Salmon Summit II participants focus response to salmon closure Kulongoski asks Bush for disaster declaration

Short-, medium- and long-term pieces of a plan for responding to the Klamath River-driven closure of the 2006 Oregon coast commercial salmon season came into focus at Governor Kulongoski's "Salmon Summit II," held at Newport City Hall, where Kulongoski said he favored removal of four hydroelectricity dams on the Klamath River that block fish passage.

Governor Kulongoski at Newport's "Salmon Summit II"

Short-, medium- and long-term pieces of a plan for responding to the virtual closure of the 2006 Oregon coast commercial salmon season came into focus Friday at Governor Ted Kulongoski's "Salmon Summit II," held at Newport City Hall.

Very few, if any, of the pieces are certain, but together they form a coherent, sequenced response to the crisis caused by the closure and the Klamath River problems that led to it.

Kulongoski also announced he had written to President George W. Bush seeking a declaration of "a major disaster for the State of Oregon as a result of the closure of salmon fishing," and reiterated his request that the Commerce Secretary declare a "commercial fishery failure for salmon" caused by natural factors beyond the control of resource managers.

Once a fishery disaster is declared, fishing communities can receive direct assistance under the Magnuson Stevens Act, Kulongoski wrote. He also requested Disaster Unemployment Assistance, Hazard Mitigation funds, and Small Business Administration Disaster Loans for Clatsop, Coos, Curry, Lincoln, and Tillamook counties and the coastal portions of Douglas and Lane counties.

Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association Director Onno Husing said the response to the closure will involve "a series of steps like jumping across a brook, one rock, then another," in which fishermen, coastal leaders, state agencies, coastal district legislators, the governor's office, and the Oregon Congressional delegation will all have parts to play.

The first effort at securing emergency assistance for salmon fishers and their communities was an attempt to add an emergency appropriation of $81 million to a supplemental spending bill for Iraq and Hurricane Katrina relief. That effort, led by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) and supported by Ron Wyden (D-OR), hit a dead end in early May. Smith's amendment would have provided funds for disaster assistance to Oregon and California, as well as money for research to better understand and help repair the Klamath River, where declining Chinook runs prompted this season's virtual closure.

Spokespersons for all the state's Congressional delegation promised continued efforts to secure federal funds, but that dead end placed the burden for short-term action on the shoulders of state government.

The first "Salmon Summit" took place March 28 in Salem, Kulongoski recalled, and this Friday he asked agency heads to report on what they had done to assist salmon fishers since.

Several state agency chiefs reported their agencies are currently working to alleviate financial and related problems salmon fishers are experiencing.

That included accelerating stream restoration and salmon run assessment efforts on the coast by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, reported spokesman Tom Byler, and hiring displaced fishermen to do the work.

Tim Wood, speaking for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, reported he expects there will be "12 to 20 opportunities" for summertime employment in his department as rangers, temporary hires and perhaps some permanent jobs, and displaced fishers would be given preference for them.

In the short-term, State Senator Joanne Verger (D-Coos Bay), chair of the coastal caucus in the state legislature, has been leading an effort to secure $2.2 million from the legislative Emergency Board, which appropriates funds when the legislature is not in session. Kulongoski said Verger has been a great advocate for relief for salmon fishers, recalling that, going to a meeting on plans for the removal of the New Carissa remains, "she told me, 'I've got a better use for the funds.'"

Verger said she and other members of the coastal caucus are working with the E-Board to find an existing program to channel funds to the affected fishers and communities. Kulongoski agreed it is better to use an existing agency program than to create a new administrative structure that would eat up some of the funds.

Cam Preus-Braly, director of community colleges and the Workforce Development Commission, reported the Workforce Development staff is working with the Oregon Salmon Commission and other state agencies to develop "transition teams" at affected ports. They will serve as "information conduits" to get needed information - program offerings, assistance, names and phone numbers - to affected fishers. The first meeting will take place on June 8 in Coos Bay, she said.

