CLICK THIS LINK  http://naturalresources.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=398357

AND THEN CLICK ON THE “WATCH THE ARCHIVED HEARING WEBCAST ” LINK ON THAT PAGE.

The House Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations held a hearing yesterday, 4/29/15 at 2 PM and one of the issues they looked at is the misuse of science by the NPS in Drakes Estero.  Kevin Lunny was called to testify as a witness.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE EMPLOYEES LIED TO PUT HISTORIC OYSTER COMPANY OUT OF BUSINESS
04-29-2015 5:42 pm – Michael Bastasch – Daily Caller
The National Park Service used falsified data to shut down an 80-year-old oyster company in Point Reyes, Calif, its owner claims.

Drakes Bay Oyster Company operated in Point Reyes for decades until National Park Service officials used falsified data to force Kevin Lunny’s family-run oyster farm to shut down. The experience has left its mark on Lunny: “We Are Terrified,” he told lawmakers during a hearing Thursday.

“Let me be clear, we did not fail as a business,” Lunny said in his prepared testimony. “This was not bad luck. Rather, the Park Service engaged in a taxpayer-funded enterprise of corruption to run our small business out of Point Reyes.”

Lunny made this statement in response to a question by Republican Rep. Raul Labrador asking whether or not Lunny felt like there could be consequences from his testimony against the National Parks Service.

Even Democratic California Rep. Jared Huffman admitted that in the rush to get rid of industry from Point Reyes, government officials and environmentalists “overstated” evidence that Lunny’s farm was harming the environment.

“No one has apologized,” Lunny said.

Drakes Bay Oyster Company is located in Northern California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, where it has been for decades. Point Reyes isn’t your typical national park because it was created to preserve the historic coastline where people have been settled since the Gold Rush. It was never intended to be a major tourist attraction like Yellowstone.

For decades the Park Service had a good relationship with the oyster company, but that all changed in the mid-2000s. All of the sudden, NPS officials started blaming the company for an 80 percent decline in the local harbor seal population. Officials also blamed Lunny’s farm for upsetting the ecological balance of Drakes Estero.

But all of these accusations against Drakes Bay Oyster Company turned out to be completely false. The National Parks Service lacked any scientific data to back up its claims that the company was killing seals and hurting the local environment. In fact, studies done by the U.S. Geological Survey and the California State Health Department showed the Parks Service was completely wrong.

NPS, however, didn’t stop there and kept making false claims against the oyster company.

“The Park Service misrepresented that study,” Lunny said. “They instead attempted to demonstrate harm by substituting data from a sixty-year-old study conducted at the Sea of Japan and attributing it to our farm.”

“For example, in assessing the noise impact of our small outboard motor boats, the Park Service, rather than measuring our boats on our soundscape [as required], instead used the measurements from a seventy-horsepower, 700cc Kawasaki jet ski in New Jersey,” Lunny added.

Lunny appealed to higher ups at the National Park Service for help in the matter and to correct the record on false statements made by the agency, but he got no help from the government.

“The local Park Service staff were not willing to correct the false claims, so we went to the Regional Director,” Lunny said. “No help there. Then we went to the Park Service Director, and finally the Secretary of Interior. No one, at any level, was willing to admit that false science was being used against us, or to at least correct the record and stop the false accusations.”

The Interior Department’s own inspector general even found misconduct by agency officials and that they misrepresented facts. But even so, the inspector general was powerless to stop Parks Service officials from attacking Lunny’s business.

Eventually, Drakes Bay Oyster Farm closed its doors because of the litigation and regulatory actions taken by the federal government.

“What the Park Service did to our family was unconscionable,” Lunny said. “This polluted legacy of false science has tainted our dealings with state and federal agencies, and has resulted in unnecessary regulatory and legal action against our family and our farm.”

