[env-trinity] Trinity Journal LTE- James Lee: TRRP putting out sincere effort to restore river

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_f46622da-9910-11e3-a560-0017a43b2370.html?_dc=644238072913.14 

 
TRRP putting out sincere effort to restore river
Posted: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 6:15 am
From James Lee
Lewiston
This letter is in response to Tom Stokely’s recent guest column, “Trinity River Restoration Program has lost its way.” I’d like to disclose the fact that I am the TRRP’s resident riparian ecologist and riparian workgroup coordinator, but I’m not writing on behalf of the program. I’m writing as a public citizen, resident and landowner in Trinity County.
Stokely uses unabashed hyperbole when he speaks of channel rehabilitation as, “More accurately it is a riparian clear-cut, the kind of devastation you would’ve seen in the 1960s and 1970s, before logging rules tightened.” He uses language like this at least twice in his essay. This really bothers me, because I know how hard the TRRP is working to improve salmon and steelhead habitat while minimizing short-term negative impacts to riparia.
In fact, the TRRP has invested countless dollars and hours of staff time in improving the long-term health of the riparian corridor.
What upsets me even more is the fact that, in the two years since there has been a riparian ecologist in residence at the TRRP, Stokely hasn’t made any attempt at all to make personal contact with him to voice these concerns or to offer his suggestions for improvement. There is no excuse for this. Mr. Stokely is a member of the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group, which is commensurate with the status of the highest ranking full-time employee in the organization, and he has had an incredible opportunity to affect change from within the organization, instead of throwing stones at it from the outside.
I think that Mr. Stokely is an intelligent and influential person, and many of the things that he says I personally agree with.
So it breaks my heart that while TRRP staff is voluntarily working unpaid overtime hours, putting out sincere efforts to recover the Trinity River fishery by applying the “best available science” while still being considerate of public opinion, budgets and the boundaries established by the Trinity Record of Decision, he is launching this political assault without even bothering to work with the guys on the ground, like me, first.
This really makes me question his motivations for publishing his essay. If I were you, I’d question them, too.
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