Reply from:

Doug Riley-Thron, P.O. Box 703, Arcata, CA 95518

Phone: 707-822-4870, Fax: 707-822-9640, Email: newriverwild@hotmail.com

1) What do you anticipate will be the three most important environmental issues that you will face if elected, and what actions do you propose to take to resolve them?

I feel the three most important environmental issues that I would face if elected would be: 1) campaign finance reform, 2) wildlands and wildlife protection, and 3) strengthening and enforcement of environmental laws. These three most important environmental issues are of course intertwined with each other and many other environmental issues.

On the surface, campaign finance reform may not seem like an environmental issue. Yet I strongly feel that unless we get big corporate money (legalized bribery) out of politics then we will continue to lose many of our environmental battles. As you may remember, the last time this Assembly seat was an open seat there was over $2 million dollars spent during the election. Obviously we can not have true democracy with money being spent like that for this seat (although I will admit I have been quite pleased with Virginia Strom-Martin but with big corporate money the Strom-Martin’s are usually very rare, far and few between). If elected I would work very hard to introduce and get passed a bill with "real" campaign finance reform.

The second environmental issue I listed was wildlands and wildlife protection. The person who wins this seat must have a strong backbone and the heart to stand up to industries such as the timber industry in order to protect our wildlife habitat and the wildlife it supports. Senator Barbara Boxer has said she will introduce a bill this year to protect up to 7 million acres of wildlands with the possibility of over 1 million acres of ancient forest being protected in northern California alone. Boxer has consistently said she must have strong local political support in order to include areas in this district in her bill. Trinity County recently was added to this Assembly Seat district, which gives this district the highest concentration of unprotected ancient temperate old growth Doug fir forest anywhere in the country. Trinity County has literally hundreds of thousands of acres of the most incredible unprotected ancient forest that would link the Trinity Alps Wilderness to the Marble Mountain Wilderness to the Russian Wilderness and to the Siskiyou Wilderness. Unfortunately, the Congressman and the Board of Supervisors who represent Trinity County are extremely anti-wilderness, so the person who wins Strom-Martin’s seat must be a very strong pro-wilderness voice for that area so it will be included and kept in Boxer’s upcoming Wilderness bill. If elected to office (or even if I am not), I will continue to work tirelessly to see all our counties in this district get more federal wilderness in Boxer’s bill.

The third environmental issue I think is most important to California’s environment is strengthening and enforcing environmental laws. For far too long under administrations like former Governor Pete Wilson’s and continuing full speed ahead under Governor Gray Davis there has been a huge problem with enforcement of environmental laws primarily due to the obvious "big money" in politics factors. If elected I would work hard to see that the agencies enforcing the environmental laws were allowed to enforce the laws protecting our wildlife and its habitat and increase funding to more staff to adequately do the job. I would also work hard to strengthen environmental laws on private lands by introducing a bill to ban or severely regulate herbicide use on timber company lands which currently have no regulation on them.

4) California has experienced an electricity shortage in the last year. What environmental protections and opportunities are you most concerned about as the state responds to the electricity problem? Please address the following issues in your response.

I am most concerned about the state’s relying on fossil fuels, new nuclear power plants, and deregulation as a way to meet our increasing energy demands instead of focusing on clean energy such as solar.

a. Nuclear reactors are hazardous, expensive, and vulnerable to attack by terrorists. Nuclear fission generates highly radioactive wastes that remain toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. Do you support building new nuclear power plants? Would you support building a nuclear power plant in your district?

No, no.

b. Over 95% of California’s planned additions to electricity capacity will use natural gas as fuel. Solar, wind and geothermal technologies can supply energy with far lesser impacts on the environment while providing consumers with some insulation from the price volatility of natural gas. Do you support a requirement (known as a "renewables portfolio standard") that all electricity sellers in California acquire at least 20% of their supply from renewable sources?

Yes.

5) Enactment of strong environmental laws will not result in improved environmental quality unless state agencies ensure compliance through rigorous enforcement programs. However, some agencies do not demonstrate a strong emphasis on enforcement and have inadequate or insufficiently funded monitoring and compliance programs. How should California improve its enforcement of existing environmental laws?

I think the people in the agencies would have to get a clear directive from the State politicians that environmental laws must be enforced or they will be unemployed. Unfortunately, in many cases the state employees overseeing the enforcement of these laws have been given the orders from the Governor’s office to be lax on enforcement (back to the campaign finance argument again).

