Jeff and team, have you looked into the money trail? Does the tribe bid on and receive County funds to work on the projects the commissioners approve? And does the tribe's construction business win the bids on county jobs? And do the tribes ' businesses pay the state the taxes it collects on fuel, liquor, and services (B&O), as other businesses are required to do?
Jamestown Excavating bid on completing Towne Road (even though the Tribe had tried to stop it several times), but they were not the lowest bidder, so the County awarded it to a different contractor. You have asked some terrific questions and given me an excellent idea for a future story. Let me do some digging (or excavating), and I'll try to get those answers in an article. Thank you!
The Climate Commitment Act funds part of it, and that's why you pay about 50 cents more per gallon of gas. Tribal gas stations don't have to charge that tax, but that isn't to say they lower the price by that amount... they keep their price high and pocket that amount. So, they benefit from a program that they don't pay into. It's hard to trace all the funding for those projects and all the sources of the grants, but that is what a little research showed me. Hopefully, someone reading this knows more than I do.
This effort to improve fish passage is laudable, but a very small effort to solve a very large problem. I read a King County study on the benefits of these projects or lack there-of. The expected benefits were not realized and the study attributed that to a chemical used in tire production that is toxic to juvenile fish. The preservation of PNW fish stocks is so complicated that fish resource stewardship organizations are fighting each other. Of the many challenges facing the survival of our fish, it is hatcheries that loom largest. There are multiple points and counter points to hatchery production. I liken fish hatcheries to addictive drugs. There is an initial high / euphoria / large return of fish. The first hatchery return is great, the second is good, the third is fair the fourth not so great and that trend continues to plummet to a point where the only fix is to plant more hatchery fish. For too many reasons to explain here hatchery and wild fish populations are inversely proportional. More hatchery fish equals less wild fish. The most obvious problem, of many, with loosing wild fish is that they are genetically perfected for survival in their native habitats. Wild fish survive eating the flesh and spawn of other fish and insects and by instincts avoiding predation. Hatchery fish survive on food pellets provided by predators. Our best opportunity to learn about wild fish restoration via the Elwha River shed has been lost by again hatchery supplementation and the associated harms. The complexity of our fish stocks is so great that the only answer I have is fish and human populations are inversely proportional. More people equal less fish. More fish equal less people.
In my experience, traveling across this beautiful country with my husband, specifically for fly fishing opportunities, I have noticed how dysfunctional Washington state is in the control of their rivers to fishing. Our four months in Alaska exposed strong and enforced rules on open fishing dependent on fish counts. Even though Alaska is heavily reliant on sport fishing tourism-if the fish numbers aren’t there they shut that river down! Not in Washington. Several years ago only a handful of steelhead made it to the hatchery on the Dungeness. Did WA Fish and Wildlife shut the river down? No, they did not. Over fishing is a bigger factor in the low fish counts than are culverts placed in mud holes. And that includes the Tribe’s net fishing at the mouths of the rivers.
Having lived in the Fla Keys I saw this happen à the population moved closer to key west…. It’s people their waste and management… I always think of the book by Desmond Morris “the Human Zoo” …. N e way…
I believe the wanton, destructive fishing methods (nets, hook lines) that the Tribal people use is responsible for far more fish loss than tire residue. If Tribes were required to follow the same fishing regulations that taxpayers must abide by, we would have a surplus of fish.
I am all for fish. However, the cost of replacing culvers over two dinky creeks makes no sense to me at all. Ennis Creek, of course, Valley Creek, why?
Its the lack of prefabrication of structures. They have to play prevailing cone heads for 5 months on site. In Germany even China they would builT most of what they need and bring it in. With miniman closure. They should have already have picked a prefab location. Just dont do any digging. How much you bet that happens. They start unearthing artifacts and boom major freight corridor gone.
Jeff and team, have you looked into the money trail? Does the tribe bid on and receive County funds to work on the projects the commissioners approve? And does the tribe's construction business win the bids on county jobs? And do the tribes ' businesses pay the state the taxes it collects on fuel, liquor, and services (B&O), as other businesses are required to do?