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SOURCE: http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/29/oyster-farmer-we-are-terrified-of-the-govt/

Wildlife & Habitat – Oyster Bay – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Miracle stay keeps Drakes afloat

By Samantha Kimmey

01/30/2014

Point Reyes Light

The fate of Drakes Bay Oyster Company rests in the hands of the justices of the United States Supreme Court.

The historic Point Reyes shellfish farm’s owners, employees and supporters might have thought a miracle occurred on Monday, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the farm’s plea for a 90-day stay so it might continue selling and canning shellfish while a team of lawyers submits an appeal to the high court.

The stay followed two distressing rulings for Drakes Bay from the same circuit court. A 2-1 ruling in September denied the farm an injunction so that it could remain open as it battled the Interior Department and National Park Service over a decision in Nov. 2012 to shutter the farm. (The same three judges this week signed the order for the stay.) A subsequent request for an en banc rehearing was denied earlier this month.

Farm owner Kevin Lunny said that despite those recent decisions, he was not surprised by this week’s news. “Nothing surprises me anymore because I don’t know what to expect. It’s all uncharted territory,” he said.

Stays are issued if all three of the following conditions are present: there is a reasonable chance that four Supreme Court justices would consider tackling the case, there is a significant possibility that the high court would reverse the lower court’s decision, and if “irreparable harm” would follow the denial of a stay.

The government filed a brief in opposition to the stay half an hour before the circuit court granted it. Federal lawyers wrote that not a single judge voted to rehear the case en banc, and argued that the petition to the high court was not likely to succeed because the circuit court’s decision was not a broad holding but a narrow decision about a single permit. Drakes Bay lawyer Peter Prows said the court must not have found those arguments persuasive.

Despite significant controversy and evidence that farm operations do not harm harbor seals residing in Drakes Estero, the government’s rebuttal also singled out the pinnipied’s pupping season as “an equitable factor that the court should consider” because of the farm’s motorboats.

Mr. Prows said the harbor seal reference riled him. “Here the feds go again saying the farm should be shut down to protect harbor seals from harm that wasn’t occurring. I thought that was kind of outrageous.”

Drakes Bay lawyers have until April 14 to submit their appeal.

 

 

Hobart Wright

Inverness Park

Point Reyes National Seashore has had a bumper crop of seals this year.

Seal Production At Point Reyes

While the National Park Service has in the past claimed that the operations of an oyster farm at Point Reyes National Seashore were impacting harbor seals that use Drakes Estero, recent seal production numbers from the estero seem to indicate those impacts have been very, very good.

“The 2013 harbor seal monitoring season has now ended and it was a great year for the seals. During the pupping season, we recorded approximately 1,400 pups, which is one of the highest counts for Point Reyes,” the San Francisco Bay Area National Parks Science and Learning staff noted in their Harbor Seal Monitoring Update for August. “…Drakes Estero had the highest count with 1,122 seals, followed closely by Double Point with 1,012 seals.”

Perhaps because the Park Service is in the middle of a legal battle with Drakes Bay Oyster Co. over the company’s use of Drakes Estero for farming oysters, a disclaimer to that report stresses that “(T)hese data and related graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such.”

Around The Parks: Wine Sales, Park Fees, Point Reyes Seals

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on September 30, 2013 – 1:35am

A glance around the National Park System seems to show wine sales can benefit the parks, more and more user fees are being approved despite a five-year-old “moratorium” against them, and Point Reyes National Seashore has had a bumper crop of seals this year.

Wining in the Parks

We recently told you about the waiver National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis OKed for the National Park Foundation to work with the Adler Fells Winery to produce some national park-branded wines.

Well, whether you approve of the Park Service working with distillers to promote the parks or not, this agreement seems to be generating a nice tidy sum of money for the National Park Foundation. Through the first three months of the campaign, the Foundation has taken in about $25,000. Extrapolate that to four quarters, and you’ve got about $100,000 for the Foundation to invest back into the National Park System.

