May 27, 2001: Reaching for answers: A year into national monument status, and questions remain

Reaching for answers

A year into national monument status, and questions remain

This story was published May 27, 2001

By Mike Lee
Herald staff writer

LOCKE ISLAND - Greg Hughes rarely gets out here where pelicans fish in the riffles of the Columbia River.

As manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's only national monument, he's usually chained to his desk fighting to keep together the fledgling landmark with a minor-league budget and a stressed-out staff of eight.

As the one-year anniversary of the monument's creation approaches, however, that's just the start of Hughes' problems.

He doesn't have money to run a citizen advisory group that was established to help manage the monument's 51 miles of river and 195,000 acres of nearby land. That effort alone is expected to cost $150,000 a year, money that will have to be siphoned away from other work such as maintenance.

He also doesn't have money to hire a fish biologist, a permanent archaeologist or any of roughly 25 other positions he wants to fill. Nor does he even feel he has the full support of his own agency.

A year after the Reach was crowned a national monument, there's not so much as a sign or visitor brochure to explain the landmark. In fact, the most prominent notice is emblazoned in huge defiant letters on one of the private farms near the Reach: "No federal control!!"

And the federal agency still must deal with animosity that was generated when it plopped into the middle of one of the nation's most complex and long-running nuclear cleanup efforts.

"There's a lot of people's turf that we have taken over here, and they are not all happy that we are here," acknowledged Hughes, 45, of Kennewick.

He's well aware he holds a high-profile position, given the years of controversy about Reach management, the massive fire that scorched the monument last summer and the possibility the monument may be explored for oil and gas.

With summer near, curious tourists are expected to visit the monument in increasing numbers. But they have few clues about rules for public use. Surrounding counties are getting anxious about law enforcement and are pressing the Interior Department for its plans.

"All these demands are coming," Hughes said, "and there is nobody home."

Despite all that, Hughes remains exuberant about the future of the monument, which is his first command post for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"How many places do you get to ... start from scratch and develop a vision?" he asked.

Sloughing bluffs a concern

Hughes talked over the drone of the agency's jet boat on a recent morning when he broke away from the office to investigate what could be the most significant natural resource issue on the Reach, the sloughing of the nearly 500-foot-high White Bluffs that line the north side of the river.

Jeff Haas, deputy monument manager, maneuvered the boat past nearly exposed underwater formations 30 miles upstream from Richland. "We're going to have to tip-toe around," Haas warned, as he scanned the drought-shriveled river.

Five years ago, the Columbia ripped through the channel that divides Locke Island from the north shore along the bluffs. Record spring runoff carried away massive chunks of the island, sparking a federal study to look at erosion along the stretch of river.

The island is significant for two main reasons: Tribes prize it because it holds cultural remains from the days when Indians set up fishing camps there. By no coincidence, the Columbia River's healthiest salmon run requires the submerged cobbles that edge the island.

Both the history and the future are slipping away as the bluffs march into the river at the rate of more than 25 feet a year.

In mid-May, federal Bureau of Reclamation crews finished field work in a study started four years ago to predict the future sloughing near Locke Island. Using a line of small explosive charges buried in the sand, Bureau crews used sensors to gather soil density information that eventually will be plugged into computer models to better understand the slide.

"We need to have a feel for what this landslide is going to do, and if there is something we can do to impact its movement," said Dan Hubbs, Bureau geologist.

The Bureau is involved because massive slides of the late 1960s have been linked to the agency's water delivery system for the Columbia Basin irrigation project. Seeping water lubricated the bluffs' fine-grained sediments, making them more prone to sliding.

When chunks of the mainland encroached into the river, they forced the river into a smaller channel and redirected its energy toward Locke Island. High river flows in 1996 and 1997 exacerbated the problem, eroding large sections of the island.

Now the question for monument managers is what - if anything - should be done.

"Mankind can do all kinds of things if you decide it's a big enough priority," Hubbs said. "It just depends on how much money you want to spend."

Budget hampers managers

The monument's budget has never caught up to its responsibilities. In October 1998, one employee managed the 30,000-acre Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge from an office in Richland.

A year later, President Clinton expanded the refuge by 57,000 acres. Then in June 2000, Clinton added another 108,000 acres under the umbrella of the national monument, most of which is managed by Fish and Wildlife.

Monument staff is up to eight in addition to fire crews, but Hughes says he has jobs for 34 people. His operating budget of $568,000 is up substantially from last year, but that money only retained staff that was hired with one-time startup money.

"I am grateful for what (agency leaders) have done," Hughes said. "At the same time, it isn't really enough to meet the demands we have here."

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., fought continued federal control of the Reach for years but was outflanked by Clinton's executive order last summer. Hastings said the monument's budget woes are "one more example that this monument designation was not well thought out."

"If this had gone through the planning process, you would address the funding issues before the decision was made," Hastings said. "That is not the case here."

As much as anything, the Reach suffers from a lack of identity. It is an anomaly in the Fish and Wildlife Service as the only monument the agency runs.

"Even though we manage millions of acres ... we are still kind of new" at managing a monument, said Joan Jewett, public affairs chief for the service's Pacific regional office.

Hughes doesn't think the monument is "given its due" within the agency. "We think we're seen as one of the other 535 refuges across the country. No less, no more."

