Your account does not include highlighter on images.
Searches Highlighted on Image
National Sponsors
| May 4, 2011 Indian Valley Record |  |
|
©
Indian Valley Record. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 5 (5 of 38 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
May 4, 2011 |
|
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader 
|
Indian Valley Record
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 §k
Alicia Knadler agenda item for state game
Indian Valley Editor refuges on the Feb. 2 meeting
aknadler@plumasnews.com agenda, and no summary for
the meeting was published on
California Department of the state commission website,
Fish and Game (DFG) officials like for other meetings.
responsible for the move toNo specific agenda item for
eliminate state game refuges this was on the May 4 meeting
were lambasted by the public agenda either, nor was there
and several state, federal and any mention of it in the sum-
national groups and agencies, mary.
Out of about 5,000 commentsFor the Sept. 14 meeting
received, more than 90 per-there was also no specific
cent opposed the move that game refuge agenda item,
would effectively open the though the summary showed
refuges to hunting under state the addition of an agenda item
regulations, under the "open forum and
Second-generation local new/other business" heading.
game warden Bob Orange, not"Dr. Eric Loft gave a brief
retired, has been followingpresentation on DFG's evalua=
this issue closely, tion of the status of Game
He found three main themes Refuges," was written in the
in the comments after review- summary. And it provided the
ing more than half of them.following link to the website
Many comments were solelypost at
opinion: the people wanted to dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/gamerefug
keep the refuges in place, es.
The second major theme Orange watched a video
was the failure of DFG offi- feed of the meeting and said
cials to actively notify and in- Loft's presentation lasted "all
volve the public, as required of 60 seconds."
by the Legislature. There was no mention in
And the third major theme the report of any press releas-
addressed the need for envi- es for either print or broad-
ronmental studies and re- cast media.
views to validate DFG claims Feather Publishing re-
in their proposal, as well as porters receive several DFG
more opportunities for public press releases each month, but
comment during some of these have not received one about
review processes, especially the refuge issue.
for those refuges located on On the defensive, DFG
national forest lands, points to the number of re-
Feather Publishing receivedsponses received, more than
an advance copy of the DFG 5,000, to allay criticism about
report to the Legislature be- their lack of effort in the pub-
fore it was presented to the lic outreach department.
Senate Natural Resources They also mention poor tim-
Committee. ing with increased furlough
Since it arrived third-hand, days and budget constraints.
DFG Counsel Colin Mills was"Despite these limitations,"
asked to verify its authentici- reads the report, "numerous"
ty, which he did. staff members in regions and
For the past six months he headquarters provided infor-
has provided no estimated de- mation about the proposal to
livery date for the report or eliminate refuges at public
the collection of public corn- meetings they attended, such
ments,which he did finally as state Fish and Game Corn-
send out Thursday, April 21, mission meetings, commis-
though personal information, sion advisory meetings, and
and even some of the public af- county fish and game commis-
filiations of the respondents, sionmeetings.
had been redacted. They never made it to the
He.did nq~bow the report Plumas or Tehama :county
had already,been provided to fish and game commission
Tehama County Fish and meetings, even af-
Game Advisory Commission ter multiple invitations.
members, one of whom for- The report writer also de-
warded it to Orange. fends the lack of public out-
"You've got to see this," Or- reach by listing the articles
ange said, before providing it that appeared in newspapers,
to Feather Publishing. though he failed to mention
the Nov. 24 2010 Feath-
er Publishing article men-
tioned in more than one pub-
lic comment.
Orange said it was the best
of all of them and was probably
Lack of public outreach
At first glance, Orange no-
ticed DFG claims of public
outreach were not all they ap-
peared.
DFG officials claim in their
report to the Legislature that
information about their intent
was posted on the DFG web-
site in July, and a public no-
tice about it was published in
August, also on their website.
Then, in September, they
said letters were sent to coun-
ty fish and game commissions.
The report writer stated
that the evaluation of game
refuges was an agenda item on
the A1 Taucher Advisory Com-
mittee meeting for Sept. 14,
2010, and supposedly on the
two previous meeting agendas
as well.
Upon investigation by
Feather Publishing, that claim
is false.
There was no specific
Fish and Game commissioners of Plumas and Tehama counties
are upset over a proposal to do away with state game refuges,
which means they may be opened to hunting. Feelings about
the issue are a mixed bag. Map from the California Department of
Fish and Game
left out because it mentioned
there was no point person,
phone number or ad-
dress; respondents had to
'have Internet.
Specific outreach to
landowners has not occurred,
though some comments re-
ceived were from landowners
who would be affected by loss
of refuge status,
They will be contacted if the Leg-
islature "pursues this effort further,
according to the report, and so will
the rest of the public.
Public comments
Although the public was in-
vited to comment via the web-
site, the only method listed to
do so was virtually, via email
or an online form at survey-
monkey.com.
There was no phone num-
ber, mailing address or other
accessible method provided
for public comment.
The more than 5,000 com-
ments were received by the
two methods listed, and via
telephone, letter and web blog,
even thought those other
forms of contact information
were not provided to the gen-
eral public in the announce-
ment.
Most of the comments came
from grassroots efforts, or "ac-
tion alerts" from anti-hunting
interests.
About 90 percenVof the writ-
ten and emailed comments
were against the elimination
of the refuge status, while on-
ly 65 percent of the survey
comments were against it.
About 34 percent of the sur-
vey respondents thought
"some of all of the refuge des-
ignations could be eliminated
for a variety of reasons."
Of special interest to DFG
were the number of people
who misunderstood what a
game refuge was originally
meant to be, and the high in-
terest shown by people who
enjoy using the refuges for
other interests, like hiking, bi-
cycling, camping and other
outdoor activities.
