Washington Dept. of Fish and WildlifeFROM THE DIRECTOR

Washington State - Tribal
15th Annual Centennial Accord
Squaxin Island
December 9, 2004
comments by Dr. Jeff Koenings, Ph.D., WDFW Director

Good morning Governor Locke, Tribal leaders and Tribal members. I would like you to meet Phil Anderson, lead of our Intergovernmental Resource Management group. A group that deals daily with solving tribal and non-tribal issues. It's a pleasure to be here today celebrating our success. We don't do this often enough, instead we tend to vent all too loudly on issues needed to be resolved. We forget those issues settled after so much hard work and that's unfortunate. Events like this enable us to pause and look back to see how far we, together, have come.

In my brief remarks, I would like to focus not only on issues, but on the trust relationships that have developed between non-tribal and tribal participants. These are the people, the faces that have accomplished so much.

Accomplishments include:

  1. North of Falcon - A truly collaborative process that is the embodiment of co-management. In this process co-managers, together, set harvest management, conservation, and allocation objectives.

    I would like to recognize and thank among many:
    Lorraine Loomis - Swinomish Tribe
    Randy Kinley - Lummi Nation
    Ed Johnstone - Quinault Indian Nation
    Dave Herrera - Skokomish Tribe

  2. Hatchery Scientific Review Group - A 4-year collaborative effort to reform, where necessary, hatchery practices to ensure the integrity of our wild stocks of salmon and steelhead, while continuing fish production for harvest and conservation opportunities.

    Among those active in this issue:
    Jim Anderson - Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC)
    Billy Frank - NWIFC and Nisqually Tribe
    Terry Wright - NWIFC
    Tribal hatchery managers

    While the co-managers have been addressing hatchery and harvest issues, we all recognize the fish depend on functioning habitats. We have been working with our sister agency, Department of Ecology (DOE) on water quality and quantity issues, but in addition:

  3. The co-managers have been working together on efforts that integrate our harvest and hatchery efforts with habitat protection and restoration projects.

    - Co-managers have set planning targets for the recovery of listed species that are consistent with the Governor's strategy for rebuilding runs of fish to healthy and harvestable levels.

    Science and policy participants:
    Terry Williams -Tulalip Tribe
    Kit Rawson - Tulalip Tribe

    - On the Columbia River, we have signed to a 3-year harvest and hatchery production agreement between 3 states and 4 tribal governments. Three of them are represented here today - the Umatilla Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe and Warm Springs Tribe.

    Several come to mind including:
    Virgil Lewis - Yakama Nation
    Steve Parker - Yakama Nation
    Mike Matylewich - CRITFC
    Joe Peone - Colville Tribes

    - Co-managers have been working together to provide locally based salmon recovery groups with the scientific tools to craft meaningful salmon restoration plans - a huge statewide collaborative effort.

    Managers involved including:
    Bob Kelly - Nooksack Tribe
    Georgianna Kautz - Nisqually Tribe
    Jim Peters - Squaxin Island Tribe (who also represents the tribe on the SRFB)

    - Puget Sound co-managers have been working for two years to fund necessary parts of NEPA and 4(d) rules required under the federal ESA - another huge collaborative effort in which tribes have taken a leadership role.

    I would like to recognize and thank:
    Terry Wright - NWIFC
    Gary Graves - NWIFC
    Ken Currens - NWIFC

  4. There is also the wildlife side of our relationship with the tribes - access is a major issue that tribal and non-tribal hunters are facing as the state becomes more and more urbanized. We together have to find some common ground that recognizes both tribal and non-tribal rights and needs expressed as management objectives.

    Recent discussion have included:
    Pete Krueger - Squaxin Island Tribe
    Scott Chitwood - Jamestown Tribe
    Todd Wilbur -Swinomish Tribe
    Shawn Yanity - Stillaguamish Tribe

Finally, the tribes and DFW have long recognized a range of human value systems here in Washington relative to the critical role of nature in their lives. Some come from the view that everything in nature has its own absolute right to exist. Others are of the view that nature exists only for use by people - of course many sides exist in between.

Those tribal representatives I have previously mentioned (and others) realize that efforts to achieve conservation and resource use must be carried out with an awareness and understanding of these different value systems.

The Governor has tried to instill an agency ethic in dealing with nature or natural resource issues namely:

Achieve the right balance and both people and fish benefit! Together this state can provide the leadership to make this ethic happen.

Thank you.


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