Locals want more time for marine protection proposals
Contra Costa Times
10/15/2009
The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District is demanding local interests get more time to come up with an array of areas that could potentially be protected under the state's Marine Life Protection Act.
In a recent letter to MLPA Initiative Executive Director Ken Wiseman, harbor commission President Dennis Hunter said the Dec. 15 deadline for local interests to draft alternative Marine Protected Areas -- in which fishing and other activities would be eliminated or restricted -- is unrealistic and would compromise the quality of the submissions.
Hunter wrote that important data isn't yet available, and that local stakeholders need until March 15 to produce the MPA recommendations. He wrote that the disclosure of the deadlines at meetings on Sept. 29 and 30 show that communication and trust has broken down.
”Embedding important deadlines that North Coast governments and tribes must meet in a slide show at a public meeting with no formal letters or engagement is inexplicable,” Hunter wrote.
If the deadlines aren't adjusted, Hunter wrote, the district will go to Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, and Sen. Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, to ensure the program complies with legislative intent and professional conduct.
The MLPA aims to protect different habitats along the California coast, such as rocky areas and kelp forests, as well as the species that live in them. The areas are expected to work as a network.
The initiative's initial foray into the North Coast study area, the last study area on the California coast, has been met with significant skepticism, and essentially every elected body has relayed serious concerns about the potential for the process to damage the region's economy and way of life.
Initiative Program Manager Melissa Miller-Henson said the program has tried to be flexible in taking a different approach to the formation of MPA arrays. But she said the initiative has its own deadline of October 2010, when the Blue Ribbon Task Force is due to finish its recommendations to be passed on to the California Fish and Game Commission in December 2010.
She also said that Hunter is mistaken that regional profiles -- which look at each community in the affected region and their economic situation -- are to be generated by the public. Miller-Henson said that initiative staff will perform that work, which will then be presented to the public.
”We are doing our best to accommodate the unique needs of this study region,” Miller Henson said.
Some locals involved in the process are concerned about the tight timelines.
