Puget Sound chinook and steelhead, Hood Canal summer chum and Lake Ozette sockeye are listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Meanwhile, our culture, treaty rights and way of life – everything that makes us Indian people – are disappearing a little every day, just like the salmon.

We know that we can’t count on the ESA to protect us, our treaty rights and the natural resources that we depend on. And we know that salmon recovery begins and ends with habitat.

That’s why this year, the 20 treaty Indian tribes in western Washington are beginning a project to help gauge just how we’re doing when it comes to habitat protection and restoration.

In 2004 and 2005 the joint tribal/state Salmon and Steelhead Habitat Inventory and Assessment Program (SSHIAP) produced the State of Our Watersheds, reports that captured the status of salmon stocks and habitat in western Washington. What the reports didn’t tell us were the results of the natural resources management decisions being made.

We’re looking to change that through a new effort that will track key indicators identified by tribes to find out the impacts of our protection and restoration efforts regionwide.

Are threats such as development and water withdrawals being balanced by responses through the federal Clean Water Act, state stormwater rules and other laws? Are these responses leading to salmon recovery? Are the restrictions imposed on harvest balanced by restrictions on habitat loss and degradation?

We will focus on fish, harvest, water quality/quantity and land-use rules. The first phase of the effort to begin this year will focus on the Skokomish, Quinault and Snohomish river systems.

We know that we can’t wait for the ESA to save the salmon or us. We may not like what we find, but we have to have the courage to look for ourselves to see how we are doing at recovering habitat.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180

If status quo development, pollution and other ongoing factors damaging and destroying salmon habitat are allowed to continue, ESA-protected species such as threatened Puget Sound chinook and steelhead will not recover.

That means we need to take a hard look at how we’re doing when it comes to salmon habitat protection and restoration. For us, salmon recovery is about more than the ESA, it’s about our treaty rights, our culture, our economies and our very existence.

We are 10 years into recovery efforts for ESA-listed Puget Sound chinook. We know we can’t make up for lost and damaged habitat by further cutting harvest or producing more hatchery fish. We must focus on habitat.

We have accomplished great things on the habitat front in the past few years. Dikes have been torn down and hundreds of acres of estuary habitat have been created at the mouths of the Nisqually and Skokomish rivers. The Lummi Nation is reconnecting tidal channels and restoring hundreds of acres of estuary habitat up in Bellingham Bay. The Quinault Indian Nation is restoring the upper Quinault River watershed and critical sockeye spawning habitat. There are many more examples in the region.

The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board just announced $43 million in grants for salmon habitat restoration projects across Washington. That’s a lot of money, but it’s a drop in the tub compared to the hundreds of millions we have already spent. If we don’t protect our investment, we have wasted every one of those dollars.

We lose value on our investment every time a local government allows a project to be overbuilt or a bulkhead constructed without keeping an eye on the impacts to salmon. Our efforts are undermined when we find out that in San Juan County alone permitted private docks were overbuilt by 52 feet on average.

Are we protecting the gains we have made in habitat? Or are we trying to fill a bathtub full of holes?

We need a comprehensive, cooperative effort to find out. Tribal, federal and state governments, user groups and other stakeholders, all of us must work together to track salmon habitat and see how we are doing on our goals for protection and restoration. A habitat monitoring program was written into the recovery plan for Puget Sound chinook, but it sits on a shelf. It’s time that it be put into action.

The salmon aren’t that strong. They need our help now. We know two things: the status quo must change and forward is the only direction we can go.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180

I have been blessed with a strong sense of place for my home, the Nisqually River. I know my place, my home. It’s where I feel the best.

Place is an important part of treaty tribal fishing rights, too. Our rights are place-based.

That means we 20 treaty Indian tribes in western Washington can only fish in the places we have always fished. These are our “Usual and Accustomed” fishing places, the places where we exercise our treaty-reserved right to fish.

For my tribe, the Nisqually, that is an area in southern Puget Sound. For my friends in Neah Bay, the Makah, it is an area around Cape Flattery at the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula. I cannot go to Neah Bay and exercise my treaty-reserved right to fish as a Nisqually tribal member.

Good fishing or bad, we have our places. If the fishing is poor, it’s poor. We can’t pack up like sport fishermen and travel to where the fishing’s better. We have to work to make it better from right where we’re at.

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians has seen its fall chinook fishery shrink to almost nothing in the last few years. Because the wild chinook run returning to the Puyallup is so small, all fisheries must be constrained to protect the weak wild run. This means that even though thousands of hatchery chinook are available to fishermen throughout Puget Sound, the Puyallup Tribe has less than one day of fishing to protect wild salmon in their home river.

Our place-based fishing rights require most of our tribes to fish in what are called terminal areas. These are places like bays and lower rivers where salmon gather before heading upstream to spawn. They are the places we have always fished, and will always fish.

Place limits on our treaty rights mean we have to do an extra good job of managing our fisheries. We have to ensure that we focus harvest on strong hatchery stocks while we work to protect and recover weak wild stocks. We have to work to fix the habitat in our watersheds. We have to work hard at management to make sure fish come back to us and that enough survive to spawn and continue the run. We have to watch our fisheries closely and adjust them as necessary to make sure we aren’t having too great of an impact on the run.

Time, place and method are the main ways that we control our fisheries. We limit our fishermen to a certain number of days of fishing and then monitor those fisheries closely to see if we need to make any changes. Treaty tribal fishermen are allowed to fish only in their tribe’s “Usual and Accustomed” fishing areas, and sometimes are allowed to fish only in certain parts of those areas. We also regulate fishing methods, such as net mesh sizes and lengths to be more selective in our harvest.

By the time the salmon reach these terminal areas, weak and strong stocks have sorted themselves out. We know where, when and how many fish we can selectively harvest without harming the run.

The next time you see one of us tribal fishermen exercising our treaty right in a bay or at a river’s mouth, remember why we are there. We are there because that is where we must be to exercise our treaty rights.

We have a good sense of place. It’s right here on every major watershed in this region as co-managers of the salmon resource.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Salmon hatcheries provide most of the salmon for harvest in western Washington. That’s because wild salmon habitat has been degraded to the point that few wild runs can sustain much harvest.

The combined tribal, state and federal salmon hatchery system in western Washington is the largest in the world. This system keeps us fishermen on the water while we try to solve the problem of limited and damaged habitat for wild fish.

With our state co-managers, tribes have been on the cutting edge of enhancement science, making sure our efforts with salmon hatcheries are the best for salmon, fishermen and our communities.

• The Squaxin Island Tribe recently finished a study into the habitat of one of their local creeks. It helped the tribe, state and a local enhancement group figure out a better way to build natural coho populations in the stream. The tribe will soon add 30,000 young coho from hatchery broodstock that will spawn naturally and boost the run.
• Since 2005 the Lower Elwha Tribe has been holding on tight to a wild steelhead run on the Elwha River as preparation continues for removal of two salmon-blocking dams. By collecting and raising native steelhead in a hatchery, once the dams are gone, the steelhead will be situated to make a full recovery
• Because of the unusually warm summer we had, the Tulalip Tribes had to take emergency steps to make sure enough salmon returned to the state’s Wallace River hatchery. Besides closing their fishery to ensure egg-take needs were met, fish unable to reach the hatchery were collected at the tribe’s downstream hatchery.
• The Quileute Tribe saved more than 350,000 young Sol Duc River coho that were slated for extermination at a state hatchery. State budget cuts meant there wasn’t enough money to rear the fish, but the tribe stepped up and offered $31,000 to finish the job. Tribal staff worked extra hours to make the effort to ensure success.

State budget cuts that disproportionately target natural resources management – as well as the greater and greater demands being placed on hatcheries – mean we have to be smarter about how we spend on hatcheries. We must see hatchery production through the lens of habitat.

The original intent of hatcheries was to replace lost habitat, but we know that they don’t do that anymore. We need to restore and protect habitat to make sure we’re getting the most out of our hatcheries, while at the same time restoring weak wild stocks. After all, once hatchery salmon are released, they swim in the exact same habitat as their wild cousins.

We need hatcheries. I wish we didn’t, but we do. It doesn’t mean we’ve changed our view on salmon recovery. We still believe that the true measure of success will be when we return all salmon populations to levels that can again support sustainable harvest. Nothing short of that will do.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

It’s one reason the recent emergency shellfish bed closure in Hood Canal’s Annas Bay was such a shock.  It made us feel like all our work to clean up Puget Sound is being flushed away while our treaty rights are violated.

The state Department of Health closed Annas Bay to shellfishing because sport anglers were using the banks of the Skokomish River as a toilet. This isn’t a new problem, and it’s a shame that an important shellfish bed had to be closed to get folks to pay attention to overcrowded fishing conditions.

While we were encouraged to see the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife work with anglers and others to clean the waste from the riverbank and reopen the shellfish bed, we wonder how things were allowed to get that bad. The state first clearly identified the problem back in 2003.

Within three weeks of the Aug. 1 chinook opening on the Skokomish River, as many as 2,000 anglers a day were fishing its lower stretch, targeting the fish returning to the George Adams Hatchery.  My friend Dave Herrera, fisheries policy representative for the Skokomish Tribe, explained it this way: ”There are so many people, and they are fishing shoulder to shoulder. They believe if they leave their spot for very long they will lose it. They would rather step in the bushes.”

The closure denied the tribe access to more than 175,000 oysters from the closed shellfish beds. “The fact that the Skokomish Tribe must close an important shellfish harvest area as a direct result of non-Indian activities that are authorized by WDFW is an outrage and violates the tribe’s treaty rights,” Skokomish tribal chair Guy Miller said. He’s right.

To make matters worse, the increased pollution has scrapped plans to reopen another several hundred acres of Annas Bay that have been closed for years because of contamination.

More portable toilets and garbage cans may help reduce the problem along the lower Skokomish River in the short term, but we’re all working too hard to clean up Puget Sound and recover salmon for something like this to happen. We’re better than that. All of us.

For the long term, we need to bring more salmon back to their native rivers so that no one has to stand shoulder to shoulder on short stretches of a few rivers just so they can catch a fish.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

We’ve been waiting for someone like Larry for a long time. With Larry in the Department of the Interior, we have a great opportunity to get things done.

Larry is a member of the Pawnee Nation. He’s the former elected attorney general of Idaho, so he’s from the Northwest. He knows what we’re facing up here and understands the issues that are important to us.

Larry’s been working outside of Indian Country for a number of years, teaching law at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. So, he came up here a few weeks ago, eager to learn more about what’s happening now in our lives as Indian people.

In addition to representatives from the treaty tribes in western Washington, the treaty tribes of the Columbia River system joined us to meet with Larry. Together we are the 24 treaty fishing tribes of the Pacific Northwest. We spent an entire day with Larry talking about the natural resources that mean so much to us. We shared our concerns that our treaty rights continue to be violated, that water rights continue to be disputed and that our salmon stocks continue to decline.

We explained that we have always been gatherers and harvesters. We are also the managers of these resources. We manage fish from Alaska all the way to Mexico.

In the three decades since our treaty rights were reaffirmed by U.S. v. Washington (the Boldt Decision), additional responsibilities have been laid at our feet while our funding has eroded. Even though we are an essential part of community health and natural resources management, we’ve had a hard time keeping our programs running. Because of inflation, though, we are actually receiving less funding than we did more than 30 years ago.

When tribes have the resources, we can do great things for our communities, for salmon and for our neighbors. For decades, the Lower Elwha Tribe has worked to have the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams removed, to help bring back salmon runs that have been driven to near extinction. The removal date has been pushed back a few times, but with the recent injection of $54 million in federal stimulus money, the dams are set to come down in 2011, a year earlier than planned.

This is the kind of thing that we can get done with full support of the federal government.

We know our watersheds, we know our neighbors and for centuries, we’ve known the needs of salmon.

This is our homeland. This is where we live. We aren’t going anywhere. We have to take care of our country, and we have to work with local, state and federal governments to sustain it.

The federal government hasn’t always been our friend, but that’s going to change. This new Bureau of Indian Affairs, led by Larry, is going to do a better job for all of us and the salmon, too. With Larry working with us as an advocate for our treaty rights and the natural resources on which rights depend, we will all be better off.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

For the first time in nearly 25 years the Stillaguamish Tribe was able to harvest a chinook from the Stillaguamish River for a First Salmon Ceremony.

Sport fishermen on the Skagit River are getting a crack at summer and fall chinook for the first time since 1993.

For the past two years, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians has opened special “elders only” fisheries for spring chinook, the first harvest of these fish by the tribe since the 1980s.

These fisheries are small – the Stillaguamish Tribe is expected to take fewer than 20 of the 1,000 chinook returning to the river’s north fork – but they are no less important. Each fishery is a testament to strong, sound co-management by the treaty Indian tribes and State of Washington.

We’ve been ramping up hatchery programs to make sure wild stocks on the edge of extinction don’t disappear. The Muckleshoot Tribe’s White River Hatchery provides a great example. The hatchery opened in the late 1980s in response to spring chinook returns as low as 30 fish. With help from the state and the Puyallup Tribe, the program has resulted in as many as 6,000 fish returning each year.

