From Kings to Kokanee
Contributions Local Governments Can (Must) Make to Sustaining Salmon
Ron Sims Speech, American Fisheries Conference North Pacific International Chapter Annual Meeting, June 6, 2007
Introductory Remarks:
 Good morning and thank you for inviting me to address the Annual Meeting of the North Pacific International Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
It is an honor for me to share my perspective with the members of a professional society that has been making important contributions to the conservation of our nation’s precious fisheries resources for well over a century.
At the local, regional, national and international level the AFS has proven to be among the most credible and respected voices for building fisheries conservation efforts on a foundation of robust science. I commend you for your contributions and look forward to another century of them!
And what a challenging century this will be for the rich natural resources we here in the Pacific Northwest have come to treasure culturally and economically. After many generations of an increasing human presence on the land and water our natural resources are under immense pressure, and some are on the brink of irretrievable decline or worse.
We look into the future and we see this pressure mounting further as the human population in our region grows and our demands on natural resources intensify and expand their geographic reach.
And on top of this we are coming face to face with the reality of a climate that will change in ways that threaten our native biodiversity.
In the face of these challenges, decision-makers, scientists, and citizens of this region must be steadfast and resolute in our commitment to sustaining our salmon. They are a fixture of our culture and identity, embodying so many aspects of the quality of life the people of this region have come to appreciate and demand.
This conference is a great opportunity to advance a regional discussion of the challenge we face in working to sustain our fish populations into the distant future, and the solutions to that challenge.
I am hoping that through my visit with you today that I can convey several points that reflect my take on the question of fisheries and development co-existing. And I hope you leave this conference more inspired and motivated to make solutions a reality.
First, I will present three points of reference that give a sense of the breadth and depth of the conservation challenges we face. I will then provide examples of how King County and other local governments can and must contribute to conservation efforts.
I will share a few thoughts on contributions AFS and fisheries scientists can make to keep conservation initiatives on the right track.
And finally I will address the question “Can Fisheries and Development Co-exist?”
Illustrating the Fisheries Conservation Challenge:
Before we move to my views of how local governments can help sustain fisheries, I think it is important to give you a flavor of the natural resource management context in which King County is operating. These are real world examples that we are dealing with as we speak, and provide a sense of the range and depth of issues that help shape how we contribute to salmon conservation.
Climate Change - Let's start at the global scale. I would be hard pressed to find a current issue as pervasive as climate change is. As our understanding about the dynamics of climate change and how we are already feeling its effects grows, we can see probable and possible impacts that have an amazing breadth.
We can see maps depicting huge expanses of land that may be inundated by rising sea levels. We hear projections of increased range and virulence of diseases.
With increasing frequency we learn of research results that describe potentially drastic impacts to natural resources from events like more intense storms and more frequent wildfires.
Scientists are doing yeoman's duty in improving the understanding of policy-makers, natural resource managers and citizens alike of how climate affects our lives, our livelihoods, our economy, and the natural environment.
They are also helping us paint ever clearer pictures of how a changing climate will affect what we value, including our salmon.
Several recent scientific studies of climate change have begun to put a fine point on probable or potential climate change impacts on the sustainability of salmon.
The International Panel on Climate Change has released a seminal report presenting the best explanation of the current reality of climate change, how actions of individuals and society are driving the change, and what our climate future may be given past and future actions that could exacerbate, mitigate or reduce climate change drivers. This work tells us that when we consider the question of fisheries sustainability we must account for natural processes of global scale that will have acute and localized impacts.
Two recent reports in this region have really pushed the question of localized impacts, especially to our salmon resources. A study by NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center done in the Snohomish watershed tells us that climate change is likely to have large negative impact on freshwater salmon habitat, and that this will in turn make the salmon recovery targets in the Chinook Recovery Plan much more difficult to attain.
These targets were appropriately aggressive to begin with, so this news must lead us to take a hard look at our recovery strategies.
A report done by the Independent Science Advisory Board in the Columbia Basin paints a distressing picture for salmon populations across the entire Pacific Northwest.
It describes a vast array of impacts to salmon at all freshwater life stages. Most troubling though is its conclusion that climate change-driven temperature increases alone will result in the loss of up to 7% of current salmon habitat by 2030, and up to 22% by 2090. Couple this with potential losses from other causes and the picture gets even bleaker.
Our depleted salmon populations may not be able to bear these losses.
Lake Sammamish Kokanee - Let's now zoom in from the global to the local scale by looking at kokanee in the Lake Sammamish watershed. Over the past two decades we have witnessed an alarming decline in the health of this population, one that historically provided an important subsistence and recreational fishing opportunity to the region.
