Critical Areas

Skagit County proposes raising taxes to save salmon

Skagit County commissioners proposed raising property taxes to create streamside buffers around the Skagit River and its tributaries.

The Seattle Times:

A proposal announced Thursday and headed to the county’s voters in the summer would cost the average homeowner about $25 a year. The county commissioners say raising public money to buy land from willing sellers would not only preserve land along the river and streams and boost salmon survival, but it might even help endangered orcas.

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Being Frank: Don’t Wave Goodbye

OLYMPIA (August 7, 2006)  Thousands of fishermen took to Lake Washington recently to fish for sockeye – arguably the most prized salmon in the Northwest. More than 50,000 sockeye were harvested by treaty tribal and non-Indian fishermen in the Lake Washington fishery. It was a thing of beauty to see this harvest accompanied by more than a hundred traditional tribal cedar canoes gliding through the lake, the culmination of the annual canoe journey hosted this year by the Muckleshoot Tribe. 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.

Continue ReadingBeing Frank: Don’t Wave Goodbye