SAN JUAN COUNTY MARINE RESOURCE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

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Minutes from the November 21, 2001 meeting

Members Present: Kelley Balcomb-Bartok, Brian Calvert, Terrie Klinger, Rich Osborne, Kevin Ranker, Kit Rawson, Jim Slocomb, Dennis Willows

Absent: Laura Arnold, Mike Bertrand, Mark Billington, Jim Capron, Peter Fromm, Tom McMillen, Jean Van Leuven

Guests: Tom Cowan, Drs. David Fluharty and Bruce Miller + UW Labs student teams, Dr. David Hoopes, Kari Koski, Mike Sato

Guest Speakers: Terry Williams, Fran Wilshusen

Chair Jim Slocomb opened the regular meeting of the MRC at 8:40 a.m. in the BOCC Hearing Room at the Courthouse, Friday Harbor.

Citizen comments: Tom Cowan, of NWSC, reported that SJC's MRC action grant proposal has been received and NWSC's intention is to make awards the first part of next year. Tom noted several Commission projects, including the nearshore habitat evaluation contract that is wrapping up. He said a full-time project coordinator position for the derelict fishing gear removal project is being advertised; grant plans are to develop a pilot project that will locate and map derelict equipment, writing protocol that suits the colder, deeper waters of Puget Sound. The project, made up of many partners, hopes to remove a minimum of 12 tons for proper disposal.

Dr. David Fluharty distributed posters announcing an informative lecture on "Oregon's Ocean Policy and Marine Protected Areas," to be given Wednesday, 11/28, 7 p.m. in the UW Labs Commons by Bob Bailey of the Oregon State Department of Environmental Quality cndon@u.washington.edu Dr. Fluharty also distributed copies of "Assessing Ocean Reserves," the Governor's Oregon Policy Advisory Council 8/21/01 hand-out [see working group Web site to facilitate information exchange]. He explained that Oregon MPA's have already been zoned and established and that Bob is coming here to meet people and to learn about the voluntary approach. Kelley highly recommended attending the lecture.

Dr. David Hoopes said he attended last week's Army Corps of Engineers presentation in Seattle on their Puget Sound nearshore ecosystem recreation study; he said he brought back copies of the Corps' national project management plan which he gave to Laura Arnold for the MRC and to Terry Williams for the tribes. David said the event was very well attended and informational.

Mike Sato made available for the MRC the new "Puget Sound Fish Story" documentary video that has been shown to MRC's from Skagit, Jefferson, and Clallam counties; Island County will view it next week. Mike said that KIRO TV will feature the first video (on orcas) in the series on Saturday 12/8 at 10 p.m.

Minutes: The minutes of the 11/7/01 meeting were approved unanimously, with these corrections: on page 2, 3rd under "Whales," that "Kelley" be changed to "Kari;" and, on page 3, 2nd Motion, that the vote be changed to motion passed, with Kelley's abstention."

Guest Speakers: Chair Jim Slocomb welcomed today's speakers with great pleasure, noting that the topic discussion would be informative, would increase understanding, and could be interactive as well. Kit Rawson said that he has been looking for opportunities, since April when he was first appointed to this MRC, to start a two-way dialogue between the tribes and MRC's on marine resource issues. Today's presentation is part of that effort, he said, to provide some substantive information on tribal natural resource management issues and find how the tribes do things. He noted that encouraging increased involvement by the tribes in San Juan County's MRC issues is an item on the MRC's 2001 Work Plan. Kit introduced Fran Wilshusen who works in the habitat program for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) and Terry Williams, Commissioner of Fisheries and Natural Resources for the Tulalip Tribes.

Fran Wilshusen said that, as a biologist who has been working on tribal resources for several years, she is aware of the many divergent views about and high levels of interest in the NWSC. She added that she was happy to be attending her first MRC meeting and to be introducing the overhead presentation on "Tribal Governments and the Northwest Straits Commission: Opportunity or Conflict?" Fran said that we are fortunate to have Terry Williams speak today since he has been the committed tribal leadership and advocate in the MPA issue and fully understands the complexity and why the interface with tribes and fisheries management is a tough fit.

Fran said that NWIFC was created in 1974 and has 19 member tribes; its role includes to assist tribes in providing for orderly and biologically-sound fisheries, to present a unified voice on fisheries management and to participate in conservation issues. The Commission is based in Olympia and has offices in Forks and Mount Vernon [nwifc.org]. Fran added that three of the NWIFC tribes, all within the Skagit watershed, are also part of the Skagit System Cooperative, another tribal consortium [contact is the Environmental Director, Larry Wasserman (360-466-7220)]. She distributed copies of a tribal contacts list.

Fran said that of the 28 federally-recognized tribes in Washington State, eight of the Boldt case area tribes have usual & accustomed (U&A) fishing areas that include part or all of San Juan County. U&A issues are, Fran emphasized, key to understanding tribal views. Fran added that since these eight tribes are co-managers of resources that may be involved in nearshore restoration and conservation ideas (including MPA's with potential limiting factors like fishing restrictions), tribal support is necessary to make voluntary and/or regulatory recovery efforts work.

