Brown Will Appoint New Natural Resources Secretary to Replace Lester Snow

Brown Will Appoint New Natural Resources Secretary to Replace Lester Snow

by Dan Bacher

Jerry Brown will replace Lester Snow, the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, after he takes office as Governor on January 3.

Brown's transition team has already informed Snow, along with other Schwarzenegger appointees, that he will not be asked to stay on in the incoming administration.

"A number of the current administration appointees have been informed that their appointment will conclude when the current Governor's term ends," said Evan Westrup, Brown's spokesman. "The Governor-elect will be assembling a leadership team and will make additional appointments in the weeks ahead."

"As is standard in adminstration changes, the services of many of the current Governor's appointees will no longer be needed," he noted. "Our focus is on making sure that most qualified candidates are chosen for leadership positions."

Westrup said the incoming Brown administration hasn't chosen a new Resources Secretary yet and a number of candidates are being considered to fill Snow's position.

California's Natural Resources Agency is responsible for the state's natural resource policies, programs and activities. It oversees 25 departments, commissions, boards and conservancies, according to the agency website.

Fishing groups, Indian Tribes and environmentalists have criticized Snow, as Schwarzenegger's head environmental official, for his support of the peripheral canal and new dams, the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and the annual dewatering of the Scott and Shasta rivers, key Klamath River tributaries, by irrigators.

As the director of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) until Schwarzenegger appointed him as Resources Secretary earlier this year, Snow presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass, threadfin shad and other Delta fish species. Under his leadership, the state exported record amounts of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from 2004 to 2006.

"Lester Snow's removal from the Natural Resources Agency gives me hope that Jerry Brown will work on Delta issues with an open-minded attitude," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director for Restore the Delta. "I am hopeful that Brown that won't perpetuate the party line that the Delta is nothing other than a transfer site for California water. I am hoping that Snow's termination is a sign that Delta fisheries and Delta communities will be given equal weight in the discussion of California water policies."

"Our hope is that Governor Brown will take heed of what Tribal people and recreational anglers are saying about the MLPA and other water issues," said Georgiana Myers, organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribe member. "I encourage the Governor-elect to have not just big oil and corporate interests at heart, but to listen to the real Californians who use the ocean."