Washington State Earth Day 2005: Abundant Red Herring Threaten Salmon
April 2005
Each year on Earth Day, environmental groups and politicians highlight the "successes" they’ve had during the past year passing new restrictions and outlining next steps on the environment. The pressure to find new threats and enact new restrictions often means that ongoing environmental issues are forgotten in the rush to address the newest issue on the horizon.
Already this year, three such red herring issues have crowded out other important problems.
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Green Building Standards. A coalition of environmental activists advocated the adoption of new "green building" standards for state buildings. The legislation was signed into law last week. Studies show that the evidence about the environmental benefit of these standards is mixed at best. These studies, however, are dismissed, with one supporter telling the House Capital Committee that he "wasn't a big fan of studies in particular."
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California Emissions Standards. Signed this week by the Governor, these became the most contentious environmental issue before the Legislature. The new standards will, however, have little impact on Washington’s air quality while costing consumers plenty. With some of the cleanest air in the country, environmental activists in our state spent time, money and political capital on one environmental indicator that has moved consistently in the right direction for more than a decade. This is already being touted as a major victory.
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ANWR. While there are many arguments to be made on both sides of this issue, opponents have put the least significant element of drilling in ANWR at the center of the debate. A recent newspaper article outlined the concern that oil from ANWR would be exported. That same article shows that the largest amount exported from Alaska in the last decade was approximately one-half of one percent of the total oil produced. Ignoring the 99 1/2 percent in favor of the one-half of one percent, activists are hurting their credibility and their case. It certainly leads one to ask how strong their other arguments are if they are leading with this.
There are real challenges which are being left unaddressed and which have not received the benefit of lobbying efforts, publicity or fundraising letters. Ironically on this Earth Day one of the largest has to do with salmon.
Last year, the Department of Fish and Wildlife listed 754 significant barriers to fish habitat that the State Department of Transportation needs to repair. DOT had already fixed 124 such barriers.
One year later, DOT has made little progress, fixing only an additional 20 such barriers. Due to additional survey work, the number of barriers they need to repair jumped to 882, an increase of 128 known barriers. And the estimated number of barriers, including those not yet surveyed, jumped from 1,514 to 1,651.
Fixing these barriers would open up hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of miles of needed habitat for the recovery of wild salmon. The problem is that legislative funding for such projects has been squeezed out in favor of other priorities. This has occurred for two reasons.
First, it is easier to impose costly restrictions on others in the form of building standards that must be met by local school districts or emissions standards that must be paid for by consumers, than set priorities in the budget.
Second, the meat-and-potatoes work of fixing culverts is one of the least flashy environmental projects one can think of. Yet, it is also one of the most important. No fundraising letters will be written highlighting culvert replacement. Many fundraising letters will be written highlighting the new restrictions on schools and cars.
Making this problem a priority would also bring together a broad coalition. Forest landowners would support these efforts, understanding that increases in salmon population would mean that they could continue to work in their forests. Tribes would be supportive of efforts to increase salmon runs on which they rely for a part of their economic well being. Earth Day 2005 is an opportunity for those concerned about the environment to make an important resolution for the upcoming year: make marketability of an environmental issue the least important criteria in choosing priorities.
Environmental groups should focus on the critical and ongoing environmental challenges that need consistent support rather than issues that inspire emotion but make little environmental improvement.
The only way that Washington state will truly make headway during the next year is if we focus on the tough, but less marketable, ongoing environmental challenges.