the MLPA process in 2004 when it allowed a private corporation, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, to fund the implementation of the process. 

The Blue Ribbon Task Forces that have overseen the implementation of the creation of so-called marine protected areas have included an oil industry lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other corporate operatives with numerous conflicts of interests. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who has repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California coast, was chair of the South Coast task force and sat on the North Coast and North Central Coast panels. 

Advocates of true marine protection have criticized the MLPA initiative for taking water pollution, oil spills and drilling, corporate aquaculture, military testing and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in the creation of “marine protected areas” along the California coast. 

On July 21, 2010, over 300 people including members of 50 Indian Nations, fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers and environmentalists peacefully took over a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg to protest the violation of tribal rights under the MLPA. 

“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,” said Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribal member and Coastal Justice Coalition activist, on the day of the protest. “That is the definition of cultural genocide.” 

“The MLPA process completely disregards tribal gathering rights and only permits discussion of commercial and recreational harvest,” Myers concluded. “The whole process is inherently flawed by institutionalized racism. It doesn’t recognize Tribes as political entities, or Tribal biologists as legitimate scientists.” 

More recently, the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force decided on December 10 not to approve an amendment that would have effectively terminated Tribal gathering and fishing rights on the North Coast, due to political pressure from the Yurok Tribe and other North Coast Indian Tribes.

Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird have not indicated yet whether or not they will continue Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track MLPA Initiative. 

Below is the agenda: 

Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture – North Coast MLPA Hearing 
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Chambers – 825 5th Street, Eureka, CA 
January 21, 2011 10 a.m. 

I. Wiyot Prayer – Dr. Cheryl A. Seidner 

II. Introductions – Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro, Chair 

III. MLPA Overview 

Ken Wiseman – Executive Director, MLPAI 
Melissa Miller-Henson – Program Manager, MLPAI 

IV. Unified Proposal Description 
Adam Wagschal – Regional Stakeholders Group 

V. Native American Panel 
1. Thomas O’Rourke – Chair, John Corbett – Senior Attorney, Mike Belchik – Biologist, Yurok Tribe 
2. Jacque Hostler- Chief Executive Officer, Trinidad Rancheria 
3. Russ Crabtree – Tribal Administrator, Smith River Rancheria 
4. Dale Miller – Chairman, Elk Valley Rancheria 
5. Stephen Kullmann – Director, Environmental Department, Wiyot Tribe 
6. Nick Angeloff – Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria 
7. Hawk Rosales – Executive Director, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council 
8. Atta Stevenson – Representative, California Indian Heritage Council 
9. Valerie Stanley – Representative, Noyo River Indian Community 

VI. Blue Ribbon Task Force/Regional Stakeholders Group/ Constituents 

a. Local Government Representatives Panel 
1. Jimmy Smith – Humboldt County Board of Supervisors 
2. Martha McClure – Del Norte County Board of Supervisors 
3. Kendall Smith – Mendocino County Board of Supervisors 
4. Doug Hammerstrom – Fort Bragg City Council 
5. Richard Young – Crescent City Harbor Master 

b. Stakeholders/Constituents – Panel #1 
a. Jennifer Savage – Oceans Conservancy 
b. Tom Trumper – Urchin Fisherman 
c. Bill Lemos – Natural Resources Defense Council 
d. Brandi Easter – Recreational Divers 
e. Zack Larson – Del Norte Fish & Game Advisory Commission 

Stakeholders/Constituents – Panel #2 
f. Dave Jensen – Audubon Society 
g. Aaron Newman – Humboldt Fisherman’s Marketing Association 
h. Tim Klassen – Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers 
i. Pete Nichols – Humboldt Baykeeper 
j. Dave Bitts – Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Association 

VII. Public Comment 

VIII. Closing Comments by Committee Chair

by Dan Bacher 

Photo of Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Wintu Tribe Chief and Spiritual Leader, speaking at the Salmon Summit in Half Moon Bay on December 4 by Dan Bacher.

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Winnemem Journey to Justice Benefit Set for Feb. 3 in Berkeley 

by Dan Bacher 

The Winnemem Journey to Justice benefit event is set for Thursday, February 3, from 7 to 9:30 pm at the David Brower Center at 2150 Allston Way in Berkeley. 

The evening of film, food and silent auction will assist the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe in their pursuit of justice, protection of sacred sites and the return of chinook salmon to the McCloud River. 

The evening will feature Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Wintu Spiritual Leader, and documentary film-in-progress excerpts of a new Sacred Land Film Project by Will Doolittle – “Dancing Salmon Home.” 

The Winnemem Wintu are a traditional tribe located in Redding. Their ancestral lands lie along the McCloud River and stretch from Mount Shasta to the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. They are a water and salmon people. 

