There’s not much more to this story on line at this point. However, the back story here is that the State *is* replacing culverts, but not in an organized way to accelerate the process to make sure that it’s done quickly enough to try and reverse the downward trending numbers of wild fish. The Tribes, led by Billie Frank Jr and the NW Indian Fisheries Commission, want the process sped up. So it’s been in court, and the courts agreed with the Tribes. The State has to speed this process up in a planned way. Last fall, at the NW Straits annual conference, Billie Frank Jr. talked about his trips to Washington D.C. to meet the President and the Congress. His feeling was that “everybody is saying how concerned they are about restoring the fish, but that no one is in charge. So that means we’re in charge.”
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson is appealing a federal ruling ordering the state to fix culverts that block salmon passages. The state on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of the March 29 U.S. District Court ruling by Judge Ricardo S. Martinez that set up a timeline to fix hundreds of culverts around the state. State officials have said the ruling could cost billions of dollars — money the state doesn’t have. The Martinez ruling is part of a decades-old legal battle tied to treaties dating back to the mid-1800s. Tribes say the state has blocked salmon passage and contributed to the decline of fish harvests.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/05/29/2616304/state-appeals-demand-for-culvert.html