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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, SEpTEmbER 21, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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GUEST COLUMN
No time to slow down on salmon recovery
T
he Northwest Indian Fisheries
Commission lost an irreplace-
able leader in August when our
chairperson, Lorraine Loomis, walked
on.
Lorraine’s contributions to protecting
treaty rights can’t be overstated. Before
she was elected chairperson, she served
as a commissioner for more than 40
years, many of those sitting beside Billy
Frank Jr. as vice chair.
When Billy passed in
2014, Lorraine carried
on the work. And when
COVID-19 closed down
our offices, that didn’t
slow her down. She
moved her computer
SHAWN
into her sewing room,
YANITY
and when you didn’t
think she could put in
any more hours, she did just that.
She also served as vice chair of
the Fraser River Panel of the Pacific
Salmon Commission, vice chair of the
board of directors for the Skagit River
System Cooperative and co-chair of the
Billy Frank Jr. Salmon Coalition.
It’s hard to imagine how we are
going to fill her shoes, but I truly
believe that Lorraine wouldn’t want us
to miss a step. We must continue fight-
ing for our treaty-protected resources.
That means keeping focused on our
priorities, including:
● Billy Frank Jr. Salmon Coali-
tion. After the inaugural Billy Frank Jr.
Pacific Salmon Summit in March 2018,
we formed the coalition to restore coop-
eration among tribal, federal, state and
local policy leaders, sport and commer-
cial fishermen, conservation groups,
scientists, business owners and oth-
ers involved in recovering our natural
resources. The coalition is committed to
restoring and protecting salmon habitat,
enhancing salmon hatchery production
and better managing seal and sea lion
populations.
● Habitat recovery in fisheries
management planning. Lorraine rec-
ognized that we can’t manage fisher-
ies in isolation. We must also consider
habitat recovery at the same time. An
important part of her legacy is that she
and Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife director Kelly Susewind cre-
ated a co-managers’ habitat work plan
for the North of Falcon process. Wher-
ever salmon fisheries are constrained
by weak stocks, we must improve the
habitat. We began this work in 2020,
Debbie Preston
Lorraine Loomis with Billy Frank Jr. at his 83rd birthday party in 2014.
with a pilot project in the Stillaguamish
watershed.
● Protecting and restoring ripar-
ian habitat. Last year, we released a
short video explaining why we need to
protect and restore riparian habitat for
salmon. Streamside trees and vegeta-
tion provide shade, filter harmful runoff
and slow erosion. Our need for quality
riparian habitat is increasing as climate
change leads to higher water tempera-
tures and lower flows every year. At
the 2019 Centennial Accord meeting,
Gov. Jay Inslee connected his concerns
about climate change to salmon habitat
recovery and directed state agencies to
develop a uniform, science-based man-
agement approach. We created a joint
tribal-state riparian habitat initiative to
achieve that goal.
● Defining net ecological gain. We
know that urban development leads to
environmental problems such as air and
water pollution and habitat loss. But
our land use regulations allow develop-
ers to build now and attempt to fix hab-
itat later, with no acknowledgement
of cumulative effects. This makes it
impossible to achieve a net gain of hab-
itat, which is what we need to recover
declining salmon runs. Recently, state
legislators funded a study that aims to
define net ecological gain, which is a
necessary first step to fix our broken
ecosystem.
● Understanding marine sur-
vival. Tribes have collaborated with
Long Live the Kings on the Salish Sea
Marine Survival Project to learn more
about what happens to juvenile salmon
after they migrate to sea. Last sum-
mer, the project reported that two of
the main reasons for poor salmon sur-
vival are that there are too many pred-
ators and not enough prey. Tribal natu-
ral resources departments are continuing
important research about marine sur-
vival, while also working to restore
estuary habitat and protect water
quality.
