Saturday, Mar. 01, 2008

Expanding Tri-City CCA chapter to meet next week

By Jeff Morrow, Herald sports editor

The Tri-Cities area chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Battelle Auditorium in Richland.

Gary Loomis, a key member of the group credited with bringing the organization to the Northwest, will be in attendance.

The CCA is a nonprofit organization of 17 coastal state chapters from both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, plus the Gulf of Mexico, in which it acts as an advocacy group for the conservation and restoration of coastal marine resources.

The Northwest group concentrates on salmon, steelhead and other Northwest fish.

"Our focus is every other group and government agency emphasizes that dams and habitat are the reasons we're losing fish," said Tri-City chapter President Stan Brogdon. "That's a smokescreen. We still believe the overharvest of fish, both in the river and on the ocean, is the big problem."

The Tri-Cities chapter has had two meetings -- its organizational meeting Jan. 10 and a Feb. 7 event.

The Northwest group's immediate short-term goals are to raise membership from the current 3,000 (the fastest growth pace CCA has seen in the last year) to 30,000 and to get gillnets banned from the lower Columbia River within the next two years.

Brogdon said the last time he looked at the Tri-City numbers, the group is up to 135 people.

"You'll eventually see (the CCA) in Alaska and British Columbia. Northern California is organizing as we speak," he said.

Loomis has reportedly met with five of the tribal chiefs in the Mid-Columbia, and the Northwest CCA group is optimistic it can work cooperatively with the tribes.

"Gary will be up here doing his revised presentation from when he talked to us in December," said Brogdon.

Anyone with questions is welcome to call Brogdon at 531-1553.

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