9 



[The statement of Mr. Youckton can be found at the end of the 

 hearing.] 



Mr. Manton. The next witness will be Diane Ellison, Chairper- 

 son of the Chehalis River Fisheries Task Force. 



STATEMENT OF DIANE ELLISON, CHAIRMAN, CHEHALIS RIVER 

 FISHERIES TASK FORCE 



Ms. Ellison. Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, I 

 am Diane Ellison, President of the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task 

 Force and also owner of Ellison Timber and Properties. I would 

 like to thank you for this opportunity to testify in support of the 

 implementation of the Chehalis Fisheries Resource Restoration 

 Program. I especially want to thank Congresswoman Jolene Un- 

 soeld and Congressman Norm Dicks and their staff for their sensi- 

 tivity to the needs of our fisheries resources, their thoughtful over- 

 sight as this program has developed, and their constant support. 



I am the fifth generation of a timber family. Since 1884, my 

 family members have been employed in the timber industry. For 

 the past 110 years, we have been tree farmers in the Kamilchee, 

 Wynoochee and Wishkah Valley's in Grays Harbor and Mason 

 Counties of Washington State. 



In the 10 years that I have managed my family's tree farm, I 

 have managed five separate harvests and replanted over 130,000 

 trees. During this time of logging, replanting and managing my 

 forest lands, I have experienced intense change, and sometimes 

 very painful, change. Change so dramatic that I look at the entire 

 forest in a different manner now. 



A few years ago, I got involved with an organization saving wild 

 salmon called "Long Live the Kings." As I sat on the river bank at 

 night with my childhood fishing buddies — broodstocking— I became 

 enmeshed in an effort to save our wild salmon from extinction. I 

 started a small fisheries project on my family farm and in that 

 process, my focus shifted from trees as timber to the larger more 

 inclusive perspective of total basin management, involving the 

 interrelationships of salmon habitat, water quality, viability of for- 

 ests, sustainability of fisheries and my deep commitment to the 

 human drama of the folks living in the Wishkah Valley. 



When a private landowner begins to manage both for fisheries 

 and timber objectives, change does occur. Their visionary manage- 

 ment goals expand and become more inclusive as they begin to rec- 

 ognize the interdependencies of the total ecosystem approach. 



The organization that I chair, the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task 

 Force, brings all the user groups to the table in a cooperative effort 

 for the benefit of the resource, and has been doing so for the past 

 13 years. 



In October of 1992 the Fish and Wildlife Service put on a two-day 

 conference, at which both Norm Dicks and Jolene Unsoeld came to 

 speak. I would like to read the cosponsors of that conference to give 

 you an idea of the number of people that were involved: Columbia 

 Pacific Resource Conservation and Development organization, the 

 Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, Grays Harbor 

 College, Grays Harbor Conservation District, Grays Harbor Trout 



