WDFW -- From the Director: Yakima Salmon Recovery Board Workshop

Yakima Salmon Recovery Board Workshop -
Remarks prepared by Jeffrey Koenings, Ph.D., WDFW Director
June 14, 2002

Welcome to this workshop on Regional Salmon Recovery Planning for the Yakima River Basin.

I am here to continue to send the signal from my agency how important local regional authorities are to salmon recovery! And this is why I believe the Yakima region needs a regional forum to conduct the recovery planning for the Yakima Basin.

There are seven salmon recovery regions here in Washington; six of those are organized already and I think the Yakima Basin needs to organize to take on recovery planning. It really is "the last piece of the regional puzzle."

Why is this important?

First, leadership: Taking charge of a highly collaborative process takes leadership to make it work and you are that leadership! People change not because of something they read, but because someone they know and trust says it's a good idea. Those someone's are you!

Second, taking charge of your own destiny by local participation: You know what the basin can do to recover salmon. We need that local knowledge to implement meaningful recovery actions here and now.

Third, Help: The Department will provide fiscal resources for planning and the Department and tribes will provide the technical assistance to get the "best science" available to you!

Now for our part the Department is organizing around "regional planning" and our intent is to implement salmon recovery through those regional plans.

Regional directors like Jeff Tayer will be the focal point or "lightning rod" here in the region to deliver Department resources to this effort.

We want you to be successful and together I think we can do this. But make no mistake–this is hard, hard work. There have been no recovery plans under ESA approved for anadromous salmon. None, and very few recovery plans for wildlife, plants or other fish populations.

Now there is no set "regional model"–you have to decide what fits here in the Yakima Basin.

For example:

Shared Strategy or the Puget Sound Forum shows no organizational relationship to the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, and neither is like the regional effort in the Snake River basin.
Yet, each is operating to recover salmon and to write a recovery plan according to a common approach of integrating the four H's. That approach outline is combined in the DFW's recovery planning model and is available to you as a guide.

Whatever regional model or approach you adopt, the Department will provide resources to help you, but you need to provide the local leadership, the local forum, and the local will to get started.

Here today, together I hope we take that step!

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