April 15, 2009
 | |
You all should know that "public trust" bond funding through voter-passed initiatives such as Proposition 50, Proposition 84, and others has been of HUGE importance for the carrying out of projects that private businesses cannot or will not support. These projects range from highway and water infrastructure to serious and continuing efforts to achieve clean water, recover salmon and steelhead habitats and populations, protect open space, aid the conservation of productive timberlands, and achieve other long-term public benefits. You all are also no doubt quite aware of the economic collapse last fall of the warped speculation-based economy. Well, these General Obligation (GO) Bonds are sold to financial investors, and if the investors are disabled by such an economic crash, those GO Bonds cannot be sold. "A" crashed into "B" and bond-funded projects in California were almost entirely stopped just before Christmas.
While trying to finish up this column, I was sent via email a list of the projects affected by the Bond Funding Freeze. I was going to print it out for careful non-electronic-vibrating, good old hard-copy perusal but stopped short of pressing the "print" command--99 pages in the document. It turns out that there are more than two thousand projects in the resource agencies, almost all of them stopped. Of those projects there is more than $250 million owed by the state for work done before the December stop order. The total value of the resource projects shut down is $2.8 billion.
| |
| |
* State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) on Agenda Item #13, Consideration of a proposed Resolution to implement federal economic recovery legislation for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) Program
* Joint Hearing on Stimulus Funding by the Assembly Water Parks & Wildlife and Environmental Safety and Toxics Committees
* Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Resources hearing on impacts of the bond freeze
* Meeting of the Pooled Money Investment Board, with a bond freeze-related item on the agenda
The SWRCB hearing room was packed with a couple hundred, mainly Sacramento-based lobbyists. The Joint Committee hearing featured agency summaries of how they are planning to deal with stimulus funding, along with a presentation by a representative of the Green Stimulus Coalition. The Budget Subcommittee on Resources featured a concise presentation by agencies of how dire the impacts of the freeze and financial conditions are, as well as a procession of witnesses mobilized by the California Council of Land Trusts--putting a real face on the real tragedies happening now and likely into the future unless positive action is taken. The last hearing was carried out by the Pooled Money Investment Board, the people who enacted the freeze. Together with the State Treasurer, the Comptroller, and the Head of the Department of Finance, they juggle the cash flow for the state.
To give you the flavor of some of the interaction, here is a transcript of David Simpson's testimony at the SWRCB:
David Simpson: Good morning. My name is David Simpson. I'm representing the Association of Conservation Contractors and Workers, a new statewide organization. Thank you for dealing with such a complex ball of wax...so many issues in one. I have great empathy for almost everybody who spoke today. The demands are many and you'll have to sort it out.
I'm going to do a little brief history here--how I got into this because it's instructive, I think. Thirty-five years ago a number of people around the state--the ones I know best were in Humboldt County--began to recognize that there was a vast undone job that if we wanted to be responsible for the places we lived we had to create mechanisms that were not currently in place, and to take responsibilities that we had not yet shouldered. These had to do with damage that had been done--in this particular instance to our watersheds by destructive industrial logging practices [resulting in] loss of viability--natural viability--productivity of our watersheds, loss of our salmon runs, loss of our timber base. All of these things we're still suffering for today economically. Humboldt County is a significantly depressed community, despite the well-known secret subsidies. [audience titters]
So what did, you know, taking responsibility mean? It meant taking the lands and watersheds that had been damaged and trying to figure out how to restore their productivity. And what we're doing really is rebuilding the foundation of our society, the foundation of our real wealth. So this is critical work done largely by non-profits or small for-profit organizations that should not be given second-class status as grantees rather than contractors, a very important distinction, which I think some of you recognize.
And our perspective at this stage of the game is to utilize the stimulus money in the most productive fashion--BUT--there's a problem, and it hasn't been dealt with today, and I don't know what to do about it. We have been--you know, we have over thirty years of careful fiscal management, thrift, and a lot of really hard work. We've put together a functioning mechanism for dealing ... scientifically and technically with the problems we're enjoined to deal with, and now that is seriously threatened. And I have not heard one person say anything about the incredible debt that we have all been left with by the "freeze."
And I don't know what we're supposed to do about this. Our organizations are at the edge. We can't pretend as if this isn't the case, and simply paper over--it's like burying a corpse that isn't dead, you know. We have to figure out how these organizations are going to stay alive. If we want them to stay alive we have to figure out how. This is not short-term work. This is long-term work that's going to take many decades. We're dealing with the matrix--the lands that, you know, conservation has largely ignored up to this point. We're dealing with the productive lands of our state and our nation. So I'm proposing that somehow we have to deal with this debt. Many of these organizations will simply cease to exist. One organization I represent, the Mattole Restoration Council, has $500,000 worth of debt, which is a huge amount for a non-profit. And they have no way of repaying this. Most of it is through a line of credit. We have to invoice in arrears. We invoice. We did the work. We honored our part of the contract and the state failed to honor theirs so this is a factor. You all have to deal with it. I'm not saying it's anybody's fault. I understand, but it's the reality of the situation. A lot of these groups, a lot of these small organizations that work very hard to stay alive to this point are going to be dead in a short time if we do not figure out how to deal with the debt. And now I hear it's one, two years--people are starting to use language like "if" and not "when" we retrieve our bond funding.
SWRCB Chairman Charlie Hoppin: Mr. Lawrence, I'm sympathetic--or Mr. Simpson . . .
