Saving Salmon

The people around here love to catch salmon and to eat them. Even gray whales like them, as one was recently spotted nearly 100 miles up a river. Salmon are an icon of our region. They have been a part of local culture as well as a source of food, for 1000s of years, but in the late 1990s their numbers were dwindling, probably because of the impact of the dams upriver.

So they were listed as endangered by the federal government. That meant many protection measures would be needed to make sure they did not go extinct. At that time, I was a Cowlitz County Commissioner, and talked about it with a friend who was a Clark County Commissioner. We were afraid that the feds, as they implemented the protection measure, would also unnecessarily impact many parts of our daily lives.

While we really wanted to restore the fish runs, we also wanted to have some say locally about how to do it. So we put together a group, including commissioners from five lower Columbia River counties, representatives from the Cowlitz and Chinook tribes, environmentalists, landowners, sports and commercial fishers and interested citizens to see what we could do over the course of many meetings, we had to listen to each other in order to understand not only what was being said, but also what were The unspoken underlying concerns of each of us.

In the end, we were successful enough to find a way forward. That way was the foundation of the lower Columbia fish Recovery Board to assess needs for recovery, support proposed restoration projects and to coordinate funding from various sources. The board was endorsed by the state legislature and became a model for other salmon recovery boards throughout the Northwest. It has been fairly successful as the salmon runs in the Columbia River continue to exist, although still at some risk.

I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to work with the right people to help put this solution into action. Now please excuse me while I Go fire up The barbecue.