At a recent Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) board of directors meeting held in Spokane, U.S. Senator Slade Gorton blasted the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) for its dismal failure to manage and monitor tribal harvest of endangered salmon.

“By and large tribes take far more than 50 percent of the allowable harvest as permitted by treaty,” said Gorton, who then went on to ask the question on everyone’s mind — “Why doesn’t NMFS crack down on this?”

Gorton further questioned NMFS’ interpretation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and declared the federal agency had over-stepped its authority with the restrictive 4(d) rules that mandate how local governments must plan for salmon protection and recovery. Kitsap County is in the midst of trying to come up with an acceptable plan to comply with the rules before they are imposed on January 8, 2001.

“The people of the Pacific Northwest should get to have a say in the decisions that affect them, rather than faceless bureaucrats from Washington, D.C.,” said Gorton.

He stressed the importance of revising the ESA to restore balance between human needs and the environment and praised BIAW’s coalition lawsuit challenging NMFS’ listing of several species of Pacific Northwest salmon as endangered under the ESA as a groundbreaking first step towards achieving this.

Noting that amending the ESA would require the election of politicians who understand the importance of putting as much weight on human value as on environmental value, Gorton said a new political system must be created — the right president, as well as congressmen and senators, must be elected. Gorton went on to urge members to get active and vote for the candidates who would have a real respect for the environment, but balanced with people’s needs.

He also lauded BIAW’s political activity as an example of how business organizations should operate.

“BIAW is involved in the political process more thoroughly and more intelligently than any other business group in the state,” said Gorton.