As a result of harmful hatchery and habitat management practices, we have seen this population lose two of its three runs, drop in abundance by an order of magnitude or more, and have its spawning distribution shrink to just a few streams. We have little margin for error in addressing the causes of the decline of these fish.
In many respects conservation of this population is a microcosm of salmon conservation in the Puget Sound region.
The dilemma presented by development in salmon producing watersheds is at the forefront here as the Urban Growth Boundary essentially bisects the Lake Sammamish watershed. Trout Unlimited's ESA listing petition for these fish puts a fine point on the need for good science and meaningful solutions that will help us sustain this population.
Puget Sound - Let's zoom out again to look at a regional reference point, the Puget Sound. Anyone who has lived in this region for any length of time can attest to the importance of the Puget Sound to our quality of life. It is a living system that plays a role in our recreation, commerce, and food production, and is at the very core of our sense of place.
But by its immensity and ubiquity it has somehow become distant from us, an almost overwhelmingly large feature that individuals have a hard time connecting to.
We in this region have lost our ability to see how decisions we make and actions we take everyday end up chipping away at the health of Puget Sound, and the salmon, orcas, and shellfish that rely so heavily on it.
The Puget Sound is suffering from this neglect, neglect hidden by the beautiful blue waters we can see on a sunny June morning.
Work over the past two years by the Puget Sound Partnership has documented an array of problems that must be overcome, including failing septic systems, habitat degradation, toxic substances, stormwater impacts, altered freshwater flow regimes, and others that have direct bearing on health of salmon and other native species.
How Local Governments Can and Must Contribute:
From the global to the local scale, we can find issues that must be addressed in order for us to ensure sustainable fisheries for generations to come. The complexity and gravity of these issues can be daunting.
Given this reality, it would be easy to be overwhelmed and paralyzed by the prospect of taking steps to advance on these issues.
In my view we as individuals and as a region have no option but to take these head on. And local governments have the authority, capacity and responsibility to do just that.
Local governments are on the front lines, at the nexus of a range of fundamental and sometimes conflicting human values.
Elected officials like me make weighty decisions every day that affect families, housing, livelihoods, transportation, wildlife and other aspects of our quality of life and that of people thousands of miles away whose only link to us might be the salmon that are born in our streams but feed in their estuaries.
We will all go home tonight or after this meeting and be in the jurisdiction of a local government that plays a key role -- an on-the-ground role -- in meeting basic and essential needs of the people and wildlife in your neighborhood.
I became King County Executive in 1997 with a progressive environmental agenda that would ensure the County would set the standard for protecting and restoring our natural treasures as our population and economy grew. Within a year of taking office ESA was on the doorstep. If sustaining our salmon wasn't front and center for us before then, it got there.
Since then, King County has been taking stock of our rich and diverse natural assets and we have redoubled our efforts to sustain them and, in turn, ourselves.
Here are a few examples of what local governments can and perhaps must do to help sustain our salmon:
Contribute to climate change solutions - Climate change is a global malady with acute local symptoms. It is also a global problem whose solution demands action at the individual and local level. I believe that there will be winners and losers in the world of climate change.
The winners will be those that proactively assess how climate drivers will affect what they value and mobilize resources to minimize, mitigate or avoid negative effects.
I think it is clear by now that this region needs to identify specific strategies for responding to a world with a changing climate.
In February of this year I was pleased to announcement the completion of King County's Climate Plan.
This document crystallizes our goals for mitigating and adapting to climate change, including reducing our carbon emissions by 80% from current levels by 2050. It also details how we will use our diverse policies, programs and projects to achieve our ambitious goals. I think all local governments need to find ways to use their tools to contribute to climate change solutions.
Protect and enhance instream flows - By virtue of our authorities and geographic reach this is an area where local governments can make huge contributions.
In the Puget Sound basin alone there are hundreds of local governments whose programs, policies and projects have a far-reaching influence over the productivity of the aquatic environment. Under my leadership King County has placed a premium on protecting these habitats.
King County's Wastewater Treatment program is advancing the application of reclaimed water treatment technology and the use of reclaimed water to meet need for non-potable water. Over the long term reclaimed water will be at the forefront of a regional water management system that reduces pressure on our streams, rivers and groundwater in meeting human needs. It will also help buffer our aquatic resources from the effects of climate change.
King County has launched a regional water supply planning process that advances habitat protection in several ways.
It reduces disjointed water supply planning that otherwise would have added risk and uncertainty to meeting instream and out-of-stream water demands. It sheds new light on the opportunities to employ reclaimed water where leaving water in streams, rivers and aquifers can benefit our salmon resources. And it is among the first regional planning efforts that connect our current knowledge of climate change impacts to natural resource management decision-making.
