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Blogs

Being Frank: More habitat protection is needed

Cross posted at NW Treaty Tribes We’ve seen some incredible salmon habitat restoration projects the past few years, but there’s a big difference between restoring habitat and protecting it. We must remember that restoration without protection does not lead us to recovery. The Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula continues to heal itself after the […]

Top 10 Threats to Salmon

Indian Country Today breaks down the top 10 threats to salmon from NWIFC’s State of Our Watersheds report, including: Estuaries are losing functional habitat because of population increases in lower portions of watersheds. Rapidly increasing permit-exempt wells threaten water for fish. Degraded nearshore habitat is unable to support forage fish. Timber harvest has removed vast […]

Responding to comments at the Seattle Times: “How about calling off fishing for a few years?”

The Seattle Times’ article on Treaty Rights at Risk and the decline of salmon habitat in western Washington sparked a massive online response. By Monday afternoon there were 157 comments posted on the article, mostly negative. Most comments focused on tribal sovereignty, the meaning of the Boldt decision or tribal economics. But some focused on […]

Billy Frank Jr. on Treaty Rights at risk (at NW Straits Annual Meeting)

Via Olympic Peninsula Environmental News. From the blog: If you have never heard Mr. Frank speak, or if you do not have a good understanding of what drives the Tribes demands for their treaty rights, this is a must listen recording. In it, he clarifies the history behind the struggle for treaty rights and legal […]

Tribes putting the resource first when planning fisheries

In a letter to the editor of the Seattle Times, Mount Vernon resident David Yamashita attacks tribal fisheries management without mentioning how fisheries managemnent has changed since Puget Sound chinook and several other species were listed under the federal Endangered Species Act more than 10 years ago. Today all salmon fisheries in western Washington are […]