Thank you Alan Bennett and thank you all for inviting me here tonight:

First, some background:

• The WDFW is committed to public/private partnerships in natural resource stewardship. It's great to see two conservation organizations working together to address issues affecting wildlife and their habitat on a local level.

• Groups like the Native Plant Society and the Audubon Society have traditionally played a critical role in partnering to protect and preserve a part of the state's natural resources.

• I'd like to applaud you, because that job is way too big for WDFW and other government agencies to do alone. (In fact, if the state budget situation is as bad as it appears now, your efforts will be all the more important.)

• I understand that members of both groups here today have worked on a couple of cooperative projects this year, including:

  * Adopt-a-stream habitat enhancement on North Creek to replant the area with native vegetation, restore three ponds and perform other enhancement projects to improve the area for both wildlife and fish, including trout and coho; and

  * On Fish Creek near Lakewood, building and placing about 60 boxes for various species of wildlife including owls, ducks, chickadees, and racoons. The boxes will serve as habitat for the wildlife until native trees and other vegetation comes back.

• Projects like these add up to make a real difference for fish and wildlife in our state. Bottom line is that: These accomplishments are not just part of some plan that sits on a shelf: They represent direct action designed to address real needs in the real world.

That's one of the main things I want to talk about here today: The difference between making policy and implementing policy.

• Both are clearly important in today's complex world. Few major initiatives can move forward without legislative approval, public debates – and sometimes action by the courts.

• But once that's done, what matters most is how those policies are put into action in the field to affect fish and wildlife.

• That's certainly where we find ourselves with policy statements like the Forests & Fish legislation, which I've been specifically asked to talk about here today. And it's also the case with a number of other major policy decisions in recent years affecting fish, wildlife and their habitats.

In many ways, the 21st century represents the start of a new era in fish and wildlife management.

The Forest & Fish legislation was one of several statewide policy initiatives developed during the late 1990s to address pressing natural resource issues – particularly wild salmon recovery. They include:

• The Salmon Restoration Act (1998), created a new network of local salmon recovery groups (Lead Entities) to coordinate habitat restoration throughout the state. This, together with the creation of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board the following year, represent the state's largest commitment to habitat restoration to date – complementing the important work done by Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups and volunteer organizations such as yours.

• Selective Fisheries are the product of an effort began in 1996 to mass mark hatchery-produced salmon and steelhead so they could be distinguished from wild fish on the fishing grounds. The goal of this effort was to reduce harvest pressure on wild fish while allowing robust fisheries to continue on abundant hatchery stocks.

• Hatchery Reform: WDFW'‘s ongoing efforts to modernize its aging hatcheries got a major boost in the late 1990s with the creation of an independent Hatchery Scientific Review Group to recommend changes to hatchery practices and identify funding sources. Like

  WDFW, the HSRG's main goal are to minimize the effect of hatcheries on wild runs, maximize their use in helping to recover depressed wild stocks and still produce fish for harvest.

• The Forests & Fish legislation, as you probably know, protects 60,000+ miles of fish bearing streams improves forest practices on 8 million acres of private forest lands that provide critical habitat to a wide variety of fish and wildlife species. By following the requirements of the act, forest owners can be certain that they have complied with the federal Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.

The goals of all four of these policy initiatives are consistent with WDFW's chief mandate to preserve, protect and perpetuate Washington's fish and wildlife, i.e. sound stewardship.

• But the fact is that all of these policy initiatives are only as good as we make them in the real world. And THAT is our main focus right now at WDFW: concrete products to protect fish and wildlife that are the result of our policy decisions.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the progress we've made in all these areas in recent years.

• Local watershed restoration: In the past two years, the Salmon Recovery Funding Board distributed $92 million to fund 510 habitat-restoration projects submitted by 26 Lead Entities throughout the state. WDFW helped to create 4 new groups and has provided technical assistance to all Lead Entities through our newly created Watershed Stewardship Team.

• Selective fisheries: By 1999, virtually all coho salmon released from state hatcheries were marked, along with 100% of the spring chinook produced on the Columbia River. By 2000, more than 50 fisheries had "gone selective" for coho, and selective recreational and commercial fisheries for chinook have been conducted on the Columbia River since 2001.

• Hatchery Reform: Earlier this year, WDFW received an initial assessment of the state's hatchery system, identifying facilities most in need of attention. WDFW has also submitted 128 Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans (HGMPs) for individual facilities for review by the National Marine Fisheries Service and is dedicating an increase share of hatchery space to recovery of wild salmon stocks. Nearly 1/3 of all state hatcheries are now involved in wild salmon recovery–one recommendation was to close a facility and we did that!

These are just a few of the on-the-ground results we've seen from recent policy initiatives.

While much work remains, I'm pleased with our accomplishments in all these areas.

The same is true of the progress we've seen under the Forests & Fish legislation.

Under the legislation approved in 1997, non-federal forest owners have 15 years to comply with provisions of the act governing such critical issues as road maintenance and fish-blocking culverts. The problems didn't occur over a short period of time and it will take some time to fix them.

