Salmon On The Brink

Oh. A. New. Production and broadcast of salmon on the brink is made possible by the subscribers of KC TS with additional support from King County and the City of Seattle. The U. I'm. At Seattle's Thurgood Marshall School students to celebrate the wild salmon. They help. They help the water. They know the salmon lifecycle and its unique characteristics like their ability to smell their way home. And the great uses of the grass.

They understand the salmon special place a Northwest culture and its importance to the environment. And what do you think will happen if they're no longer here now. No I know will be there when you know we're facing. But will there be wild salmon for this younger generation in the future. Today that question has a new sense of urgency. The salmon are in deep trouble. The most significant crisis that this region has faced in decades because Northwest salmon are on the brink of extinction. If wild salmon become extinct they will be followed by other species that pen on the same rivers the same streams in the estuaries and the wetlands. It's a crisis so serious that it prompted federal action. That's a really serious sign that's the last resort.

We will not accept extinction as an option. We will not accept the status quo as an option and how we respond to this crisis is being watched closely throughout the rest of the country and into Canada. Our effort to save the salmon may results in my saving herself. On February 26 of this year the National Marine Fisheries Service announced the proposed listing of the Puget Sound Chinook and five other salmon species threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The potential impact is huge. It's the first time that a major urban area in the United States has been faced with a potential sale listing America 13. And in this half hour an in-depth look at this salmon crisis. What's happened to our salmon resource. What is the potential impact of this proposed federal listing on our economy and Northwest way of life. Can we say the salmon. The small coastal town of Westport Washington used to promote itself

as the salmon capital of the world. National Geographic had a Washington state tourism ad and the center fold of that ad was. We caught a big salmon at Westport and it showed a young boy holding a great big salmon. That was the picture of Washington state given to the nation and to the world in National Geographic magazine. You couldn't do that today. And that's sad. In the early 70s more than two million Chinook and Coho salmon were harvested off the Washington Cook's. Foot this year because of dwindling numbers. Less than 70000 of those salmon species will be caught in coastal areas. Without a doubt we don't see the number of fish in the ocean that we have in the past. As the salmon stocks decline so do the economies of fishing communities like West Point 1979 with 230 charter boats down here and seasons that have shrunk. And now we're down this year to instead of April through October salmon fishing three fish line that we're looking at probably a two to three week

salmon fishery in the month of August with two fish swimming. When our fleet. I think I counted twenty seven active charter boats at this point a couple weeks ago. There's so much going on. Survival is difficult. Those still here look constantly for new ways to bring in business. You know Star well watching March when ling cod fish or fish rock fish we fish for hell but we fish for tour. We sell fish for salmon like we used to you know still live jerk fish you know was 12 when he started working as a bait boy on a Westport charter boat. As a kid going 60 65 days ago salmon fishing. And like many people in Westport he hopes that something can be done to save the wild salmon or just the numbers of fish are just not out there. To blame. You know it's all of us.

What's happened to the wild salmon. Why must they be saved. Salmon are a real keystone species. They are important not only to to themselves but they're important to other organisms that just basically build their life cycles around the life cycle of salmon. They're even important to that too to the birds and scavengers and the trees next to the streams. So how do the wild salmon get to the verge of extinction. Hundred Years ago there were large numbers of wild salmon in northwest waters. But even then the resource was on the decline because of overfishing and habitat destruction. But with so many salmon still available few people thought they would ever be in danger of disappearing. I think we perhaps took our salmon for granted. We just assume that there are they're still going to be around and some of these declines were just you know abnormal abnormalities.

But they weren't the wild salmon harvest went on unchecked at the same time Washington state's population continued to grow. Impacting habitat. These and other factors led to negative affects on the salmon stocks. People often speak in terms of the so-called For ages the 4H is their habitat loss. Harvest. That is fishing. Hydroelectric development that is dams. And hatcheries and that is the competition that. Hatchery produce fish provide to are have with wild fish. Population growth brought more construction of housing and business. Much of the building took place in the lower valleys near the mouth of a river. And the problem that creates for salmon is that they have to go through these areas in order to get.