Implement progressive Growth Management regulations - The Growth Management Act has proven to be a powerful force for salmon in King County.
Our comprehensive planning approach under GMA has helped us find ways to direct development pressure to areas that already have the infrastructure and facilities to handle a growing population, and to keep our rural and natural areas in tact.
And we have seen the results of our efforts: our data show that since the start of comprehensive planning in King County we have slowed growth in areas with critical functioning salmon habitat to about 4 percent from 12 percent of the countywide growth.
Key elements of our Growth Management program include new and stronger regulations for critical areas protection, stormwater management, and clearing and grading. As required by GMA, we just completed an update of these key regulations.
We undertook significant effort to update our habitat protection science, including a rigorous peer review process. We engaged the community in numerous work sessions and in heated public hearings to craft management solutions that work for landowners and for our natural resources.
And early this year we successfully defended our policy decisions in three lawsuits that challenged the underpinnings of these regulations and our authority as a local government to develop and implement them.
We broke new ground with two unique elements of these regulations: Rural Stewardship Plans and Farm Management Plans.
These site-specific plans provide rural residential and agricultural landowners great flexibility in meeting the requirements of the law and certainty that in using and enjoying their land they will not be running afoul of regulations. And this is a win for our precious resources like salmon. We can't save salmon without providing big and small landowners the means to contribute to salmon recovery while maintaining their land and livelihoods.
Develop and maintain partnerships with harvest and hatchery managers - This region still struggles with compartmentalized salmon policy-making that leads to management actions that conflict with or counteract each other. We need a seamless constituency for salmon recovery, one that spans habitat, hatchery and harvest management.
I believe our most effective strategies for sustaining salmon and the cultures and economies that rely on them will be the ones we develop with harvest and hatchery managers. I understand this may be an unorthodox view, or at least one that breaks from traditional management approaches that got our salmon to where they are now and caused blame and finger-pointing.
I think current efforts to integrate salmon harvest, hatchery and habitat management are on the right track.
In our King County watersheds we are seeing improved collaboration with co-managers in devising recovery strategies that more clearly link habitat to meeting our goals of harvestable and sustainable salmon populations. We need to make sure these integration efforts have a strong and credible basis in science, one that illustrates where our management trade-offs and opportunities are and supports difficult but necessary conservation decisions.
Energize regional efforts - Regional efforts to protect and restore our natural resources rely heavily on local and grassroots interest and energy for their success. Top down efforts rarely lead to outcomes that meet community-based goals and objectives. Local governments must help lead the region in setting a bold path for salmon sustainability and energizing efforts that move us down that path.
I can offer three immediate opportunities for local governments -- and others with vision and commitment -- to drive the region-wide conservation of our natural resources heritage.
- Implement our salmon recovery plan - NOAA's approval of the Puget Sound Chinook Recovery Plan was a great milestone for this region. Crafting that Plan took us seven years and thousands of hours of work from a diverse set of citizens, governments, advocacy groups and businesses. The unprecedented level of commitment at our watershed councils proved to be the strong foundation we needed to make this Plan happen.
The Plan puts this region on the same page for what we are trying to accomplish and how we are starting a journey that may take decades. It's a good starting point.
Now we need to make good on the promises embodied in the Plan by taking action. There are literally thousands of actions contemplated in the Plan that could help improve the prospects for salmon recovery. Prioritizing, sequencing and implementing these actions in the next ten years will sustain our salmon.
We also need to address the gaps in the Plan. When the Plan was submitted to NOAA this region made commitments to action that would address instream flows, habitat protection, and adaptive management. We haven't lived up to these commitments. We need to get this done.
Rural Forest Commission Meeting
- Make the Puget Sound Partnership real - I was very pleased with the Legislature's passage of the bill creating the Puget Sound Partnership.
The bill was the culmination of effort by regional leaders to break down barriers and end inertia that stand in the way of protecting and restoring our treasured Puget Sound. I am heartened that Bill Ruckelshaus has agreed to lead this new organization through its infancy, and that Congressman Norm Dicks continues his stalwart support for a more effective management approach.
We need to make the Partnership real. As the Partnership concept took hold and stakeholders recognized the opportunity we have, we were often reminded of the history of promises over the last decades to help Puget Sound. Evidence from the water, wildlife, and habitat of Puget Sound tells us these promises remain unfulfilled.
Today I call out to my fellow local governments from around Puget Sound to support the Partnership.
Encourage it to shine the light on the real and current threats to Puget Sound. Empower it to maintain a vision for a protected and restored Puget Sound. Support its work over the next year to create a forward-thinking and proactive action agenda that will ensure our efforts are strategic and effective. We need to Partnership to work--for us and our children.
