Press release from the Hoopa Valley Tribe (7/25/24):
Today, following American Rivers named California’s Trinty River to its top-ten list of endangered American rivers. https://www.americanrivers.org/media-item/trinity-river-named-among-americas-most-endangered-rivers-of-2024/, the Hoopa Valley Tribe (Hoopa) charged the United States Bureau of Reclamation (“Reclamation”) and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (“CDFW”) with violation of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”).
Hoopa filed what is known as a 60-day notice of intent to take legal action. The notice gives Reclamation, which operates dams on the Trinity River that divert water to industrial agriculture and other uses in the Central Valley, time to meet its responsibilities to enforce the ESA short of litigation.
“Both Reclamation and CDFW are unlawfully taking Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) Coho Salmon in violation of the ESA through their ongoing operations of the Trintiy River Hatchery,” said the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Fishery Director Michael W. Orcutt.
In 1955 legislation, Congress required Reclamation to build the hatchery to make up for the loss of 109 miles of salmon habitat in the Trinity basin that Reclamation’s dams have blocked permanently since 1964.
Forty years ago, Congress found that Reclamation’s dams had not only blocked the Trinity River, but also caused “damage to pools, spawning gravels, and rearing areas, and to a drastic reduction in anadromous fish populations” downstream of the dams. Public Law 98-541. Congress gave the Secretary of the Interior two missions. First restore the natural fishery, and second “modernize and otherwise improve the effectiveness” of the Trinity River Hatchery. A combination of neglect, incompetence, and malice in Trinity River restoration and hatchery management led to the listing of Coho as a threatened species under the ESA.
Twenty years ago, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that Trinity River fishery restoration was “unlawfully long overdue.” The Court cleared the way for Reclamation to limit diversions of Trinity water to the Central Valley, restore Trinity River salmon habitat, and repair the Trinity River hatchery, all at federal water contractor’ expense as federal legislation required.
Ten years later, hatchery conditions had only worsened, which led to more litigation. In 2014, a northern California federal court entered a consent decree that established a hatchery management plan.
“Since then, Reclamation and its contractor CDFW have only made things worse,” said Tribal Chairman Ryan Jackson. “Our fishery is the mainstay of the life and culture of our people.” “If after 60 days Reclamation and CDFW haven’t turned the corner on ESA compliance at the hatchery, Hoopa will again have to ask the court to enforce our rights to be protected by the ESA and other federal laws we worked so hard to have enacted for our fishery,” said Orcutt.
CONTACTS:
Ryan Jackson, Chairman
707 298-8603 (mobile)
spottedfawnsociety@gamil.com
Michael Orcutt, Fisheries Director
707 499-6143 (mobile)
mworcutt@gmail.com
Other coverage …
Hoopa Valley Tribe files intent to sue feds over Trinity River water diversions
“On Thursday, the Hoopa Valley Tribe filed an intent to sue the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Fish and Wildlife, accusing them of violating the Endangered Species Act by reducing coho salmon populations via water diversions from the Trinity River for the Central Valley. This does not mean the tribe will actually sue the U.S. Government. If the parties are able to settle amicably and work out an agreement that ultimately increases the number of salmon spawning and swimming in the Trinity River, then a lawsuit could be avoided, said Ryan Jackson, the Hoopa Tribal Chairman. “We’re not necessarily opposed to winter flow variabilities or adjusting the way that the water comes downriver, we just don’t want it to take get taken out of the ROD (record of decision) flows. We want additional water to come from either the first proviso of the Trinity,” Jackson said. … ” Read more from the Eureka Times-Standard (gift article).
