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Department of Natural Resources - Federal Assurances Retreat
Thank you for inviting me to be on this panel on state policy direction and present my agency's view on the Forest and Fish Report.
The bottom line is that the Forest and Fish agreement provides a critical step forward to protecting and recovering the state's fish and wildlife resources. This state-based plan allows Washington to maintain authority over its working forests and the natural resources therein. Why? Because this agreement covers 60,000 miles of streams across 8 million acres of private forest lands.
We at WDFW have been actively involved in this process since day one and we are as committed to it as much today as we ever were.
When the negotiations concluded, WDFW supported the Forest and Fish Report with 2 contingencies: adequate funding and an adaptive management system that works. These two conditions are being met and we are solidly in support of securing federal ESA assurances through a habit conservation plan/4(d) rule.
Because of the Forest and Fish rule, private landowners have greater ESA and Clean Water Act certainty as contrasted with the State of Oregon where the timber industry is currently in litigation.
Also, I believe relationships between WDFW and forest landowners (both large and small) and other participants in the Forest and Fish Rule are the strongest they have been in a long time. Quite simply, instead of battling those in this room over fish habitat, forests and roads, we are working together and are in a problem solving mode. I have heard this approach described by some in the room as "quiet diplomacy".
One example of a problem in need of solving is the Road Maintenance and Abandonment Plans for Small Landowners or RMAPS.
There have been serious unintended consequences of the RMAP program on Family Forest Landowners brought to our collective attention, and WDFW is working through the Forest and Fish Policy group and our seat on the Forest Practices Board to resolve them.
We have the start of a specific approach to correcting fish barriers on small landowner properties:
The successful model for this is already in place and working in eastern Washington dealing with inadequately screened water diversions on agricultural lands. Its called our "Cooperative Compliance Pilot Project" and is in place in the Walla Walla basin, and we see great parallels for making this approach work for Forest and Fish landowners.
This is just one example where WDFW and the other policy leaders in this room have shown a commitment to FFR through a willingness to fix problems when they arise.
And because of FFR, if and when 3rd party legal challenges arise, WDFW and other agencies are in a position to defend the State's approach (notice I said State's approach) to protecting habitat on forestlands.
Finally, because of FFR, WDFW can say and does say that fish habitat is on a trajectory for recovery on Washington's private forestlands. And for that, I thank forest industry leaders.
Quite simply, the forest industry has stepped up the ESA plate just like another industry in Washington-the Fishing Industry.
The fishing industry consists of small and large business men and women each of which has changed the way they do business to stay in business. They have faced restrictions to fishing, a declining value of their product, and a drastic constriction in the overall size of the industry. Sound familiar! But they still are in business and we want them, just like you, to stay in business.
In summary, the WDFW believes:
Thank you.
Tacoma, Washington
Remarks prepared by Jeffrey Koenings, Ph.D., WDFW Director
June 21, 2002
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