June 24, 2002 Why do rich farmers get all the breaks and poor fishermen get the shaft? The president recently signed the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 into law, increasing federal subsidies to farmers in the United States by at least $83 billion to well over $100 billion over the next ten […]
The State of Washington has a duty to the treaty Indian tribes who have always inhabited this region. That Duty is to not allow salmon habitat to be degraded to the point that salmon are no longer available for harvest by the tribes, who gave up nearly all of the land in what is now […]
This is a time of great change in the management of the salmon resource in the State of Washington. Listings of several local salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act have required us to re-examine many of our approaches to the way we manage salmon. Our use of hatcheries is one example. Today, the tribes, […]
It has been a little over a year since Governor Gary Locke met with the tribes at the Sleeping Lady Resort in Leavenworth, where three November days of detailed discussion culminated with the signing of the “New Millennium Agreement.” I remember thinking how appropriate it was for all of this to take place at this […]
OLYMPIA (8/23/00)–Let’s face it. The state of Washington has failed to protect the environment of our region from development and natural resource habitat destruction. Nowhere is this more evident than on our shorelines. Damage caused by everything from jetties and bulkheads to gravel mining and dredging have been permitted to run rampant for generations. Even […]
The confluence of the centuries should be like the joining of two rivers. As they merge, the memories of countless moments and places should fold one unto another, and form a deeper, broader flow of knowledge. As the 19th Century merged into the 20th, my father was a young man. He lived his whole life […]
Those who do not understand the Makah will question the logic of hunting an animal that means so much to them. Yet the principle is the same for all species of fish and wildlife. Non-Indians have always tried to force their way of life on the Indian. Yet we have lived here for thousands of […]
If salmon are to be restored in this state, it will require many efforts. Most of all, it will require a team effort. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The state and the tribes must learn to work together. Like people paddling a canoe, it only makes sense for us to paddle […]
Olympia, 7/15/98– Don’t be surprised if you see tribal fishermen exercising their treaty rights this summer and autumn in the waters of western Washington. Superficial news coverage would portray fishing as the primary cause in the decline of many wild salmon populations. That’s because fisheries are a highly visible “taking” of the resource. There is […]
Whoever you are, whatever you do and wherever you live in the state of Washington, it is to your benefit to support state and tribal co-management of the fisheries resource. There are a number of reasons why this is undeniably true. For one, it’s the law. Co-management is legally mandated by federal law. For another, […]