But despite the ground we’ve gained we are losing habitat faster than we can restore it.

I wish I was talking about hundreds of thousands of fish coming back to our rivers every year. All of the numbers I’ve shared with you are small for a reason: we’ve failed to take care of the salmon’s home. We’ve limited our fisheries and sharpened our hatchery programs, but the march of habitat destruction continues.

Since the 1970s the total amount of impervious surfaces – things like roads, parking lots and roofs – in the Snohomish watershed has nearly tripled. This is the nastiest kind of habitat destruction because it changes the way water flows, causing flooding and killing more salmon than an army of fishermen ever could.

Instead of balancing our region’s catastrophic growth on the back of salmon, we need to turn the corner and begin restoring more salmon habitat than we destroy every year.

Salmon recovery begins and ends with good habitat.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

The state Department of Health has been monitoring the number of boats in the bay, some of them moored year round. During boating season, you can see 50-75 boats in the 100-acre bay. That’s too many. While water quality tests show that the water is clean for the time being, there is a real possibility that it could change – fast.

Already the number of boats has resulted in a partial closure of the bay and a downgrading of the approved shellfish growing area under requirements of the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP). The NSSP regulates all aspects of commercial shellfish harvesting and handling and prevents contaminated shellfish getting into the market. Treaty tribes in western Washington are bound by the NSSP, as are other commercial shellfish growers and harvesters. The guidelines state that every boat has the potential to discharge untreated sewage; and that the time it takes to reach a shellfish bed can be very short.

The Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish tribes would all feel a deep impact by the loss of Mystery Bay to shellfish harvest. Like all treaty tribes in western Washington, these tribes won’t accept a loss of their right to harvest shellfish from a pollution problem that can be easily fixed.

The Mystery Bay issue could set a precedent for shorelines throughout Puget Sound, causing shellfish closures for everyone and ultimately threatening the loss of tribal treaty harvest opportunities.

The threat of shellfish closures reaches beyond tribal communities. Our good friends, the Johnson Family, owners of Marrowstone Island Shellfish Company, live and work on that bay too. Their business would be devastated by possible closures.

We can avoid the closure of Mystery Bay. The lack of enforcement and management of the area is long overdue and is reaching the breaking point. Permitting agencies have been meeting for more than a year on this issue and have discussed the need to hammer out exactly what is needed in terms of permits, authorizing statutes and regulations.

We need to start by limiting the number of boats allowed to moor in the bay. Close monitoring is needed to ensure beaches remain safe for shellfish harvesting as we reduce the number of boats in the bay.

Shellfish are wonderful critters. They help keep the water clean through their natural filtering systems. They have always provided Indian people with a sustainable source of food and opportunities to keep our culture alive.

Now is the time for the federal, state and county governments to step up and protect Mystery Bay, treaty rights, water quality and public health. We all benefit from the beauty and resources of a healthy Mystery Bay, and that puts us one step closer to a cleaner Puget Sound.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Tiffany Royal, NWIFC, (360) 297-6546.

But that came to a stop after treaty times, when the tribe was confined to a 640-acre reservation at the river’s mouth. Over the years the Hoh River has whittled the reservation to about 450 acres and much of the land floods every year.

A study of the river’s migrating main channel shows the Hoh is likely to again come barreling through the tribal center and many homes within the next 25 years. Flooding has already become an annual event in these low-lying areas.

The Hoh Tribe had a choice. Build expensive dikes or other structures – which can protect the riverbank but hurt fish habitat – or move out of harm’s way.

I am encouraged by efforts to help the tribe move its tribal center and housing out of the path of the river. Salmon are the lifeblood of our people. That is especially true for Hoh tribal members who rely on fishing both culturally and economically on a reservation where unemployment exceeds 70 percent.

To avoid damaging fish habitat with flood control structures the tribe acquired 160 acres of state Department of Natural Resources land and 270 acres from private landowners about a mile outside the reservation and the Hoh River’s floodplain. The parcels are separated from the reservation by 37 acres of former timberlands now owned by Olympic National Park. The only road to the reservation already crosses this sliver of land.

To connect the properties the tribe and park have developed a plan to transfer title of the land to the tribe. Logging, hunting and construction would be prohibited under the agreement. The tribe is waiting for Congress to approve the transfer.

In the meantime the tribe hopes to break ground on a public safety building this summer on some of the newly purchased land. Fire and first aid equipment will be a valuable resource for both tribal and local public safety officers.

Congress needs to act now to approve the land transfer between the park and tribe. This is a good solution to a pressing problem. It’s good for the people, good for the river and good for the salmon. It will also create a place where young Hoh tribal members – who make up more than half of the tribe’s membership – can plan their futures.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180. Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, (360) 424-8226.

Tribes modified their fishing schedules to provide more saltwater mark selective sport salmon fishing opportunities for adipose fin-clipped hatchery chinook throughout Puget Sound. Additional freshwater angling for coho in the Nooksack River, chinook in the Skagit and Nisqually rivers, and pink salmon in the Green River were also made available by the tribes.

Meantime, the Stillaguamish Tribe will conduct a small ceremonial and subsistence fishery for chinook – the first in about 20 years.

It’s important to remember that tribal and state salmon co-management isn’t optional. We have to work together. It’s the law under U.S. v. Washington (the Boldt Decision).

One of the ways we are able to cooperate successfully is that the State of Washington has empowered its representatives in the Department of Fish and Wildlife to negotiate and develop joint fishing plans with the tribes. That kind of effort requires a professional staff – experts in fisheries management – that has been given the legal authority to work with the treaty tribes.

That’s one of the reasons why – with the state’s budget in shambles – we worked with WDFW to modify its monitoring program for this year’s expanded mark selective fisheries. Many anglers are calling this a watershed year in the expansion of mark selective sport fisheries for adipose fin-clipped hatchery salmon.

We were able to expand monitoring of these fisheries, while controlling costs and ensuring that reliable estimates of mark selective fishery impacts are timely. These estimates are critical to helping us plan for next year’s fisheries.

We believe mark selective sport fishing is a management tool that can, under the right circumstances, be used provide additional sport fishing opportunity.

More than half of all sport fisheries in Puget Sound are mark selective, in which anglers must release non-clipped wild salmon, some of which die after being hooked, played and released. Mortality estimates can range upwards of 20 percent depending on the location of the fishery, weather and wave conditions, the age of the fish and other factors.

Mark selective sport fishing is still a new harvest method in this region and as such, needs to be closely monitored to gauge impacts on weak wild salmon stocks. We were able to work with the state more effectively this year because our trust and confidence has grown along with the state’s increased monitoring of these fisheries.

Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose, but it is the key to successful cooperative salmon co-management. North of Falcon is proving just that.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180. Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, (360) 424-8226.

A few years back, the Swinomish Tribe sued Skagit County Dike District No. 22 for building tide gates without the permits they needed from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In September, a federal judge ruled that the district had violated both the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

With the judge’s ruling on their side, the Swinomish Tribe took the issue out of the courtroom. Instead of forcing the district to pay federal fines, the tribe suggested that the two become partners in restoring 200 acres of estuary in the Skagit delta.

It’s too bad that people sometimes need a court-ordered push to do the right thing.

In December, the tribe and the dike district filed their formal plan about how they’re going to restore that estuary habitat. The 200 acres of land proposed for restoration is owned by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and for now provides food for overwintering waterfowl.

Decades ago, at great cost to vital salmon habitat, most of the estuary was diked and drained to create farmland. Now, the salmon recovery effort is working to undo that damage and restore tidal flow so young salmon have a place to rear before heading to sea and adult salmon have somewhere to rest before returning home to spawn.

To protect farmland, tide gates let excess water drain from the fields to Skagit Bay, but keep salt water from getting in when the tides turn. Skagit County Dike District No. 22 is responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of the system of dikes and tide gates on Fir Island, between the two forks of the Skagit River.

When three tide gates needed replacing in 2002 and 2006, the dike district moved ahead without getting permits from the Corps of Engineers. That was a violation of the Clean Water Act.

The new tide gates also prevented juvenile salmon from reaching their rearing habitat. That was a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Chinook salmon in Puget Sound have been listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act since 1999. In the Skagit, the biggest obstacle standing in the way of their recovery is a shortage of estuary habitat.

Tribes like Swinomish haven’t been able to fish like they used to, mostly because of the collapse of so many Puget Sound salmon populations. The tribe’s harvest of chinook has dropped 94 percent since 1975, and they haven’t fished a full season for more than 20 years.

Thanks to the federal judge’s decision in this case, the Swinomish Tribe and the dike district can put their differences aside and work together.

This is the spirit of cooperation that guides natural resources co-management in this area and will eventually be the reason we’re able to bring salmon back.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180. Kari Neumeyer, NWIFC, (360) 424-8226.

We’ve sure come a long ways in that time.

The 1974 Boldt decision made it clear: Treaty Indian tribes in western Washington had reserved rights to half of the harvestable salmon returning to state waters and were equal partners with the state of Washington in managing the resource.

Slade Gorton, who was Washington’s attorney general at that time, told Gov. Dan Evans that the state didn’t have to implement the ruling. The case would be won on appeal, he said, but he was wrong.

For the next few years the state refused to implement the ruling and there was chaos on the water. People took the law into their own hands. It got so bad that Judge Boldt suspended the state’s authority to manage salmon for several months and put the National Marine Fisheries Service in charge.

Those were dark days, but through them we were able to discover a path toward cooperation instead of litigation. That path led to the North of Falcon (NOF) process, named for the cape on the Oregon coast that marks the southern boundary of the management area for Washington salmon stocks, which extends to the Canadian border.

While the process for setting salmon seasons through NOF is highly complex, the rules for getting there are simple: Be polite and try to meet each other’s needs while protecting weak and ESA-listed salmon stocks and ensuring that enough adult salmon escape harvest to sustain the next generation. We develop fisheries based on their impacts to salmon stocks on a river-by-river basis.

Work on this year’s effort began months ago with development of conservation goals, preseason forecasts and estimates of impacts to specific salmon stocks at various levels of fishing effort.

We’ll see more chinook in Puget Sound this year because of the new Pacific Salmon Treaty agreement that reduces harvest of the fish by Alaskan and Canadian fishermen. This is a pink salmon year, too, so there will be more fishing opportunity on these fish as well.

Like all fisheries, though, these will come with some costs. We will have to pass most of the chinook savings on to the spawning grounds. And while pink salmon will be plentiful this year, we have to carefully watch these fisheries for incidental impacts to coho and ESA-listed Puget Sound chinook.

“It seems like it would get easier after 25 years, but it gets harder,” Swinomish tribal fisheries manager Lorraine Loomis told me recently. She is vice-chair of the NWIFC and the coordinator of tribal participation in NOF, one of the toughest jobs in Indian Country.

One of the reasons it’s getting harder is that as the resource shrinks, so does the room for error in salmon management. While we do a good job managing our harvest and our hatcheries, but we can’t control the main reasons for salmon declines, which are loss and destruction of their habitat.

Only through cooperation – the kind of cooperation that helped create and sustain the NOF process – will we be able to do that.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

We were especially encouraged to hear President Obama’s pledge to honor “treaty obligations that are owed to the first Americans,” when he introduced Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar as the new Secretary of the Interior.

But what really made us feel good was when President Obama said: “We need more than just a government-to-government relationship; we need a nation-to-nation relationship.”

Let me tell you, we’re ready for that relationship.

Leaders of the 24 treaty Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest recently sent some recommendations to the administration, pointing the way to restoring the relationship between tribes and the federal government and healing our communities and natural resources.

One of the things we recommend is an Executive Order to reaffirm and strengthen the administration’s relationship with tribes. This would help reinforce our sovereign governmental authority, treaty rights, and natural resources co-management responsibilities. We’re also recommending that the order include a commitment by the federal government to consult the tribes regarding any policy, legislation, or litigation affecting our treaty rights.

Next, we look to rebuilding the tribes’ ability to manage natural resources. During the past 50 years we’ve established ourselves as leaders in natural resources management with a long record of success. At the same time we’ve seen our base fisheries management funding melt away. When adjusted for inflation, our base funding is actually less than we received 30 years ago. At the same time, our management responsibilities have increased greatly.

We also want President Obama to protect and restore tribal water rights and put water quality standards into place to protect the health of Indian people and the salmon we rely on.

Our sovereignty, treaty rights, strong leadership, traditional knowledge and presence in every watershed make us unique partners in addressing natural resources management issues. We’ve always lived in these watersheds, and we always will.

The solutions we develop happen on the ground in our local watersheds. We work with our neighbors because that’s how big jobs get done. We are guided in our decisions by remembering the needs of those who will come seven generations from now.

When the Squaxin Island Tribe fights to protect water quality in Oakland Bay, they aren’t just doing it for themselves, they’re doing it for the people who live along Oakland Bay and the people employed by the multi-million dollar shellfish industry there. It’s just like the more than 40 million salmon that we produce every year at our tribal hatcheries – salmon that are caught by everyone.

The treaty tribes of the Pacific Northwest have the knowledge and legal standing to do great things for salmon and for our neighbors. We hope that the new leadership guiding the United States will honor those who signed the treaties with faith and trust more than 150 years ago.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

It’s called “salmon fatigue” and from what I can tell, it’s a brain infection that makes you tired of trying to save the salmon.

