[env-trinity] Eureka Times Standard- Restricted access to Tish Tang stirs up concerns

[Tom Stokely]

Restricted access to Tish Tang stirs up concerns

Donna Tam/The Times-Standard
Posted: 01/16/2012 02:31:52 AM PST
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_19751634 

Click photo to enlarge


The Hoopa Valley Tribe plans to create a permit program for fishermen using Trinity River access points on the reservation after posted signs and locked gates in the area caused a flurry of concern from members and nonmembers alike.
Tribal representatives are meeting this week to discuss the possible details of the program, Chairman Leonard Masten said.
The chairman's office asked the tribe's forestry department to close gates and post no trespassing signs on the Tish Tang access road in early December. Soon after, fishing guides and tribal members raised concerns over the restricted access of non-tribal members. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has sovereign authority over its territory.
”It's one of those kinds of things that kind of got carried away,” Masten said.
After a meeting last Wednesday, the tribe released a statement clarifying its position.
”In recent years the tribe has been confronted with increasingly disrespectful and destructive conduct by users of tribal lands and resources,” the tribe said in its statement. “This includes repeated incidents of illegal dumping, theft of resources, habitat destruction, contamination of lands and waterways, and other public offenses. In response to what has reached an emergency level, action has been taken to restrict access via posting of designated roads and river access locations, together with the installation of gates in some instances.”


   
   
The full statement is available below the story.
Masten said the tribe is planning more enforcement efforts by the forestry department and tribal police.
”It's more about education than anything else,” he said.
Vice Chairman Byron Nelson said details are being worked out to clarify access after the initial reaction from the community raised several questions, including whether non-tribal spouses could accompany tribal members to the area.
”I think there was concern with the way it was posted. The council wasn't apprised of what was going on out of the chairman's office,” he said, adding that the council is in agreement over the need for something to be done to protect the tribe's natural resources.
George Frey, a lands and minerals specialist for the U.S. Forest Service, oversees the commercial permits issued for Trinity River access points on Forest Service land. The agency receives a percentage of each guide's earnings each year as part of its permit program. While Frey said he couldn't speak to the situation on tribal lands, he said he hasn't seen instances of guides trashing Forest Service land.
”It's their bread and butter and they take care of it,” Frey said.
The closed access points means guides can enter the river on the Forest Service's land at access points like Hawkins Bar, Sandy Bar, Big Rock and Kimtu, but they can't exit on the reservation's land as they would normally do.
River guide John Klar said he's glad to see there is some movement to come up with a permit program.
”I think it's a step in a positive direction,” the Fortuna resident said. “At least we're getting somewhere instead of just signs and gates. Hopefully, it comes to a pretty amiable resolution for everyone.”
Nelson said the recent action to close access points may be a good way to get the conversation started.
”This is something that probably we had neglected ourselves -- to try and get these things down into more clear policy and actually starting the permit process,” he said. “We've talked so many years about issuing a fishing license and the regulations we can do.”

Complete statement from Hoopa Valley Tribe regarding restricted access:

The Hoopa Valley Tribe is a federally recognized Indian Tribe with sovereign authority over its territory, including all lands within the boundaries of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. This authority includes both the right and responsibility to manage and regulate these lands for the benefit of the tribe and to meet our sacred duty to our aboriginal territory.
In recent years the tribe has been confronted with increasingly disrespectful and destructive conduct by users of tribal lands and resources. This includes repeated incidents of illegal dumping, theft of resources, habitat destruction, contamination of lands and waterways, and other public offenses. In response to what has reached an emergency level, action has been taken to restrict access via posting of designated roads and river access locations, together with the installation of gates in some instances.
The issues involved in addressing the problems that have required this action are broad and, in many respects, complex. The Hoopa Valley Tribe is engaged in ongoing initiatives to address these issues and to implement regulatory systems that will allow respectful access to tribal lands and waterways, by tribal members and ultimately nonmembers as well. Relative to gated river access, on an immediate basis the Hoopa Tribal Forestry Department is coordinating tribal initiates to finalize regulatory processes that may allow for permitted access. Be assured, the Hoopa Valley Tribe takes these issues very seriously and is engaged in a comprehensive effort to address them. As an example, our tribal fisheries department is coordinating tribal initiatives to negotiate with the state of California to implement tribal fishing licenses as one possibility for facilitating access of nonmembers to waterways within the reservation.

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