[env-trinity] Feds’ move to end Trinity River watchdog group scrutinized

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20171204/feds-move-to-end-trinity-river-watchdog-group-scrutinized&template=printart

Feds’ move to end Trinity River watchdog group scrutinized

Interior Department says paperwork not filed, group chairman says otherwise
By Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardMonday, December 4, 2017Was it politics or paperwork that led to the Trump administration’s decision last month to disband a public watchdog group tasked with overseeing a multi-million dollar, publicly-funded Trinity River restoration project last month? The U.S. Interior Department’s Press Secretary Heather Swift told the Times-Standard last week that it disbanded the watchdog group, known as the Trinity River Adaptive Management Working Group, because the group did not submit a short justification memo on why the department should continue funding its $100,000 annual budget. But the group’s chairman said to the Times-Standard on Monday that he was told on multiple times this year by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials that the paperwork had been filed. “There is some kind of bureaucratic mixup here,” Stokely said. “I suggest they give us another chance.”Stokely said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials — which have acted as a liaison between the group and Interior Department — told him they had submitted the paperwork on several occasions between April and this month. “They were unsuccessful in getting approval for any meetings, and that includes June, July, September and December,” Stokely said Monday.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Assistant Regional External Affairs Director John Heil said Monday that all inquiries on this issue are being deferred to the Interior Department. This reporter’s attempts to contact the Interior Department’s press office for comment were not returned by Monday evening. The Times-Standard is still awaiting responses to questions sent to the Interior Department on Dec. 1 regarding the justification memos and the department’s decision to make the working group inactive.The 15-member working group serves as a public advisory body for the federal Trinity River Restoration Program, which began in 2000 and seeks to restore the Trinity River’s fisheries that had been affected by dam construction as well as historic logging and mining. The group, along with several other federal advisory bodies under the Interior Department, were frozen earlier this year by the department in order to allow the department to assess their purpose.California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) is set to send a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke this morning requesting answers and documentation regarding its decision to end the group. Huffman states in his letter that he was informed Fish and Wildlife officials had sent in repeated requests to the Interior Department to continue funding working group meetings.A draft of the letter obtained by the Times-Standard on Monday calls on the Interior Department to provide answers to when the department made its request for the justification memo, what deadline there was and why the Fish and Wildlife Service’s multiple requests for meetings were not an indicator that the advisory group “was necessary and active?”Huffman is asking the department to answer these questions by Dec. 22.Huffman is also requesting copies of Interior Department documents and communications regarding the working group since it began reviewing the status of the committee in May, “including any justifications that were received but deemed inadequate.”“The Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group is essential to ensuring public accountability of the Trinity River Restoration Program and is crucial to the program’s success,” Huffman writes in the letter. “In addition to the oversight requests above, I ask that [working group] immediately be declared active, that requests to hold [working group] meetings be acknowledged and approved, and that [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] be directed to advertise [working group] appointments before the expiration of current terms in March 2018.”Another working group member, David Steinhauser of Trinity River Rafting in Big Bar, said he has served on with the working group since 2001. Steinhauser said Monday that he is skeptical about the Interior Department’s claims that the paperwork wasn’t filed given that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have always been very responsive to the group in the past.“To me, not submitting a simple memo is extremely unlikely,” Steinhauser said Monday.For this reason, Steinhauser said he believes the Interior Department’s decision was possibly politically motivated.The Interior Department’s move to make the group administratively inactive last month came as a shock to some members of the Trinity River Management Council, which manages the restoration program and is made up of six government agencies and two tribes. The working group and council have butted heads on the restoration project’s management in the past, with some working group members recently expressing frustration because their recommendations are often not followed. The working group i also raised concerns in March of conflict of interest and self-dealing by the council agencies as it relates to project funding, which is an issue that had been raised by the group in the mid through late 2000s. Steinhauser said he has been more supportive of the council’s operations compared to some of his colleagues, such as Stokely. Despite the disagreements and the council not always using the working group’s advice, Steinhauser said the loss of the working group represents a loss of dialogue and community integration.“I think having the [working group] in place adds to the credibility for the program because it was an opportunity for stakeholders to comment,” he said.Stokely held by his statement to the Times-Standard last week that the Interior Department had never asked him to submit this paperwork and that the department had not provided an explanation to them of why it disbanded the group in mid-November.Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.
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