If we cried about fatigue every time we came up against a difficult problem in this country, where would we be? I don’t understand how you can get tired of trying to save the salmon.

What those infected with salmon fatigue are really saying is “stop coming to me and talking about salmon.”

I have news for them. We’re just getting started.

Puget Sound chinook were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act almost ten years ago. We’ve worked hard during that time with our state co-managers to develop a recovery plan for these fish that fixes their habitat and restricts harvest. Despite all of our work Puget Sound steelhead, which depend on much of the same habitat as chinook, were listed under the ESA last year.

We’re not giving up, though, and we’re sure as hell not getting tired.

I’m hearing complaints about salmon fatigue at the same time we’re trying to muster the strength to clean up Puget Sound. I’ll tell you, getting tired of salmon sure isn’t going to get us any closer to rescuing Puget Sound.

We can’t risk salmon fatigue becoming Puget Sound fatigue.

It’s kind of funny, but the people who are around salmon the most, like fishermen, don’t get salmon fatigue. You would think that people who spend their lives around salmon would be more likely to get tired of them, but they don’t.

The salmon sure don’t get tired. They come back to the rivers every year in the hope that we have turned ourselves around and have worked to restore and protect their homes.

Now is the time we should be making great strides in our efforts to recover Puget Sound chinook and other listed species, but instead we are seeing less and less funding for this work.

In fact, when adjusted for inflation, the treaty Indian tribes in western Washington now receive less funding for salmon management than we did 30 years ago.

This lack of funding might slow us down, but it won’t stop us. We won’t let it.

If elected officials and bureaucrats can’t get cured of their “Salmon Fatigue” and truly commit to salmon recovery – even before the job is 10 percent done – how can we expect to clean up Puget Sound?

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Tony Meyer or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Rockfish are part of the bounty that the Pacific Ocean has always provided for the Indian tribes along the Washington coast. Fish, shellfish, marine mammals and other marine life have been staples of our diets and economies for as long as anyone can remember.

But now our fish populations are in trouble and being mismanaged. The reasons for the recent declines are either complex or unknown, most likely because we aren’t looking in the right place. So it’s urgent that we fund much-needed research about fish stocks off our coast.

The practice of assuming rockfish populations up and down the Pacific coast are the same, and managing them as a single stock, has failed.

Big time declines in the stocks are driving management decisions for all of the West Coast. A multi-million dollar groundfish fishery in Washington waters, where rockfish resources are stronger, is at risk of a complete closure because of weak stocks in northern California waters.

To avoid such an economic disaster, we must act now.

The Hoh Indian Tribe, the Makah Tribe, the Quileute Tribe, the Quinault Indian Nation and the State of Washington have proposed a five-year ocean monitoring and research initiative to manage rockfish at the ecosystem level. Federal support is needed to collect basic information we need to manage the waters off the Olympic Coast.

For a small percentage of the value of the fishery to our communities a year, we can begin to collect the data needed to improve our understanding of a vital part of our heritage and an essential part of our future.

We need finer scale data, including additional survey data from areas we’re not sampling right now on the continental shelf and slope, and expanding existing groundfish port sampling.

We simply can’t figure out how healthy our local rockfish stocks are without this kind of information.

The initiative would also create a comprehensive assessment of the coastal ecosystem. If we don’t know what kind of habitat is out there and how it supports different species, we can’t effectively conserve rockfish and other groundfish species.

Understanding how climate change is impacting the ocean is also an important part of this proposal. Changes in ocean currents affect the health and abundance of ocean fisheries. The ocean initiative proposed by the tribes and the state will help track changes in ocean conditions off of our coast.

We all have to work together to gain a better understanding of the watery world that has given us so much. The tribes that have always depended on the ocean and our state co-managers have proposed a way to find out what is really going on out in the ocean.

It’s time we stepped up with them. The cost of maintaining our ignorance is too high.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

South Fork Nooksack River native spring chinook are almost extinct and need our help. It wasn’t long ago when about 13,000 of these early-timed chinook came back to the river each year. They were the first salmon to arrive each spring, feeding Indian people after long winters, when no other salmon were in the river.

Spring chinook have a much tougher journey than other salmon because they spend more time in fresh water before spawning. They are especially sensitive to poor habitat conditions in the river.

Time has not been kind to salmon habitat in the South Fork Nooksack. The loss of trees and other plants along streams has removed important shade and reduced the source of wood needed for in-stream fish habitat. Spring chinook need deep, sheltered pools of cool water for their extended rest before they spawn. Water that is too warm can result in disease, reduced salmon egg survival and even death.

This summer, to give the river the building blocks it needs to restore degraded habitat, both the Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Tribe built specially engineered logjams in the South Fork. Over the next few years, these logjams will help create the deep pools that young and adult salmon prefer.

While we are fixing the habitat, we also have to make sure that we are protecting the unique genetic traits of these fish. The Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Tribe are working with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on an important program to raise juvenile South Fork Nooksack River chinook in captivity and spawn them. Their offspring will be released in the river to migrate naturally and return as adults a few years later.

Our goal for this stock is the same for all wild salmon stocks: to recover their populations to levels that can again support harvest. By taking these naturally spawned juvenile chinook into protective custody, the tribes are safeguarding their future.

The path to recovery takes a side-by-side approach of boosting numbers now while also fixing the habitat so the river can support a healthy, productive population. I’m proud that the tribes are taking a leadership role in both areas.

Salmon face great challenges during their life journey. With their numbers falling, we have to work harder to help them on their way. As long as they continue to swim upstream, so should we.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

We came a small step closer to making sure we always have water in our rivers recently when King County Judge Jim Rogers struck down a bad piece of state water law. He ruled that the state legislature made a mistake in 2003 when it passed Municipal Water Law 1338, which would have let developers horde water rights for decades.

The problem is that if you added up all of the water rights held throughout Puget Sound today, there wouldn’t be enough water to fulfill them. It’s called over-appropriation and it means that under the state’s outdated water laws people have the legal right to withdraw more water than actually exists.

Before the legislature passed the Municipal Water Law, water rights owned by developers that weren’t used eventually reverted to the state. “Use it or lose it” gave the complicated water rights system at least some connection to reality.

But that tether to the real world was cut when the legislature decided to give developers and cities the same rights to horde their paper water rights until they got around to using them. If they did as this law would have allowed, it would result in dry river beds, much like those southern California has experienced for many years.

Part of saving Puget Sound is making sure there is cool, clean water flowing into it. First we need to ask ourselves how much water the salmon need and then ask ourselves how much we can take. Striking down Municipal Water Law 1338 was a good start.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

The result of society’s effort to ignore that rhythm anyway is playing out in the backyards of our ever-expanding neighborhoods. When Tabby, the crows and the raccoons battle each other for food on the back porches of those neighborhoods, it is really us who are fighting on the porch, and we must consider resolution with an eye toward our own survival.

Reports of house pets being killed by larger mammals in rural neighborhoods and suburbs are more frequent now. It’s easy to feel sorry for those pets and their owners. I know I do. But let’s not forget about where the fault lies with this problem. It doesn’t rest with the cougar or the coyote that wanders into “civilized” areas. It lies with us. These animals are not encroaching on our territory, we are encroaching on theirs.

The battle of the species is one played out with increasing frequency because people and builders have expanded with little restraint or semblance of control. Society pushes deeper and deeper into forests and prairies until now there is little habitat for these animals, and that habitat which does still exist is fragmented in a million pieces.

Today you see houselights on the hillsides and mountaintops. Natural resources are pushed to the limit, and still the expectation is that human growth and urban sprawl will continue to expand exponentially.

There is no longer an artificial line between the wild and the “civilized,” a Seattle Times columnist wrote recently after looking out on his back porch to see a large raccoon, an arched and hissing cat, and cawing crows swooping through the scene like fighter jets.

This incident, plus a number of reports of coyote sightings in his neighborhood, prompted the writer to contact the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. They told him predators are a part of the natural ecosystem and that if we want to have balanced, healthy ecosystems, we’ve got to have predators – that predators are part of the urban habitat just like people. Since we’re going to be living together, we need to make it work.

That’s good advice.

But if we continue on the path we are on now, a day will come when there will be little if any wildlife other than those species that have adapted to living with our “civilization,” species like rats.

Some folks argue that people count for more, that pets are part of our families, and that they are therefore more important than wildlife. What they don’t seem to realize is that the deer, fish, bear, cougar and other species are part of our family, too, and like any strong family, we must work at getting along.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

But we’ve really just begun the work needed to repair centuries of environmental abuses. That’s why it’s important to acknowledge where progress is being made, so others can learn from the example and be encouraged. Port Gamble Bay is a good example of what happens when voices are raised together from the nooks and crannies of western Washington.

Situated on Puget Sound near Hood Canal, the bay is home to a large population of herring, salmon, shellfish—and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe.

Port Gamble Bay has one of the largest remaining herring stocks in Puget Sound. Herring are an important indicator species of the health of the underwater environment. They are a primary food source for Puget Sound chinook and steelhead, both listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. The bay is also home to two large geoduck tracts and acres of oyster and clam beds along the tribe’s reservation tidelands.

The bay’s natural resources are priceless to the tribe, but are increasingly threatened by developers.

For 150 years, the bay, fish, wildlife and the tribe suffered from the environmental impacts of the Port Gamble Mill operations until its closure in the mid-1990s. That’s why I am especially encouraged by a recent state Department of Ecology announcement of plans to further clean up the old sawmill site. Contaminated soils and wood debris will be removed, and more cleanup work is planned in cooperation with the tribe and public.

Still, development pressure on the bay continues today. The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe recently fended off construction of a proposed 165-foot-long multi-use dock at the old mill site. Adding manmade structures puts the bay’s environment at risk on a variety of levels. Docks create shade, which in turn harms eelgrass and other species important to herring and salmon. The tribe already is concerned about possible shellfish bed closures by the state Department of Health in response to pollution from marinas in the area. Increased boat traffic around the proposed dock would only add to the problem.

Every day, struggles like Port Gamble Bay are playing out all over western Washington. Each river, bay and creek is worth the fight it takes to protect and preserve it, because each contributes to a restored healthy environment.

If you listen carefully, you’ll hear a voice supporting all of these efforts, a voice that may sometimes be hard to hear. It’s the voice of generations yet to come, and their message is strong: we’re counting on you.

Under state law, property owners can tap up to 5,000 gallons of groundwater every day and be exempted from getting a permit. There are no limits under current state law for watering livestock, gardens or lawns. The 5,000 gallon limitation applies to home and industrial uses, including irrigation. Pumping more than that takes a permit, unless, of course, you’re willing to cheat—and unfortunately many do just that. Clean, fresh water is just about as rare and even more valuable than gasoline, and that leads to thievery.

Five thousand gallons may not seem like much. But multiply those individual exemptions by the hundreds of thousands of property owners and millions of new residents in this state and, well, you don’t need to be a genius to realize we’re talking about a lot of water.

When I speak about fish and wildlife, and the need to restore and protect the habitat our fellow creatures need to survive, water is always fundamental in the equation. If our rivers are drawn down to nothing — places like Southern California have shown it’s possible — there will be little if any fish and wildlife. The quality of life in the Northwest would nose-dive, and people would begin to get pretty thirsty.

So, what can we do to get off the crazy roller coaster of water mismanagement by the state?

The Squaxin Island Tribe recently provided one example. The tribe asked the state to halt the drilling of new wells in the Johns Creek watershed. Summer flows in Johns Creek already are far below the minimum required by the state’s own rules to protect spawning salmon. Through these many wells, water is withdrawn that would normally flow into the creek. More than 270 new wells have been drilled in the Johns Creek watershed over the past few decades, all legally exempt from state permits.

The actual amount of water taken has never been measured. But, believe me, it’s significant. Exempting hundreds of thousands of gallons of water every day is mismanagement, plain and simple. Let’s face it. The state does not know how much water there is to allocate, let alone how much is exempt from permits.

What’s happening to the water resource in the Johns Creek watershed is not an isolated case. It’s happening throughout the state every day.

It’s time to push for better water management, and to ensure that water levels in our rivers are adequate to sustain our natural heritage. Whether it’s by resolution, legislation, public pressure, litigation or negotiated agreement, we have to make substantial changes in the way water is managed.

The Squaxin Island Tribe is filing its resolution under a provision of state law that closes a watershed from future withdrawals if the information available to justify those future withdrawals is inadequate. Basically, the tribe is just asking that the state enforce its own law. What a concept!

The state’s own water law is based on the premise of “first in time, first in use.” Is there any question that fish, wildlife and tribes were here first?

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Fishermen have made the lion’s share of sacrifice so far, and cutting back on fisheries to the degree we have has not been easy on our people. Empty freezers and smoke houses hurt deeply, physically, economically and culturally.

People need to know that tribes are good natural resource managers and always have been. We live on the rivers, and our scientists work on them every day. We know when the resource is healthy, and when it’s not, and we know when the habitat that sustains them is in trouble.