7) The largest owner of private forestry lands in California has announced plans to clear-cut about 1.5 million acres of trees in coming decades. Do you support clear-cutting? If so, why? If not, why not?

I don’t support clearcutting because it is extremely harmful to the environment. Clearcutting causes massive erosion, fragmentation of habitat, habitat loss, doesn’t mimic an ancient forest when it comes back no snags, downed logs, multilayered canopy, creates a monoculture at best when replanted which is worthless to wildlife, robs the forest of new nutrients to begin life again, usually results in non-natives like pampas grass growing back which then results in thousands of gallons of diesel fuel mixed with herbicides being sprayed on the land, and is not sustainable for people or wildlife, etc.

8) The Sierra Club supports strict regulation of logging in areas that adversely affect streams used by the coho salmon and steelhead, both listed as endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. How would you respond to proposed laws to limit or prohibit logging in riparian areas to avoid adverse impacts to salmon and their habitat?

I would strongly support laws to prohibit logging in riparian areas and even go one step further to support laws that would ban logging for periods of time in impaired watersheds that need a rest from industrial forestry.

11) Do you think that certain marine areas should be off limits to fishing and other human activities in order to allow these areas to recover from past human impacts?

Yes.

13) Many persistent, bio-accumulative toxins &emdash; chemicals that can build up in the food chain, can be transported long distances in the atmosphere, and do not break down easily -- are associated with a range of adverse human health effects, including effects on the nervous system, reproductive and developmental problems, cancer, and genetic impacts. Particular hazards may be posed to the developing fetus or young children because critical organs, such as the central nervous system, are still under development. Would you support adoption of a state strategy for eliminating all releases of persistent, bio-accumulative toxins into California’s environment? Would you support expansion of the pesticide mill tax concept to increase fees proportional to the volume and potential harm of bio-accumulative toxins?

Yes. Yes.

17) Please describe in greater detail your public service record in environmental issues. In particular, we are interested in membership and leadership in environmental organizations, work on environmental campaigns, public positions you have taken, and environmental activities you have initiated or actively supported.

I am known worldwide for my photoactivism work to protect ancient forests. My photographs are the most widely used photographs of endangered ancient forest in the nation. I spent ten years working to protect the Headwaters ancient redwood forest in northern California, giving over 400 slide shows and ecology lectures to more than 40,000 people and lobbying in Washington DC and Sacramento (about 70-80% of these slide shows were sponsored by the Sierra Club). My photographs of endangered ancient forests have been prominently displayed in magazines including Time, People, Glamour, Sierra, Backpacker, Sunset, Wildlife Conservation, and Nature Photographer; in newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle; in books including Joan Dunning’s From the Redwood Forest, Cachuma Press’s Coast Redwood: A Natural and Cultural History, and Amy Irvine’s Making a Difference; on television shows including Good Morning America and the Emmy Awards; and countless other places. My photoactivism work was often discussed at length in these publications. Over ten years, I guided hundreds of people into the Headwaters Forest, including politicians, reporters, Hollywood celebrities and countless environmental activists. I also guided well over 100 flights over Headwaters, again often taking reporters, politicians, etc. Former Congressman Dan Hamburg and many environmental groups have said my work was instrumental in gathering co-sponsors for the Headwaters bill and the federal government’s eventual acquisition of part of the Headwaters Forest. My photographs helped inspire the California State government to protect the Gilham Butte area recently.

I have been involved with about a dozen environmental lawsuits to protect wild places, including a lawsuit I brought against Pacific Lumber in 1995, which saved countless ancient redwoods along Yager Creek.

I am currently the coordinator of the Trinity-Klamath Wilderness Coalition which is a coalition of groups (including local leaders of the Sierra Club and the Northcoast Environmental Center) working with Senator Boxer’s office to make sure our bioregion is not left out of the upcoming wilderness bill.

I feel political campaign finance reform is one of the most important issues concerning our environment and until we get real campaign finance reform the environment will continue to lose in a political arena dominated by industry contributions.

19) Why should the Sierra Club support your candidacy?

The Sierra Club should support my candidacy because I am by far the most environmental candidate running and I also have the proven backbone to stand up to the extractive industries. The past ten years of my work demonstrate my extensive experience with environmental issues and my leadership ability. I also have by far the highest name recognition district-wide and can win. I have strong connections with the local and national media, and would use the office as a platform from which to publicize important environmental issues.