Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

I’m starting to wonder if the state’s budget problems mean it will no longer be able to co-manage natural resources with the treaty tribes. Even President Obama has said recently that the state’s budget crisis is a “huge problem.”

Like most of state government, natural resources agencies are likely going to see a huge hit during this upcoming legislative session as the state seeks to fill …

How much fish and shellfish do you eat?

For more than 20 years the state of Washington has based its water quality standards on the idea that we eat one small bite a day, or 6.5 grams. About the size of a sugar cube.

That number is very important to everyone who lives here because it is used to set state standards for how much pollution …

Salmon are on the same downward trend as the amount and quality of their habitat, and until we turn that around, there’s little hope for their recovery.

The tribes believe the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ streamlined nationwide permit system for bulkhead construction and other shoreline changes is making it too easy to damage and destroy important nearshore salmon habitat in western Washington. We think a …

We all owe a big “thank you” to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. They never gave up on getting those two dams torn down, and today that dream is becoming a reality. For 100 years they have had to wait for their treaty rights to be restored and for the salmon to return.

The salmon never gave up either. At a recent dam removal celebration, I …

I’ve been talking a lot lately about the connection between salmon, habitat and treaty rights. That connection is pretty simple. No habitat equals no salmon; no salmon equals no treaty rights; and no treaty rights equals a breach of contract between the tribes and U.S. government.

It is the U.S. government – not the state of Washington – that has the responsibility to recover salmon in …

Our treaty right to gather shellfish depends on the shellfish being safe to eat.

Samish Bay is one of the traditional shellfish gathering areas for the Swinomish and Upper Skagit tribes. It has some of the highest levels of fecal coliform in the state.

Fecal coliform is bacteria that’s found in the poop of warm-blooded animals. It ends up in the water when septic systems fail …

Salmon are incredibly productive by nature. Give them some good habitat, manage harvest carefully, and they will thrive. We’re doing a good job with the careful harvest management part of the equation, but we’re falling far short on the habitat part of the problem.

Habitat destruction doesn’t kill salmon just once. It keeps on killing, every hour of every day, because it destroys the possibility that …

The pictures don’t lie. Climate change combined with the continued loss of salmon habitat caused by human development is taking a toll on natural resources. The damage to salmon and the people who have always depended on salmon is significant.

A good example is Anderson Glacier in the Olympic Mountains, which feeds the Quinault River. A 1927 photo of the glacier shows a massive table of …

A basic rule of natural resources management today is that you don’t take too much of something unless you have a good idea how much there is to begin with. That was the point behind the Squaxin Island Tribe’s effort to protect water resources in the Johns Creek watershed, and a Thurston County Superior Court judge recently agreed.

The tribe had petitioned the state twice in …

Tribes and orcas have a lot in common. Together, we have always depended on the salmon for food.

The last 100 years have been hard on the tribes, the orcas and the salmon. Habitat loss and damage has pushed some salmon populations to the edge of extinction, threatening the orcas, tribal cultures and our treaty rights.

But instead of looking at the main causes for a …