The California Valley Miwok Tribe (located at 10601 N. Escondido PL, Stockton, CA, as listed in the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ BIA/DOI Spring 2011 Tribal Leaders Directory), a federally recognized tribe eligible to receive and distribute services from the federal government – on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012, held a consultation meeting with Ms. Melissa DuMond, Southwest Regional Manager / Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Passenger and Freight Programs and Ms. Colleen Vaughn, Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Passenger and Freight Programs. Both are employees of the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Washington, DC. Also in attendance was Ms. Sarah Allred, Senior Planner/Cultural Resources with the California High Speed Rail Authority, Sacramento, CA.
The purpose of the meeting was to have a face-to-face consultation with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA). The FRA and CHSRA are in the process of finalizing the joint Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) for the Merced to Fresno section of the California High-Speed Train system. As part of the on-going government-to-government consultation on the HST system (and as outlined in the Programmatic Agreement among the Federal Railroad Administration, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the California State Historic Preservation Officer and the California High-Speed Rail Authority Regarding Compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, as it pertains to the California High-Speed Train Project (PA) that was executed in June 2011), the FRA invited the California Valley Miwok Tribe to participate as a consulting party in the development of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for treatment of historic properties, as well as the review of the Finding of Effect (FOE) document that has been drafted for the Merced to Fresno section of the HST System.
The Tribe would like to thank Ms. Melissa DuMond, FRA, Ms Colleen Vaughn, FRA, and Ms. Allred, CHSRA, for the in-depth knowledge shared at the government-to-government consultation meeting. The Tribe would also like to give a sincere thank you to Ms. Heather M. Bell, Admin. Assistant II-Aspen of D.C., Inc., Office of the Railroad Policy and Development, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington DC.
