Staff Writer
The Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) will hold a public workshop at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the C.V. Starr Community Center in Fort Bragg.
Organizers have changed the format from the last workshop to allow direct public input. They also have separated the workshop in Fort Bragg from others. At a meeting in September, three communities met at once on a Webinar — an online conference call. This time, there will be one Oct. 28 in Eureka and Oct. 29 in Crescent City.
The following are answers provided by Melissa Miller-Henson, MLPA Initiative staff member, to an ongoing series of questions from this newspaper.
– What are the details of the Oct. 27 workshop?
Beginning at 4:30 p.m., MLPA Initiative staff will make a presentation on the MLPA Initiative planning process in the north coast and provide an opportunity for interested members of the public to ask questions and provide input on the overall MLPA Initiative North Coast process and timeline, a press release said.
Beginning at 6 p.m., MLPA Initiative staff will conduct a training workshop for the public on how to develop and submit proposed external marine protected area (MPA) arrays.
The training workshop will cover: Development of the key components of an external MPA array, including science and feasibility guidelines, and training in MarineMap, the MLPA Initiative”s online mapping tool.
Although the meeting is open to the public, organizers are asking people to RSVP at 916-654-1885 or by emailing dga_mlpa@sbcglobal.net.
The MLPAI is a private organization hired by the state to impose the 1999 state law, the Marine Life Protection Act.
The process, funded by the Resources Legacy Foundation is moving forward in five regional processes. The North Coast Process began this summer. Organizers say locals must choose new areas to close to fishing by October of next year.
– Question: What is the hurry that many people who were at the MLPAI”s Sept. 29 broadcast meeting felt? Does this truly have to be completed before Gov. Schwarzenegger leaves office, as many have said? Under what authority can MLPAI staff say that if this community needs two years to do this, we have to do it in (less than) one? Why not let the local stakeholders group determine the time frame, be it one year or three?
As the MLPA celebrates 10 years as a state law, the California Natural Resources Agency and California Department of Fish and Game believe an 18-month planning process to reexamine and redesign the marine protected areas along the north coast region is a generous amount of time for any public process that allows opportunity for community and stakeholder involvement, as has been accomplished in three previous study regions.
The Memorandum of Understanding establishing the public-private partnership outlines the time frame for MLPA implementation to ensure adequate funding for the science-based and stakeholder-driven planning process.
The MOU can be found at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/highlights.asp and is not guided by the term of the governor.
Using the three previous study regions as a guide, we are confident that the planning timeframe is adequate to acquire a vast amount of public knowledge and input to ensure there is balance in meeting the needs of the community with implementing the law.
As the planning process moves forward in the north coast, the MLPA Initiative staff will support the work of the community stakeholders.
(At the September meeting, the community was given until October 2010 to turn over a final recommendation of extensive new areas to be closed to fishing.)
– Question: There were some good questions at the Sept. 29 meeting about the ocean being a fluid process. In talking to scientists one idea that comes up is it would be better if Marine Life Protected Areas could rotate over time. That seems excluded by the standards? Could MLPA areas rotate?
The State of California will use an adaptive approach to managing the statewide network of MPAs to ensure they are meeting the long-term goals of the MLPA and MPA-specific goals for individual MPAs. As MPAs and the overall network are re-assessed for effectiveness, changes may be necessary, either to individual MPAs or the network as a whole. This may mean changing allowances for extractive activities depending on how well MPAs are meeting their goals and could also mean that other previously closed sites may be proposed for re-opening. When an area is closed to one type of use or another it does not automatically mean that it will always be that way. The master plan for MPAs recommends that MPAs be re-assessed approximately every five years.
The MPA Monitoring Enterprise, a new entity developed under the auspices of the California Ocean Science Trust with start-up funding from the California Ocean Protection Council, was created to help meet the long-term monitoring requirements of the MLPA. In collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Game and various experts, the MPA Monitoring Enterprise is currently focused on developing regional and network-wide monitoring plans to deliver data essential for ensuring the long-term adaptive management of the statewide system of MPAs designated through the MLPA planning process.
Long-term monitoring will help inform future management decisions, help uncover relationships between network design aspects and ecosystem response, and to improve the best readily available science pertaining to MPAs.
