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December 19: a dark day for science and the ocean

by Dan Bacher
The mainstream media, state officials and corporate "environmentalists" refuse to discuss one of the biggest scandals regarding the creation of these marine protected areas - the terminally flawed and incomplete science that these MPAs were based upon and the alarming fact that Ron LeValley of Eureka, the co-chair of the MLPA Initiative Science Advisory Team that oversaw the crafting of these alleged "Yosemites of the Sea," is now awaiting trial on federal conspiracy to embezzle charges.

Map of alleged "marine protected areas," otherwise known as "marine petroleum areas," "marine polluted areas" and "marine poaching areas," courtesy of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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December 19: a dark day for science and the ocean

Former MLPA Science Co-Chair charged with conspiracy to embezzle from Yurok Tribe

by Dan Bacher

December 19 will mark the first anniversary of the completion of the network of so-called "marine protected areas" off the California coast under the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

On that date last year, nineteen "marine protected areas" went into effect in the Northern California coastal region between the California/Oregon state line and Alder Creek, near Point Arena in Mendocino County, amidst great jubilation by state officials and corporate "environmental" NGO representatives. The implementation of these "marine protected areas" (MPAs) was preceded by those created on the South Coast, Central Coast and North Central Coast.

“We have completed the nation’s first statewide coastal system of marine protected areas,” claimed Cat Kuhlman, deputy secretary for oceans and coastal matters at the California Natural Resources Agency. “What this means for the future of California’s oceans and the coming generations that will enjoy them, is thrilling.”

"Fish and Game is incredibly proud of the work that we did, along with the Fish and Game Commission and the stakeholders in each region to create these designated areas,” gushed Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham.

Yet the mainstream media, state officials and corporate "environmentalists" refuse to discuss one of the biggest scandals regarding the creation of these marine protected areas - the terminally flawed and incomplete science that these MPAs were based upon and the alarming fact that Ron LeValley of Eureka, the co-chair of the MLPA Initiative Science Advisory Team that oversaw the crafting of these alleged "Yosemites of the Sea," is now awaiting trial on federal conspiracy to embezzle charges.

On October 11, the U.S. Attorney formally charged Ron LeValley of Eureka with "conspiracy to commit embezzlement and theft from an Indian Tribal Organization," the Yurok Tribe.

LeValley, of Mad River Biologists, served in his leadership role on the Science Advisory Team during much of the time that the alleged embezzlement occurred, yet none of the mainstream media accounts, with the exception of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, have mentioned this key fact.

Federal prosecutors charged LeValley with conspiring with Roland Raymond, former Yurok Tribe forestry director, to submit false invoices to the tribe for spotted owl surveys and other work that was never done. The invoices totaled nearly $1 million, according to federal documents.

LeValley originally pleaded innocent in the case, but is now working on a plea deal with federal prosecutors, according to court documents. (http://www.humboldtbeacon.com/news/ci_24668384/embezzlement-sentencing-pushed-back-forestry-directors-hearing-postponed)

Raymond pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to embezzle from an Indian Tribe. He was scheduled to be sentenced on November 5, but the Yurok Tribe requested a postponement of the sentencing, since the Tribe wanted to file a victim impact statement in the case.

On November 19, the sentencing of Raymond was postponed again to allow him a chance to respond to allegations that he lied to a federal judge. Raymond was then due back in court on December 9, but his sentencing has been rescheduled to December 23.

In the scandal that has rocked the North Coast, Del Norte District Attorney Jon Alexander on February 23, 2012 arrested LeValley and fellow Mad River biologist Sean McAllister on $1 million warrants accusing them of burglary, embezzlement and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Spotted owl surveys that were never done

The Del Norte County District Attorney alleged that the two well-known biologists participated in an elaborate embezzlement scheme headed by Raymond that bilked the tribe out of over $900,000 that was supposed to fund spotted owl research.

However, the District Attorney later dropped the charges to allow federal authorities to pursue the charges against Raymond and LeValley. Federal charges against McAllister haven't been filed yet - and it remains unclear if they will.

The document recently filed by federal authorities details how the alleged conspiracy proceeded. The link to the indictment is available at: http://noyonews.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/U.S._v._Ron_LeValley_As_Filed.pdf

According to the document, "Beginning on a date unknown, but no later than 2007," Raymond told LeValley he wanted to pay him, other Mad River Biologists employees, and some tribal forestry and fire crew employees a bonus. Raymond suggested LeValley submit an inflated invoice to the Yurok Tribe for an additional amount to cover the bonuses.

"LeValley agreed to this arrangement, and caused such an invoice to be prepared and submitted to the Yurok Tribe, " the document states.

At the end of October 2008, Raymond obtained tribal approval for $98,000 worth of Endangered Species Act (ESA) surveys to be conducted by Mad River Biologists (MRB).

Raymond told LeValley that the tribe did not have money to pay for fire prevention and other forestry work - and asked him to begin regularly submitting false invoices for work his company hadn't performed, according to the document.

LeValley allegedly funneled the money back to Raymond, less a percentage. This percentage was identified in other court documents as 20 percent, according to the Eureka Times-Standard. (http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_24368336/local-biologist-charged-embezzlement-federal-prosecutors-charge-ron)

During 2009 and 2010, as a result of the economic downturn, the price of timber fell significantly and timber harvesting declined dramatically. "The Yurok Tribe did not harvest much timber during those years and had little need for biological assessments," the document states.

Nonetheless, Mad River Biologists nonetheless billed the tribe for approximately $852,000 worth of surveys. LeValley funneled at least $540,000 of this money back to Raymond, keeping the balance to pay his company's operations.

