They hail the Yakima project as an example of how dealing with the complex and contentious issues surrounding water use can be successfully dealt with on the local level. Such collaboration, they hope, will save other areas from the impact of the Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, which could mandate economic restrictions and forced recovery plans that would limit irrigation practices. What we're saying is let's work the small issues, fixing specific spawning grounds or improving fish habitat in specific places. We can't stop the Endangered Species Act, but we can fund watershed groups and start actual projects. Joy Huber, executive director of the Rivers Council of Washington and a member of the Yakima Council's executive committee, even goes so far as to say that the growth in watershed councils could help reinvent grassroots democracy by empowering individuals and community groups to participate in protecting their local environment.
Watershed councils can be a link between power and people.
Surrounded by such praise, the sometimes battered Wagner is trying to bring people back to earth. That gives people hope that if we can solve our problems, they can solve their problems. But realize, we haven't solved anything yet. Rough waters While surrounded by optimism, council members are facing more obstacles to success than a Columbia River salmon. First, the group has no legal standing, and federal agencies still have jurisdiction over many areas they are trying to solve.