Over 90 percent of Winnemem territory, numerous cultural and sacred sites and homes were flooded when Shasta Dam was constructed in 1945. The salmon runs of the river that once served as a source of food and cultural sustenance were decimated. 

“Today, the Winnemem are fighting to prevent the federal government from raising the Shasta Dam higher and to restore salmon runs to the McCloud River,” said Sisk-Franco. “We are fighting to maintain our traditions and way of life.” 

In March-April 2010, 30 members of the Tribe went to New Zealand to conduct joint ceremonies with the Maori Nation to bring back the winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Shasta Dam. Ironically, while winter run chinooks from the McCloud are now thriving in the Rakaira and other New Zealand rivers, the fish no longer run up their native river. 

The Tribe is putting pressure on NOAA Fisheries to allow them to bring back winter run eggs from New Zealand to be reintroduced into the McCloud. The tribe would like to provide passage around the dam for the salmon by connecting Dry Creek above the dam with Cow Creek below the dam. They want to build support among fishermen, environmentalists and other Indian Tribes to restore salmon to the McCloud. 

While the Maori and New Zealand governments said they would provide winter chinook eggs to be reintroduced into the McCloud, the U.S. government is reluctant to do this, claiming that the fish have adapted to a shorter river and estuary and may not re-adapt to the Sacramento system and Bay-Delta, according to Sisk-Franco. 

“While these governments are working with us, it’s our own government that is saying that we must do these studies to find out whether the salmon will survive the 300 mile journey,” said Sisk-Franco at the Salmon Summit in Half Moon Bay on December 4. 

“We are asking the commercial and recreational fishermen to work with us in getting these fish to come back to the McCloud,” she said. “The Indian people know that if the salmon are gone, so will we.” 

The effort by the Tribe to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River occurs at a time when Central Valley salmon populations are in their greatest-ever crisis. The Sacramento River fall chinook salmon run declined from nearly 800,000 fish in 2002 to only 39,530 fish in 2009. Although the federal government claims that ocean conditions spurred the collapse, Tribes, fishermen and independent scientists point to increasing water exports out of the California Delta in recent years and declining water quality as the key factors behind the unprecedented collapse. 

An art auction will present the works of Winnemem and local artists. Tickets are $15 to $25 (no one will be turned away due to lack of funds). All proceeds go directly to the Tribe. Tickets are available at the door or at http://www.winnememwintu.us. 

The Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water and Sacred Land Film Project are sponsoring this great event. 

For more information, contact Amy Vanderwarker: amyvander [at] gmail.com.

by Dan Bacher 

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, claimed the oil industry is “doing their share to promote renewable energy” in an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee on Sunday January 9. (http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/09/3308270/opinion-petroleum-companies-doing.html) 

“Villainizing the petroleum industry does nothing to promote sound energy policy,” she contended. “Oil companies in the United States are the single biggest private sector investors in the development of alternative and renewable energy supplies.” 

However, Reheis-Boyd, as chair of the Marine Life Protection Task Force (MLPA) for the South Coast and a member of the task forces for the North Central Coast and North Coast, approved fake “marine protected areas” that “villainized” sustainable fishermen and gatherers while doing nothing to stop the real causes of fishery declines – water diversions from the Delta, water pollution and coastal development. 

She and other task force members did everything they could to take oil spills and drilling, water pollution, development, military testing, corporate aquaculture and all other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in their bizarre concept of marine “protection.” 

Reheis-Boyd, who has called repeatedly for new oil drilling off the California coast, is a strange type of “marine guardian,” indeed. While grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Indian Tribes repeatedly pointed out the hypocrisy of an oil lobbyist overseeing the implementation of “marine protected areas” under the Schwarzenegger regime, corporate environmental NGOs repeatedly praised the corrupt MLPA process for being “open, transparent and inclusive.” 

Governor Jerry Brown and his new Resources Secretary, John Laird, have made no public statements or any indications of whether or not they will continue Schwarzenegger’s controversial MLPA process. However, it would be insane to continue the MLPA fiasco when Brown is calling for the slashing of state programs and California has the lowest ratio of game wardens to residents of any state in the nation to enforce these fake “marine protected areas.” 

Over 300 members of 50 Indian Nations, immigrant seafood industry workers, fishermen and environmentalists peacefully took over a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg on July 21, 2010 to protest the violation of tribal fishing and gathering rights under the MLPA process. The Fish and Game Commission at its meeting in Sacramento on February 2-3 is set to vote on a single proposal for a network of marine protected areas on the North Coast that includes provisions respecting tribal fishing and gathering rights. 

For more information about the MLPA, go to: http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/01/04/will-jerry-brown-continue-arnolds-mlpa-initiative/