These expenses included his salary, "not less than $47,000 in total 2009 compensation" and "not less than $9,800 in total 2010 compensation," the document claims.

Alleged embezzlement scam casts shadow over Initiative "science"

The Yurok Tribe, fishing groups and grassroots environmentalists were outraged by the alleged embezzlement scheme from the moment it was uncovered, particularly in regard to the dark shadow that it casts over the "science" used to kick fishermen and tribal gatherers off the water in the no-take "State Marine Reserves."

Many North Coast residents believe the charges against LeValley call into question the legitimacy of the "science" used to close vast areas of the North Coast to fishing and tribal gathering under the MLPA Initiative - while doing nothing to stop pollution, fracking, oil drilling, wind and wave energy projects and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering in a classic example of corporate greenwashing.

"I would like to know how the state of California is going to revise the science advice LeValley provided for the North Coast MLPA Initiative process, based on him allegedly filing false documents," said Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA).

He suggested forming a "truth and reconciliation commission" to unravel "what really happened" in the MLPA Initiative.

The validity of the science employed by the MLPA Initiative Science Advisory Team under LeValley's leadership becomes even more suspect when one considers that LeValley and the Team repeatedly and inexplicably refused to allow the Yurok Tribe to present their scientific studies regarding "marine protected areas." The Tribe exposed the questionable science of the MLPA Initiative in a statement on June 6, 2012. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/06/17/18715613.php)

"Under the MLPA each marine species is assigned a certain level of protection," according to the Tribe. "Species like mussels are given a low level of protection, which in MLPA-speak, translates to more regulation.

"To date, there has been no scientific data submitted suggesting that mussels on the North Coast are in any sort of danger or are overharvested. In fact, it's just the opposite. The readily available quantitative survey data collected over decades by North Coast experts shows there is quite an abundance of mussels in this sparsely populated study region," the Tribe continued.

"Fish like Pacific eulachon, also known as candle fish, are given a high level of protection, or in other words, their harvest is not limited by the proposed regulations. Eulachon are near extinction and listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act," the Tribe stated.

"Both of these marine species are essential and critical to the cultural survival of northern California tribes," said Thomas O'Rourke, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. "However, under the proposed regulations they would be summarily mismanaged. It's examples like these that compel our concerns."

The Tribe said it attempted on numerous occasions to address the scientific inadequacies with the MLPA science developed under the Schwarzenegger administration by adding "more robust protocols" into the equation, but was denied every time.

The Northern California Tribal Chairman's Association, including the Chairs of the Elk Valley Rancheria, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Karuk Tribe, Smith River Rancheria, Trinidad Rancheria, and Yurok Tribe, documented in a letter how the science behind the MLPA Initiative developed by Schwarzenegger's Science Advisory Team is "incomplete and terminally flawed." (http://yubanet.com/california/Dan-Bacher-MLPA-Initiative-based-on-incomplete-and-terminally-flawed-science.php)

On the day of the historic direct action protest by a coalition of over 50 Tribes and their allies in Fort Bragg in July 2010, Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribal member and Coastal Justice Coalition activist, exposed the refusal to incorporate Tribal science that underlies the "science" of the MLPA process.

“The whole process is inherently flawed by institutionalized racism," said Myers. "It doesn't recognize Tribes as political entities, or Tribal biologists as legitimate scientists." (http://klamathjustice.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-21st-2010.html)

It is clear that the allegedly "open, transparent and inclusive" MLPA Initiative process was anything but.

MLPA Initiative: A Parody of Marine Protection

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA "Initiative" to "implement" the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA.

The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of "marine protected areas" included a big oil lobbyist, a marina corporation executive, coastal real estate developer and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest.

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association and a relentless advocate for offshore oil drilling, fracking, the Keystone XL Pipeline and the weakening of environmental laws, chaired the South Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task that developed the MPAs that went into effect in Southern California waters on January 1, 2012. She also served on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces for the North Coast, North Central Coast and Central Coast.

While Reheis-Boyd served on the task forces to "protect" the ocean, the same oil industry that the "marine guardian" represents was conducting environmentally destructive hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations off the Southern California coast. Documents recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and media investigations by Associated Press and truthout.org reveal that the ocean has been fracked at least 203 times in the past 20 years, including the period from 2004 to 2012 that Reheis-Boyd served as a "marine guardian."

The "marine protected areas" created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, seismic testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.

The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public partnership funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Hodensaucey
Everything they say is the opposite of what they do. The 'Big Lie' in large suit. MLPA casting science to overthrow science and legalize humungus pollution and destruction of the ecological organic balances of the web-of-life on California west coastline.

These MLPA are an overt part perpetrators of the 'peripheral tunnels' 54 Billion dollar Boondoggel' to spread the shortage of water theft for Big Oil, and Big Agribusiness, and away from the tribes and all fishers. The ripoff, causes massive extinction of the fish, wildlife, and further threatens with pollution the drinkable water for the communities.

The larger plot thickens day by day with no seeming stopping of it, while the west coast salmon is threatened with massive over kill potential, along with most other local native fish species.

What is it about genocide of the species that the MLPA does not understand. If has literally become a west coast issue on the whole of the west coast

Much thanks to the west coast tribes for standing up for mother nature. Surely these enbezzalers and extortors of the public treasury will be brought to justice before it is too late to provide all solar power solidarity to the whole ecological organic web-of-life in California, and the entire west coast.

End polllution wars, not endless wars for more and more pollution. Ye yet have the world to win!! Workers of the world unite!!
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