Well, it’s in trouble now and it affects us all. Yet, seldom do those who cause the habitat problem seem to really care or even show a true desire to understand. Rather than emphasizing a healthy ecosystem they try to look green, go on about their polluting ways and always blame the declining salmon runs on—you guessed it—the fishermen.

Just a few weeks ago, we won a federal court victory against an association that took aim at the Puget Sound Chinook harvest plan developed by the tribes and state. It wasn’t the first time we had to defend ourselves in court against such misguided efforts, and it probably won’t be the last. But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Habitat is the key to success in restoring and protecting our great Northwest salmon runs.

This is not to say that wild salmon—especially Chinook runs listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act—aren’t depleted. But our harvest plan is a good, conservative approach that will not impede recovery.

Until the citizens, businesses and non-tribal governments of this area are willing to make the same level of sacrifices fishermen and fisheries managers have made through reduced harvests and reforming hatchery practices, we will not succeed.

All fishermen know salmon need habitat. It is time for all of us to work together, go after shared goals and leave the hatred behind. There is no time to waste time if we want to leave our children a world that will sustain them.

Recently, fishermen representing tribal, sport and commercial communities came together during the fisheries planning process. For a while, we didn’t talk about the pressures bearing down on our lifestyles and livelihood, but rather about our common love of fishing for salmon. These sessions can be tough and packed with emotion, largely because we love our fishing lifestyle so much. But in the end, all of us fishermen are far more similar than we are different.

We all love the environment we live and work in. We hope our kids will be able to, too.

The Creator put fish in our waters, and made them delicious and nutritious for good reason—to sustain and inspire us. Fishing is a highly desirable outcome of good management. Yes, it’s been a hard, painful choice to fish so much less. We want to fish more, but we must choose to respect the gifts of Nature. We ask that the habitat destroyers and water wasters do the same, and stop using fishing as a scapegoat.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Emmett O’Connell, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Restoration work was set to begin last summer to return tidal flow to a 157-acre parcel of land around Wiley Slough. Project partners, including the Skagit River System Cooperative and state Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), identified the area as a priority for estuarine restoration in accordance with 2003 state legislation to restore public lands for salmon recovery before looking to private land.

The parcel, also known as the Headquarters Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area, was acquired by the state in 1962 through a land swap with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The estuary was converted for recreational use – and the salmon habitat destroyed – through dikes, drainage ditches, culverts and tide gates.

Since then, Wiley Slough has been used for put-and-take pheasant hunting, wildlife viewing, dog training and migratory bird hunting. To enhance the site for hunting and bird watching, 100 acres were planted each year with cereal grains to bait waterfowl. The area also features easy foot access for hunters and a 2.4-mile loop trail popular with hikers.

It is widely agreed, from the standpoint of salmon recovery, that it was a mistake to convert this land from estuarine habitat to recreational use. As the natural resource arm of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes, the Skagit River System Cooperative is working with WDFW to restore the estuary for salmon use.
Some recreational users, however, oppose the loss of this easily accessible hunting and wildlife viewing area. The state Legislature has put the Wiley Slough project on hold until its opponents are satisfied that the loss of recreational opportunities will be mitigated. The cost burden of investigating mitigation options is likely to fall on the salmon recovery effort.

The tribes already have lost five decades of salmon productivity because of the state’s decision to dike and drain Wiley Slough. The salmon recovery effort already is bearing the cost of fixing this habitat degradation. The Skagit River System Cooperative along with their project partners have secured $2.5 million in federal grants toward the project; an additional to $2 million that has been funded through the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board and Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership.

One option being pursued by recreational interests and some legislators is to require restoration proponents to establish new recreational sites elsewhere in order to replace recreational opportunities lost at the project site. By placing such a financial burden on this project, and others in the future, the state is effectively discouraging future efforts to restore salmon habitat. If we are to succeed in recovering ailing salmon populations, this cannot happen to every project that involves a change in land use. We want to be able to work with recreationists, as well as other communities to improve the quality of life for everyone in our region. Restoring salmon is vital to that objective.

Last year, the state formalized its commitment to salmon recovery through the Puget Sound Partnership, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approved the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Plan. It’s time for the state to live up to its commitment to return salmon to the sound.

It’s time for everyone to stand up for the salmon.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Forty-foot seas powered by 90 mph winds knocked out the main steering on the 720-foot Mattson Kauai near the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Waves shattered all of the windows in the ship’s wheelhouse as the vessel wallowed offshore.

Thankfully, the ocean rescue tug Gladiator was on station and able to tow the Kauai to safety. Sadly, neither the state nor federal government will commit to financing placement of a rescue tug year-round in Neah Bay.

Close calls like the Kauai don’t make much of a splash in the news, and they happen more often than you know. In the past eight years, the part-time rescue tug at Neah Bay has assisted more than 30 ships in distress. Every year more than 2,000 cargo ships enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca bound for Puget Sound.

It doesn’t take a grounded oil tanker to create a disaster on the Washington coast. The ship that hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge last month wasn’t an oil tanker, but it still spilled 58,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil from a tank capable of carrying 1 million gallons.

That’s why we’re encouraged by Sen. Maria Cantwell’s efforts to draw attention to oil spill prevention along the Washington coast.

Oil tankers have been the focus of spill prevention efforts for nearly 20 years, in large part because of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. That has led to development of new safety requirements that have made oil tankers safer. Little, however, has been done to address the safety of large non-tanker vessel traffic.

As Sen. Cantwell points out, in 1990 Congress directed the U.S. Coast Guard to place adequate salvage, rescue and firefighting vessels in strategic locations around the U.S. So far, that hasn’t happened.

Sen. Cantwell is pushing hard for legislation that would station a rescue tug year-round in Neah Bay, and we wholeheartedly support that effort. The tug legislation is stalled in the Senate now, but we are hopeful it will move forward in this session of Congress. In the meantime, hearings are scheduled next month in Washington, D.C. to examine oil spill threats posed by large non-tanker vessels, as well as oil spill response plans and allocation of federal funding for spill prevention and research.

We’ve known for many years that stationing a tug year-round in Neah Bay is one of the best steps we can take to protect the people, fish, wildlife and environment of the Washington Coast. We just hope it won’t take many more years for that to become a reality. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before the law of averages catches up with us.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Minority state house Leader Richard DeBolt asked this important question recently, criticizing salmon protection measures he believes contribute to increased flooding in the region.

He’s understandably upset because his community of Chehalis was ravaged by this winter’s floods. Our hearts go out to the thousands of people in western Washington who suffered through some of the worst flooding in decades.

Salmon and people are not in a race. There is no first or second place. People and salmon must succeed together.

My tribe, the Nisqually, and every tribe on the Pacific Coast have lived with rivers and with salmon since before recorded history. We’ve lived with floods, and our success has always been the success of the salmon.

Historically, most floods have been an important part of the salmon lifecycle. They bring down riverbank trees that provide in-river habitat for salmon and other fish. Floods also create new salmon habitat by reshaping rivers, and providing important side channel habitat for young salmon.

But now that the land around rivers has been changed so much, floods are dangerous to both salmon and people. Hard surfaces like roads and parking lots don’t let water slowly seep into the ground. Instead they flush the water into rivers and streams quickly and violently.

It’s like putting your finger on the end of a garden hose and turning it on full blast. The more you try to control the water, the faster it flows.

December’s rains came full force. Many lost everything as rivers overflowed their banks and rolled over dikes. Salmon lost their homes, too, when their egg nests were scoured from rivers and streams and lost forever.

With good stewardship, most ill effects of such floods can be reduced—for people and salmon. In Pierce County, they’re making a way for both salmon and people to win.

The Old Soldier Home levee set-back project was recently completed near Orting. By moving an old levee about 1,000 feet back from the river, flood protection will be improved while protecting and restoring habitat for salmon. With the dike set-back the Puyallup River can act more naturally and has more room to flood. It’s like releasing your finger on the end of the garden hose.

Clearly, we need to focus our energies on helping the people of western Washington recover from the devastating floods. But let’s not let that deter our mission to recover the salmon resource—a true indicator of our own well being.

Tribes have always known that people and salmon share the same boat when it comes to survival. We sink or swim together. With that in mind we should be better prepared for the next big flood.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Representatives of the 20 treaty Indian tribes in western Washington sat down for the first time in a public meeting with the entire Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission – the panel that sets policy for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

As co-managers of the natural resources in western Washington, tribes talk frequently and work closely with WDFW staff. Over the years tribes have met with individual and small groups of Fish and Wildlife Commissioners, but had never met publicly with the full commission until now.

We asked for the meeting to build on the cooperative working relationship between the tribes, commission and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Whether it’s co-management of salmon, elk or shellfish, we work best when we work together.

We had some important issues to talk about at the meeting.

One was selective sport fisheries. These are fisheries that target adipose fin-clipped hatchery fish and require non-clipped wild fish to be released. The tribes are not opposed to selective fisheries, but we are concerned about their possible impacts to wild salmon. We think that if you design a fishery around catching and releasing wild salmon you need to be pretty darn sure you know how many of those released wild fish are going to die.

These fisheries are popular with sport anglers because they allow fishing in areas that would otherwise be closed due to highly mixed concentrations of healthy hatchery stocks and weak wild stocks. Monitoring of these fisheries has revealed wildly differing impacts to released wild salmon. In one fishery, an average of seven or eight sub-legal sized wild salmon were being hooked and released by anglers before they were able to land a hatchery salmon they could keep.

It was agreed that more monitoring is needed to effectively gauge the effects of these fisheries on the weak wild stocks we are all trying to protect. And that’s an important point. We all want the same thing, whether Indian or non-Indian: healthy salmon populations that can support harvest.

We also agreed on the need to enhance the public transparency of the co-management process, especially in the process known as North of Falcon, in which tribal and non-tribal salmon fisheries in western Washington are developed each year.

We like having the public know what’s going on during the salmon season setting process, and we are committed to sharing information. Fish and Wildlife commissioners indicated they want to take a more active role in the North of Falcon process, and we welcome their involvement.

Our joint meeting was held at the Squaxin Island Tribe and was open to the public. TVW was on hand to record the meeting, which can be viewed at www.tvw.org. We think citizens who better understand fisheries management can engage more effectively in the public process.

We were encouraged by the meeting and heartened by the commitment of the Fish and Wildlife Commissioners to continue working on our working relationship. For the sake of the fish and wildlife in western Washington, we intend to make sure these meetings keep happening.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Estuaries are lifelines to birds, mammals, native plants and our great Northwest salmon. They are nurseries where young salmon grow and gain strength to begin their perilous ocean journey. Returning adults rest and eat their last meal there as they await the rains that signal the time to expend their last ounce of energy to reach their ancestral spawning grounds.

Development has swallowed or altered more than 80 percent of the historic estuarine habitat in Puget Sound. That loss continues today. That’s one reason why the tribes are so active in estuary restoration and protection, and why they’re leading the effort to create new estuarine habitat.

I’ve written about the breathtaking work done by my own Nisqually Tribe in opening up the Nisqually estuary just north of Olympia. Last fall the tribe restored more than 100 acres of estuary, opening tidal channels that had been blocked behind dikes for decades.

Our scientists are already finding wild juvenile chinook in this new habitat. Their stomachs are full of shrimp and other sources of food that have colonized the restored habitat.

And there’s more. An additional 700 acres of estuarine habitat will be reclaimed at the mouth of the river in the next few years.

On the Skokomish River, after 60 years, the tides are again flowing across more than 100 acres of estuary. The Skokomish Tribe is removing nearly a mile of dikes, part of a multi-phase effort to restore more than 300 acres of the estuary to its historic conditions.

In the North Sound area, the Swinomish and other tribes have partnered with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to restore tidal and river functions to 310 acres of Milltown Island, on the South Fork of the Skagit. This project alone is removing 1,000 feet of relic dikes and opening 1,500 feet of new channel. Upcoming projects include dike removal at Wiley Slough to return natural conditions to 175 acres of estuarine wetlands.

All of this work is helping to recover wild salmon, especially threatened Puget Sound chinook. But it’s also making a better home for all forms of life, including people. Instead of accepting a steadily shrinking estuary pie, the tribes are working to make that pie bigger.

There is much more habitat restoration work to be done, of course. But we have been busy, as co-managers of natural resources in this state. We’re not doing this just for ourselves and the fish and wildlife that sustain us all; we’re also doing it for the long term health and vitality of everyone and everything living here — including you.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

The truth is the Makah have done an outstanding job of managing the tribe’s return to whaling, and I, for one, heartily applaud them. Last month’s hunt was not approved by the Makah Tribal Council or the Makah Whaling Commission. The whalers are being held to account in tribal court, and that’s as it should be. It’s the very definition of sovereignty.

The Tribal Prosecutor is working with the U.S. Attorney’s office to share evidence needed for tribal prosecution of the case. The tribe will announce filing of charges against the five in the near future. The tribe, meanwhile, will continue to work closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the case.

Anybody who blames the entire tribe for this infraction by a few should question their own double standards. While tribes are excellent natural resource managers, it is wrong to hold them to different standards than any other nation. Do we blame the entire federal government when a non-Indian hunts out of season?

Maybe those quick to assign blame where it doesn’t belong should study history a little more thoroughly. That might help them understand why the Makah Nation and the Whale Nation are long-time comrades in the fulfillment of the ways of nature through mutual sustainability. The Makah are the best human friends whales have.