- Return Lake Sammamish kokanee to robust health - Here's an opportunity for a few lucky local governments to make a difference in their backyard for a salmon species that has gotten lost in the Chinook shuffle. It's also a good opportunity for scientists with expertise in conservation biology to share their expertise. These little red fish haven't crossed the brink into certain demise, but the signs do not look good.
I am happy to note that there is new energy behind implementing actions to save this population.
In the last two months jurisdictions in the watershed have initiated an effort to create a conservation strategy for Lake Sammamish kokanee. Our efforts are bolstered by the unwavering dedication of citizens who live along the creeks that support these fish, and by groups like Trout Unlimited that are rallying volunteers to the cause.
Taking the first step of bringing local governments together to understand the problem was a good start. We have lots of work in front of us for this population, and we welcome those who have something to contribute. I encourage you all to attend tomorrow's session on kokanee.
In sum, local governments can bring a vast array of authorities and resources to bear in tackling problems that put our salmon populations at risk.
I have just scratched the surface in providing examples of what King County has done and is contributing as a local government.
By way of providing these examples I mean to illustrate the possibilities. I am sometimes criticized for setting too high a bar for other jurisdictions that want to make contributions but don't have the wherewithal of a large government like King County. My answer is that we all must make the most of the opportunities we have, no matter if actions don't look exactly like the actions I've described that King Count is taking. We all simply need to do our part.
Contributions AFS and Fisheries Scientists Can Make:
I would be remiss if I left here today without sharing a few words of encouragement to you as fisheries scientists.
As a decision-maker charged with making decisions every day that have far-reaching influence on our natural bounty, I rely heavily on scientists to identify the risks and benefits of policy alternatives presented to me.
The range of salmon conservation issues that I've described to you today provide ample opportunities for scientists to contribute. The region will be looking to you as practitioners for several things.
We need you to be advocates for rigorous assessments of where our recovery efforts are succeeding and where they must be improved.
We need you to find more ways to share your expertise with local jurisdictions that may not have sufficient scientific expertise to bring to bear on salmon conservation decisions.
Through your support of research into fundamental scientific questions the AFS has proven to be a valuable voice in this region. I would encourage you to find additional ways to share your expertise and knowledge.
Finally, we need you to look ahead. Be proactive and persistent in identifying emerging or unexpected threats to our fisheries resources, or new opportunities to help them. Recall that voices in the scientific community worked for decades to communicate the real threat of climate change. We need that level of commitment and diligence from the scientific community to make the sustainability of salmon not just possible, but inevitable.
Can Fisheries and Development Co-exist?:
I would like to close by addressing the conference theme of development and fisheries co-existing.
One way to pose the dilemma is this: Is it possible for us to fail ourselves, fail future generations, and fail our natural resource heritage?
Yes.
Just look around the country and you will find instances where even well-intentioned people made decisions and took actions that resulted in degradation that will take generations to undo, if it is even possible. Take for example the cod fisheries in the North Atlantic. Or the industrial development along the south shore of the Lake Erie that compromised the health of that ecosystem. Or in our own backyard the dead zone in Hood Canal that is killing scores of fish and shellfish, or the Elwha Dams that locked salmon out of many miles of some of the best habitat in this region.
We have to avoid the arrogance or the complacency that would allow us to repeat these outcomes. We don't have the luxury of waiting. If we aren't proactive in taking the steps necessary to protect what works we will not succeed.
So yes, failure is possible.
But it is also unfathomable.
For me personally and as King County Executive, the answer to the question of fisheries and development co-existing is a resounding “Yes!”, and decision-makers, conservation advocates and citizens must follow that answer up with commitment and action. It will not be enough for us to just be aimless optimists and hope for the best.
We are truly blessed that we can still see and experience the wonder of the resources we are trying protect. They aren't just pictures in coffee table books or fleeting memories. If the inspiration drawn from seeing salmon return to our rivers and streams every year isn't enough to motivate our best effort, the grim prospect of not seeing them should be. Or worse, the prospect of our children or grandchildren not seeing them, fishing for them, and appreciating what they embody should drive us to action right now.
Closing Remarks:
I would like to thank you again for the opportunity to come here today to share my thoughts with you. I appreciate the work AFS is doing to build and maintain a solid foundation of science for our fisheries conservation endeavors. Your work helps sustain an essential dialog about the science and about what the science means for decision makers like me.
We all have an awesome responsibility to share our talents, knowledge, and considerable resources to the benefit of our cherished salmon. Keep up the good work!
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