Pierce County lies along the eastern shore of Puget Sound and includes the city of Tacoma. The County includes the Puyallup and Nisqually Rivers, two of the 17 major river watersheds that comprise the Puget Sound basin.
I respectfully request that the Subcommittee authorize the Corps of Engineers to participate with local agencies in planning and implementing ecosystem restoration projects in the Puget Sound region, as proposed in S. 2228 and the Administration's WRDA proposal. I recognize the many competing priorities that the Committee is facing in developing WRDA 2000, and know you will have difficult decisions to make about what to include in the bill. I'd like to relay why ecosystem restoration work in Puget Sound is a top priority to Pierce County and the Pacific Northwest, and why a major national commitment to the effort is warranted.
It wasn't long ago that you could walk or boat along any river in the Puget Sound basin in the fall or winter and be sure of seeing thousands of salmon, often so abundant that they filled every pool and riffle. As recently as the 1970's, it was possible to share the experience of the earliest settlers to our region, who wrote of salmon so thick that you could walk across their backs from bank to bank.
I'm sorry to say that these days, you could spend all day on one of the big salmon rivers of the region, including the Puyallup and the Nisqually in my county, and be lucky to see a hundred fish. The listings of chinook salmon and bull trout under the Endangered Species Act last year confirmed what every keen observer has witnessed for a decade: salmon are in steep decline in Puget Sound. A big run every few years and hopeful projections can no longer disguise the marked decline in salmon populations.
If this trend continues, it is not too difficult to imagine that one day in the not too distant future someone will witness the last salmon to swim in the Puyallup, the Skagit, or the Snoqualmie. If this occurs, we will have lost a resource of incalculable value: a cultural and social icon, an angler's once-in-a-lifetime prize, the catch of the day for a major tribal and commercial fishing industry. Imagine New England without fall colors, the Chesapeake without blue crabs, and California without the redwoods. Roll them into one, and you have some idea of Puget Sound without salmon.
We are committed to bringing Puget Sound salmon back from the brink. One of the prime reasons for the decline of salmon has been destruction of habitat from a century of agriculture and timber harvest, urbanization, flood control, and navigation projects. The result is a checkerboard landscape, where pockets of high-quality habitat are interspersed with areas in which stream channels and streamside areas are in poor shape. Bringing salmon back from the brink will require the rebuilding of salmon habitat on an unprecedented scale, with substantial work needed in every one of the 17 watersheds of the Puget Sound basin.
We need your help. Pierce County has joined with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on several major projects on the Puyallup River, and we have found the agency to be a capable and enthusiastic partner. Corps assistance has allowed us to undertake habitat restoration and flood protection projects that would have been impossible without the agency's technical and financial assistance. We would like to see the Corps' support available to communities throughout the Puget Sound basin.
I am delighted that President Clinton and the Washington Congressional delegation have shown support for this effort through the Administration's WRDA bill and S. 2228. There are several elements of S. 2228 that I hope you will integrate into WRDA 2000. Most importantly, I urge you to authorize the program at the $125 million level proposed in S. 2228. The Puget Sound basin is large, with 17 watersheds comprising more than 13,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Maryland. As I've stated before, habitat restoration work is needed throughout the basin if we're to have any hope of saving salmon in Puget Sound. Spread out over 8 years and among projects with an average federal cost of $1 million, the authorization of $125 million would allow 15 of the highest priority projects a year to be completed. Over the course of the program, this level of commitment would make a big dent in the hundreds of restoration projects that are urgently needed to rebuild salmon populations.
I also recommend the provisions of S.2228 regarding selection of projects under the program that direct the Corps to consult with federal, state, and local agencies and use prior plans and studies to prioritize and select projects. These provisions will ensure that the program is efficient, targeted to on-the-ground results, and fully compatible with other restoration efforts in the region.
The third aspect of S. 2228 that I'd like to highlight to you is how project costs are divided between the federal government and non-federal sponsors. Consistent with other Corps habitat restoration programs, S. 2228 provides a greater federal contribution in areas that are affected by a prior Corps project. In addition, S. 2228 waives part of the cost-sharing requirement for projects cosponsored by an Indian tribe. I strongly support these provisions.
My discussions with local government, tribal, environmental, and business leaders around Puget Sound indicate that there is strong support for S. 2228 and the partnership it will create. Pierce County and our neighbors around Puget Sound stand ready with funding, projects, and staff expertise to match the federal commitment in this bill. Our jurisdictions have spent more than $15 million per year for the last 3 years on salmon projects and programs, and I can assure you that we are ready to rise to the funding challenges of this new program.
I deeply appreciate the bipartisan support for salmon recovery demonstrated by the Washington Congressional delegation, and would particularly like to thank Senators Murray and Gorton and Representatives Inslee and Dicks for their leadership on this legislation. I'd also like to recognize and thank the other cosponsors of House version of this bill, Representatives Metcalf, Baird, Smith, and McDermott.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I look forward to a long and fruitful partnership for the recovery of Puget Sound salmon.