For thousands of years the Makah Nation, like other tribal nations, has respected, protected and depended upon fish, wildlife and wild plants for survival and identified with these gifts through their culture and traditions of conservation. Their skillful management was evident when European newcomers found nature in abundance just a few hundred years ago. When the United States and Makah signed the Treaty of Neah Bay in 1855, opening hundreds of thousands of acres of beautiful Olympic Peninsula land to non-tribal settlement, the Makahs retained their right to fish, hunt, seal and whale. The U.S. Constitution defines such treaties as the supreme law of the land.

By the 1920s non-tribal hunting had brought gray whales to the brink of extinction. The Makah Nation then elected to halt whaling until the whale population could again sustain harvest. It was a time of deep pain and sacrifice for the Makah people, who have never forgotten their ancestry or disconnected from their roots. Over the years gray whale populations resurged, and the whales were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994. The tribe knew then that it could finally return to whaling on a limited, sustainable basis.

Although the Makah right to whale remains intact, the tribe chose to cooperate with the federal government and the International Whaling Commission in rekindling its whaling tradition. By 1999, the tribe had been allocated five whales per year, from the allocation of Russian indigenous people and, for the first time in more than 70 years, took a whale.

The meat was shared with all members of the tribe and the whale’s bones reassembled for an educational exhibit in the Makah tribal museum. It was a time of cultural celebration supported by indigenous people from across the globe.

Self righteous protesters have tried every trick to stop Makah whaling and have succeeded in causing a temporary delay in court. But neither they, nor anyone else, will ever break the age old bond between the Makah and the whale. The Makah will whale again.

Some people seem to think that the unauthorized acts of a few render the treaty right invalid. Wrong. Treaty-protected rights are the tribes’ Bill of Rights and those rights continue, now and forever.

The Makah are a whaling people, with powerful traditions that precede any customs, rights or spiritual beliefs brought to this continent by non-Indians. The Makah Council is a sovereign, elected government that is taking a slow, but determined and judicious path to resumption of its whaling tradition.

The Makah Nation has earned, and deserves, your support.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

We are pleased that the State of Washington has returned to the negotiating table to work out an effective remedy to fix the culverts that can be put into action quickly. More than 1,000 state-owned culverts under highways are blocking more than 2,300 miles of good in-stream salmon habitat, according to the state’s estimates.

When we fix those culverts, we can expect to see more than 200,000 additional adult salmon returning to western Washington. Those fish will be harvested by everyone, both Indian and non-Indian.

The tribes did not want to file the suit. We were forced by the state’s refusal to follow and enforce its own laws aimed at protecting salmon habitat.

We’ve seen salmon runs plummet over the past 30 years, despite the best intentions of the state to protect habitat. Every year, more culverts will fail, and if we don’t fix them at a faster rate than they fail, the problem will only get worse. We simply could not wait the 100 years that the state estimated it would take to fix the culverts. That would have spelled the end of the salmon.

In the past two decades we’ve ratcheted down harvest to the point that we can no longer make up for lost natural salmon production by further reducing catches. We’ve also reformed hatchery practices so that these programs are now effectively contributing to the recovery of wild salmon.

What we haven’t done over the past 20 years is tackle the biggest reason for declining wild salmon runs: lost and degraded habitat. This case puts the spotlight on salmon habitat, right where it belongs. Without good habitat, and access to that habitat, there will be no salmon recovery.

While there is a financial cost to fix the culverts, there is a much higher cost to be paid by future generations if repairs are delayed.

I hope this legal victory for the treaty tribes will continue to help build the political will we need to bring back the salmon and make sure they have a home when they get here. I know that fixing the culverts will only add to the success of ongoing salmon recovery efforts.

Cooperation has long been the key to natural resource management in Washington. We look forward to sitting down together with the state to develop a comprehensive plan for fixing the culverts that can be put into action quickly. The salmon can’t wait much longer.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

While only a small, conservative hunt is planned, it’s cause for celebration. It will be the first time in decades that the herd is large enough to support harvest. The herd had dipped to about 300 elk in the mid-1990s and was in danger of disappearing altogether in large part because of lost and degraded habitat, cougar predation and other factors. Today the herd has more than doubled in size.

It wasn’t easy. For years tribal and state co-mangers prohibited hunting on the herd. This was especially hard on tribal communities. Elk are important to all of us. The meat is a great source of protein, and it helps stretch tight food budgets for tribal members in areas with high unemployment. Elk are also central to tribal ceremonies and events, and for use in traditional tribal regalia.

The hunting prohibition was followed by a joint tribal/state effort to bolster the Nooksack herd by supplementing it with elk from the Mount St. Helens area. The area around the blown volcano could not provide enough food for the local herd, which led to large numbers of elk deaths each winter. About 50 female elk, many of them pregnant were rounded up from the flanks of the mountain and relocated to the Nooksack herd. Transferred animals were radio collared to determine survival rates and track movements of the transplanted elk.

Sharing the work, the data and the expense of the effort to bolster the Nooksack herd has now led to shared harvest, and that’s how it should work.

Actually, Northwest tribes have advocated the principles of co-management for more than 200 years, even when the floods of non-Indian settlement first began to spread across our land. Seeking ways to work with our neighbors has been a strong tradition among our people, and working collaboratively with other governments actually defined the treaties we entered into with the federal government in the 1850’s.

Those treaties reserved our rights to fish, gather our medicines and wild plants, and to hunt. They also reserved our right to manage natural resources, including elk, in a way that would meet our needs and help sustain those resources for future generations.

Elk is an important traditional food for us Indian people. We hunt only for ceremonial and subsistence purposes, not for sport or commercial sale. Last year in Western Washington, tribal hunters harvested 389 elk, while non-Indian hunters harvested 8,666. Tribal hunters harvested 683 deer during that time; non-Indian hunters took 39,791. Frankly, more deer and elk are killed each year by cars than tribal hunters.

It’s important to understand that all tribal hunts are based on good science and are strictly regulated by tribal governments. In fact, our ratio of enforcement officers to hunters well surpasses that of non-tribal hunters. And believe me, the last thing any of our hunters want is to be cited into tribal court, where they could be fined or have their hunting permit revoked.

Co-management works when it is based on real respect and cooperation. The path ahead in elk management is clearly one that Indians and non-Indians must travel together.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

Boy, that’s hope right there. It shows we can make a difference. It’s also a reminder that Endangered Species Act can, and should, work both ways. Sure, more species are being added to the ESA list than are being removed, but if we can save the eagle, we can save the salmon, too.

Nationwide, the bald eagle population has increased tenfold since being listed in 1967. There are now 10,000 nesting pairs in the Lower 48 states.

The restoration effort could be short lived, however, if we don’t protect and restore the eagles’ habitat and primary food source. In the Northwest, that’s salmon.

Many people worked hard to bring back the eagle, and I’m proud to say tribes were in the thick of that fight. Good co-management of the salmon resource by the treaty Indian tribes and state has contributed greatly to the eagle’s recovery.

In announcing the eagle’s de-listing, the Interior Department said the administration would work to assure that eagles will never have to be listed again.

Unfortunately, this administration’s primary approach to the ESA has been to weaken the law, mostly through a lack of enforcement.

Keep in mind that the ESA was created as a last gasp effort to keep native plant and animal species from going extinct.

We should be focusing on restoring the habitat needed to revitalize all of our native fish, wildlife and plants. Instead, the Bush administration is making every effort to ease land use restrictions at the expense of the very creatures the ESA is supposed to protect.

Recently publicized Interior Department memos revealed efforts to weaken ESA’s land use restrictions by altering regulations at the agency level. Rep. Norm Dicks and other key friends in Congress put an end to that, at least for the time being.

The success in returning the bald eagle to our skies proves the ESA can work. It’s too bad that shenanigans in the nation’s capitol just make the work that much harder.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

The heart of traditional knowledge is respect. Learn to listen and you can hear the rhythm of this heartbeat being passed from generation to generation in the ceremonies and stories of our people. Listen and you can feel its valuable lessons in the collective breath of living things big and small. Feel this heart beat and you will feel your own.

With the many environmental challenges we face, it is critical for tribal and non-tribal communities to understand that we are all connected. That we must work together as brothers and sisters. That if we don’t talk together, we can’t learn together. These are the things we must do to help our children meet the challenges of the future with courage, wisdom and respect.

There is no greater warmth than that reflected in the eyes of our children as they discover the great wonders of our planet. That’s why I have renewed my dedication to environmental education, and I ask you to do the same.

I’m increasing my support of programs such as the Washington Indian Education Association, the Pacific Education Institute and the Environmental Education Association of Washington, which coordinates the E3 Washington program. As co-chair of E3 along with Governor Gregoire and William Ruckelshaus, I hope to help encourage people to understand the connections between the Environment, the Economy and Education for our Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants. I hope to help strengthen understanding between tribes and non-tribal educators and to support the development of environmental education entities throughout the state.

You can be part of the growing numbers who are joining the E3 initiative. There’s nothing fancy about the way it works. Educators, natural resource managers and others get together to brainstorm ideas at the watershed level. Statewide summits are held to help the plans come together and support the programs needed to make headway. The truly great thing about this program is that it is joining the inner city teacher with the farmer, the environmentalist with the businessman and the Indian with the non-Indian. A resolution recently passed by the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians strongly endorses this effort.

Tribes are working hard to make a difference in environmental education, and so are others. But none of us can do it alone. We know the resources and enthusiasm—and the traditional knowledge we bring to the table—can make a difference. We support E3 because we want to help all children understand their connection with the world and the lessons of traditional knowledge that have stood the test of time.

We hope you will join the effort, too.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

For more information about E3, go to www.eeaw.org

Some important dots got connected recently when Governor Chris Gregoire signed the Puget Sound Partnership into law – on the same day Bob Lohn of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the listing of Puget Sound steelhead as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

For decades, wild Puget Sound steelhead have been doing poorly. In the late 1980s, there was a sharp naturally-occurring dip coastwide in steelhead populations. While Pacific coastal steelhead gradually rebounded to today’s healthy levels, Puget Sound steelhead did not. Their struggle is a direct reflection of Puget Sound’s health and it is directly tied to the climb in the region’s human population.

As she signed her name to create the Puget Sound Partnership, Gov. Gregoire connected some more dots—the clean up of Puget Sound, a sustainable economy and the overall health and well-being of everyone who lives here. She also made recovery of Puget Sound salmon and steelhead a cornerstone of the Partnership.

She did that by appointing Bill Ruckelshaus as chair of the leadership council that will guide the Partnership in its efforts to clean up much of the Sound by 2020. My good friend Bill also was a driving force behind the Shared Strategy, a Sound-wide cooperative effort that led to the creation last year of a federally-approved recovery plan for threatened Puget Sound chinook.

We’re going to need a lot of that kind of cooperation as we work to recover the health of the Sound and its inhabitants. A good example that’s just getting started is a 16-year study of steelhead in Hood Canal y the Skokomish Tribe and others.

We should applaud the ESA listing of wild Puget Sound steelhead and celebrate creation of the Puget Sound Partnership. These are just the kinds of medicines we need to heal the Sound.

And as we heal the Sound, we will heal steelhead, salmon and all of the other species that live beneath its surface, a surface that might look clean and healthy, but disguises dirty secrets lurking beneath.

Restoring steelhead, and other species, will take funding and hard work. But mostly it will take commitment, cooperative spirit and the vision we all need to connect the dots.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC, (360) 438-1180.

North of Falcon is the key part of annual planning that brings state and tribal co-managers together with input from stakeholders to set fishing regulations north of the Oregon Coast cape of the same name.

As in years past, it was a give-and-take process of shaping fisheries to fit under the “impact lid” that helps us protect weak wild salmon stocks while, to the extent possible, harvesting abundant hatchery salmon. We are especially concerned about protecting Puget Sound chinook listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

But there was something new this year. The state co-managers wanted to add and expand marked selective sport fisheries throughout Puget Sound. The co-managers clip the small adipose fin from the backs of young salmon before they’re released from hatcheries. A missing adipose fin tells you the fish is a hatchery product and the intent is to help us manage salmon, in fisheries and in spawning areas. The theory is that hatchery fish can be targeted in harvests because they’re more plentiful, but unmarked fish must be released.

But, frankly, selective fisheries are still new in Puget Sound, so nobody has much information about their effects. About all we do know for sure is that it kills wild fish along with hatchery fish. The 2006/07 marked selective winter chinook fishery in Puget Sound killed five or six fish for every legal-sized chinook landed. Of that amount, about half were wild fish; the other half was hatchery fish too small to keep. The year before, the ratio of harvested to killed fish was about one to one.

In the North of Falcon process, we had to go through lots of debates, juggling fishing times and locations before we could make the marked selective sport fishery fit under the impact lid. But we hung in there until we did, because the highest responsibility of a co-manager is to rebuild the wild fish stocks we’re sworn to protect. Strong monitoring and enforcement programs were put in place to gather important information that will hopefully help curtail the debate in future allocation processes.

