making the pie bigger ??: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

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New fisheries group getting political
Wednesday, September 17 | 3:07 p.m.

By ALLEN THOMAS
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Fifteen months old and 8,000 members strong in the Northwest, the Coastal Conservation Association is edging into the political arena in its goal to restore the region’s salmon and steelhead.

CCA is a Texas-based marine conservation organization with 90,000 total members in 17 states, including the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Gary Loomis, the Woodland-based graphite fishing rod guru, has been almost evangelical in the past two years in organizing CCA chapters in the Northwest as the last best hope in recovering fish runs.

CCA’s Northwest headquarters are in Vancouver.

And while the goal, according to CCA Washington president Matt Olson, is to grow the membership to 30,000, the organization is clearly moving beyond chapter building and into influencing Northwest fishery policies.

For example:

CCA has hired Clark County native Heath Heikkila as its Northwest fisheries director.

From 2002 to 2004, Heikkila worked as a policy adviser at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C., where he focused on West Coast salmon recovery.

In 2004, Heikkila joined the Washington, D.C., office of Ball Janik, a Portland law and government-relations firm. He represented several Northwest clients on natural resource, environmental and public land matters before Congress and the federal government.

Ed Wickersham of Ridgefield, chairman of CCA’s Government Relations Committee, is one of two Washington sport-fishing advisers on a new bi-state committee to resolve sport-commercial allocation issues for spring and summer chinook on the lower Columbia River.

CCA already has had state Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, and state Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, at its Southwest Washington chapter meetings. Last week, state Rep. Jaime Herrera, R-Ridgefield, and David Carrier, the Democrat challenging state Sen. Don Benton, each made campaign pitches to the chapter.

Heikkila said CCA will be involved in fishery administrative mattes such as the Columbia River Compact, North of Falcon salmon planning process and others.

“We need to be in those rooms,’’ he said. “We haven’t been there and the department (of Fish and Wildlife) hasn’t always known who to call. We haven’t shown up all the time....That’s going to change. CCA is going to be a constant presence in the meetings, watching and monitoring the decisions being made.’’

Surveys have been sent to all state House and Senate incumbents and candidates, plus the 23 state senators not up for election in 2008.

“We have a unique window here to raise the visibility of this (fish recovery) issue and actually get elected officials to pay attention,’’ Heikkila said. “When elected officials pay attention, when candidates pay attention, is when they are running for office. It’s just the way it works.’’

Wickersham said CCA will prevail by taking the high road on conservation issues.

“The message that we’re going with to win with our legislators, community leaders and for a lot of citizens who don’t fish is, ‘We’re not a fishing club. We’re not here to divide up the last fish. We’re here to make the pie bigger. We’re not going to get into allocation. These legislators and community leaders are tired of hearing people fight to kill the last fish.’ ‘’

Ironically, Wickersham is a sport-fishing adviser to the three Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission members tasked with resolving the Columbia River spring and summer chinook allocation issue.

Sportsmen need to be ready for more sacrifice, he said.

“Our organization is going to have to make some hard decisions that’s going to cause you to sacrifice some of your sport fishing,’’ Wickersham told the Southwest Washington chapter last week in Camas. “If we have runs that are truly, profoundly being imperiled, what’s going to separate us from gillnetters and commercial fishermen is our willingness to say we’ve got to stop the fishery. We’re willing to do that.’’

Sportsmen have an inherent advantage over commercial fishermen, because anglers can sort and release fish easier, Wickersham said.

“We can do better,’’ he said. “But the gillnets are not selective and don’t let anybody tell you they are.’’[color/red]