To answer the question, "Why does the right to fish implicitly incorporate a right to protect habitat,quot; Fran quoted from U.S. vs WA, Phase II: "...The most fundamental prerequisite to exercising the right to take fish is the existence of fish to be taken....quot; Fran spoke about important concerns to the tribes such as access to and from the sea, adequate supply of good quality water, and sufficient, suitable spawn conditions. Fran said the Stevens Treaties of 1855 were specific to Washington State, with critical language such as reserving to the tribes the right to take fish within their U&A areas; the Boldt Decision of 1974 was a contemporary interpretation of this treaty language. Kit mentioned the Rafeedee Decision of 1994, which stated that tribal rights continue through changes in the natural systems (such as the introduction of new species) and that the same rules of allocation, co-management, and restriction of tribal fishing to U&A areas apply to all species, including shellfish.

Kit said the basic concepts of co-management are:

• the tribes and State share equal authority and responsibility for resource management;
  
  
• management objectives are set for the resource; common harvest and resource abundance / stock assessment databases are kept; fishing regulations are developed from such database information;
  
  
• co-management is governed by written plans that are filed with the court (such as the Puget Sound Salmon Management Plan of 1985, individual shellfish species plans, and the PS Groundfish Management Plan, which is currently under development).
  
  

Fran gave her thoughts on the problems with tribal participation in MRC's. These include difficulty of the NWSC and MRC structures in accommodating the appropriate roles and authorities of tribal co-managers (tribes normally operate on a government-to-government basis with federal or state authorities, not as members of citizens' panels); limitations on tribal staff time and money; complexity of perceptions and competing needs. Fran also discussed fishing as part of tribal cultural and economic heritage.

Among possible solutions, Fran suggested:

• incorporation of a tribal statement / guiding principles within NWSC;
  
  
• identifying all tribes affected by MRC actions;
  
  
• learning and incorporating tribal treaty and co-management requirements into protocols, activities, and products;
  
  
• adjusting MRC thinking to allow better knowledge of tribal members in general and to better maintain communication pathways.

Fran acknowledged Commissioner Rhea Miller's efforts to visit several tribes.

She said that the tribes are working on a draft document, a general policy statement on MPA's, that asks very relevant questions about this difficult issue. The goal of the tribal MPA document, Fran said, is to communicate tribal perspectives and expectations with regard to the development of MPA's. The focus is on work that will provide opportunities for success in developing relationships, rather than recipes for conflict. Fran reiterated that the tribes are committed stewards of the marine environment, noting that every activity on the resources can impact fishing. Fran encouraged the MRC's to move forward with their MPA activities but with attention to tribal issues.

Terry Williams clarified the Boldt Decision term, "in common with," as a "sharing" of common resources; the difference, he said, is that the tribes gave up their territory (the state of Washington) in exchange for reservations, protection from the federal government, and a small monetary compensation. The treaties acknowledge that the tribes never gave up the right to fish and hunt, to protect their ancestral graves, to harvest berries and herbs, etc.--necessary to sustain their culture--although the fish and wildlife resources are shared with non-Indians. He noted that the resources are shared by the tribes with the federal government and the state of Washington, which is not an all-inclusive right by any one party. The Boldt Decision provided a mechanism to come together to make some decisions, Terry said, but this does not rule out independent tribal decisions. He discussed "special rights" as may apply to Endangered Species Act considerations. Terry said the ESA has tripled the workload of tribal management.

Terry provided a brief history of the tribes and of his family's rich heritage. He said that, as a first step in getting to know the tribes, it was good to talk about who they are and what matters to them. He noted that tribal members like to get things done, even when difficult. Terry suggested getting more engaged with tribal members, as Commissioner Miller has, by visiting during events like the salmon ceremonies. [The Tulalip tribe holds its ceremony welcoming the salmon back in June.] Such participation could develop future working relationships; friendship and dialogue are important matters for the tribes, Terry added.

At this point, Terry said, the idea of a voluntary MPA is not within the vision of tribes. The tribes need to reach agreement with the state on the specific focus of such an idea. Terry noted that the state prematurely released MPA-related documents without tribal input. He also pointed out that there are other tools, besides MPA's, that are available to co-manage and protect resources.

Regarding tribal interest in nearshore issues, Terry said that the tribes collectively drafted the first watershed plan with the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, representing a breakthrough of political barriers. He said that ongoing public involvement is crucial and that, if all parties are not engaged, the system cannot be moved. Terry pointed out that to restore nearshore resource health, the natural erosion rate would have to be re-established by planting cedars and other trees on the bluffs above. Sustainability, he said, is the long-term goal and traditionally, the tribes have practiced taking but always with putting back.

Terry discussed the concept of traditional (indigenous) knowledge. Science is an important and necessary step in resource data collection, he said, but such data only goes back so far. The Tulalip Tribes, for instance, began an assessment process in 1995, using trained tribal members as interviewers that collected indigenous knowledge from cultural stories; resource information was extracted to establish baseline data.

The tribes are very engaged in self-preservation, Terry said, which includes resource protection through purchases and restoration efforts, both independently and with others, and using multiple funding sources. Terry concluded by saying that the Tulalip Council is very interested in recovery projects succeeding.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.

Recording Secretary, Helen Venada