Tribes fear fishery changes

By Christopher Schwarzen
Times Snohomish County Bureau

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Despite federal officials' assurances, Snohomish County Indian tribes fear proposed rule changes for designating critical chinook-salmon habitat wouldn't be strong enough to protect the endangered species.

The National Marine Fisheries Service last week proposed rule changes to decrease the amount of critical habitat established in 2000 for Puget Sound chinook salmon and 12 other Northwest salmon and steelhead runs. Puget Sound chinook salmon were listed as endangered in 1999.

The federal agency said it was responding to a lawsuit forcing it to review the critical-habitat areas — mainly areas with physical or biological features essential to the species' survival — and consider the economic impacts surrounding those areas. The fisheries service said designations in the Northwest cost about $223 million annually.

Overall, the new rules would reduce critical habitat in Washington, Oregon and Idaho by using more-specific data based on where fish have been observed as opposed to where biologists presume them to be.

In Snohomish County, watersheds that would be impacted by the new rules include the Snohomish, Skykomish, Snoqualmie and Stillaguamish rivers, along with parts of the Sauk, Skagit, Cascade and Suiattle river basins. Overall, the water systems include more than 8,000 miles of streams in Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties.

Under the proposed critical-habitat rules, any federal area issuing a permit for development or use of land in a critical area must also receive permission from the fisheries service. Those areas no longer considered critical still must be protected under the Endangered Species Act, said Brian Gorman, a fisheries-service spokesman.

"We don't see a reduction in the consultation requirements [for development]," said Bob Lohn, a Northwest regional administrator for the fisheries service, during last week's announcement. "Our basic test is: Are there listed fish being affected?"

Pat Stevenson, the Stillaguamish Tribe's environmental manager, said the Stillaguamish River, with about 70 percent of its watershed contained within designated forestland, would still be safe under federal forest rules. Those rules dictate that timber companies leave about 300 feet of buffer between logging areas and fish-bearing streams.

"But those protections only exist as long as the forest rules aren't changed," Stevenson said. "We understand changes to the Northwest Forest Plan may be coming."

In more-domestic areas, such as the land along the Snohomish River, the lack of critical habitat could cause more problems for fish, Stevenson said.
 
"Theoretically, if Snohomish County has a critical-area ordinance requiring a 150-foot buffer for chinook, it eliminates that buffer and allows developers to build closer to the creek than they currently can," he said.

But Mike Pattison, the Snohomish County government-affairs manager for the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, isn't sure the new federal rules would replace local ordinances.

"This only applies to federal lands," he said. "I don't see this affecting Snohomish County to any great degree."

Pattison believes the new rules might make salmon-protection money more readily available for the most critical areas instead of spreading it out over the entire course of a river.

"I think this potentially benefits salmon restoration in the kind of areas that people see every day," he said. "It might actually help more in urban areas."

Tulalip officials say they're carefully reviewing the documents and plan to comment on whether the new rules might harm chinook in the Snohomish and Stillaguamish river basin. For the Tulalip Tribes, the Snohomish River includes the Skykomish and Snoqualmie river basins.

"Chinook spawning populations in the Snohomish and Stilly systems represent a significant portion of the chinook production in the Puget Sound region," said Kurt Nelson, the lead fish and wildlife biologist for the Tulalips. "In recent years, we've been able to open up areas for restoration that have been blocked in the past."

Federal data contained in the proposed rules indicate the Snohomish and Skagit county river systems might not be as impacted as other parts of the Puget Sound system. Rivers contained in the two counties rank among the highest in terms of how useful the water systems are to chinook production.

"In general, there isn't much difference in terms of the depth of coverage of the proposed rules," Gorman said. "The real teeth [for species' protection] comes from the Endangered Species Act itself."

The federal agency will begin holding public hearings and collecting comments on the rules in January, Lohn said last week. The rules are expected to be completed by June.

Christopher Schwarzen: 425-783-0577 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com