Tribes are not opposed to marked selective fisheries. We think they do have the potential to be an effective tool. But if we are to have selected fisheries, they must be consistent with good science. We must have an appropriate accounting of the impacts hook and release fisheries have on wild stocks. That impact can be substantial. Even more importantly, if we’re going to recover wild salmon, we’ve got to get to the root cause of their decline—lost and damaged habitat. Until we all work together to really do something about that, we won’t succeed.

The co-managers are being squeezed in a management vice because so much of our natural habitat has been degraded by urban sprawl and pollution. Every year we have got to do everything we can to be precise in our decisions if wild fish are to be protected, especially Puget Sound chinook. Lack of data leads to uncertainty in fisheries management, and we just can’t allow much uncertainty today.

So, for the sake of the salmon, and to help assure our children will have an opportunity to fish, I ask you to do your part to protect them. If you fish for sport, stick within the limits, and report your full catch. No more high grading, and if your fish isn’t clipped, keep it in or near the water as you carefully remove your hook. Most of all, don’t pollute. Conserve water and fuel. Use biodegradable products, and support environmental regulations and policies as if your own future depends on it, because it does.

Co-management processes such as North of Falcon must put science first. If fisheries management decisions can’t be justified scientifically, neither the state nor tribes will allow them to be implemented. The risks are simply too great, the possible effects to wild salmon too disastrous, and the salmon too important.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC

That grove of trees included a Douglas fir that came to be known as the Treaty Tree. Well nourished, it towered above the prairie, sprouting bright green new growth each spring. Its cones dropped every fall, seeding new trees that still survive in the area today.

For thousands of years tribal members had come to gather food, grasses and medicine near this place called Medicine Creek, known today as McAllister Creek. They dug clams and harvested salmon, waterfowl and other natural treasures, while the Treaty Tree flourished in the pure air and rich soil.

It was a wet, cold day when Stevens summoned the tribes to sign the Medicine Creek Treaty that would forever change our lives. Through that treaty, tribes ceded millions of acres of land and ultimately agreed to move to small reservations. But through the treaty we also kept some things to ourselves that were most important to us: the right to fish in all of our traditional places, the right to hunt and the right to gather shellfish and cultural materials.

The Treaty Tree, like us Indians, somehow survived the massive population increase, growing pollution and timber razing in the decades that followed. But like all living things, the Treaty Tree’s days were numbered. For many years, drivers on I-5 could still see the old snag as they zoomed past.

This past winter, most of what remained of the Treaty Tree came crashing down during a storm. It happened this past December, the same month that the Medicine Creek Treaty was signed in 1855. About 40 feet of the snag still stands; the rest toppled toward into the estuary.

As a man of the land and the water, I know this is part of the natural process of returning to the earth from which we all came. I also know that the trees spawned by the historic fir are even now spreading seeds of their own.

The Treaty Tree may have fallen, but the treaties are alive. Treaties are legal contracts between tribal and federal governments, and they are as valid today as the day they were signed. Even the U.S. Constitution defines them as “the supreme law of the land.”

People forget that non-Indians in western Washington have treaty rights, too. Treaties opened the door to statehood. Without them, non-Indians would have no legal right to buy property, build homes or even operate businesses on the millions of acres tribes ceded to the federal government.

Treaty rights should never be taken for granted — by anyone.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC

Puget Sound is sick. It’s becoming filled with poison and starved of oxygen. The eelgrass and other plants that support life in the Sound are dying. Orcas and salmon are not far behind.

The health of Puget Sound is an indicator of your health, whoever you are and whatever you do. If the dead zones that already exist in the Sound and in the Pacific Ocean continue to grow, you will feel it. And so will your children.

When the governor asked me to co-chair the new Puget Sound Partnership effort, along with Bill Ruckelshaus and Jay Manning, I accepted without hesitation. The waters that flow from the mountains to the sea flow through the veins of us all, connecting us one another.

These things are as true now as they have ever been. It is the truth that everyone who lives here is responsible and accountable for taking care of these great gifts from the Creator. There are no exceptions.

That’s why federal, state, tribal, and local governments must come together with business, conservation groups — and most of all the citizens of this region — to focus collectively on the task before us and forge solutions.

Yes, I am pleased to co-chair the Puget Sound Partnership, because I have hope it will at last consolidate all of our various energies into the united effort absolutely required to turn the tide on the Sound’s health.

The fate of the Puget Sound Partnership is now in the hands of the legislature and Congress. It is time for us — all of us — to stand up for the Sound.

I believe history will remember this as a time when the people of the Puget Sound region stood tall, a time when we put aside our petty differences in exchange for the great binding power of stewardship.

The Puget Sound Partnership has joined public and private representatives from all walks of life in an effort that represents the last best hope for improving the health of the Sound. It deserves — and needs — all of the support it can get.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC

If I could give everyone a single gift, it would be hope, because it is the spawning ground of all worthy achievement and the source of light on our trail ahead. It is the primary source of human energy, and to be without it is worse than death.

I’m not referring to the trail our country has been on for the past six years—years of corporate self-indulgence at the expense of environmental investment. The achievements I speak of have nothing to do with drilling more oil wells or erecting taller buildings to further pad the wallets of the super rich.

I’m talking about the hopes and achievements of everyday people hungry to find their place in the natural world that sustains us all, physically and spiritually. I’m talking about such things as the revitalization of Timber-Fish-Wildlife (TFW) a win-win agreement that emerged from the cooperative spirit of the mid-1980’s and resulted in outstanding progress in forest management through the years.

This cooperative, government-to-government spirit gave rise to many great achievements, ranging from tribal/state salmon management plans to the Centennial Accord of 1989, which provided a framework for comprehensive state/tribal cooperation.

The recent elections and the rise of good leaders have opened doors that had been slammed in our faces in recent years. Projects such as the Puget Sound Partnership and the effort to restore the oceans are beginning to take shape, and providing opportunities to make a real difference.

Hope is the brother of faith and enduring commitment. It is the foundation of love, humanitarianism and positive self-esteem. It is the ember that helps us hold our heads up high in the darkest of times, and the engine that needs to roar like a warrior spirit in times of great potential.

I believe this is such a time.

We can leave a worthy legacy to our future generations after all. We can help provide our descendants with clean air and pure water, healthy forests and vibrant wildlife. Frankly, the best of us have had moments of doubt when confronted by mammoth challenges, such as over-population and global warming.

But I urge you, whoever you are, to focus your energies on objectives we can, together, now achieve. The time is right for people from all walks of life to take an active role in restoring and protecting their watersheds, and to speak up in Olympia and Washington D.C. Stand up and be counted—now, because the time of opportunity is here.

The greatest thing about hope is that the more of it we feel, and demonstrate, the more contagious it is. That’s why it’s particularly important to kindle it in our young people. Nothing is more inspiring than the gleam of anticipation and courage in the eyes of our children, wherever they live. Encourage them to develop their hopes and dreams on the foundation of a healthy Mother Earth. Nothing could be more important.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

My lifelong friend passed away this summer, but his legacy will live on.

Kenny was a champion of the Nisqually River. He took a bold stand against converting the estuary into an open water port. Without him, the mouth of the Nisqually might be like many rivers in the Puget Sound: saturated with poisons, bloated with urban sprawl and devoid of fish, animals and birds.

Decades ago, he enthusiastically came to the table as citizens, governments and businesses from the mouth of the Nisqually to Mount Rainier decided to work together to preserve natural habitat along our river. With Kenny’s help we established the Nisqually River Task Force and, with his ongoing support, it grew into an effort that has inspired watershed management programs near and far.

In the winter of his life, Kenny could have subdivided his 420 acres, permitted development to creep in, and live out his years a wealthy man. But Kenny was interested in other kinds of riches. He didn’t value his property by what it was worth in dollars.

Instead he sold his property to the Nisqually Tribe, knowing that we would manage it in a way to protect and enhance the quality of all life in the delta. He knew we would tear down the dikes that his family built to protect their fields from the saltwater.

Today, those fields are a nesting place for birds, an incubator for young salmon, and a refuge for returning adult salmon. Despite the pressures of growth that Kenny felt and fought much of his life, the estuary is still a place where you can still smell the tide that supports life throughout the watershed.

That estuary is Kenny’s memorial.

Several hundred people braved near-freezing temperatures to dedicate the newly created Braget Marsh and to say goodbye to Kenny. Tribal members rejoiced with dancing, drumming and singing.

The tide moved in slowly. Only this time, the water reclaimed the land where Kenny’s cattle once roamed. It glided onto the land that, until that day, had been kept dry by 9,000 feet of dikes. One hundred acres of the old Braget farm were reclaimed by the waters of Puget Sound, soon to be occupied by a variety of fish, waterfowl and thousands of other native species.

The estuary is coming to life again, right in front of our eyes, and I think Kenny is smiling.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

Now I know that much hope is a bit of pie in the sky. I don’t expect a raging fire of public discontent to suddenly flare up and demand that actions be taken to save the planet from degradation and pollution. I don’t expect to suddenly see all the dams removed, solar panels sprout on every house, and urban sprawl to stop dead in its tracks. But maybe, just maybe, the election results will fan an ember—a spark of understanding that could generate momentum toward our goal to sustain Turtle Island in a way our descendants will be able to continue.

Tribes in some parts of the country refer to Mother Earth as Turtle Island. Their traditional symbol of the turtle is one that reminds people to move slowly as they do things that affect her. It reminds me that we carry our homes on our backs, in a manner of speaking. Our true homes are not plywood and concrete structures. No, our true homes are the watersheds that sustain us.

We must be more like the turtle’s cousin, the tortoise, who outran the hare in the fabled foot race. Rushing about madly, making decisions for the short-term, does not help us live well in our region. We must go a little slower and take a longer view. We are not in a sprint. We are in a marathon, and the finish line is a long ways off.

You may have heard me say before that Puget Sound, the ocean and the land that sustains us are in trouble. Believe me, they are. When you turned down I-933 you sent a message that you do listen, and you do care about these things. The power of the ballot has roared again.

But now what? Please don’t think defeating a bad initiative or electing good people to Congress and the legislature every few years is the end of your responsibility as a citizen. It’s really just the beginning. It’s up to you to hold those elected representatives to account. Don’t let them get mired into smoke-filled caucus rooms in D.C. Communicate with them, and share your thoughts with them—in every way you can. Likewise, don’t let the backers of the so-called property rights initiative (933) take their case to Congress and the Legislature without being challenged.

No one has the right to scar Turtle Island, at the expense of future generations. Our descendants have a right to inherit an earth that sustains them, spiritually, culturally and economically.

I believe the defeat of I-933 sends a message—the people of this state do care about good stewardship. And that gives me hope.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

How could it ever come to this? How could the mighty killer whale ever decline so far as to be listed as an endangered species? How could these magnificent animals, that thrill and amaze us all every time we see pods of them slash through the translucent Northwest waters, ever get so polluted?

The pollution of our whales is a story that began the first time a settler in the Northwest used DDT on his crops. It grew as more residents plastered the landscape with chemical pesticides and industrialists began discharging chemical-laden wastes into our rivers, streams and marine waters. It continued as the timber industry and thousands upon thousands of every day citizens treated trees, lawns and gardens with pesticides and herbicides. Oil was permitted to seep from supertankers, and from cars onto driveways, all without genuine regard to impacts on the environment. The reality was people thought the water was so vast that small amounts of pollutants would just disappear. But many of them do not break down and actually build up in the food chain. Public opinion polls tell us that 80 percent of the millions who inhabit our homeland think the waters that surround us are in good condition.

Well, 80 percent of the people are wrong.

The water the orcas swim in is polluted with everything from heavy metals and pesticides to oil and sewage. The most dire poisons to killer whales, scientists say, are organochlorines, a diverse group of chemicals manufactured for industrial and agricultural purposes, such as PCBs, and they’re among the most common poisons found in orca blubber.

I could recite a dozen such alphabetical concoctions, but the truly important thing to realize is that the orcas and other forms of wildlife are sick, and that we rely on the same food chain. As the great Chief Seattle once said, “All things are connected.”

Please, don’t wait for an orca to wash up on your beach before getting involved with efforts to turn the tide on Puget Sound or the ocean environment. The Puget Sound Partnership, which I co-chair along with State Ecology Director Jay Manning and former EPA Director Bill Ruckelshaus, has developed a list of priority actions you need to support, such as the implementation of salmon recovery plans, stricter oil prevention rules, restoration of 100 miles of Puget Sound shoreline and toxic sediment clean up. We’re engaged in an historic effort that you need to be part of, because everyone who lives here, without exception, is accountable for the stewardship of the environment we share. It’s time to become more aware of the problem, and to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Join an environmental organization or a watershed restoration group. Write to your elected officials. Vote for those who care. Most of all, teach your children that the orcas, and all other forms of wildlife, are our brothers and sisters, and we are all accountable for their health, well-being and survival.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

It’s a concept that is as valid today as it has ever been. If people can begin to understand their connection to the earth, they will treat it with much greater sensitivity than they have over the past century.

These are the thoughts that come to me when I think about the so-called property rights initiative, I-933, which will be on your general election ballot in November.

To say I believe you should vote no on I-933 would be an understatement. You should vote “hell, no!”

