[env-trinity] Trinity Journal LTE's: TRRP needs restructuring and Brown trout kill unnecessary

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_b94d171a-9fa0-11ea-aef9-1f7c3ddd807b.html

TRRP needs restructuring
   
   - From Clark Tuthill Poker Bar/Douglas City/Redding 
    
   - May 26, 2020
    
   -  0
   
This is an open commentary on the present condition of the Trinity River fishery. Directed to all involved, including the Trinity River Restoration Program, downriver tribes, government agencies, concerned individuals and groups.  

I am a stakeholder, owner of a home on the Trinity River and a fisherman of spring salmon and steelhead since the early 1990s. During this time the Record of Decision was passed in 2000. This gave us the much needed additional water and hope to restore the Trinity “to the great fishery” it once was. Sadly, this has not happened. Instead, the general condition of the Trinity has been deteriorating. With a few exceptions, we have witnessed a steady decline in fish returns since the implementation of the ROD.

Why has this continued? I would propose the problem lies in the lap of a very dysfunctional Restoration Program. In 2014 and again in 2018, extensive analysis of the TRRP was conducted by outside agencies. In both final reports, the Trinity River Restoration Program was found to be in disarray in numerous categories.

Too many to mention here but needless to say a lack of vision, no adaptive management, infighting among special interest group, working outside the ROD, on and on.

In conclusion, I would have to agree with the 2018 Headwater’s Report. There needs to be a complete restructuring of the TRRP. It is very apparent we need an abrupt change in direction. More than $250 million has been spent on projects that have done little if anything to restore this once great fishery.
Time has come for change to what has been done for the past 18 years. A complete restructuring from top to bottom. Unless this is done, funding for the TRRP should be reduced to a bare minimum in order to facilitate the necessary changes. There is a group working toward this end.

http://www.trinityjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_babba332-9fa0-11ea-9cd9-47a2de5fab74.html


Brown trout kill unnecessary
   
   - From Russ Giuntini Lewiston
    
   - May 26, 2020
    
   -  0

In June the California Department of Fish & Wildlife has authorized the Hoopa Tribe and the Trinity River Restoration Program to start systematically killing off all brown trout in the Trinity River.

How is that possible, particularly when a comprehensive study of the brown trout population undertaken by CDFW biologists Robert M. Sullivan and John P. Hileman that issued in 2018 debunks the notion that brown trout are a predatory problem in the Trinity River. (https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID =178590&inline)

Since the Record of Decision issued in 2000, the population of brown trout in the river has decreased substantially. So why are they going to start killing them in June? That’s where things get fuzzy.

In meetings beginning in April 2018 that included government agencies and Yurok and Hoopa tribal representatives, a plan was hatched to kill Trinity River brown trout.

Relying on a scientifically flawed electroshock study of the river and with no public stakeholders in the meeting to get their way, the group mapped a path for the brown trout kill proposition to get before the California Department of Fish & Wildlife Commission for a hearing on June 12, 2019. Inexplicably, nowhere in the record of the hearing was a position taken by the Trinity County Board of Supervisors on this issue.

Brown trout were introduced into the Trinity River more than 100 years ago and the river is considered by many to be a world class brown trout destination. The Sullivan-Hileman study estimated that the brown trout fishery generates $1,350,000 in revenue for Trinity County.

So what can be done? The TCBOS should demand CDFW issue an immediate stay of their kill order so the matter can be studied locally in a transparent way before any irreparable harm is done to the river. We deserve a full and fair hearing at a time and place where all stakeholders can be present and all the science available can be aired.
Everyone would like to see an increase in salmon and steelhead returns, but let’s not look for a boogey man where none exists. Everyone charged with restoration of the Trinity River needs to take a look in the mirror and stop looking for boogey men, in this case the brown trout.


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