To the headwater streams where they do a lot of their spawning and rearing development urbanization meant an increase in water use. So dams were built to provide the water for homes businesses and farms. They gave us plenty of cheap electrical power but the dams blocked salmon migration and killed many of the fish caught up in the powerful. Growth and development not only damage salmon habitat but also increase pollution in rivers and streams. Without clean cool water. Salmon can thrive. It kept the pressure on at a time when we should have been backing off and giving the fish more room to manage and increase the resource felt sure. Hatchery raised salmon couldn't make up the drop off in wild salmon stocks. We kept managing right to what we thought was the limit of what the fish could tolerate.

And I think we've learned over the last 25 years is we can't always manage to the edge and on top of all of the mid-seventies brought a shift in ocean patterns in Washington in Oregon it was yet another factor in the salmon's decline. It's basically a natural cycle that occurs periodic Lee on a scale of decades takes place in the ocean and we don't know when that's going to go back. This is an aquatic biologist with the U.S. Forest Service. For 20 years he's been tracking the ups and downs of the Pacific Coast salmon Colombia. We have a few stocks that are. Starting to get into pretty serious problems. By the time we get to the state of Washington now well over half the stocks are in jeopardy at serious risk of extinction and our going to becomes even worse and by the time you get down to California most of the populations there. Are hanging on by their fingernails.

With the thought of going to climate of the wild salmon. Look federal government decided to step in. The National Marine Fisheries Service took action by employing the federal law which mandates protection of the wild salmon. We have a statutory obligation to recover the species under the Endangered Species Act. Terry Garcia is assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service. We have one goal one bar that we're setting for the species throughout the West Coast and that is recovery. We must recover the species. And I would just submit to people that. When I say extinction is not an option and that the status quo is not an option that they need to ask themselves are they going to be better off if the species goes extinct. Are their families going to be healthier. Is their land going to be more valuable. Are they going to be better off. I would say the answer is No. Salmon are an indicator species that like the canary in the coal

mine. There's something wrong with them. They're telling us that there is something wrong with the environment. The salmon recovery effort will be felt throughout Washington state nearly every watershed area will be affected by an endangered species act listing by the year 2000. In Puget Sound the Chinook the bull trout and the summer chum are proposed for listing as threatened species on the Washington coast. The bull trout and Lake oes that are proposed to threaten the Coho is considered potentially threatened. In the lower Columbia River Steelhead and bull trout have already been listed as threatened in chum salmon are proposed to run. And the sea run cutthroat is considered to have a high potential for listing as threatened. In the upper Columbia River the Steelhead is listed as endangered

trout as threatened and the Chinook proposed as endangered in the middle Columbia River the bull trout is listed as threatened. With the Steelhead proposed as threatened. In northeast Washington the bull trout is once again listed as threatened. Finally in the Snake River area the sockeye is listed as endangered bull trout the steelhead in the spring and summer Chinook are all listed as threatened. Getting the public to understand the seriousness of this salmon crisis will be a formidable task for state and local governments as they respond to the listings. Governor Gary Locke that has major repercussions because if we are not able to come up with a recovery plan that is acceptable to the federal agencies or to the courts we run the risk of having a federal agency or court in San Francisco deciding every land use decision affecting our state

and I really believe that the people the state of Washington are up to this challenge and can craft. A better solution and recovery actions that someone in DC who is unfamiliar with the vast differences of geography and terrain and environment in the state of Washington. In the Puget Sound region the proposed Endangered Species Act listing of the Chinook salmon poses a tremendous challenge. Sion was proposed because the stock is depressed yet is threatened by a number of factors. This is the first time in the United States that a major urban area has been faced with a potential EASA listing.

The law says that we have to look at the way we live and do business in the best interest of the fish. And so far we have looked in the best interest of our need for housing. Our need for transportation capacity our need for economic capacity. What adds to the challenge is the number of people here. Sixty four percent of the state's population lives in the Puget Sound area. That's three and a half million people with another million and a half expected by the year 2020. This should be a wake up call to us that we need to find a way to grow with grace. To accommodate the needs of the next generation. These are excellent economic times for Puget Sound. Job growth is well above the national average. Housing construction is booming. From the air you can see the extent of housing development and urban sprawl.

