[env-trinity] Trinity Journal LTE- Travis Michel: TRRP, tribe audit overdue

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_6572ad6e-a40f-11e3-965b-0017a43b2370.html 

TRRP, tribe audit overdue
From Travis Michel Weaverville | Posted: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 6:15 am
I’m a local fishing guide, board member of the guides association and also a five-year alternate on the Trinity River Restoration Program advisory committee (TAMWG) representing upriver locals and guides. I am representing only myself in this letter.
Aaron Martin is a Yurok tribal fisheries employee and I feel that should have been mentioned in his letter (the Yurok tribe recieves millions from the TRRP annually). Our coalition letter opposing more mainstem projects at this time is not a personal attack on any individual, but on program managers who ignore the public and are out of control. What gets done is not decided by Martin, Lee, or even their bosses.
We are spending our energy where it will do the best, opposing the deceptive environmental document that didn’t mention the Independent Science Advisory Board report that says their expensive projects are doing very little if any good. The TAMWG has largely been ignored by the Trinity Management Council for more than 10 years, often due to tribal influence.
I agree with Martin that the higher ROD flows have made a difference in steelhead populations and fishing. If the TRRP is responsible for the large run last year then they must be responsible for the terrible runs this year. It was one of the lowest fall salmon redd counts in many years. The TRRP is focused mainly on hatchery chinook and massive mainstem channel manipulation, and does little if anything to help wild steelhead, coho or wild salmon by funding habitat work in the tributaries.
As a member of the taxpaying public my main concern is whether our money is being spent wisely and are the projects working? I feel an audit of the program and the money the tribes get is long overdue.
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