Washington state must fix salmon-blocking pipes: appeals court
Source: Reuters
Washington state must fix salmon-blocking pipes: appeals court
By Eric M. Johnson
Reuters
June 27, 2016
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state must repair road culverts that are blocking salmon from swimming to spawning areas because the pipes violate fishing rights protected by tribal treaties, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.
The ruling marks a major victory for 21 tribes joined by the U.S. government that sued Washington state in 2001, arguing that hundreds of culverts block salmon from more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of streams in western Washington.
"The Indians did not understand the Treaties to promise that they would have access to their usual and accustomed fishing places, but with a qualification that would allow the government to diminish or destroy the fish runs," Judge William Fletcher, of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in a 59-page opinion on Monday.
Three judges unanimously affirmed a lower court's 2013 order that Washington state correct its road culverts because they violated the Stevens Treaties of 1854-55, the opinion says. Under the treaties, the tribes relinquished huge tracts of land in exchange for a guaranteed right to off-reservation fishing.
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