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The Role of RFEG's in Salmon Recovery
Director, Jeffrey P. Koenings
Remarks to the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, March 9, 2000Thank you for that detailed introduction and thank you for inviting me here tonight.
I do have an extensive formal education as a background skill I bring to WDFW. However, I believe my real education began when I first took a resource management job. Why? Because it taught me that to get an idea implemented to help the resource, I needed to communicate and work with people. People like yourselves.
Unfortunately, a formal education doesn't prepare you for that critical job skill. You need both the science skills and the people working skills to get an idea implemented. In short, good biological science alone doesn't help the resource, its only when it's coupled with good political science or policy that the resource can be effectively managed.
You are the people in salmon recovery and I am here to talk with you about our roles and responsibilities.
When I accepted the invitation to speak, it was suggested I talk about the role of Regional Fish Enhancement Groups and how they fit into the statewide salmon recovery picture.
Last week, I was in Washington, D.C. talking to various members of our state's Congressional delegation. During a visit to the office of Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn, her chief of staff, Lisa LaBrache, said what was really needed by people like herself, people who were trying to get a handle on salmon recovery and understand its complexities, was a simple matrix showing who was responsible for doing what — and where.
Well, I suspect all of us here tonight know just how deceptively simple Lisa's request was. Any of us involved in salmon recovery know, if nothing else, just how byzantine it can be — or seem to be.
Nevertheless, it's clear to me, and I hope to most others, what the role of RFEG's such as the NSEA should be in salmon recovery.
It's also clear to me what the role of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is with regard to RFEG's — to provide the scientific and technical support they need to succeed.
In fact, as many of you probably know, the Department recently created a statewide, 23-member Watershed Stewardship Team specifically to provide this type of support to all RFEGs. I'll talk more about that in a minute.
By now, I would hope it is no secret to anyone where I – or any Department of Fish and Wildlife employee for that matter – is coming from with regard to the role of RFEG's.
In a nutshell, we believe RFEG's are an integral part of the state's salmon recovery efforts. You are the backbone.
Since becoming the Department's director 15 months ago, I have maintained that if we're going to recover troubled wild salmon stocks, the job isn't going to get done in Olympia, or Washington, D.C. As its said in the real estate business — it's location, location, location. In salmon recovery the key word is local, local, local.
Salmon recovery is going to get done by local citizens working in local communities in localwatersheds. It's going to happen when local government officials and local businesses and locallandowners come together to establish local partnerships.
And in my view, RFEG's have been — and will continue to be — essential to making this happen.
As members of the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, you are the front line soldiers, so to speak. You have played — and will continue to play — several key roles as salmon recovery plays out.
For example, you have done excellent stream surveys and have collaborated with our SSHIAP person, Tim Hyatt, on fish distribution mapping. You will play a key, leadership role working with the Whatcom County lead entity, helping it review and rank salmon recovery projects — and assisting in implementing these projects.
You will play a key role working with local planners and biologists, focusing your habitat restoration and fish supplementation efforts to address limiting factors.
You will play a key role in educating students, the public and businesses about salmon needs, life cycles and their benefits to the community.
And it's expected you will be instrumental in getting everyone on the same page when there is a need to get everyone on the same page — something we all know is quite often easier said than done.
From talking to Steve Seymour of the Watershed Stewardship program, and others in the Department, I know that the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association has scored some major successes.
I'm aware of the work you've done within the community to restore Whatcom Creek in the aftermath of the pipeline explosion.
I'm also aware of the excellent work you've done with Western Washington University to establish an internship program to assist in monitoring fish habitat conditions.
The association's role in operating and maintaining spring chinook acclimation ponds for ESA recovery purposes has been another notable achievement.
And the list goes on.
Just as the Department and others have high expectations of you, it's only fair that you should have expectations of the Department to deliver the science and technical assistance you need to do your jobs.
During my brief tenure as Director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, I have taken steps to underscore and re-emphasize within the Department what I believe is the agency's chief mission — to provide the science necessary for sound fish and wildlife management.
As part of my effort to re-emphasize the importance of science, I recently appointed chief scientists for the Department's three resource programs — fish, habitat and wildlife. These scientists work directly with me and oversee scientific efforts within their respective programs to ensure they are consistent.
Also under my direction, the Department has re-emphasized the need to insure the Department's data and other science, once developed, is readily accessible to the RFEGs and others involved in salmon recovery work. To this end, we are also working by ourselves and others to develop appropriate databases such as SASSI and SSHIAP for use by those involved in salmon recovery.
The WDFW's goal is to deliver the habitat information needed to match up with your stream survey data work on such creeks as - as Squalicom, Dakota and Bertrand.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, the Department recently created a Watershed Stewardship Team. Steve Seymour, who you know, is this region's member on that team, assigned to work with the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, the Whatcom County lead entity and others.
The goal of our Watershed Stewardship Team is simple: make sure groups like the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association receive the scientific and technical assistance they need to facilitate recovery planning.
Of course, for both the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association and the Department, to be successful in our respective roles, we need to embrace a comprehensive approach to salmon recovery.
By that, I mean that all players in the "matrix" that Congresswoman Dunn's chief of staff referred to, must be pulling in the same direction for the same goal.
For the Association and the Department that means not only continuing our efforts to strengthen our own dual relationship, but our relationships with others including the tribes, recreational and commercial fishers, lead entities, RFEGs, the business and agricultural communities, and others.
The alternative is wasting time, going our own direction and accomplishing little.
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