More And More Fee Increases

Some parks, however, are in such financial binds that they are seeking waivers to a five-year-old moratorium on higher user fees in the parks. Former Park Service Director Mary Bomar instituted the ban back in 2008 when the economy was really sour.

Since then, however, parks have felt the need to seek higher user fees to keep various programs running. At Great Smoky Mountains National Park there’s been a highly controversial move to require backcountry travelers to pay $4 per night, up to $20, for their treks.

More recently, Timpanogos Cave National Monument in Utah announced intentions to seek higher fees for cave tours, as is Wind Cave National Park, Pinnacles National Park in California wants to double its entrance fee, to $10, to expand its shuttle bus operations, and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota has instituted a reservation and fee system for its backcountry campsites.

According to managers in the Park Service’s Recreation Fee Program, between 2008 and 2013 “38 parks increased expanded amenity fees and 10 parks increased entrance fees.”

Looking ahead to next year, 21 more units of the park system have gained the green light to at least discuss proposed fee increases with their stakeholders.

“Once civic engagement activities are completed the parks will forward the results and requests to the regional director,” Jane Anderson, the program’s deputy fee manager, said in an email. “If the regional director concurs those requests will be forwarded to the Washington Office for final approval by the (Park Service) Director.”

One possible justification for higher fees, she said, is that park user fees for such things as campgrounds and boat launches “undercut or compete negatively with local businesses.”

Seal Production At Point Reyes

While the National Park Service has in the past claimed that the operations of an oyster farm at Point Reyes National Seashore were impacting harbor seals that use Drakes Estero, recent seal production numbers from the estero seem to indicate those impacts have been very, very good.

“The 2013 harbor seal monitoring season has now ended and it was a great year for the seals. During the pupping season, we recorded approximately 1,400 pups, which is one of the highest counts for Point Reyes,” the San Francisco Bay Area National Parks Science and Learning staff noted in their Harbor Seal Monitoring Update for August. “…Drakes Estero had the highest count with 1,122 seals, followed closely by Double Point with 1,012 seals.”

Perhaps because the Park Service is in the middle of a legal battle with Drakes Bay Oyster Co. over the company’s use of Drakes Estero for farming oysters, a disclaimer to that report stresses that “(T)hese data and related graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such.”

From my reading of the Environmental Action Committee’s mission statement, posted on their website, the conduct of Executive Director Amy Trainer toward the Lunny family and Drakes Bay Oyster Company is clearly in conflict with the goals and objectives of the organization.

Ms. Trainer’s take-no-prisoners approach to problem solving in this long-standing debate has made an absolute mockery of these goals. Even now that the fate of DBOC is squarely in the hands of courts, her attempt to smear the Lunnys is stark evidence of how she has allowed her role to degenerate, without apology, into a personal vendetta.

If this is the kind of reprehensible conduct the EAC is proud to support, then the gaping wounds that have been opened in the hearts and minds of so many people in this community and beyond will only continue to fester. If it is not, then the EAC must take quick and decisive action to find new leadership for its executive position.

Point Reyes Light 09-26-13

Trainer mocks EAC goals

Dear Editor,

From my reading of the Environmental Action Committee’s mission statement, posted on their website, the conduct of Executive Director Amy Trainer toward the Lunny family and Drakes Bay Oyster Company is clearly in conflict with the goals and objectives of the organization.

Here are some examples: “EAC works for… the preservation of a rural, community spirit. EAC uses law, policy, science and education to: create a common ground of understanding and promote informed debate  and encourage and facilitate productive resolutions to land-use conflicts by working closely with those who own, manage and use West Marin lands.” Ms. Trainer’s take-no-prisoners approach to problem solving in this long-standing debate has made an absolute mockery of these goals. Even now that the fate of DBOC is squarely in the hands of courts, her attempt to smear the Lunnys is stark evidence of how she has allowed her role to degenerate, without apology, into a personal vendetta.