I-933 is far more dangerous and damaging than you might think.

Other states, particularly Oregon, are seeing the horrible impacts of similar initiatives in the form of skyrocketing expenses and litigation. If this ill-advised initiative were to pass in Washington, heaven forbid, you will see more of the same. This is an initiative that would dismantle land-use rules designed to protect clean air and clean water. It will harm the land and it will steal quality of life from our children.

This initiative requires state and local governments to exempt property owners from any land use, zoning or environmental law adopted or changed since 1995, unless they pay the property owner for any impacts on property uses or values. It also applies the “exempt or pay” approach to any limits on logging, to shoreline protections, water-use laws, agricultural practices and many rules that help keep toxic chemicals out of rivers, streams, and Puget Sound. The Initiative requires extremely extensive, unnecessary and unpaid-for studies before your city, county or state government representatives can enact any laws to protect the land we all share.

Frankly, I-933 would eliminate the tools needed to provide badly needed protection of the environment and natural resources that sustain us all.

The Department of Ecology says I-933 would require it to either reimburse landowners, or not enforce the federal Clean Water Act. The Puget Sound Action Team says the initiative will greatly impair the shellfish and tourism industries, and may result in additional “dead zones” in Puget Sound like the ones in Hood Canal and off the coast. The initiative would seriously affect the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s ability to protect fish life and would gut Washington’s forest practices laws. I-933 would cost taxpayers billions of dollars. In fact, the Office of Financial Management has estimated it would cost state agencies more than $2 billion over the next six years alone. It would cost cities another $3 to 5 billion and counties another $1.5 billion. It’s a recipe for governmental bankruptcy and fiscal disaster. Initiative proponents don’t tell us where all the funding is supposed to come from, but taxpayers have a pretty good idea. They know I-933 would cause all of us financial hardships, even as it destroys public services.

Proponents of I-933 claim it would save farmland. But as farmers read between the lines, they realize it would actually cause far more agricultural land to be converted to subdivisions. They’re abandoning the ship, and joining us in calling I-933 what it is—a very bad initiative.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

For many years, I’ve scrawled little maps on napkins and place mats in conversations over coffee to help demonstrate the challenges salmon have to face to migrate between the Pacific and their streams of origin. In most of those cases, the sketchy little maps did seem to help enlighten individuals to the expanding environmental challenges we all face in the Pacific Northwest. They have been good tools to demonstrate challenges tribes face in maintaining their culture, livelihoods and identity as a people.

Today, even with greatly reduced fishing, those challenges are far tougher and more plentiful than ever. No napkin or place mat map will hold all the problems.

A recent public opinion poll, which revealed that 80 percent of the people here think Puget Sound is healthy, made the need for public education more than evident. But how can so many people be convinced to open their eyes to the truth about Puget Sound? We’ve published tons of newsletters, sent out thousands of news releases, sponsored public forums, invested in television specials, set up exhibits and produced curricula for the schools—all saying that pollution and habitat destruction are big problems, and that everyone who lives here has a responsibility to help deal with them. Needless to say, the results of the public opinion poll were disappointing.

So what can we do differently? The idea came to me in a flash. I speak to thousands of people every year and my bottom line message is often the same. We need to take care of the salmon, along with all the habitats and creatures associated with the salmon, if we expect to provide a healthy environment, culture and sustainable economy for our children. If people won’t heed the environmental warnings—and apparently they won’t because the habitat problems just keep getting bigger—maybe they’ll believe their eyes. At first I thought the notion was a passing fantasy. I mean, millions of people see the Puget Sound every day, and they actually still think it’s healthy.

But as I thought about it, it became clear that most people just don’t know what to look for. They look at the Sound and see the pretty boats and the sun glistening off the water. Some even fancy the rainbow colors the sunlight creates when it bounces off oily sheens on the water’s surface. They don’t notice the lack of feeder fish, and they can’t see most of the contaminants or the diminished forests of eel grass under the water’s surface.

The solution? A map, of course! If little sketches of maps have helped illustrate my thoughts to small numbers of people through the years, maybe a big map will help larger numbers of people listen more carefully. I realized, of course, that even a very large map can’t hold all the habitat problems we face without turning into one large ink blot. There just isn’t enough room on any map for all the oil tankers, cruise ships, leaky sewers and septic systems or the hundreds of other contributors to the witches brew in Puget Sound and coastal waters that’s poisoning the fish and whales, shellfish beds, sea plants and all the other forms of life that sustain our way of life.

So, “the map”—coming soon to a movie screen, website or television near you—will focus on some key examples of the types of habitat problems everyone should be aware of. It will include information about the dry rivers and aquifers in the Northwest. It will feature the dead zones off the coast—large areas where life is void due to de-oxygenation. It might also include the melting glaciers and shellfish closures that encompass most of Puget Sound. “The map” will depict the continued devastation of nature in southern Alaska caused by the Exxon Valdez spill a decade and a half ago, and the much larger Exxon Venezuela that, like many tankers since, nearly crashed just off our coast shortly after the Valdez incident. On “the map” you will see many habitat problems, and hopefully realize that they are characteristic of many more.

Most of all, I hope you will find the motivation on “the map” to finally take personal action to help turn the tide on these problems by cleaning up your act at home and by getting involved in the political effort to make the changes we have got to make if we hope to have a healthy Northwest environment in the years to come.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

The canoes opened many eyes to the long-practiced traditions of the tribes in the Pacific Northwest. So did the sockeye fishery, which must be credited to another long-practiced tradition – cooperation.

This valuable fishery didn’t just happen on its own. It was the result of hard work by tribal and state co-managers of the Cedar River system who produced most of these fish using a balanced approach to protect and restore salmon habitat while enhancing the runs through science-based hatchery programs.

In some important ways, King County is traveling the right path to protect salmon habitat. Last year the county put a new Critical Areas Ordinance into effect, the most powerful tool local governments can use to help salmon.

Despite being the most urban, most populated county in the region, King County has seized the opportunity to do the right thing by adopting new rules to protect water quality, restore wetlands and support in-stream salmon habitat. King County did all of this with minimal disturbance to private property rights, and maximum benefit to everyone who lives in the Puget Sound region.

In the months since enacting those rules, leaders in King County have been attacked locally, and now through a statewide initiative, I-933. Such actions are, unfortunately, as predictable as they are ill-advised.

There always seem to be those who put their own interests above everyone else’s. I-933 is a destructive, greedy initiative that should be sent back to its promoters wrapped in a dead sockeye.

If the so-called “property rights” initiative is approved by voters in November, we can start waving goodbye to many things that make the Puget Sound region a special place to live — not the least of which would be sockeye fishing on Lake Washington. We can also wave goodbye to any rightful claim that we are good stewards of the environment.

I-933 would effectively replace critically important environmental protection laws in favor of lawlessness in the form of property rights run amuck. This initiative would cost the state, and all the rest of us, more than we could ever afford to pay. It would wreak havoc with the environment we all depend on, and tie us up in court for decades to come.

Whether you’re Indian or non-Indian, fishing is a true measurement of the environmental and long-term economic health of the Northwest. These two strengths are always ultimately connected. If there is no fishing because of an unhealthy environment, or poor governmental choices, society will not long prosper.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

There’s a familiar ring to it all. The United States government took over the sovereign nation of Hawaii from Queen Lili’uokalani in 1893. There was no justification for it, other than the American corporate interests there wanted to possess the land and resources that had belonged to the Hawaiian people for thousands of years. Barely 30 years earlier, they did the same thing here in the Pacific Northwest so farmers could till, miners could dig, and timber barons could clearcut.

Since the Hawaiian takeover, commercialism has gone hog wild there. Most of the natural habitat and natural resources have been wiped out or polluted. The original inhabitants of the land have been killed off or pushed into small corners, treated like second-class citizens, and subjected to a million more insults and injuries.

Sounds more like home all the time.

Here’s another thing we have in common with the Hawaiians: We will never give up the pursuit of justice.

Congress has passed resolutions of apology to the tribes, acknowledging the important contributions we have made to America. They did the same for the Hawaiians with Public Law 103-150 (the “Apology Resolution”) in 1993. But as long as the destruction of the land and resources continues, as long as traditional rights are stomped upon and as long as people choose to ignore historic commitments, apologies are as worthless as a wet match.
Still, we will not give up.

As long as a drop of Native Hawaiian blood burns for the retention of their culture, language and traditional values, they will fight to stand up straight in the face of oppression. And we will stand up alongside our Native Hawaiian brothers and sisters. We are Ohana (family).

As long as the United States chooses to ignore the blemish of Native human rights in its history, it will fail to achieve the greatness within its grasp. And so I send this message to the members of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Administration: Make it right for the first citizens of this land. Acknowledge and embrace the values of our stewardship. Open your eyes to the challenges we face and give us your hand as brothers and friends.

The apology passed by Congress in 1993 clearly acknowledged that the Native Hawaiians never relinquished their inherent sovereignty or their dignity as a people. It will not harm the United States to stand behind its word, keep its treaties and convey the same rights and liberties to Natives as it does to others. Neither the Hawaiians nor the tribes are asking for a thing we do not, by all rights, already own. It’s time for the politicians to take a rest from their insistence for human rights in other countries, long enough to consider it in their own.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

For thousands of years, these magnificent mammals have splashed through the ocean waves and skipped playfully through the serene waters of Puget Sound. Tribal culture has been greatly inspired by these awesome black and white giants who have always been a wondrous sign of purity and vitality in the Northwest.

Now our brother orca is listed as an endangered species, a fact almost too tragic to perceive. Orcas will disappear from our waters unless we all work together to make sure we have an environment that will sustain them. As it is, we don’t. Our waters are riddled with toxic filth and it is slowly killing them.

If orcas — who accompany humans at the top of the food chain—are in trouble, it’s a clear signal that creatures on down that chain are having problems, too. Take chinook salmon, for instance—a favorite food of both orcas and people. Does anybody out there truly believe it’s just a coincidence that Puget Sound chinook is also on the endangered species list? A recent poll conducted for the Puget Sound Partnership revealed that 80 percent of the people in our region think Puget Sound is clean and healthy. If only it were true.

Consider the facts about one kind of pollution. Hood Canal is on emergency life support because of something scientists call de-oxygenation. That’s what happens when all of the oxygen in the water is used up by the breakdown of pollutants like human waste from failing septic systems.

Thousands of gallons of human waste ended up in Puget Sound recently when an old sewer main broke in Port Angeles. Tragic as that was, it wasn’t all that unusual. Every new person who comes to the Northwest and every new home that is built here means more such waste entering the waters, very possibly through leaky septic systems or outdated and overused sewage pipes. When hundreds of cruise ships dump their holding tanks as they glide through our region, they refer to the waste as black water. When livestock manure gets smeared all over the landscape and leaches into our rivers and streams, they call it nutrients. Whatever you call it, it looks and smells the same, and Puget Sound is full of it.

Such pollutants kill whales. So does the massive destruction of critical habitat we see every day. These things also kill their feed, e.g., chinook salmon, at an ever-increasing rate. It doesn’t take a great amount of intellect to realize that we must clean up our act. We also need to increase the production of chinook from our hatcheries to feed the whales and recover our own fisheries, too.

Ask yourself how long you would sit on your hands if your home were full of black water or sewage or whatever you want to call it. You would jump into action and do whatever it takes to clean it up. What if your refrigerator was empty? How long would it take you to get to the market? Now, think of Puget Sound and the ocean as your home, as well as the home of the mighty orca, and let’s work together to do whatever is necessary to clean it up and expand the runs of harvestable chinook.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

Everyone who lives in the Puget Sound region enjoys the beauty of the mighty estuary. People see the glimmering water, bordered by snow peaked mountains and bright city lights, and they think all is well with Puget Sound.

Unfortunately, they’re wrong. What they don’t see in Puget Sound can hurt them. Whoever they are and whatever they do for a living, their quality of life and the economic well being of the region are connected to the health of Puget Sound.

People don’t see the dioxin, heavy metals, PCB’s, or fecal coliform that are present in Puget Sound waters. Many don’t give a second thought to the poisons that line the bottom and suspend invisibly in the water. They don’t think about the oxygen in the water that’s being stolen by leaking septic systems, irrigation and stormwater runoff, and waste discharge.

Most don’t even miss the declining runs of salmon, orcas or forests of kelp and eel grass. These are all things most people don’t usually see. So, from their perspective, they don’t really matter — at least not enough to do something about.

Think of it like a cancer. A victim of this dreadful disease might not see it as it creeps into their system, first infecting one vital organ and then another. People often see its consequences, though, as our relatives and friends succumb to its effects. More and more people are realizing that early detection and affirmative action does make a difference. It does save lives-the life of our own bodies and the life of Puget Sound.

Please, think of Puget Sound as something that does matter, because it does. The health of Puget Sound is vitally connected with your own. And please, open your eyes to the fact that Puget Sound has cancer of a sort, because it does.

Already, part of Hood Canal is dying, and time is of the essence if we are to keep it from becoming a dead zone, devoid of life. The cancer is spreading, too. Parts of South Puget Sound are beginning to show some of the same early signs that led to conditions in Hood Canal.

Yes, the cancer is creeping up on us all. But most people simply don’t see it.