The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, said Byler, is developing a pilot ocean research project that will look into how and where different fish species use the ocean at different times in their lives. That project, which he hopes will be funded by the E-board, should provide jobs for up to 50 vessels this summer. Newport fisherman Jeff Feldner also noted this project, which is being sponsored by the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiments Station and the Oregon Salmon Commission.

And, said Webb, OWEB has nearly completed a coastal coho recovery plan and will be able to hire two or three fishermen to take the plan to the coast and explain it to fishers and others. Both the watershed councils and the soil and water conservation districts his board works with, Byler said, will be asked to hire fishermen "this summer and beyond" for their habitat restoration work.

Roy Elicker, the director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, noted there is still fishing available on the Oregon coast, and his department is working with the Oregon Tourism Commission to get the word out across the state and country. "We delivered a full recreational season," he said, referring to what ODFW was able to get from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Without, that, he said, the impacts of the commercial closure would have been multiplied.

There are also small "terminal" fisheries available at the mouths of a few rivers, inside state waters. These are at the Elk River, the Chetco River and Tillamook Bay.

"And we delivered a limited commercial season," Erlicker continued. There are still some commercial salmon troll days open, north of Florence: four, four-day openers in June; three, three-day openers in July; one, three-day opener in August; and two weeks each in September and October. Also, fishing continues around the mouth of the Columbia River, north of Cape Falcon in northern Tillamook County.

Charter fishing for salmon and other fish (including halibut, rockfish and, when they arrive, albacore tuna) continues to be available along the entire Oregon coast.

Medium-term

Todd Davidson, chair of the Oregon Tourism Commission, noted that of the $7.4 billion in tourism revenues Oregon received in 2005, $1 billion of it was spent on the coast. He said his commission has been promoting Oregon fishing statewide and countrywide through e-mails, by response to website inquiries, and by a contest for three vacation packages that brought in 3,000 entries, all of which have been followed up with by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association.

The "Travel Oregon" website, he said, has been given additional links to coastal businesses, and welcome centers around the state have been given brochures describing the coast and its fishing, recreational and lodging opportunities. "The coast is open for business, open for fishing," he said.

Kulongoski asked if the fishers expected the low numbers of Klamath Chinook salmon to continue for the next few years.

Commercial troller Paul Heikkila and Scott Boley, a small fish processor, both replied the number of early-returning three- and two-year old salmon, which are reliable predictors for the returning numbers of mature four and five year old salmon in the following two years, indicate the Klamath runs will be depressed for the next two years. After that, current good ocean conditions (strong cold water upwelling with lots of nutrient) that block predator fish sight of down-migrating salmon and encourage salmon survival at sea, combined with this year's plentiful rains, offer a better picture.

With that, Kulongoski said he would build funding for additional fisher and fishing community needs into his budget for the 2008-09 biennium.

In the long term, Kulongoski and others emphasized, repair and restoration of the Klamath River and its fish is the key to avoiding future Oregon coast salmon season disasters.

Several fishers urged the governor to work with California Governor Schwarzenegger to use the Klamath Basin compact or other mechanisms to work jointly on repairing that basin's salmon runs. Kulongoski said he favors removal of four hydroelectricity dams on the Klamath River that block fish passage, but he recognized, too, the possibility they could be retrofitted with fish passage devices.

Terri Moffat, spokeswoman for Senator Gordon Smith, said her office would continue to "turn over every stone" to find funds that went unused from the 2006 budget and "re-program" them to be used to provide assistance to coast fishers. Spokespersons for Senator Wyden and all the state's federal Representatives also promised to do everything they can to secure federal funds for the salmon fishers and for repair of the Klamath salmon runs.

"This industry," said Boley, "can be saved."

Joel Gallob is a reporter for the News-Times. He can be reached at 265-8571, ext. 223 or joel.gallob@lee.net