If this is the kind of reprehensible conduct the EAC is proud to support, then the gaping wounds that have been opened in the hearts and minds of so many people in this community and beyond will only continue to fester. If it is not, then the EAC must take quick and decisive action to find new leadership for its executive position.

Having gone all-in with Ms. Trainer in its wilderness-at-any-cost campaign, the EAC does not have an enviable task before it. This will be especially difficult in a small organization in which everyone knows each other; the bonds of association and friendship can cause a board of directors to put off making such a crucial but necessary decision. Even so, the longer they wait, the worse it will get for them and the greater community they are obliged to serve.

If the EAC has any hope of reclaiming its birthright as an organization dedicated to truth, scientific integrity and personal accountability in the pursuit of the goals and objectives as proclaimed by its founders, there is only one choice they can make.  And only when they find the courage to do  so can any real healing begin.

Bruce Mitchell

Inverness

CORRECTION: THIS LETTER IS FROM THE POINT REYES LIGHT, NOT THE WEST MARIN CITIZEN

From my reading of the Environmental Action Committee’s mission statement, posted on their website, the conduct of Executive Director Amy Trainer toward the Lunny family and Drakes Bay Oyster Company is clearly in conflict with the goals and objectives of the organization.

Ms. Trainer’s take-no-prisoners approach to problem solving in this long-standing debate has made an absolute mockery of these goals. Even now that the fate of DBOC is squarely in the hands of courts, her attempt to smear the Lunnys is stark evidence of how she has allowed her role to degenerate, without apology, into a personal vendetta.

If this is the kind of reprehensible conduct the EAC is proud to support, then the gaping wounds that have been opened in the hearts and minds of so many people in this community and beyond will only continue to fester. If it is not, then the EAC must take quick and decisive action to find new leadership for its executive position.

Trainer mocks EAC goals

Dear Editor,

From my reading of the Environmental Action Committee’s mission statement, posted on their website, the conduct of Executive Director Amy Trainer toward the Lunny family and Drakes Bay Oyster Company is clearly in conflict with the goals and objectives of the organization.

Here are some examples: “EAC works for… the preservation of a rural, community spirit. EAC uses law, policy, science and education to: create a common ground of understanding and promote informed debate  and encourage and facilitate productive resolutions to land-use conflicts by working closely with those who own, manage and use West Marin lands.” Ms. Trainer’s take-no-prisoners approach to problem solving in this long-standing debate has made an absolute mockery of these goals. Even now that the fate of DBOC is squarely in the hands of courts, her attempt to smear the Lunnys is stark evidence of how she has allowed her role to degenerate, without apology, into a personal vendetta.

If this is the kind of reprehensible conduct the EAC is proud to support, then the gaping wounds that have been opened in the hearts and minds of so many people in this community and beyond will only continue to fester. If it is not, then the EAC must take quick and decisive action to find new leadership for its executive position.

Having gone all-in with Ms. Trainer in its wilderness-at-any-cost campaign, the EAC does not have an enviable task before it. This will be especially difficult in a small organization in which everyone knows each other; the bonds of association and friendship can cause a board of directors to put off making such a crucial but necessary decision. Even so, the longer they wait, the worse it will get for them and the greater community they are obliged to serve.

If the EAC has any hope of reclaiming its birthright as an organization dedicated to truth, scientific integrity and personal accountability in the pursuit of the goals and objectives as proclaimed by its founders, there is only one choice they can make.  And only when they find the courage to do  so can any real healing begin.

Bruce Mitchell

Inverness

What a ray of sunshine the new NPS seal-count data provides. The latest report tells us that 2013 has been a great year for seals, with one of the highest counts ever for seal pups, and more seals in Drakes Estero than anywhere else in Point Reyes. That should alleviate the fears of anyone who might have gotten the impression that seals could be in danger from Drakes Bay Oyster Company.

…the Park Service’s seal-count report includes a disclaimer, saying that the data and related graphics “are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such” and “The National Park Service gives no warranty, expressed or  implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data.” 