You also see its proximity to rivers and streams. While growth has been good for the Puget Sound Economy it's been bad for the Chinook. Also known as the king the largest of the salmon species. We're building right up to the to the sea to the banks of rivers and streams and taking away the shade trees that salmon need. We're having lawns that go right down to the edge of water and the fertilizers and and runoff. Of chemicals flow into the rivers and streams and degrade the habitat. It is a water quality issue. Right now 56 bodies of water in King County and Pierce county Snohomish County do not need the Clean Water Act requirements of the Department of Ecology. So we have had a significant compromise of our water quality and one of the challenges that we face is being able to balance our economic capacity and growth our housing capacity and growth with trying to make some strategic

decisions on how to recover enough habitat and how to improve our water quality and a manner that will allow these species of Samana to avoid extinction. We agree that we must move forward in this effort quickly and really even before the proposed listing was announced in February the elected executives of King counties agreed to respond collaboratively. The National Marine Fisheries Service said it would spend a year reviewing scientific data before deciding whether to list the Chinook. State and local governments would have the same amount of time to craft a strong recovery plan. They expect the Chinook and other salmon species to be listed. Now you're talking about the three largest counties in the state 60 percent of the population lives here and a good deal of the rivers and streams are going to be identified are located in these three counties by creating a tri county response.

The executives felt they could attract a higher level of public awareness and with the potential wide ranging impact of the Chinook listing they felt it was crucial to include a variety of interests to help develop a recovery plan. Suddenly anybody who wants to expand an office campus or lay down a road or build an apartment or condominium complex along the riverside. It is a stakeholder. The stakeholders include a big business like Boeing and Microsoft commercial and sport fishermen developers farmers timber Representatives conservation groups and Indian tribes. Barbara Cairns is the executive director of the salmon recovery group. Long live the king. This is only going to work if everybody comes to the table and says are I you know what is it we're trying to accomplish this collaborative approach has the strong support of the federal government.

Terry Garcia of the Department of Commerce says he wants to see this matter handled locally and it shouldn't be the federal government alone driving this process we want to encourage states we want to encourage counties we want to encourage tribes we want to encourage private business to work with us private citizens to develop plans partnerships that address these issues. In the Puget Sound region there are more than 16000 miles of rivers and streams. The Tri County group will frame its recovery plan around the protection of watershed areas. Prime salmon habitat there is county executive Doug Sutherland. What we are addressing is the habitat because at the local level that's the only thing really that we can have any direct control. So private groups are planning to purchase wild salmon habitat areas to protect them from development such private investment will be encouraged. Some cities like Seattle which is the biggest water supplier in the state

have already made major investments to protect tab a tad like the Cedar River Watershed. And so we've started working several years ago to develop a habitat conservation plan. So that our water supply business could go ahead and we could also provide the kinds of flows of habitat that indeed. Another salmon species. Throughout the cedar system. As the Tri-County group moves to protect salmon habitat. It will take a hard look at the current regulations for such things as road construction. Home and Business Development agricultural practices and water usage. These regulations will likely be tightened a prospect that for some raises concerns about the potential economic impact the proposal listing could have on the region Endangered Species Act. Looks totally and solely at preserving the species in question and economics do not factor into the

scenario according to the yak. Peter Orser is senior vice president of Quadrant homes a development arm of the Weyerhaeuser company. I think the development industry has to be part of the solution or sort of fears the development community will be hit hardest in the recovery effort because of the impact it's had on salmon habitat. But what I want is a balance between both that economic issue and the environmental issue. And I want it in a process that's workable. I don't want to get into a process that is going to take me. Five years before I can build a housing development because that will drain the economic vitality out of the system. As Peter Orser worries about a negative effect on his industry Others wonder if the recovery efforts will go far enough. And we're watching. What our leadership is doing right now.

As chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. Billy Frank Jr. says he welcomes the proposed listing of the Chinook salmon is so important to Puget Sound. In 1974 the controversy over bold decision guaranteed certain state if you knew tribes 50 percent of the harvestable salmon the ruling in essence made them call managers of the resource. And as such major stakeholders in the future of Puget Sound salmon. So Billy Frank Jr. and other tribal leaders want to see a strong long term recovery plan. We don't want to a quick fix on any of this stuff. We want to happen. And we want a comprehensive plan and we want to be working on that to make it better and better all the time. If they don't do it. We gotta good. And then when might you go to court through it all we will do we'll we'll use every tool that we got to do it.

And that strategy is being talked about right now. I can't tell you enough about how important it is to quit talking and start acting. I mean these are just some of the tough issues the Tri-County group will have to wrestle as that crowd so wild salmon recovery plan. The thing that we don't want to have happen is for. User groups or constituents to break into their own factions. Without a doubt the biggest question hanging over this process is money. Just how much will it cost what it will mean is substantial public investment. I mean there is no question that that will not have to be made and it will mean substantial private investment as well. Substantial means millions probably hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 20 plus years.

We really don't know what the what the price tag will be because we're still collecting the recommendations from the local governments. Local governments are going to be looking to themselves to see what their funding capacities are and what the public private partnerships are and then looking to the state to fill in the maze the missing links. Governor Gary Locke says Washington state will likely receive more than 20 million dollars for wild salmon recovery from the federal government in the upcoming fiscal year. That's just the first installment. And we could be looking at perhaps 50 million dollars a year for the next several years from the federal government. But again they're going to require a partnership by state and and local governments. So we're not looking to the federal government as the primary funder of this problem. What about Washingtonians. What are they willing to do. Are they willing to pay to save the salmon they really hope that we can restore the salmon runs. But their interest in doing that is really more self preservation.

Jim Cramer is executive director of a habitat protection coalition called Puget Sound waterways that they see salmon as an indicator of their environment. And if salmon are having problems how soon is it before people have a problem. Cramer is talking about a recent poll of 700 Puget Sound area voters. The poll asked voters how they felt about salmon and whether they would be willing to pay to save them. They're willing and appalled. Seven out of 10 to pay for a tax increase to protect habitat and restore habitat and over 60 percent were willing to pay $3 or more. So that could raise the kind of money that's necessary to make a real credible difference in protecting a fish. And while the poll respondents say they are willing to pay something to protect wild salmon habitat they don't want to lose access to the state's rivers and streams. Voters are also skeptical as to whether something can really be done to save the wild salmon.

And people really don't have a lot of faith in government right now but they're going to do the job. And say you've got to be really clear with people about what's the result. That they're going to death. From making a commitment of paying more money. One thing that's clear for the state the Tri-County group and the National Marine Fisheries Service is this recovery plan must be substantive and comprehensive to withstand a legal challenge which is a strong possibility. It's already happened in Oregon. There are a federal judge threw out a Coho recovery plan because it relied too much on voluntary efforts. And so we have to be prepared to defend this case in front of a court in the best way to do that is haven't found in a good science the best way to found a very good science is to deal with the entire watershed. And that to me means nobody gets out of the room. Look clock is ticking away in the effort to save the wild salmon we're running

out of time. And time is valuable right now. The state and local governments and citizens will need to act quickly and decisively to recover this northwest. We're faced with that with the fact that we don't change. During our lifetime. This species will become extinct. Saving the salmon species will require a long term commitment. So there are no easy fixes just like it's taken hundreds over a hundred years to get to this state of affairs. It's going to take many many years to reverse it. The recovery effort will be a major test of the federal endangered species act and a potential model for the rest of the nation. How we can. Build what nature how we can have more people and really save something that's very important to us. Salmon of the Pacific Northwest. The outcome will be judged by generations to come. I want my grandchildren's grandkids to be able to go fishing to walk along a stream and

to know that they're there. And I want their kids to be under that. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF the program you've just seen please call us at 1 800 9 3 7 5 3 8 7.

Production and broadcast of salmon on the brink is made possible by the subscribers of Casey us with additional support from King County and the City of Seattle.