[env-trinity] Westlands/Bollibokka SF Chronicle January 28

Thu Feb 1 14:37:13 PST 2007

Oh my god, somebody needs to tell Senator Di FI she needs new  
advisors on rivers and fisheries issues ... I cannot believe how  
profoundly stupid her quote sounds ...

On Jan 28, 2007, at 12:07 PM, Byron Leydecker wrote:

Land sale fuels fear of higher dam at Shasta

Greg Lucas, Tom Stienstra, Chronicle Staff WritersSunday, January  
28, 2007

The Fresno-based Westlands Water District -- already the largest  
agricultural user of Northern California water -- has spent nearly  
$35 million to purchase 3,000 acres of land on the McCloud River to  
make it easier to one day raise Shasta Dam.

The land acquired by Westlands would be sold to the federal  
government and inundated if officials and lawmakers decided to raise  
the dam.

Located on the property is the private Bollibokka fishing club, built  
in 1904 by the founders of Hills Brothers Coffee, and 26 Winnemem  
Wintu Indian villages with burial grounds. The Indians worry that  
their access to sacred sites could be blocked by Westlands.

"Our purpose in buying the property was only to ensure there would be  
no additional impediments if the (federal) Bureau of Reclamation  
concludes it's feasible to raise the dam," said Tom Birmingham,  
general manager and general counsel for Westlands. The Indians "have  
conducted cultural activities there. I don't see any reason why they  
couldn't continue to do that."

Westlands' goal of capturing more water in Lake Shasta would help  
make more water available to the 600 farmers it serves. Those farmers  
now, on average, receive only 65 percent of the annual 1.15 million  
acre-feet they are entitled to under the district's contract with the  
federal government. Any extra water the district receives could be  
sold at higher prices to urban users.

An acre-foot is 325,853 gallons -- roughly the annual amount of water  
used annually by a family of four.

Indians, anglers and environmentalists, who all oppose raising Shasta  
Dam, decried the sale to Westlands, which was completed Jan. 12,  
saying a higher dam represents a loss of irreplaceable river.

"It's going to inundate some wonderful, wonderful trout water and  
some very beautiful natural resources," said Duane Milleman, manager  
of guide services at the Fly Shop in Redding. "That's scaring a lot  
of people."

One prospective buyer of the property wanted to develop the property  
and create a subdivision of vacation homes. Westlands feared that  
more residents living in an area inundated by a higher dam "would  
create a greater impediment to the potential raising," Birmingham said.

That fear -- and what Birmingham described as a "bidding war" for the  
property -- led the water district to pay the Hills family $11,600 an  
acre -- a purchase price nearly $5 million higher than the Hills' $30  
million asking price. Birmingham said the water district would  
contract with someone to operate the fishing club.

"This was a case of a willing buyer, willing seller," said U.S. Sen.  
Dianne Feinstein, a supporter of raising the dam.

"It is in California's long-term interest to preserve the option of  
providing additional flood control, more cold water for the  
Sacramento River salmon fishery, more generation of electricity from  
clean hydropower and additional surface space at Shasta Dam,"  
Feinstein said.

The federal government has been studying the environmental impact and  
feasibility of heightening the dam since 2000 and expects to complete  
its review by fall 2008. Birmingham predicted it would be decades  
before the dam was raised, if Congress approves the project.

For the 120 Winnemem Wintu tribe members who live near the McCloud,  
the land around Bollibokka contains sacred places and 26 village  
sites, each with undisturbed burial grounds.

"We need those lands to survive. By facilitating the dam being  
raised, Westlands is engaging in cultural genocide," said Mark  
Franco, whose tribal title is "head man."

In the 1850s, there were some 14,000 Winnemem Wintu on the McCloud.  
By 1900, just 395 remained, according to Caleen Sisk-Franco, the  
tribe's chief and spiritual leader. Tribal members who fought in  
World War II returned home in 1945 to find Shasta Dam completed and  
their old homes underwater.

In 2000, the Bureau of Reclamation first proposed raising the 602- 
foot tall dam by 6.5 to 18.5 feet, prompting the remaining Winnemem  
Wintu to declare war on the United States.

The Winnemem Wintu are not a federally recognized tribe, which means  
they have less power to prevent potential destruction of their  
village sites and sacred places.

"This land is what makes us what we are," said Sisk-Franco. "We will  
fight to the end."

Leighton Hills, who managed Bollibokka fishing club for his elderly  
parents, said one of the conditions of sale to Westlands was that the  
water district continue to allow the Wintu access to their sacred sites.

"Westlands has a varied reputation in some parts of the state  
relative to environmental issues," Hills said in an interview. "But  
in terms of their willingness to be responsive to our concerns,  
they've been great."

Sale of the property was driven by estate planning and a desire to  
avoid having 50 percent of the asset lost to federal inheritance tax,  
Hills said.

It was purchased for $5 an acre by Hills' great-grandfather Austin  
Hills and his brother Rueben after Southern Pacific decided to lay  
its tracks along the Sacramento River instead of the McCloud.

A number of wealthy San Franciscans have been members of the club  
over the past 103 years. Its members opposed raising the dam because  
it would destroy the prime trout water running through the 7-mile  
stretch of river where the property is located.

"The McCloud certainly ranks among the best fly-fishing streams I've  
been on," said Birmingham, who has fished at Bollibokka, which means  
"black manzanita" in Wintu, and elsewhere in the West.

Unlike some of the Winnemem Wintu sites, the club's buildings will  
survive even if the dam is raised by 18.5 feet, Hills said. The  
lowest building, called "The Rock House" and built by Winnemem Wintu  
tribe members, is 33 feet above maximum reservoir level.

Allied with the Wintu are several environmental groups, including the  
Natural Resources Defense Council, which is working with the tribe to  
win recognition by the federal government.

"This purchase is a five-fer for Westlands," said Barry Nelson,  
senior policy analyst for the NRDC. "It eliminates an opponent of the  
dam, heads off the tribe, blocks any development, the district will  
be bought out with public funds if the dam is raised, and they can  
use the fishing club to lobby for the project."

Westlands has long been a target of criticism from environmentalists.

Farm drainage water from some of Westlands' 600,000 acres along the  
western side of the San Joaquin Valley carries heavy amounts of  
selenium, which can poison wildlife. Westlands has successfully sued  
to force the federal government to clean up the toxic water.

Jack Trout, a guide on the McCloud for 16 years, learned of the  
possible land sale when he was taking a group out to the Bollibokka  
last October and encountered Birmingham, whom he had guided before,  
and a local real estate agent looking over Bollibokka.

Trout wrote an angry blog about the potential sale and his chance  
encounter with Birmingham, who disputes Trout's account.

Trout remains angered by the sale, fearing not just a loss of  
livelihood but of something deeper.

"The river has given me life. The river was there before the Hills  
family, before the Wintu Indians. All we have in the end is the  
river, and we have to protect it."

Byron Leydecker

Friends of Trinity River, Chair

California Trout,Inc., Advisor

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

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Emelia Berol
P.O. 300
Willow Creek, CA 95573
(530) 629-3495
emelia at trailofwater.com

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