"While public input was po-
larized with the anti-hunting
versus pro-hunting perspec-
tive, there weresomexecom-
mendations such as eliminat-
ing some refuge designations,
particularly those furthest
from population centers,"
read the report. "At the same
time, some refuges were high-
ly recommended for retention
by interest groups, organiza-
tions or landowners for a vari-
ety of other reasons than the
original purpose."
U.S. Forest Service Wildlife
Biologist Adam Rich, of the
Summit Ranger District on
the Stanislaus National
Fall 2011 Schedule Now Available at the Following Locations:
Indian Valley
Plumas County Library, 204 Ann Street, Greenville
Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce, 408 Main Street, Greenville
Young's Market, Taylorsville
....... Online at: www.frc.edu/admissionsandrecords/scheduleslhtm ....
R/vet To register visit www.frc.edu • River
College Or contact Admissions & Records ...... f ~ College
at (530) 283-0202, ext. 600
Dr. Grosse gave me back
I love!
Chiropractic
care is more
effective when
it's done with
a gentle touch.
We offer quality treatment for:
: ili!i :i:i i :;" * Neck Pain. Back Pain
• Muscle & Joint Pain
• Work-related injuries
ENJOY LIFE AGAIN!
I
i Stephen P. Grosse, D.C. Graeagle Chiropractic I I
Quincy Chiropractic 8989 Hwy 89 (By the Barn) I
J
2254 E. Main St., • Quincy Graeagle I
(530) 283-5666 (530) 262-4791 I
, q~ Open6am- 12pro Open lpm-4pm I
Get them all with
Discount Double Check."
Richard K. Stockton,
CLU ChFC, Agent
Insurance Lic. #0868653
Providing Insurance &
Financial Services
It's a quick end easy way to make sure you're saving all you can.
And it's free. Uke • good neighbor, State Farm is ltwm?
CALL ME TODAY.
65 W. Main St., Quincy, CA 95971
(530) 283-0565
Fax (530) 283-5143
www.richardstockton.us
WE LIVE WHERE YOU LIVE statefarm.corn"
Forest, where the Tuolumne
State Game Refuge is located,
was one of the people who sub-
mitted an email comment.
He objects to the DFG claim
that elimination will not sig-
nificantly affect wUdlife or
ecosystems, especially in ar-
eas like his that are suscepti-
ble to wildfires.
The expected influx of
hunters would increase proba-
bility of escaped campfires
and other artificial ignitions
in areas where there are pro-
tected activity centers for
spotted owls and goshawks,
which would be just two forms
of wildlife endangered by
wildfires.
Sensitive plant populations
may be impacted by increased
traffic, he stated, as could the
spread of noxious weeds.
He also claims DFG is un-
professional in its claims that
the refuges are a failure due to
declining deer populations.
"Refuge status has been in
place for '100 years and in the
face of a declining deer herd,
eliminating refuge status at
this time would be risky from
a wildlife management stand-
point," he wrote.
He also objects to the DFG
claim that elimination of
refuges would have no eco-
nomic impact to the public.
The forest service budgets
are already strained, he wrote,
and increased use of refuge ar-
eas on Forest Service lands
would require more road, gate
and barrier maintenance and
repair costs, and could poten-
tially results in millions of
dollars in expenses due to
wildfires.
There would also be added
law-enforcement Costs, he
wrote, as well as even more
impact to public lands when
private landowners react to
increased use by barring the
public from crossing their
properties.
The Plumas Audubon Soci-
ety believes the limited infor-
mation provided by the DGF
is biased and lacks scientific
rigor.
Members take the DFG to
task over usir~ a~luote from
Aldo Leopold, touted as the fa-
ther of wildlife, out of context.
"State game refuges have
not been 'A Tragic Waste' as
argued by Eric Loft, DFG's
Wildlife Branch Chief," the
comment reads. "They may
not have been as successful as
hoped because, as Loft himself
states in an interview for the
Silicon Valley Mercury news,
DFG has not worked to im-
prove wildlife habitat in the
refuges."
The Audubon directors
pledged to work with DFG to
improve habitat in the
refuges, like they have done
elsewhere in the county on
private and public lands.
"Working together we can
improve the state game refuge
system and ensure wildlife
protection for the next 100
years," their comment con-
cludes.
Dr. Steven White; of the San
Jose State University Depart-
ment of Biological Sciences,
takes DFG to task over elimi-
nating the refuges without
suggesting.an alternative to
help the declining deer popu-
lation in the state.
Then he goes on to lambast
the agency further because
the regulatory processes it
touts as being in place have al-
ready proven ineffective 'if the
population has been in decline
for at least half the time the
refuges have been in exis-
tence.
"You have made no com-
pelling arguments for opening
up the state game refuges to
hunting while there exist nu-
merous logical arguments
against it," he wrote in conclu-
sion.
Next week, see your Feather
Publishing hometown weekly
paper for more about the con-
tents of the report and others'
input.
Editor's Note: This is part one
of two in-depth articles about
the Department of Fish and
Game's proposed elimination
of all California State Game
Refuges except for the Sea Otter
Game Refuge and the Farallon
Islands Game Refuge.
Show how much you love her with
our delicious Mother's Day Brunch
Sunday, May 8th
lOam to 2pm
Reservations Recommended
¢. ain cT"Dinner _ ouse
Highway 89, Greenville
\
at the newl ¢ reopened '
Almanor West Grill
Sunday, May 8th~~v~j:~
Hours: 10am - 2pm - =
25! )-55 5
Reservations accepted
Opening for dinners
May 13 & 14
Friday & Saturdays ...........
Lunches starting May 16
Located on the Golf Corse .........
Lake Almanor West
111 Slim Drive .