David Simpson: Mr. Simpson. I'm almost done here. I want to wrap it up. I'm just going to say we, you know, we believe, we support the expanding of [federal stimulus] subsidies for "green" projects and we want--I'd love to confer with staff later today about some of the details of the application process, because some of our members simply don't understand what's going on. Thank you very much.
Some other thoughts about these circumstances: The state sold $6.54 billion in bonds the week of March 23rd. This is a drop in the bucket of the unpaid project bond debt. There is a move for "private placement"--investors making bond investments earmarking the specific project their money will go for. One of those has happened regarding San Francisco transportation-related projects. There is no oversight/coordination among agencies in the selection of stimulus projects and their relationship to the array of bond-frozen projects. In Sacramento I tried to stress the need to designate stimulus funds in combined projects to comprehensively meet goals for water quality, restoration of listed salmon and steelhead, and reduction of fire hazard/improved forest health. I used the specific example of Standley Creek in the Usal Redwood Forest, whereby unified projects could meet water quality standards under the South Fork Eel River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for sediment and temperature, improve quality and extent of listed salmonid habitat, reduce catastrophic fire hazard, and improve the health and productivity of the forestland.
Many good points were raised at the four hearings. Two that stick in my mind from a representative of the Sonoma Ecology Center were that 1) non-profits have in many ways taken over for the state and its depleted personnel for the public trust review of projects having an impact on the environment; and 2) these jobs are not just "construction jobs" but essential work in monitoring and planning. Losing the funds for this aspect means great risk of ineffective implementation of on-the-ground work.
The heavy impacts of the bond freeze locally and regionally include the halting of the work on two landmark projects. One is the Programmatic Timberland Environmental Impact Report (PTEIR) process for the Mattole River Valley, which would require low-impact logging under broad environmental overview in order to reduce cost and complexity for individual harvest plans. The second halted landmark process in the obtaining of a conservation easement for the Usal Redwood Forest, which would bar development on almost all of that forest in perpetuity and also contain some important environmental constraints. The appraisal of that forest is the first step and was almost underway when it was halted--both the appraisal and the potential easement are bond-funded (Proposition 84). This jeopardizes the future recovery, viability, and existence of the Usal Redwood Forest and the attainment of the RFFI stewardship model.
A good contact for all this is David Simpson.
| |
* Litigation is still pending over the coho salmon rules passed by the Board of Forestry (BoF) and the Department of Fish & Game (DF&G) last year, as well as the inadequate Road Management Plan package passed by the BoF. DF&G is making what appear to be good proposals at the BoF for improved rules regarding Class II Watercourses' Inner Gorges; Cumulative Effects (rate of cut documentation); and road and landing standards and management.
* After many trials and tribulations related to funding and insurance, salmon and steelhead spawning surveys are being carried out this season in Anderson Creek in the Usal Redwood Forest. Ideally such surveys will include Standley Creek next year. The surveys have shown that there has been "moderate" Chinook and coho spawning activity, lots of bear predation, and prospects for significant steelhead spawning in late March and April.
* Eyes continue to be glued on the new Humboldt Redwood Company, the offshoot of the Mendocino Redwood Company that successfully gained control of the former Pacific Lumber/Maxxam after the complex intrigue and waste of millions in the bankruptcy proceedings.
* Waivers for Waste Discharge Permits for logging are up for renewal by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, with hearings in late March and up through June. Erosion Control Plans and monitoring standards are issues.
* The Board of Forestry continues to work on changes in riparian protections based on the completed scientific literature review and responses to that review. There is industry resistance to a fair number of improvements being proposed. There will be hearings this spring on rules packages that provide for renewal of Sustained Yield Plans (SYPs) and a new Northern Spotted Owl protection process. The "Modified Timber Harvest Plan for Fuel Hazard Reduction," championed by the Sierra Pacific Industries representative on the BoF needs a lot of changes before it's anywhere near being acceptable.
* This year's SRF Conference was phenomenally successful--dozens of "dynamite" presentations and field trips by foremost authorities and practitioners. Dave Hope garnered the Lifetime Achievement Award. He'll be employed starting April 15th by Friends of the Eel River--pretty exciting development. Matt Smith received the Golden Pipe Award for Innovation. Herman Garcia from Gilroy, supported by his family and friends, received the Nat Bingham Restoration Achievement Award, based on the incredible story of rescuing juvenile steelhead in a drying tributary of the Pajaro River. More than 27,000 juveniles were moved to safe habitat in the Pajaro last year. (If only DF&G could be so enlightened in regard to dying fish in bad habitat conditions in the Mattole lagoon/estuary.) Check out all there is on the SRF calsalmon.org website. Hey, this year's Coho Confab is shaping up to be fabulous on the Mendocino Coast in August.
Get in touch with EPIC and Humboldt Watershed Council for the latest information on many of the above topics and other issues. Please get involved in ways that are effective and meaningful for you, and that contribute to real solutions.
For More Info:
* California Council of Land Trusts
www.calandtrusts.org
* David Simpson
bluegreen@asje.org
* EPIC
www.wildcalifornia.org
* Humboldt Watershed Council
707-822-1166
* ReSeed California
*stopworkimpact.ning.com*
* Richard Gienger
rgrocks@humboldt.net
Since arriving in the Mattole Valley of Humboldt County in 1971, Richard Gienger has immersed himself in homesteading, forest activism, and watershed restoration. Richard's column covers a range of issues including fisheries and watershed restoration and forestry, plus describes opportunities for the public to make positive contributions in the administrative and legislative arenas as well as in their own backyards.
More Information About
Restoration Leadership Project
More Articles...
TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2009