Clinton Seeks $100 Million For Salmon State Encouraged Feds Willing To Share In Recovery Costs

Fri., Jan. 29, 1999

By Craig Welch craigw@olywa.net

President Clinton will ask Congress to chip in $100 million to help Northwest lawmakers cover the costs of restoring habitat for imperiled salmon.

“We want to help you bring the salmon back,” Clinton said during a conference call Wednesday with governors from Washington, Oregon and Alaska, an Indian tribe representative and a state official from California.

The money, to be included in the president’s budget package next month, would be divided among the states and used to restore stream beds, boost water quality and protect adjacent land.

Gov. Gary Locke told the president the proposal comes “at a critical time” for Washington.

State lawmakers are reviewing Locke’s plan for restoring several species of fish - including Puget Sound chinook - which is expected to affect roughly three-quarters of the state.

Locke’s plan calls for imposing water restrictions, cracking down on illegal water use, protecting stream banks, restricting fishing and forcing development away from wetlands.

Clinton’s proposal is far less than the $310 million U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., had asked the president to include in his budget, and it was only half what Locke was hoping to get to help fund his own package.

“It means we can’t go quite as far or as fast,” said Curt Smitch, the governor’s salmon policy chief.

The governor’s budget includes $100 million a biennium in state money, much of which would have been passed on to local jurisdictions to deal with watershed renewal.

State officials said their disappointment was tempered by the president’s suggestion that federal money for salmon recovery “needs to be a long-term commitment.”

“It’s very important to the future of this country that we prove we can do this together,” Clinton told the group.

Locke spokesman Keith Love said that was the first time the White House - or anyone at the federal level - has indicated a willingness to share the cost of salmon recovery over the long haul.

“The president and vice president are putting their might behind saying this is not just some unfunded mandate,” Love said.

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