SECTIONS 16000 - California Statutes

FISH AND GAME CODE

SECTION 16000

16000. The Legislature finds:
(a) Jurisdiction over the protection and development of natural
resources, especially the fish resource, is of great importance to
both the State of California and California Indian tribes.
(b) To California Indian tribes, control over their minerals,
lands, water, wildlife, and other resources is crucial to their
economic self-sufficiency and the preservation of their heritage. On
the other hand, the State of California is concerned about protecting
and developing its resources; protecting, restoring, and developing
its commercial and recreational salmon fisheries; ensuring public
access to its waterways; and protecting the environment within its
borders.
(c) More than any other issue confronting the State of California
and California Indian tribes, the regulation of natural resources,
especially fish, transcends political boundaries.
(d) In many cases, the State of California and California Indian
tribes have differed in their respective views of the nature and
extent of state versus tribal jurisdiction in areas where Indians
have historically fished. Despite these frequent and often bitter
disputes, both the state and the tribes seek, as their mutual goal,
the protection and preservation of the fish resource. This division
is an attempt to provide a legal mechanism, other than protracted and
expensive litigation over unresolved legal issues, for achieving
that mutual goal.
(e) This division creates a pilot project that will involve and
encourage the efforts of the State of California and the Covelo
Indian Community of the Round Valley Indian Reservation to reach a
mutual agreement regarding the legal framework for the exercise of
Indian subsistence fishing in the boundary streams of the historic
1873 Round Valley Indian Reservation. It is hoped that this pilot
project, if successful, will provide the incentive for enactment of
broader legislation that would authorize similar negotiated
agreements with other California Indian tribes.