This disclaimer isn’t found on any previous science reports from the Park Service at Point Reyes.

Guest Column

Duplicity

By Sarah Rolph

What a ray of sunshine the new NPS seal-count data provides. The latest report tells us that 2013 has been a great year for seals, with one of the highest counts ever for seal pups, and more seals in Drakes Estero than anywhere else in Point Reyes. That should alleviate the fears of anyone who might have gotten the impression that seals could be in danger from Drakes Bay Oyster Company.

I was fascinated to see that the Park Service’s seal-count report includes a disclaimer, saying that the data and related graphics “are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such” and “The National Park Service gives no warranty, expressed or  implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data.”

This disclaimer isn’t found on any previous science reports from the Park Service at Point Reyes. I find it ironic that they would offer it now, given the clear deficiencies of many of their scientific efforts.

For example, the one paper the Park Service clings to as purported evidence claims that the oyster farm disturbs seals. The paper by Park Service scientist Ben Becker doesn’t even claim to find anything more than a correlation.

If there’s one thing most of us learn about science, it’s that correlation does not imply causation. Seems like the Park Service ought to have put a disclaimer on the Becker paper.

They should probably put a disclaimer on the Park Service’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), too, since its claims about oyster-farm disturbance to seals are based largely on Becker. The EIS downplays that, pretending it has been sources by saying “the impact analysis in the EIS places emphasis on the data review, analysis, and interpretation of scientists in NAS (2009) and MMC (2011b).”

NAS (2009)? Isn’t that the report by the National Academy of Sciences that found fault with the Park Service data? Indeed it is. Checking the EIS to see what data review, analysis, or interpretation they included from that NAS review, I found exactly one sentence, and it’s very misleading: “Factors influencing the behavior of harbor seals within Drakes Estero have been reviewed by NAS (2009).”

NAS did indeed review those factors.  Here’s what they found:

“NPS selectively presents harbor seal survey data in Drakes Estero and over-interprets the disturbance data which are incomplete and non-representative of the full spectrum of disturbance activities in the Estero.” And: “…research that has been conducted within Drakes Estero cannot be used either to directly demonstrate any effects of the oyster farm on harbor seals or to demonstrate the absence of potential effects.”

So given that the Becker paper casts no light on the situation, and that NAS (2009) simply points out the scientific errors of the NPS, on what basis could the EIS possibly have found “long-term moderate adverse impacts on harbor seals due to the continuation of commercial shellfish operations”?

The only other thing cited in the EIS is the MMC report. Does it contain the evidence?

Seven independent seal scientists conducted the scientific analysis for the MMC study. One can read their full verbatim reports in Appendix F of the report.

It’s eye opening to do so, none of the scientists found the Becker paper convincing. Instead they point out that the design of the Becker study is entirely inappropriate for the issues it attempts to explore, and that everything that is known about harbor seals suggests that the concerns expressed by NPS about mariculture disturbing seals in Drakes Estero are unfounded. (Somehow, the executive summary of the MMC report manages to suggest otherwise, though just barely. It also suggests the Park Service continue funding MMC studies of the issue.)

The scientists on both the Academy panel and the MMC panel pointed out that the best way to learn whether the oyster farm operations disturbed seals would be with time-and-date-stamped photographs.  It must have been a shock to later learn that the Park Service had been capturing exactly that data since May of 2007, but chose not to disclose it.

It certainly bothered Brian Kingzett. Kingzett is Deep Bay Marine Field Station Manager at the Center for Shellfish Research, Vancouver Island University, and one of the seven scientists who served on the MMC panel. Kingzett reports, “The panel even suggested to the Parks Staff while on site above the Estero how easy it would be to put wildlife cameras on the Estero to resolve some of the questions. Staff looked at us and agreed that maybe it was an option worth considering. And they had cameras up the whole time. We then spent the rest of the week discussing the lack of any good data.”

