Protests mounted this week over San Francisco State University’s eviction of a popular salmon-rearing and children’s educational program from the school’s Romberg Center of Environmental Studies in Tiburon, and Rep. Jared Huffman launched a full-court press to get the decision reversed.

“I’m so furious with the arrogant bureaucrats at SFSU and especially the new director” at Romberg who kicked the Tiburon Salmon Institute out of the 36-acre bayside campus off Paradise Drive, the San Rafael congressman said. “This really is a giant poke in the eye to Marin County.”

Huffman noted that Brooke Halsey, founder of the institute, has been told to pack up the project and leave by July 1 “without any good reason” except perhaps that the future of the property is uncertain in light of a realty listing advertising it earlier this year.

But Leslie Wong, president of San Francisco State, said the property never was for sale, adding that officials for a time wanted to see if anyone was interested in renting space on the campus. There were no takers.

Wong, declining to discuss specifics of the institute situation as advised by counsel “in anticipation of court issues,” said the university had no problem with educational aspects of the salmon program, and that aside from some safety concerns, “it’s much more of a landlord-tenant issue.” The university is “required to meet many different rules. … He’s a tenant who pays no rent,” Wong said. He declined to elaborate.

“Both Congressman Huffman and Brooke Halsey are (organizing) what appears to be a pretty big campaign,” the university president noted.

Wide support

Joining Huffman in condemning the decision to boot the education, conservation and fishery restoration program were a long line of officials, agencies and organizations. Among them at midweek, Huffman reported, were the Romberg Center’s Advisory Board itself, as well as state Sen. Mike McGuire, Marin County Board of Supervisors, Marin Municipal Water District, the Sonoma County Water Agency, Marin Conservation League, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Golden Gate Salmon Association, Trout Unlimited and, “soon” he pledged, the California Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Huffman said his support for the center and the university had been shaken by “the mishandling of this situation and by the SFSU administration’s refusal” to reconsider. The congressman added the university declined his offer to meet with the institute, convey university concerns and figure out how to resolve them.

Huffman, saying appeals to Wong were fruitless, planned to take the case to state university regents, noting the ouster could end a program that has resulted in the release of a million salmon smolts over four decades — and in recent years delighted thousands of school children involved in program events.

Romberg administrator Karina Nielsen, who took over the Tiburon facility last August and evicted the salmon institute last month effective July 1, was not immediately available for comment. Robert Nava, a university vice president, indicated earlier this week the decision to dump the institute was made after careful consideration. “We’ve not been able to reach an agreement with the Tiburon Salmon Institute for use of our property,” Nava said, declining to outline details.

Eviction unclear

Halsey said he has not been given a clear reason on why he was evicted. “They keep making up reasons for me to leave but cannot give any specifics,” he said. “They keep switching answers. First it’s ‘not in our mission.’ Then ‘bad science’ and then ‘safety concerns.’”

Anna Atchley, a veteran Tiburon educator who has served on the Romberg Center’s advisory board for six years, quit the board in protest Thursday, saying she believes Halsey is the victim of a “personal vendetta” by an administrator who “has created a big mess” at a poorly operated facility that has become “totally disconnected from Tiburon.” The rest of the board, Atchley added, has been told to keep quiet or else — even though most support the salmon institute.

Letters pouring in to Wong’s office urge the university to reconsider. “I am deeply concerned about why the Legislature is just now hearing this troubling news second hand and not from university officials,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire. “I urge you to please not underestimate the impact of the Tiburon Salmon Institute and its important role in promoting wise use of natural resources throughout our region,” said Grant Davis, manager of the Sonoma Water Agency. And citing the “staggering toll” of the drought on salmon runs, the Golden Gate Salmon Association and Pacific Federation of Fishermen’s Associations called the Tiburon program critical. “Few if any other hatchery operations are able to host schoolchildren on field trips to educate them on a critical political and social issue,” the fishery groups added in a joint statement to Wong.

Huffman’s plan

Rep. Huffman is urging constituents to sign a petition available through his Facebook page or Change.org. More than 600 have done so.

“We’ve all seen this before: Someone at a government agency makes a dumb decision and instead of admitting and fixing it, the agency stubbornly digs in and waits to see how much public backlash there will be,” Huffman told his Facebook friends. “Let’s make sure SFSU hears loudly and clearly from the public on this one!”

It’s a bit like David and Goliath, the congressman concluded:

“A little community-supported salmon group with no budget, operating out of the back of Brooke Halsey’s truck, being squashed by a huge university bureaucracy far removed from the community and stubbornly standing by one person’s bad decision.”