See http://www.calost.org
/monitoring ent.html for more information on monitoring plans.
– Question: A top oil industry lobbyist, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Western States Petroleum Institute, is also the chairwoman of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, the group who has the ultimate power over alternatives created locally. That makes some locals nervous.
Is the current Blue Ribbon Task Force now working in Southern California the same organization who will consider recommendations from the local stakeholders group?
In each of the two previous study regions — North Central Coast and South Coast — some of the MLPA Blue Ribbon task Force (BRTF) members continued from the previous study region and one or two new members were appointed. We expect the same will be true for the MLPA North Coast Study Region, but a specific announcement has not been made by Secretary for Natural Resources Mike Chrisman, who appoints the members.
The BRTF will be comprised of up to seven distinguished, knowledgeable and highly credible public leaders with experience in addressing complex public policy issues and a diversity of professional experience. The MLPA BRTF for the north coast is expected to be appointed by early November and will meet for the first time later that month. Secretary Chrisman and MLPA Executive Director Ken Wiseman are having conversations with various community leaders to identify potential candidates for the BRTF.
The BRTF is responsible for:
* Overseeing a regional project to develop alternative marine protected area (MPA) proposals in California”s MLPA North Study Region to present to the California Fish and Game Commission,
* Preparing information and recommendations for coordinating management of MPAs with federal agencies, and
* Providing direction for expenditure of private funds.
The BRTF also provides direction in the face of uncertainty, while meeting the objectives of the Marine Life Protection Act. The chair of the BRTF oversees the work of the executive director of the MLPA Initiative, works with the director of the California Department of Fish and Game to convene a stakeholder group, and serves as the principal link between the BRTF and MLPA Initiative staff. BRTF members also serve as liaisons to the regional stakeholder group.
For more information on the BRTF, visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/brtfmain.asp.
– Question: What measures does MLPAI anticipate to correlate water pollution and global warming into the process of banning and restricting fishing?
MLPA directs the state to redesign California”s system of marine protected areas to increase its coherence and effectiveness in protecting the state”s marine life and habitats, marine ecosystems, and marine natural heritage, as well as to improve recreational, educational and study opportunities provided by marine ecosystems that are subject to minimal human disturbance.
MPAs in California range in the types of protection for marine life and habitat and are not solely no-fishing zones; recreational and/or commercial fishing are allowed uses in some types of MPAs.
For additional information on the three types of MPAs in California, visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/defs.asp.
The MLPA science advisory team evaluates water quality as part of the guidance it provides to inform the process and help advise the long-term protection of marine life and habitat, as required by the MLPA. Water quality and pollution is managed under the authority of the California State Water Resources Control Board (http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/), as well as programs managed at the county- and city-wide level and by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Global warming and other issues of an international significance are not being evaluated as part of the MLPA planning process.
– Question: President Obama is currently taking comments on an ocean zoning process, which is said to contemplate federal MLPAs. Also, new water quality standards, energy and new zoning in federal waters are on the table. Are the consultants of the MLPAI planning to work with the feds to connect MLPAs beyond imaginary lines? Who is in charge of that with MLPAI?
The MLPA Initiative planning process extends only to California”s state waters, three nautical miles off the coast. The MLPA does not grant authority to manage uses in federal waters (3 to 200 miles).
The California Department of Fish and Game is defined in statute as the lead agency to manage the Marine Life Protection Program and will continue to work with federal, state, and local agency partners to ensure the long-term health and management of California”s marine resources.
California has numerous partners engaged in the long-term management of marine resources and these essential partnerships will continue to be the foundation upon which the long-term management strategy is built to maintain enforcement, public outreach, education, and scientific monitoring of California”s marine protected areas.
– Question: Will new Marine Life Protected Areas be state parks? Or might they be managed by the Department of Fish and Game like Gridley”s Gray Lodge Wildlife Area is (based on the many enforcement challenges)?
The MLPA Initiative is not involved in decisions about which agency manages which type of MPA, though I do know that DFG and State Parks have been holding a series of meetings. The last couple of months to talk about implementation. Regardless, I don”t think there is anything that precludes DFG from managing an area like Gray Lodge.”
