Salmon Recovery Board implements new procedure for future recovery projects

CHELAN - According to the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board (UCSRB), salmon recovery will provide benefits to the Upper Columbia region by boosting local economies, ensuring recreational opportunities and reducing Endangered Species Act related regulatory pressures.

 This is the reason they - along with seven other outfits in Washington State - work with partners across the region to help facilitate the implementation of salmon habitat restoration and protection projects that are consistent with the Upper Columbia Spring Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Plan.

 Alone, the UCSRB focuses their attention on habitat, but they also coordinate with other entities that work on hatchery, harvest or hydropower to report progress toward goals that contribute to recovery. At their regular meeting on Thursday, May 25 at the Chelan Fire House, the UCSRB discussed a new procedure that would direct how the approach a future project.

 “(It’s) not different from what we’re doing, but could be used for hatchery and future H’s (habitat, harvest, hydropower) and is a little more encompassing with pre-work for compiling history effort and existing data,” UCSRB Executive Director Melody Kreimes stated in her presentation on Thursday. “The key difference is that our pre-work would not include effects analysis, we felt that went beyond our pre-work. That has been of some controversy so that is in general the differences. We would rely on those key experts to come answer those questions as we break into the H’s.”

 Colville Confederated Tribes Board Member Bill Towey was in favor of the changes, saying “I particularly like taking the effects analysis out because it seems premature to do that when we are defining hydro and harvest after hatchery and habitat.”

 While the two Commissioners who were in attendance (Doug England and Andy Hover) agreed with the new approach to a project, England reminded the group they help facilitate what people are doing in other places and not a regulating body that just slows things down.

 “The only thing I see as problematic is trying to problem solve or suggest ways that may be (more) appropriate at the end of process,” Towey suggested. “Let’s develop the four h’s and summaries and tackle those. It’s better crafted knowing the full spectrum of integrated recovery rather than trying to define without the full story. (So) the only thing I would caution is that it seems to me we are tackling too much prematurely without context of all h’s.”

 After asking if everyone concurred with the recommendations minus the series of meetings before understanding the impacts for all h’s, the board nodded in agreement.

 “A lot of people are doing a lot of stuff aimed at getting folks together and talking about what everyone is doing, this helps define that a little bit better and pulls it back to what our purpose is,” Yakama Nation Fisheries Habitat Section Coordinator Lee Carlson stated. “We’re coordinating and make sure we can get something done on the ground so we can go back to fishing or understanding our water rights.”

The UCSRB will meet again on June 22 at the Chelan County Commissioners Hearing Room in Wenatchee at 10 a.m. However, the group also facilitates the North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative (NCWFHC) which meets on Wednesday, June 7 in the Chelan Fire House at 10 a.m.

Zach Johnson can be reached at lcmeditor@gmail.com or (509) 682-2213