NPS has falsified the record to further its own agenda. The duplicity extends further:  Interior is talking out of both sides of its mouth, claiming Secretary Salazar’s decision against the oyster farm was not based on the fraudulent EIS. And NPS is using that same EIS to argue in court against the oyster farm.

If left unchecked, this out-of-control Federal agency will destroy the livelihoods of dozens of people and eliminate a popular, historic, successful, and benign oyster farm.

And it will damage the California economy. The EIS itself clearly states that eliminating the oyster farm “could result in long-term, major, adverse impacts on California’s shellfish market.”  That is a feature of the Park Service’s “preferred alternative.”

The scientific credibility of the Park Service at Point Reyes is in shreds. No disclaimer can save it.

HERE IS THE NPS DISCLAIMER FROM THEIR HARBOR SEAL MONITORING UPDATE(S) 2013 AT http://www.sfnps.org/download_product/4301/0

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An Egregious Record of Outrageous Accusations

In a front-page story in the West Marin Citizen two weeks ago (“Water watchdog to sue oyster company,” July 18, 2013) Amy Trainer, executive director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin (EAC), is quoted as saying Drakes Bay Oyster  Company “…has an egregious record of non-compliance with state and federal environmental and coastal protection laws…”

Trainer claimed: “The Drakes Bay Oyster Company has failed to get the required permits and authorization from the Army Corps of Engineers, the California Coastal Commission, the National Park Service, and now from the Environmental Protection Agency.”

These statements are false and misleading.

Drakes Bay Oyster Company (DBOC) has a valid permit from the National Park Service. The stay that was granted by the 9^th Circuit means that the Special Use Permit and the Reservation of Use agreements are still in force; for legal purposes, the stay, in effect, stopped time. In addition, DBOC has explicit, written authorization from NPS to continue doing business under the 9^th Circuit decision; there should be no confusion whatsoever about compliance with NPS.

The permit required from the California Coastal Commission was held up by the Commission itself pending the finalization of the NPS EIS. Although NPS did publish what it calls an FEIS (final environmental impact statement), that document has never been finalized (there is no record of decision; the document was never filed with authorities as required by law). The Commission has now changed its story, but the fact remains that all necessary paperwork for the Coastal Commission permit was filed long ago.

The Army Corps of Engineers recently finalized a nationwide permitting process that calls for blanket permits of all shellfish operations in a given area. This nationwide process was applied first on the East coast, and then in Washington State. The Corps has not yet begun implementation of this permit process in California.  When it does, DBOC will be among the first to be covered, and the Lunnys are already in discussion with the Army Corps about this permit process.

No permit is required from the EPA.

In 2007, the EAC falsely accused DBOC of unpermitted discharge of pollutants in a letter to the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The board inspected DBOC, found no discharge of pollutants, and further found that the DBOC did not require any permit. There is no issue with water quality.  (California River Watch, the so-called “watchdog” that is suing the Lunnys for a non-issue with water, is well known for this type of shakedown suit, and has no credibility among knowledgeable environmentalists.)

The oyster farm is also monitored by the California Department of Public Health,  and is in compliance with the CDPH Drakes Estero Management Plan, Shellfish Shipping and Handling Permit and the CDPH septic system monitoring agreement.

DBOC also has a Small Community Water System permit —the same level of regulation as a public water system. DBOC provides weekly water samples for this permit, and is in full compliance.

The oyster farm is also monitored by the FDA and the CDPH, in accordance with the Interstate Shipping Shellfish Conference, and is in full compliance.

In short, there is no record of non-compliance here, “egregious” or otherwise.  Ms. Trainer’s statements are libelous. She owes the Lunnys, and the community, an apology. The West Marin Citizen should cease quoting Ms. Trainer on the topic of DBOC unless she can provide evidence for her outrageous accusations.

–Sarah Rolph

William Barrett

former EAC board member and EAC executive director, 1986-92

Inverness