● Impacts of recreation on treaty
resources. We have watched with alarm
as increased recreational activities on
public lands have degraded our trea-
ty-protected resources. We saw this
escalate during the coronavirus pan-
demic when tribal fishermen were dis-
placed by sport fishermen and recre-
ational boaters, beaches and forests
were littered with human waste and
drug paraphernalia and the biodiversity
of trails and forests was threatened by
human overuse. Tribes are working with
state and federal agencies to ensure that
meaningful government-to-government
engagement involves tribes in recreation
policy, planning, funding, assessment
and project implementation.
Now is not the time to slow down.
The best way we can honor both Billy
and Lorraine is to stay the course,
because we have more work to do to
recover salmon and protect our treaty
rights.
Shawn yanity is the vice chairman of
the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commis-
sion and chairman of the Stillaguamish
Tribe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I wonder
I
n his letter “Convince people,” (The
Astorian, Sept. 9) Robert Liddycoat
demands proof that measures to combat
the pandemic have had “any effect” on the
COVID-19 infection rates and he goes on
to claim there is “no statistical evidence”
that it has.
Actually, there is plenty of authorita-
tive, peer-reviewed scientific evidence and
it’s ridiculously easy to find from reputable
sources. He simply has decided not to look
because it doesn’t fit his narrative.
All that aside, mandates are not forc-
ing anyone to get vaccinated or mask up.
It’s just the government addressing a pub-
lic safety need because some people are so
lacking in respect and compassion for oth-
ers that they are unwilling to comply with
even the simplest of preventative measures
to stop this deadly pandemic.
Mandates are simply serving notice
that you cannot force others to serve you
at their peril. Freedom does not grant you
that choice.
If you don’t like it, you are perfectly
free to stay home. Have food delivered.
Watch TV. Stream movies. Start a work-
from-home business. Home-school the
kids. Don’t want to vaccinate? Fine! Stay
home! The rest of us will be safe from you
and the economy can get moving again.
I wonder, does Liddycoat accept any
government rules such as speed lim-
its, traffic signals, zoning laws, firing a
weapon in city limits, etc. Or, does he
view all these how he views vaccine and
mask mandates, as fascist impositions on
his right to either carelessly or willfully
endanger others?
BILL GRAFFIUS
Gearhart
Take care of your neighbors
T
he Christian poet and cleric John
Donne wrote an often-quoted poem
in which he reminds us that “no man
(or woman) is an island entire of itself.”
Rather, we are a part of a community.
It follows that needlessly to cause
another’s suffering or death is wrong. Spe-
cifically, now, to refuse to wear a mask or
to be vaccinated is wrong.
Religion has taught for a long time that
the goal is not the exercise of individual
freedom, but compliance with a command
as set forth in both the Old and the New
Testament: Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you.
Please, take care of your neighbors.
ROBERT and KERSTIN ADAMS
Astoria
Careful what you wish for
F
or those workers hoping not to have to
pay union dues, be careful what you
wish for. And beware of those who support
you in that hope (“The injustice of forced
union dues,” The Astorian, Sept. 7).
The National Right to Work Commit-
tee has been on an anti-union crusade since
its inception. And since its beginning and
on into today, it has been well funded by
the Koch brothers, a family dedicated to
removing any and all obstacles to unfet-
tered business profits. Such obstacles
include healthy unions and state laws pro-
tecting worker rights to unionize.
The author of the guest column, Mark
Mix, is president of the National Right
to Work Committee. As such, he failed
to mention that the National Institute for
Labor Relations Research, which provided
such a negative labor analysis, is a “subor-
dinate” arm of his own organization.
For more than a hundred years, labor
unions have fought for workers’ rights.
Through the strength of organized union
workers and legislation lobbying, union
workers can take for granted such benefits
as the 40-hour work week, minimum wage
baselines, paid holidays, union representa-
tion in worker-management disputes and
so on.
Going against the financial power of
business takes money. And that money
comes from dues. So, please, keep those
dues coming.
JULIE SNYDER
Astoria