Sean V. O’Brien: We need more leaders, advocates for our rich natural resources legacy

By Sean V. O’Brien

Walking up the steps of the state Capitol in Olympia, you will find six large cast bronze doors bearing relief images of early industry and scenic depictions of our beautiful state. A ship to represent our long legacy of trade, sheep herding to pay tribute to our farming and agricultural heritage, a waterfall noting our bounty of fishing and oxen pulling logs illustrating the abundance of forestry in the region.

These images, alongside those of an early homestead and territorial capitol building before our statehood was established in 1889, present a hopeful and pioneering spirit rooted in our rich natural resources.

Thirteen of us witnessed the bronze doors on a tour of the Capitol as part of our 18-month participation in AgForestry, a leadership development program for midcareer professionals working in agriculture, forestry and other natural resource-based sectors. Over the course of the program, we met for more than a dozen seminars across the various corners of the state – from Wenatchee to Walla Walla, Pullman to Vancouver, and Spokane to Sunnyside – to engage in topics covering these issues and industries as well as their intersection with communications, social services, crime and corrections, transportation, and government and policy.

Throughout these seminars – including trips to Washington, D.C., and an international seminar in Vietnam – a critical lesson was raised time and time again: the need for collaboration.

AgForestry was created in the aftermath of the “Fish Wars” of the 1960s and ’70s, in which industry and Indigenous tribes were constantly at fierce odds. Eventually, the Timber/Fish/Wildlife Agreement was enacted – breaking the status quo of litigation and animosity and establishing a new way to manage natural resources with tribes, loggers, environmentalists and agencies collaboratively working on practices, together.

Billy Frank, Jr., a Nisqually tribal leader, and Stu Bledsoe, an Ellensburg rancher, are credited with the leadership that led to the consensus necessary to achieve something as significant as the TFW. Together, they demonstrated the critical importance for natural resources industries to strategically pursue their priorities in unison through communication and education, both for the public and for elected officials.

As Bledsoe worked on the TFW, he was a driving force for the establishment of a natural resources leadership program in Washington state – and so AgForestry was born.

As a member of Class 43, which graduates this Friday in Spokane – and as someone who actively observes and engages in legislative debates in Olympia for a living – it is clear to me that we must continue to foster the development of advocates for these industries in our state.

Earlier this year, Spokesman-Review columnist Sue Lani Madsen provided helpful context behind the ongoing discussions in Olympia surrounding the debate over riparian buffers flanking our state’s waterways. As I wrote in a piece for the Spokesman-Review in January, there were fears heading into this year’s legislative session that we would again see a heavy-handed, compulsory approach taken on expanding these buffers. If we saw a return of the proposal initiated last session, it would have genuinely threatened a decimation of our state’s agricultural sector.

Fortunately, that was not the case. Due to the tremendous leadership and commitment by House Agriculture Chairman Mike Chapman, a Democrat from Port Angeles, and Ranking Member Tom Dent, a Republican from Moses Lake, it was established from the onset of the committee’s work that no such regulatory mandate would be adopted and that only a bipartisan, collaborative-driven approach would move forward.

With the help of their colleagues, including Reps. Joel Kretz and Debra Lekanoff – a Republican rancher from Wauconda and a Democratic tribal leader from Skagit Valley, respectively – they passed an incentive-driven bill rooted in voluntary, effective conservation practices in the House Agriculture Committee.

Only one person testified in opposition of the bill: a representative of Gov. Inslee’s office.

Tomorrow’s leaders can be like the tribes, state legislators of both stripes, environmental groups, and the Washington State Farm Bureau who worked collaboratively to move this consensus-driven legislation forward.

They can be like the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, made up of local public and private partners in and around the Colville National Forest, who stood their ground when so-called environmental groups from outside the region tried to stop their collaborative forest management plan from moving forward.

They can be like the many partners we heard from in the Yakima Basin – including the Yakama Nation, local irrigators, state agencies, and environmental organizations – who years ago came together to find mutually beneficial solutions for fish and for water storage, both. Annually, each AgForestry class bestows the Stu Bledsoe Award to someone who has made a profound difference in the natural resources sector. Our class has voted to award it to Washington State Department of Agriculture Director Derek Sandison, who constantly works to build a bridge between eastern and western Washington and who has been a stalwart partner in the Yakima Basin effort.

In our polarized times, we need good-faith actors ready to step up and advocate for the abundance of natural resources we are blessed with here in Washington state. It is clear there can still be partnerships like that of Stu Bledsoe and Billy Frank, Jr. today. With more of these leaders equipped to build relationships, the more we can honor the visionary innovation depicted in those Capitol doors that helped found this great state.

Sean V. O’Brien is Eastern Washington director for Washington Policy Center. He is the former executive director of the Congressional Western Caucus and is based in the Tri-Cities. Members of the Cowles family, owners of The Spokesman-Review, have previously hosted fundraisers for the Washington Policy Center and sit on the organization’s board.

You can find out more about AgForestry Leadership at www.agforestry.org.