May 7, 2007
Executive Sims' statement on steelhead listing
King County Executive Ron Sims' statement in response to today's news that the National Marine Fisheries Service has listed Puget Sound steelhead as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act:
"Since the Chinook listing in 1999 we've learned a lot about what we need to do to keep our salmon healthy. Our Chinook Recovery Plan has us on the right track. But we need to do better on tough issues, like instream flows and climate change. We are kidding ourselves if we think status quo is good enough. I look forward to the region advancing on these issues.
"The Puget Sound Partnership can help drive steelhead recovery efforts. We need to get the Partnership up and running and focused on the substance. Couple the Partnership with the unprecedented level of collaboration in our watershed councils and we have a good foundation for making progress.
"While discouraging, I am hopeful the listing will increase awareness of the issues facing freshwater and marine habitats and that more people will realize the solution is found in the actions we take every day as individuals, stakeholders and governments to improve water quality and help these fish.
"I am also hopeful it will ratchet up the research into how habitat, harvest and hatchery managers should prepare for, detect, and respond to climate change factors that will affect recovery efforts."