Habitat protection is the crown jewel of successful salmon management policy throughout Alaska. While allocation battles make the headlines, every commercial, sport, subsistence and personal-use fisherman knows that without pristine habitat, there would be no fish.
The fish depend upon rivers without dams, estuaries without point source pollution, and tributaries with a wide buffer of trees. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is internationally respected and recognized for protecting our sustainable fisheries re-sources.
Limiting ADF&G authority to protect fish habitat is of concern to many fishermen.
Mr. Thorstenson, as president of UFA, is supporting the governor's as-yet-unseen executive order. We have been told this would move ADF&G's Habitat Division to the Department of Natural Resources. This would also change all of the Title 16 habitat permitting, monitoring and enforcement responsibilities.
This would remove permit authority from the commissioner of Fish and Game, whose primary mission is to conserve fish and wildlife. NPFA doubts that DNR, an agency whose primary mission is development, can provide adequate protection.
Mr. Thorstenson says he supports "balanced management." That is exactly what the first state legislature achieved when it provided for two resource agencies with two different mandates.
Gov. Murkowski promised to encourage additional resource development. We support this goal. We also think it is important to learn from the past.
Gov. Hickel started down this path of changing agencies, and discovered that it was not the way to go.
If, in the past administration, habitat biologists caused unreasonable delays of permits, then send in a new commissioner to clean house. Let's not burn the house down.
Mr. Thorstenson claims that "transferring habitat permitting will change process, but the requirements of the laws and regulations that protect fish habitat will remain the same."
Previous commissioners of Fish and Game said that "transferring habitat permitting from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to the Department of Natural Resources will make it impossible to protect fish habitat."
We have the untested assurance of a celebrity fisherman, versus the extraordinary agreement of five commissioners, spanning 30 years of on-the-job experience and three different party affiliations.
Who do you believe? NPFA believes the experts.
Mr. Thorstenson writes "the experienced habitat biologists will be at DNR doing the same job they did for ADF&G." Is this just a matter of shuffling personnel and putting them behind new desks?
The Anchorage press reported that 50 habitat employees might lose their jobs in this move. A permitting process that relies on good science from trained habitat experts gives the process credibility and legal viability and ensures that the agency can defend its decisions on projects that encroach on fish and wildlife habitat.
Bad decisions get taken to court. Poor choices as a result of a skeleton workforce could find many decisions held up in the courts. That would defeat the purpose of streamlining the permitting process.
The salmon industry is on the rocks right now. It could be worse. The beacon of light that shines for us is that we still have good habitat and strong runs of salmon. We are building successful marketing plans for our fish based on sustainable salmon and wild, pure and natural habitats.
We can't afford to discard the system that guarantees this, just as the message is beginning to be heard.
NPFA is working with others to find a way to achieve the governor's goals of streamlining government, while maintaining our important fish and wildlife values. Please join us in this effort.
Buck Laukitis is president of the North Pacific Fisheries Association.
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