His contention is supported by the agency's $1.7 billion budget request for 2002. The overview fails to acknowledge the new monument or associated responsibilities.

Instead, the budget anticipates a drop in staff and spending across the nation, not necessarily good news for an agency already saddled with an $831 million backlog for nearly 9,000 deferred maintenance projects.

"I do get the sense from Greg that he feels pretty frustrated out there in having an inadequate budget and a tremendous amount of work to do," Jewett said.

But, she said, "There is no lack of (agency) commitment that I am aware of."

Politics still shaping Reach

It's not likely the Bush administration will pitch in an extra dime for the monument. For starters, most Republicans still chafe at the thought of Clinton's monument-creating binge last summer.

Then Washington lost its most powerful senator in last fall's election when Slade Gorton was defeated by Democrat Maria Cantwell. Washington's senior senator, Democrat Patty Murray, was a champion of monument status last year but it didn't make her list of priorities when responding to Bush's budget plans in April.

Still, with the Democrats' recent power surge in the Senate, Murray is in a better place for horse trading should she make Reach funding a priority. But with Murray the chief fund-raiser for Senate Democrats, Republicans likely will go out of their way to not help her.

And with an energy crunch across the West, the Bush administration is exploring the possibility of oil and gas drilling on federal lands - including the monument.

Regardless of what comes of that inquiry, new Interior Secretary Gale Norton isn't committed to directions set by her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt.

In March, she sent letters to Washington state leaders asking for their advice on monument boundary adjustments, existing uses, water rights, grazing, "as well as the wide spectrum of other traditional multiple uses that might be appropriately applied to these lands."

Norton committed herself to managing the monument "in a way that takes into account not only national interest but local needs and concerns as well."

Transition 'incomplete'

How well the Fish and Wildlife Service has met Norton's charge so far depends on whom you ask.

Dana Ward, Department of Energy liaison to the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the two agencies are just weeks from signing a wide-ranging agreement about management duties from firefighting to new construction.

"It hasn't been too rough at all," he said. "They are doing good."

Benton County planner Adam Fyall, however, lists several unanswered questions for Hughes, not the least of which concerns official monument boundaries, which still have not been provided to the county.

And Fyall said the Fish and Wildlife Service has moved too slowly to start locally supported projects, such as a boat launch at Vernita, that were in the pipeline before the monument was created.

"Enough of the groundwork has been laid that it is acceptable and appropriate to expedite (these projects), rather than wait another three or more years to conclude the management planning process," said Fyall, who is preparing a county response to Norton's letter.

Monument expansion is expected to be among the concerns in the letter. Specifically, said Fyall, the county wants to understand whether the Interior Department still intends to enlarge the monument as Clinton directed.

Benton County stands to lose property "essential" to the redevelopment of Hanford, a goal "that our community views as crucial to the long-term sustainability of our economy," Fyall said.

Hastings gives the Fish and Wildlife Service an "incomplete," saying it hasn't done enough work yet to earn a grade. And he continues to fear the government eventually will lock out the public from the lands and river.

At the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's enforcement division in Yakima, Capt. Robert Schafer said Hughes' agency has suffered typical stresses as the new group in town.

"We just had to work out some issues," he said. "We just kind of had to redefine the roles."

But Schafer continues to be frustrated by the Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to allow elk hunting on the west edge of Hanford.

After last summer's catastrophic Hanford fire, the elk herd caused more than $200,000 in damage to crops in the Yakima Valley. The state wants a selective hunt to reduce elk numbers, but the Fish and Wildlife Service has resisted.

"We don't want to have to pay a quarter-million dollars every year because we were unable to harvest elk on federal ground," Schafer said.

Advisory team gears up

On June 20, a 13-member advisory team representing government, tribes, educators and the at-large public will convene for the first time to consider what the Reach monument should look like.

"Now we have got it. What are we going to do with it?" asks Hughes. He said work on the monument in the past year has been slowed by his desire not to prejudice the advisory committee.

Nonetheless, the monument staff can claim accomplishments in the last year. Among them:

-- Patching the road to the White Bluffs boat launch.

-- Working with several other agencies to remove invasive plants that can destroy large sections of native habitat.

-- Adding two fire trucks and a nine-person fire crew for this summer.

-- Buying heavy equipment to help with road projects and mowing.

Even before the advisory committee starts, however, it's being criticized for having only one county representative and leaving out any direct representation from the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project.

Said Hastings: "The monument is surrounded by agriculture and so you hoped they would have some sort of (committee) that represents everybody."

Shannon McDaniel, manager of the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District, has lobbied in Washington, D.C., to get an irrigator on the board. As it is, an official from the Grant Public Utility District represents irrigation and utilities.

"I am more than moderately put out by this," said McDaniel, whose district borders the Reach and whose employees traverse it regularly.

"Once you get bureaucrats in control out there, they just start eating away at your rights and if you don't protect those rights, they are gone."

But Hughes said the irrigation district's rights to perform traditional jobs are ensured in the monument charter. He is focusing his work on the advisory team and managing the complex relationships of the Hanford site.

"We are learning ... to work together," he said. "And that comes both with growing pains and lessons learned. We will make some mistakes along the way."