Rich Landers: Tribe, WDFW reach accord

After 10 months of negotiations, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently signed a tentative agreement with the Colville Confederated Tribes that could lead to more developed fishing access, docks and even more campgrounds along Lake Rufus Woods, a 7,800-acre Columbia River reservoir.

The agreement also could end long-standing confusion over fishing license requirements.

But the future of the pact depends on funding from the Washington Legislature.

Rufus Woods, which forms the southern boundary of the Colville Reservation, has generated increasing interest in the seven years since anglers began catching state-record rainbows, said Dennis Beich, WDFW North Central Region director in Ephrata.

Except for a few primitive launching options, developed boat access is limited to two public launches at either end of the reservoir, which extends 51 miles from Chief Joseph Dam upstream to Grand Coulee Dam.

“If funding is provided by the Legislature, up to three designated fishing access areas will be developed along the center of the lake’s north shore on the Colville Indian Reservation,” Beich said.

WDFW is requesting $423,000 from the Legislature to fund the first year of the project. Additional requests are planned for the following four years.

The Colvilles would manage the access sites, but details have not been worked out on whether fees would be charged, Beich said.

The agreement also provides for increased state and tribal enforcement and fish management staff in the area, including portions of the upper Columbia River’s Wells Pool and the Okanogan River, and provides additional fish stocking for Rufus Woods Lake.

The tribe has been stocking Rufus Woods with triploid rainbows for years.

The agreement would have to be re-negotiated after five years, department officials said. Some of the best trout fishing is concentrated in the central part of Rufus Woods near commercial net-pen rainbow operations. The last three Washington state records were caught in that area, including the current 29.6-pound record landed in 2002.

Incidentally, thousands of rainbows escaped one of the net pens a few weeks ago, greatly enhancing angler success rates.

More significant is the agreement’s attempt to clarify the fishing license requirements for this stretch of water that borders the Colville Reservation.

“We’ve never really agreed with the state regarding licenses,” Joe Peone, the tribe’s Fish and Wildlife Department director, said Tuesday after WDFW issued a press release about the tentative agreement. The tribe claims treaty rights to fishing the north half the Columbia River bordering the reservation.

“But we haven’t been enforcing that,” Peone said, noting that anglers fishing the boundary waters from boats have needed only a state fishing license.

However, anglers fishing from shore on the reservation must have a tribal fishing permit in addition to a Washington state fishing license, said Henry Hicks, Colville Tribe recreation ranger.

The new agreement, if funded by the Legislature, would allow anglers to fish those waters from boat or new designated access areas on shore with either a state or a tribal license.

The agreement applies only to Lake Rufus Woods, and does not affect reservation boundary waters upstream in Lake Roosevelt.

Mount Spokane plan: The public will be given another chance to comment on proposals to expand the Mount Spokane downhill ski area in a 30-day comment period that’s expected to begin as early as this week. That portion of the draft Mount Spokane State Park master plan that would allow ski lifts into the old forest on the west side of the mountain has been opposed by the Washington departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources.

Farm Bill moving: Sportsmen and other conservationists sending Christmas greetings to senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., should consider requesting support for the currently debated Farm Bill’s conservation measures, which would provide wildlife habitat on 40 million acres of land across the United States.

Surge in springers: Although it’s no better than tentative at this point, the first preseason forecast for 2008 spring chinook salmon returning to the Columbia River is triple the number that came this year. If it materializes, the run would be the third biggest on record dating to the early 1970s.

Stay tuned.