If they did, each might not insist on having their own dock or bulkhead, which can harm salmon habitat. They might not ignore those leaky septic systems. They might take a stronger interest in conserving water and in restoring our precious habitat. And they might actively insist that their city, county and state elected officials take a strong stand in support of the Puget Sound Partnership initiated by Governor Gregoire.

Restoring and protecting Puget Sound and its tributaries is a responsibility we all share, and it’s one for which each and every one of us is accountable. So open your eyes. Squint if you have to, but realize once and for all that the fight to save Puget Sound is a fight for our lives.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

But meeting the water needs of salmon in today’s world is no easy task. It takes wisdom, foresight and courage. It also takes the cooperation and collaboration of the three “G’s” the federal, state and tribal governments. Local governments are also obviously important, as are non-governmental entities, but let’s concentrate on the owners and managers of the water resource rather than those who need state permits to use it.

Recent actions to bring the state’s water quality standards up to par brought all of these assets into play, to the benefit of all. The federal Clean Water Act requires delegated states and tribes to review and update their standards at regular intervals. When Washington State undertook their review a number of years ago, the Department of Ecology set out an ambitious goal of changing the way that standards are applied from a class-based system to a use-based system. The new system is far more practical and centered on actual environmental values. The new use-based system focuses, in large part, on the actual needs of fish for spawning and rearing. That’s a good start. But the State didn’t take the process far enough. It failed to take into account data from the tribal co-managers that showed where the fish are actually living and spawning—the physical areas needing the most protection.

Enter Region 10 of the Environmental Protection Agency, under the direction of L. Michael Bogert. Following a track that has been somewhat unique for most agencies in the current federal administration, Bogert, supported by EPA Water Director Mike Gearheard and other staff, showed genuine concern for the environment. He had his agency reach out to tribes to get the facts about the status of salmon in western Washington. Tribes live on the rivers and do the bulk of the monitoring work needed to get that information.
With the scientific facts in hand, EPA came to an inescapable conclusion. The water quality standards proposed by State of Washington would not adequately protect salmon. EPA ruled that water quality standards in Washington must be raised to meet the requirements of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.
Enter State Ecology Director Jay Manning. As soon as the EPA made its ruling, Manning put his agency on the fast track to revise the 2003 water quality standards, which had been submitted by a previous director. Manning didn’t waste energy defending the state’s inadequate standards or stalling for time. He got to the task of fixing the problem. He said his agency’s upcoming revision will provide more stringent temperature and dissolved oxygen standards. Ecology is now on target to begin a follow-up rule-making process by summer 2008.

As co-managers of the fisheries resource in this state, tribes have always known salmon are the foundation of good health and long-term economic strength. They have also known that, under heavy-duty pressure from various industries, state water quality standards have fallen far short of the mark. Having a regional EPA administrator and a state Ecology director who understand that is a very big deal.

Bogert, appointed to head Region 10 last year, leads EPA’s partnerships with the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska as well as the 271 federally recognized tribes in the region.

Manning is noted for his ability to facilitate win-win agreements and get down the road toward environmental recovery.

When you get to know these two men, you recognize their commitment to the region. The wisdom, foresight and courage they’ve demonstrated in this quest for water quality is long, long overdue.

If there is hope to retain any quality of life in the Northwest, it will take leaders like L. Michael Bogert and Jay Manning, and the three “G’s,” to achieve it.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

But seriously, everyone who knows me knows I’ll continue to fight, to the last breath, to help restore salmon to the rivers of the Pacific Northwest—at harvestable levels. If I am remembered by anyone in future generations, let it be as a fisherman.

Cutting back our fisheries so sharply over the past quarter century to protect declining runs has been painful to Northwest Indians. The salmon’s decline has in no way been the fault of the tribes, but because our historic roots run so deep here we feel an ongoing responsibility, to our ancestors and the generations to come, to help solve the problem.

Tribes have worked hard to protect the salmon and their habitat. We’ve also worked hard to share our environmental history, so people can more fully understand our long held legacy of Northwest stewardship. But with the population of our region expanding so dramatically, education of the masses is a mammoth undertaking.

Some people still think fishing is little more than a leisurely activity that bonds kids and grandparents on cool, spring mornings. It is that, but it is so much more. Salmon fishing is the true heritage of the Northwest. It has been our lifeblood for a thousand generations.

Throughout time, we have known that when harvestable runs of salmon return to Northwest rivers, it means good health and vitality to all who live here. It also means we have been respectful to the land. Teaching that ethic to the millions of newcomers has been no easy task. But I, for one, will keep trying.

Salmon are far more important to you, whoever you are, than the construction of new housing developments or box stores. They are far more important than oil-filled supertankers, the clearing of more forests or even the expansion of the freeway system. When salmon fill the rivers, the coastal waters and the Sound, they carry a message of sustainable prosperity, well-being and cultural strength—for everyone.

Those who learn to listen to the world that sustains them can hear the message brought forth by the salmon. The message is the same as it has always been—respect Mother Earth and Father Sky and they will continue to sustain you, and your children, forever. Pursue a vision of harmony, rather than bow to greed for short-term gains at the expense of long-term well being, and your descendants will inherit a world filled with beauty and sustenance.

Fishing has defined the spirit of this region far longer than most can imagine. Reducing harvest even more is not the answer to bringing the fish back. We need to increase the runs, so harvest can return. Doing that takes spawning and rearing habitat. I have known my entire life that salmon were created to sustain all living things and that they serve as a measuring stick of our present and future physical and spiritual health.

If you learn to listen to the salmon, and to respect them, you learn to respect yourself.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

Frankly, that health is not so good. That’s not news to us tribal members. The locust-like swarms of Europeans and others who have migrated here over the past few centuries have been bent on over-exploiting virtually every resource the Northwest has to offer, and degrading land, water and sky in the process. Even the mighty Orca has now been listed on the Endangered Species List, due largely to the decline in the health of the water it lives in. All of these are indicators that your health and well-being are in trouble.

Tribal pleas to the state for greater accountability to Nature have almost always fallen on deaf ears. It has been a source of great frustration to us to be so often ignored. But now and then, when the timing is right, special state leaders step forward with the foresight and courage needed to make a difference. We saw it when Governor Dan Evans ultimately supported implementation of the U.S. v. Washington (Boldt) Decision. It was an unpopular thing to do, but it was the right thing to do. We saw such wisdom and courage surface again in 1989 when Governor Booth Gardner worked with tribal chairs to establish the Centennial Accord, an agreement that today still provides the framework for critically important government-to-government relations between the state and the tribes.

Such examples of wisdom, courage and foresight in state government have regrettably been rare. But I believe we may be witnessing the unfolding of another such historical landmark with Governor Christine Gregoire’s proposed Puget Sound Partnership. On December 19, 2005, she announced this major initiative, proposed a $42-million supplemental budget to the 2006 Legislature and appointed a council of “Founding Partners” to accelerate protection and restoration of Puget Sound. I was proud to be included on this council, known as the Puget Sound Partnership, along with Congressman Norm Dicks, Salmon Recovery Funding Board Chair William Ruckelshaus, King County Executive Ron Sims, University of Washington President Mark Emmert, People for Puget Sound Director Kathy Fletcher, Simpson Resource Company Chair Colin Moseley, Western Washington Agriculture Association Director Mike Shelby and shellfish industry executive Bill Taylor. We are charged with making recommendations on a comprehensive effort for integrating the work of local, state, tribal and federal governments with private sector and citizen efforts to protect and restore the Sound. We expect to have a draft list of recommendations by June and a draft plan by October of how to have a healthy Sound by 2020.

To achieve this, the Partnership will engage an extensive cross-section of Washington citizens, businesses and governments As co-managers of natural resources in this state, and as governments that have always spoken out for good stewardship, the tribes applaud these objectives. They are lofty goals and that is good because the situation is critical and the goals are achievable—if we learn to work together. We have no more time to waste. It will take solid funding and it will take dedicated, coordinated effort. It will also take a new sense of accountability—from every person in the state, whoever you are and whatever you do.

The need for solid state/tribal government-to-government cooperation in the effort is absolute. Forget about the stereotypes and learn to listen to the values we have always professed. Once and for all, treaty rights must be respected. Government-to-government relations and the long-term heritage of the Puget Sound must all be integral to this process—or it will fail.

It will be no easy task to turn the tide of disrespectful treatment of the Puget Sound. Governor Christine Gregoire has demonstrated great courage in standing up on this issue, and I, for one, will do all I can to help it become a great success. I hope you will, too.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

(END)

For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

Vine was a rock, a steady hand in the struggle for justice. He was a man of great vision and spirit who understood the ongoing need to value Indian legacies in both tribal and non-tribal societies. He knew the wisdom of learning from our predecessors and comprehending ageless tribal traditions.

I will miss Vine’s intellect and his abiding determination to secure justice for the tribes. I will also miss his humor. He used it well, even in the face of seemingly hopeless adversity. He often called me Billy Jack as he teased me about being thrown into jail so often during the protest days of the 1960’s. We fought many battles together, from the grassy banks of the Nisqually River to the marbled halls of Washington D.C. We shared hundreds of podiums and thousands of thoughts and dreams. I credit him for instilling focus, leadership and direction to the ongoing struggles of the tribes.

Vine’s ability to inspire unity, at all levels, was historic. In 1964, he was called on to rebuild the National Congress of American Indians. As NCAI Executive Director he restored financial and managerial stability and rescued the organization from insolvency and internal differences. Through his writing and speeches he became a leading voice against tribal termination and for reform of federal Indian policy. He laid the groundwork for the federal policy of tribal self-determination that emerged in the late 1960’s and the 1970 Nixon Statement on Indian Self-Determination. This marked a major turning point in federal Indian policy that continues to benefit both tribal and non-tribal communities today.

In the tumultuous year of 1969, as we fought so hard to assert our generally neglected rights, Vine published “Custer Died for Your Sins.” It was possibly the most influential book ever written on federal Indian policy and, in my book, it and other Vine writings, words and actions, distinguished him as the tribal version of Ghandi or Martin Luther King. He reminded us that “ideological leverage is always superior to violence…it is vitally important that the Indian people pick the intellectual arena as the one in which to wage war.” A few years after he wrote this, Judge George Boldt reaffirmed the validity of the treaties in the U.S. v. Washington decision. Vine should be remembered for his giant contribution to paving the way for that far-reaching decision.

Earlier this year, I had the honor of seeing Vine receive the American Indian Visionary Award at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Never has such an honor been so richly deserved. More recently, we have been working together on a treaty exhibit for the National Museum of the American Indian. His hope was that this exhibit will make further inroads toward a dream he always supported and worked toward—education of the American public about the true history of the tribes.

Through this and other ongoing efforts, and for the rest of my days, I will do all I can to help keep the fire of Vine Deloria Jr.’s vision burning bright, and look forward to the day when we will again sit together at our ancestral council fire.

Billy Frank Jr. is the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

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For more information, contact: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, NWIFC (360) 438-1180

I have spoken for the salmon for more than 50 years, and I will tell you this: If salmon go extinct, it will be due to lost and damaged habitat.

Northwest fisheries have been cut dramatically over the past 30 years—80 to 90 percent in some areas, and 100 percent in others. Still, some salmon populations continue to decline. Harvest cannot be cut back fast enough to make up for natural production lost to degraded and destroyed habitat. Even if fishing stopped today, forever, some salmon runs would go extinct—because they do not have enough good quality spawning and rearing habitat.

Here’s a simple fact from an old fisheries manager: Putting more fish into degraded habitat does not result in greater fish survival. Any habitat can only support a certain number of fish. Rivers are like aquariums in that way. When water is polluted, uplands degraded, waters heated and wetlands wiped out, rivers can sustain just so many salmon.

Here’s another simple fact you should know. We have the best fisheries management processes in the world. Unfortunately, the facts don’t matter to those who want to continue to destroy habitat.

A dead fish is a dead fish. It simply does not matter if that fish is caught to provide nutrition and sustain culture or if it’s destroyed in a turbine or in polluted waters.

Yet, the debate being waged over salmon in the Northwest is clearly one of allocation. Who is going to get a bigger slice of the salmon pie? Those who take salmon by degrading habitat want to do more of the same—at the expense of harvest. Regrettably, some harvesters also want more at the expense of other harvesters. To non-Indian society, the whole thing is like a political football game played by people who think their values and needs are more important than others.

To the Indian, it’s a more serious matter. We’re not in the fisheries management business so we can milk every last dime out of our Mother Earth for the next fiscal quarter. We want salmon to survive so we can feed the bodies and spirits of our children for generations to come. People need to stop fighting over the last fish, however they want to kill it, and focus on a positive vision for the future.

Frankly, harvest of salmon needs to be part of that vision because it’s a good outcome of good management. To the tribes, it’s a living legacy. It’s also the supreme law of the land—a fundamental right reserved by our ancestors in Constitutionally-sustained treaties.

When you think of salmon survival in the Northwest, you must think of habitat, or your eyes are closed to the truth. When you think of leadership and political courage, you must think of those who are willing to admit it.

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CONTACT: Steve Robinson or Tony Meyer, (360) 438-1180 www.nwifc.org