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Methow Valley News February 3, 2000 Endangered Species coverage Publisher's Comment ~ by Lee Hicks Closing the political gap? Anyone who sat in on last week’s session of the House Agriculture and Ecology Committee witnessed an impressive performance by members of the Methow Valley delegation. The cast of speakers included Dave Schulz, Steve Devin, Dick Ewing, Ray Campbell, Craig Boesel, Pete LaRock, Carl Miller, Rusty Bonser, Tom Bartholomew, Mike Poulson, and Ken Sletten. Maybe the most important feature of the collective presentations was a consistently focused message—that the Methow is ready to do the right thing for fish if the process works from the bottom up. The presentations may have been all the more effective because of the reason and restraint in which the message was packaged. Unlike the bitterness that sometimes characterized a Nov. 17 meeting in Twisp on fish and water issues, the speakers carefully outlined their willingness to help build flexibility in a process thus far plagued by rigid, albeit inexact and untested, guidelines. Although National Marine Fisheries Service has often been the butt of criticism, last week the speakers asked legislators to look at the state Department of Ecology’s management of water issues and its impact on agriculture, economic growth and fish. Beyond DOE, the speakers asked for attention to outdated concepts of state water law that are disincentives for saving water and helping fish. The local delegation should take satisfaction that their trip may have done something to close the distance between the Methow and Olympia. Later in the week, key lawmakers brought county officials together with federal and state agency managers to look for new locally based solutions. It also appeared the message had gotten to the governor after his chief of staff sat in on the ag-ecology meeting. Maybe the long 12-hour "field trip" helped close some of the political distance from the Methow to Olympia. Opinion | Sports |
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