Jamestown Excavating bid on completing Towne Road (even though the Tribe had tried to stop it several times), but they were not the lowest bidder, so the County awarded it to a different contractor. You have asked some terrific questions and given me an excellent idea for a future story. Let me do some digging (or excavating), and I'll try to get those answers in an article. Thank you!
Great questions. I was going to ask if the Tribes pay anything toward building the fish-passage culverts?? Or is it ALL State Funded by tax payers?
The Climate Commitment Act funds part of it, and that's why you pay about 50 cents more per gallon of gas. Tribal gas stations don't have to charge that tax, but that isn't to say they lower the price by that amount... they keep their price high and pocket that amount. So, they benefit from a program that they don't pay into. It's hard to trace all the funding for those projects and all the sources of the grants, but that is what a little research showed me. Hopefully, someone reading this knows more than I do.
Thanks Jeff!
This effort to improve fish passage is laudable, but a very small effort to solve a very large problem. I read a King County study on the benefits of these projects or lack there-of. The expected benefits were not realized and the study attributed that to a chemical used in tire production that is toxic to juvenile fish. The preservation of PNW fish stocks is so complicated that fish resource stewardship organizations are fighting each other. Of the many challenges facing the survival of our fish, it is hatcheries that loom largest. There are multiple points and counter points to hatchery production. I liken fish hatcheries to addictive drugs. There is an initial high / euphoria / large return of fish. The first hatchery return is great, the second is good, the third is fair the fourth not so great and that trend continues to plummet to a point where the only fix is to plant more hatchery fish. For too many reasons to explain here hatchery and wild fish populations are inversely proportional. More hatchery fish equals less wild fish. The most obvious problem, of many, with loosing wild fish is that they are genetically perfected for survival in their native habitats. Wild fish survive eating the flesh and spawn of other fish and insects and by instincts avoiding predation. Hatchery fish survive on food pellets provided by predators. Our best opportunity to learn about wild fish restoration via the Elwha River shed has been lost by again hatchery supplementation and the associated harms. The complexity of our fish stocks is so great that the only answer I have is fish and human populations are inversely proportional. More people equal less fish. More fish equal less people.
In my experience, traveling across this beautiful country with my husband, specifically for fly fishing opportunities, I have noticed how dysfunctional Washington state is in the control of their rivers to fishing. Our four months in Alaska exposed strong and enforced rules on open fishing dependent on fish counts. Even though Alaska is heavily reliant on sport fishing tourism-if the fish numbers aren’t there they shut that river down! Not in Washington. Several years ago only a handful of steelhead made it to the hatchery on the Dungeness. Did WA Fish and Wildlife shut the river down? No, they did not. Over fishing is a bigger factor in the low fish counts than are culverts placed in mud holes. And that includes the Tribe’s net fishing at the mouths of the rivers.
Having lived in the Fla Keys I saw this happen à the population moved closer to key west…. It’s people their waste and management… I always think of the book by Desmond Morris “the Human Zoo” …. N e way…
I believe the wanton, destructive fishing methods (nets, hook lines) that the Tribal people use is responsible for far more fish loss than tire residue. If Tribes were required to follow the same fishing regulations that taxpayers must abide by, we would have a surplus of fish.
I am all for fish. However, the cost of replacing culvers over two dinky creeks makes no sense to me at all. Ennis Creek, of course, Valley Creek, why?
Jeff, does Ron Allan pay property tax on his Henderson Home, or is that also in the land trust?
Hi Kenneth. That property is "normal", not in the trust, and pays over $7,000 a year in taxes. Sorry for the very late response.
Its the lack of prefabrication of structures. They have to play prevailing cone heads for 5 months on site. In Germany even China they would builT most of what they need and bring it in. With miniman closure. They should have already have picked a prefab location. Just dont do any digging. How much you bet that happens. They start unearthing artifacts and boom major freight corridor gone.