Fish & G. Code, § 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.