Landsburg Fish Passage Project - City of Seattle
Remarks prepared by Jeffrey Koenings, Ph.D., WDFW Director
June 26, 2002

Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here today and I thank you for inviting me. Also, thank you for the weather–it's great to see the awnings up to keep us cool rather than keep us warm.

Two years ago in April, I participated in the signing ceremony for the City of Seattle's HCP for the Cedar River watershed. That ceremony was at the lower end of the watershed–Lake Union. Today it's appropriate that we are at the upper end of the watershed celebrating another milestone.

Today we are celebrating the start of the Landsburg fish passage project which is one critical component of the city's HCP.

As the mayor said, the HCP is to provide protection for 83 species of fish and wildlife that make the Cedar River watershed their home–they are your neighbors and we need to be good neighbors.

We feel that this is a good thing! The Landsburg fish passage project will open up some 17 miles of spawning habitat for three specific species–namely coho, chinook and steelhead populations. This addition almost doubles the existing spawning habitat. That doesn't seem like much to you and I, but it means a whole lot to fish trying to build a sustainable population–it's huge.

Another component of the HCP deals with the fourth species–sockeye salmon. The sockeye facility will be constructed in the near future. The DFW fully supports and are advocates for both the Landsburg fish passage project and the sockeye fish production project. Both do good things for fish!

How did this HCP agreement come about–one that so changes the way the city manages this watershed?

It is my believe that people change the way they do things not because of something they read, but because of someone they know and trust says it's a good idea.

Among us today are people who said that this HCP was a good idea and that is called leadership! And it's leadership that originated from the city of Seattle. For that, I thank you!

This project is also a great example of the collaborative efforts needed to restore and protect salmon and their habitats–it highlights how agencies and organizations come together to do what's right for fish and wildlife.

Protecting fish and wildlife populations while at the same time accommodating the needs of people is simply hard work. And its going to get harder in this the smallest sized state in the western continental U.S., but one that has the second highest human population. To accomplish both tasks is hard, hard work–but as my "hero" Teddy Roosevelt once said, "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

This work is worth doing! And you can count on me and DFW employees to continue to work hard with our fisheries co-managers, the tribes, to fulfill our roles and responsibilities over harvest and hatcheries so that habitat restoration began today pays off for both the people of Seattle and for the fish.

Thank you.

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