BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
How do you honor the work of a longtime Washington salmon fishing advocate? Take him angling, of course!
Frank Urabeck of Bonney Lake received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Puget Sound Anglers State Board yesterday following a very brief – and very lucrative – coho trip out of Ilwaco at the mouth of the Columbia River with members of the organization as well as friends and relatives.
The award was made “(in) grateful recognition of more than 50 years of extraordinary dedication, leadership, and selfless service to the salmon fisheries of Washington,” and presented by PSA State Board president Ron Garner.
“It was awesome,” Garner said. “I got choked up handing him the plaque.”
Urabeck, who is a very young 88 and still active on fishery issues, is probably publicly most associated with efforts to bring back Lake Washington sockeye, but he’s also been involved in Baker Lake sockeye allocation issues, access to the Skokomish River, and he and Garner worked to ease fishery constraints associated with a very small run of nonnative mid-Hood Canal Chinook.
“Through your unwavering commitment, countless volunteer hours, and tireless advocacy, you have worked not for personal gain, but for the benefit of all who cherish our fisheries. Your vision, perseverance, and willingness to stand for what is right have helped protect and strengthen opportunities for present and future generations,” reads Urabeck’s award.
In Garner’s recollection, it is the only lifetime achievement honor the PSA State Board has awarded in his tenure, which dates back to around the turn of this millennium.
Urabeck is a retired civil engineer who was with the Seattle District of the US Army Corps of Engineers and whose work there tied in with salmon and steelhead issues wrapped around water supply and flood control projects in the greater Seattle/King County area. He was also a charter member of the Cedar River Council and has been active as an advisor on various boards and with other sportfishing organizations, including the Northwest Marine Trade Association and Trout Unlimited.
His knowledge of how to move government and the connections to do so have few equals in our world – he jokes that some in public and private worlds will probably be happier when he’s gone.
Over the decades I’ve received hundreds – perhaps thousands – of emails from Urabeck about his myriad irons in the fire. Sprinkled liberally among all those messages have been many pics of fish he and his grandsons and great grandsons have hooked.
While the legendary Lake Washington sockeye “godfather” hasn’t been able to partake in his favorite fishery since the last season there back in 2006, among his favorite waters in recent years are Baker Lake and the Upper Columbia for sockeye and the Cowlitz River for winter steelhead. Last December he gave Puget Sound squidding a go.
This Tuesday’s hatchery coho trip – Urabeck pushed state legislators on beginning the mass marking of salmon, so critical to today’s fisheries, back in the mid-1990s – was arranged by Garner and the PSA board and led by Ilwaco’s Butch Smith of Coho Charters, who is active in ocean salmon fisheries.
Urabeck reported they’d limited by 8:15 a.m., and after returning to port with the haul, he received the lifetime achievement honors.
“Your legacy is measured not only by your accomplishments, but by the lives you have touched, the partnerships you have built, and the last impact you have made on the salmon fisheries and fishing community,” the award also reads. “With sincere gratitude and deepest respect, Your dedication and lifetime of service will never be forgotten.”
In an email, Urabeck cast the plaudits back over his fellow advocates.
“Without folks like Ron and Butch Smith we would not have much fishing opportunity for salmon anymore. They are ones who should be recognized more and celebrated,” he said.
Their day will come, but right now it’s yours. Keep up the good fight, Frank, we appreciate it.