Thus, various provisions of the law are phased in over time, however I am pleased to report that a lot of important things are already happening.

• Stream Buffers: Immediately upon approval of the act, stream buffers were expanded on approximately 60,000 miles of fish-bearing waters in our state. The standard 50-foot buffers generally in effect before the legislation were expanded to 75-175 feet, depending upon stream classification. This had the immediate effect of increasing habitat protection for fish and other wildlife.

• Reviewing RMAP plans: Under the law, forest landowners were required to file Road Maintenance and Abandonment Plans for 20% of their property for 5 years, explaining how they would bring all roads into compliance within 15 years. To date, more than 4,700 RMAPs have been filed with DNR.

• Fish blockages: Since 2000, large landowners (including Weyerhaeuser) have removed more than 400 blocking culverts to comply with Forests & Fish requirements. About half of these projects require replacing pipes at an average cost of $14,000 each. In all, these projects will open up or unblock more than 250 stream miles of fish habitat.

• Research projects: As you know, adaptive management was a key component of the Forests & Fish accord. WDFW is currently participating in 50 directed research projects – involving species ranging from chinook salmon to the tailed frog – that will help provide the scientific foundation for possible modifications to forest practices rules. Total funding for scientific research is $3 million/year, apart from the $1.4 million WDFW receives each year to provide technical assistance to landowners. None of this money would have been available without the law.

• Seat on Forest Practices Board: The Forests & Fish law made WDFW, for the first time, a full partner in forestland management, with a seat on the Forest Practices Board. For years, the only tools WDFW had to address habitat impacts on forests lands were the Hydraulics Code and Bald Eagle Plans. We joined the Forests & Fish negotiations to advocate for larger stream buffers – and we succeeded. As a member of the board, we will continue to advocate for stronger protections where the research shows they are scientifically supportable.

All these are real things happening NOW that would NOT be happening without the Forests & Fish accord.

I recognize that Forest and Fish accord – as a Policy Document – didn't have universal support.

• Some said it went too far in terms of imposing new rules on forest landowners. Others said it didn't go far enough.

• But the bottom line – at least for me – is that we now have 3 years of real on the ground work behind us that protects fish and wildlife, rather than being stuck in endless policy debates.

The Forests & Fish law may not be perfect, but at least we're not bogged down in endless talk and legal maneuvering the way we are in other important areas.

• Real work is occurring on the ground that has a real effect on fish and wildlife populations in our state.

• Forest landowners are making hard decisions about road maintenance, many have begun correcting blocking culverts. WDFW is gathering new information about species that will allow us shape forest practices rules in future years.

• The Forest & Fish law wasn't designed to fix all forest-habitat problems overnight. Rather it was designed to make steady, incremental progress, with provisions to alter the rules according to the best available science.

WDFW is committed to follow through with its commitments to do everything necessary to make policy implementation a success.

• One fix we're working on right now is the requirement that all forest landowners file Road Maintenance and Abandonment Plans – known as RMAPS – on 20% of their properties each year over a 5-year period.

• While large landowners have filed thousands of plans, this requirement has proven extremely burdensome for small landowners, who often lack the economic resources to conduct the assessments or the heavy equipment needed to make necessary improvements.

• In response, WDFW – working in conjunction with other Forest & Fish participants – has developed a new approach designed to assist small landowners identify road-barrier problems and pay for needed improvements.

• This alternative approach has been described at Find, Fund and Fix.

• WDFW already has a successful model for this approach in place in eastern Washington, which addresses inadequately screened water diversions on agricultural lands. The "Cooperative Compliance Pilot Project" has helped hundreds of farmers in the Walla Walla basin comply with state hydraulics law, providing encouragement that a similar approach will work with small landowners.

• WDFW is already working with individual landowners, and we are currently seeking funding through the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Federal Farm Bill to fund this effort in the future.

The RMAP issue for small landowners is just one example of where WDFW and others have shown a willingness to fix problems with the Forests & Fish law as they arise.

• No doubt there will be others.

• But the important thing is that we keep moving forward – not just in terms of defining policy and drafting new rules but in actually getting real work done in the field.

• Getting it done in the field is the ultimate measure of success for the Forests & Fish law and any other public policy, and that will continue to be our focus in the coming years.

I hope that you--members of the Washington Native Plant Society and the Pilchuck Audubon Society in the years ahead support such framework policies:

• I'm convinced that, in the Forests & Fish legislation, we have a workable framework for making real improvements in forest practices that will benefit fish and wildlife resources of all kinds.

• The challenge now is to keep moving forward.

• You never know what can happen during a legislative session like the one coming up in January. When budgets get tight, all kinds of important things can fall off the table.

• And there's always a chance that important provisions of the law can get whittled away through policy changes.

• Nobody said this was going to be easy, in fact, its very hard work and part of the battle is maintaining public support as we work through all the issues ahead.

• In that regard, conservation groups like yours can make a real difference when the fur starts to fly, and I hope you'll be with us as we work to continue to make improvements in water and land use practices so critical to Washington's fish and wildlife resources.