Hoopa Tribe’s Closure of River Access Highlights Willow Creek Community Services District

Enforcement of Trespass Ordinance Frustrates Fishing Guides

By Kay Heitkamp, Two Rivers Tribune

Dec. 22 marked the last board meeting of the year of the Willow Creek Community Service District (WCCSD). Board members present included Bruce Nelson, Vonnie Gower, and Chairperson, Judy Gower. District Manager, Steve Paine, and Office Manager, Lynn White, were also present. A full audience packed the room to hear issues scheduled on the agenda.

Nelson and Chairperson Gower were sworn into office to constitute, along with Vonnie, a legal quorum.

Lonnie Danel reported that everything in the water department was going quite well but with more cold spells, there will probably be the normal types of problems with freezing conditions affecting water movement. He said the water treatment plant is in winter mode, averaging about 300,000 gallons per day. For the month of November, 9.3 million gallons were pumped. There were no water leaks to speak of.

“That’s about as low as we can get right now,” said Danel.

Pat Kaspari, engineering consultant with Winzler & Kelly, gave an updated waste water project report. The district is still preparing for the community development block grants coming out in January, portions of which require a designation of ‘blighted’ for Willow Creek. The community was previously listed under this designation, but lost the status and had to reapply in order to be eligible for the grant. The blight report has now been prepared and the WCCSD board needs to accept it so it can be placed on Humboldt County’s agenda to be adopted.

Vonnie questioned whether the designation would affect the entire community. Paine and Kaspari replied that the blight status was only being requested to qualify for and meet the eligibility requirements to apply for the block grants.
Ed Duggan reported briefly on TAMWG activities, beginning with the five meetings that were held to talk about problems on the Trinity River. He said he finally has an annual report of the Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) that has been three years in the making. He also presented letters to the board about upcoming 2012 restoration projects, saying there are two main projects scheduled that have been two years in the planning and permits stage.

There have been concerns voiced about continued gravel injection reducing adult fish holding water areas. TAMWG will present these concerns to the Trinity Management Council (TMC) with recommendations to stop or put the overall process on hold. Some projects in side channels in some areas have already been stopped and a review of Phase One will take place.

Shel Barsanti presented results of the annual district audit, stating there were no findings or recommendations.

“This is a wonderful organization,” said Barsanti. “I appreciate that everyone has been so helpful and cooperative. It doesn’t always happen that way.”

There was a reminder that the Fire Department’s annual Crab Feed is scheduled for Jan. 18, at 5:30 pm.

The board discussed results of an inquiry into powers available to the district through the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), a regulatory agency established by state law whose mandates include the orderly and efficient provision of services such as water, sewer and fire protection. At the direction of the board during November’s meeting, Paine looked into what types of police powers the district might have to help deal with local transient issues.

Findings showed five out of 15 powers are available to WCCSD with the town’s classification as a mini-city. These include supplying the district with water for multiple uses, collection and treatment of sewage and storm water, overseeing public parks and recreation, street lighting, and conversion of existing overhead electricity services to an underground system.

Paine mentioned that in the coming months, the downtown area will incur a few thousand dollars in expenses to repair sidewalks damaged by the surface roots of some of the trees. It was suggested that the district ask the Chamber and the merchants to share the costs.

New business continued with presentations by Duggan and Marc Rowley concerning the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s recent denial of access to non-tribal members to the sections of the Trinity River that run through the reservation.
Duggan began by saying, “As you know, the reservation has been posted with signs for no trespassing. Non-Hoopa tribal members are not allowed to cross tribal land for access to the river.”

He continued, saying that part of the problem was none of the fishing guides he knows were told by the Tribe about the closure. He added that even Rowley, who uses the Trinity most of the year for rafting, wasn’t notified.
“The tribe does have a trespass ordinance, and they certainly have the right to enforce it,” said Duggan. “It’s the lack of communication that’s upsetting. It’s been very disconcerting. I’ve fished on the reservation for over 20 years without a problem.”

Rowley added his thoughts to the discussion, saying he thought there was an MOU between the Hoopa Tribe and the U.S. Forest Service after the tribe’s boundary adjustment in 1997 stating that existing access points to the river would be left open. He wasn’t sure such an agreement existed.

“I agree with Ed that this has huge financial implications for Willow Creek, devastatingly huge,” Rowley said. “I would hope that the WCCSD and Chamber of Commerce could meet with the tribe, formally or informally, and have a discussion about the issues.”

Rowley continued, “My hope is that the tribe will consider developing a management plan along the river. I’m hoping we can work with them and they can develop a format to better control this genuine and real problem. I understand their frustrations. They’re absolutely warranted in being the way they are right now.”

He compared what’s happening now to what the BLM used to experience in the river area from Lewiston down to Helena.

“The river is being inundated with river traffic and organized fishing and rafting,” Rowley said. “It’s a new phenomenon that’s actually becoming a pretty big deal. The tribe is being impacted with this barrage of constant fishing pressure.”
“I’ve seen the pressure building, the problems growing, and tribal tolerance lessening,” Rowley said, adding that he thought things just got to the point where the tribe said, “Enough is enough.”

Board member Vonnie Gower compared the tribe’s position to home owners whose properties border the river, saying, “We can’t control who uses the river, but because our property extends to the middle of the river, we can control who goes across our property.”

Duggan said all the guides were agreeable that tribal lands are private property. He also stated that fishing guides should demand river etiquette and courtesy by all who use the river.
Board member Nelson commented he wished there had been more of an announcement in the Two Rivers Tribune than just the photo on the front page.

“I looked through the newspaper over and over to find out the reasons for the closure, but there was nothing more printed,” said Nelson. “I wanted more information – I wanted to know the issues.”

“The fishing community has caused the problem, not the tribe,” said Rowley.  “There’s been a tremendous amount of rudeness directed against tribal members who have just been trying to do their job – counting numbers and types of fish caught in the river.  There’s been a lot of rude confrontations and lack of cooperation.  Garbage has been left along the river. There have been fist fights in the parking lots. For a long time, the tribe chose to overlook these occurrences, but, finally, they just put a stop to it all.”

“The tribe’s issues are carbon copy exact to what’s been going on upriver with very diverse user groups, particularly over the past five years,” said Rowley. “Now, even rafting requires river rangers patrolling constantly to control incidents.”
Duggan said he’d like to see a meeting soon with the tribe to try and get things settled. He agreed with Vonnie that the district be represented by General Manager Steve Paine as spokesperson, a WCCSD board member, perhaps Nelson, a few representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, and he and Rowley to represent non-tribal commercial interests.

On another topic, concerns were voiced about the Hoopa Tribe shutting down its ambulance service, which would necessitate Willow Creek having to contract with Mad River Ambulance for services and would cause delays in response time.
Rowley suggested that many services that have been taken for granted are most probably not going to come back, and the community needs to start making plans for how to realistically deal with these difficult economic times.

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