'Heavy-handed' enforcement gives way to conciliation

Capital Press

December 17, 2010

The policies may not be changing, but for the California Department of Fish and Game, the approach is.

Ranchers in the Scott and Shasta valleys near the Oregon state line have been dismayed this year at efforts by the state agency to coerce them into signing up for special blanket permits for water diversions.

But just as bothersome as the permits are the threatening letters and intimidating visits by wardens to families that resisted the program, ranchers say.

Enter Neil Manji, who took over as Fish and Game's new regional manager in August.

Since he arrived, Manji has held meetings with angry ranchers and shown a willingness to use the art of persuasion rather than what one lawmaker characterized as "heavy-handedness" to achieve the department's goals.

"We're trying to set a tone for more cooperative working relationships up there," said Manji, who is based in Redding, Calif.

Manji's approach has marked a contrast of sorts with his predecessor, former interim director Mark Stopher, who frequently emphasized enforcement and consequences for landowners who didn't cooperate.

Stopher sent what he acknowledged was a "rather stern letter" in the spring warning landowners in the two watersheds they could face fines, lawsuits and jail if they didn't obtain the special blanket streambed alteration and incidental take permits or obtain permits on their own.

"We do have to have a point where we say one way or the other, they need to be compliant with the law," Stopher said in May. "We can't just let it be open for them to choose ... when they want to comply with the law.

"If telling people that they actually do have to comply with state law is intimidation, I can't help that," he said.

A former fisheries program manager whose biological work helped form the basis of DFG's current policy, Manji said the agency will proceed with its permit requirements, even as lawsuits by farmers and environmentalists have yet to determine their ultimate legality.

However, while Stopher drew criticism for canceling one of his meetings with landowners in the spring, Manji recently gave landowners ample time in meetings to express their views -- more than three hours in one of the gatherings.