The Sept. 3 front-page article about the fish ponds on Woods Creek (“Caught in regulatory net”) illustrates the dysfunction of our government regulations regarding salmon protection.
Ron Lavigueure is being prosecuted because he “failed to get the necessary paperwork” in place before performing his restoration work. The reason that the lawsuit is being brought about by a federal agency rather than the state, is because the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife failed to get the proper paperwork in place before accessing his property in the first place. Knowing they made a mistake and had no case, they handed it off to the EPA to pursue on their behalf.
Working with local landowners to create off-channel habitat is a huge priority for local, county, state and federal governments. In fact, there are large sums of money available to landowners who agree to have this kind of restoration done on their property. That is exactly what this landowner did – yet he has now been made a felon because of it. It appears as if state and federal officials are angry and are more concerned with making an example of Mr. Lavigueure for not following their processes than doing what is best for the fish. If they feel the need to make an example of him, have him restore a creek that needs it rather than tearing up a project that is a model for how it should be done. He created extremely productive off-channel habitat which is so critical, yet disappearing so rapidly due to development and logging. The landowner did not pave a native creek and put in a parking lot – he improved the habitat for goodness sakes! The reason that local sports groups are in favor of keeping the habitat is because they aren’t affected by feelings, ego, and anger. They just want what is best for the fish.
How ironic that our EPA gives permits to companies along the Everett waterfront for “allowable discharges” of harmful contaminants while this Monroe landowner is being charged with a felony by the EPA for polluting our waterways with dirt. Even more ironic is that their plan to “put it back the way it was” will put just as much dirt back into the system that he supposedly polluted. Old aerial photos show that he actually did put the stream back to “the way it was.” What caused the stream to change direction before his work wasn’t an act of nature. It was rerouted by a flood which was caused when a shoddy culvert put in by DNR (a government agency, obviously) was clogged, became a dam in heavy rains, and then broke free causing a flood.
Bob Everett of the WDFW says, “There is a question of whether the native fish can now get upstream.” That seems like a rather vague guess for our department whose slogan is “manage by science.” If they surveyed the property as biologist Jim Mighell has done, they would realize that not only are the native fish getting upstream, but the number of adults using the area above the restoration work has increased by several times.
Hopefully common sense will prevail, compromise will be reached, felony charges will be reserved for the murderers and rapists of this world, and this valuable and productive fish habitat can be saved. As Jim Mighell suggested in the article, if they must make an example of Mr. Lavigueure for not following the rules, there are plenty of creeks and wetlands that really do need restoration that they could put him to work on.
Monroe
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