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You know, I only have a few years left in
life, maybe twenty years; fifteen maybe.

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So I thought about what's the most
important thing that I could do

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in the time that I have here.
And, uh, taking care of my grandkids,

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and making sure that they have a place
to enjoy: that they have streams to enjoy;

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that they have wildlife to enjoy.

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That's, probably, one of the 
most important things I can do.

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Nestlé is drawing water from a
spring or a well,

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within the National forests, 
within public lands that are owned

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by the people of the United States.

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It's drawing that water and then it's
diverting it, in a pipe,

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down several miles outside of the forest.

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Nestlé has an expired special use permit,
issued 1978 that expired in 1988.

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Uh, that permit alone allowed them occupy
National forest land, with the

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infrastructure necessary to remove water.
And they take anywhere from

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50 to 150 million gallons a year,
depending on certain conditions.

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The Forest Service's maybe is getting 
a pittance of what this water's worth.

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We're subsidising the business that
depletes that public land resource,

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and that then creates cost on down
the line in its lifecycle,

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as well in the waste management cost.

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The drought drags on but the watershed,
you know, grows drier.

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Why is a foreign corporation like Nestlé
being allowed to withdraw millions

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and millions of gallons out of our
watershed, making a huge, huge profit?

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(interviewer) Do you have any intention of
ceasing bottling operations in California?

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(Tim Brown) Uh, absolutely not, uh,
in fact, um, if I could increase it, I would.

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We feel good about what we're doing.

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Strawberry Creek is just barely hanging on
because there's so much water removed.

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And then when we saw the drought
that's currently going on,

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that's the worst drought 
in recorded history here.

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Um, so all of that together made me 
really worry about Strawberry Creek,

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I thought that there's a good chance we
could completely dry Strawberry Creek up.

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Ah, the Strawberry drainage is, uh, is a 
critical drainage for, uh,

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our plant and animal communities, and it
becomes more and more critical every year.

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Because as the urban population in 
Southern California grows, uh,

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the National forests down in Southern
California are becoming more and more

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isolated islands, of plant and
animal communities.

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This is a dry habitat that means that those
riparian areas, those areas that are wet,

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are essential. Especially in dry years,
like this year, to wildlife.

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And it's at 0.18 now, 0.18 cubic feet per
second, which is nothing,

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I mean, it's almost no water.

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Species that have lived there, 
over eons of time, could be lost;

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it's just a, it's a terrible thing.

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The Forest Service hasn't looked at this
in a number of years and so they can't say

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"yes we're protecting those public 
resources, yes we're making sure

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that there's sufficient water for all the
species, yes we're making sure,

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that, we're holding this in trust
for the people of the United States,

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we're using it in a sustainable way."
And they're obligated by law

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to use the resources on the National
forest in a sustainable way.

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A year ago, I started begging the Forest
Service and Nestlé to start meeting

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together to start talking about Strawberry
Creek, to work together on their permit

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and on the, uh, and on protecting the
National forests, and I was begging

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them to do that, and, um, and still
nothing's happened;

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there's no meetings, there's just talk.

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Everybody in California is effected by the
drought, but not Nestlé,

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or any other water bottling company.
I mean, this is our water!

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The water in the, in those mountains
belong to every California(n),

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and every tax payer in America.

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Personally, I invested 40+ years of my
life being a professional forester.

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And I care a great deal that public land
in our country is properly managed,

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especially, in a manner that makes sure
that the goods and services it provides

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are there for future generations,

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and that's not how it's being managed
right now.