Fishers Landing boasted many of Clark County's earliest legislators and power brokers. Men like Solomon W. Fisher, William M. Simmons, Silas D. Maxon, Joel Knight, and Henry M. Knapp--family men who came by wagon train and settled where the land was rich--established Clark County's first roads, schools, and post offices. The men of Fishers Landing and their allies served multiple terms in the Washington Territorial Legislature, House, and Council. When Washington became a state in 1889, two area sons, Samuel S. Cook and Hannibal Blair, served in the first state legislature. The soil at Fishers Landing and on the plain produced abundantly, enabling the families who farmed it to invest in warehouses, wharfage, railroads, agribusiness, lumber, quarry rock, and other forms of enterprise. The people of Fishers Landing, and on Mill Plain, mixed ideas of good governance with fervent territorial politics and the good life of family and the family farm.

This book offers a comprehensive account of the status and dynamics of people participating in the small-scale fisheries (SSF) of Europe. It covers the situation of SSF in 25 coastal countries, thereby providing a portrait of almost every coastal country on the continent and analyzing the recent evolution of the sector. Small-scale fisheries are argued to be extremely important in Europe, as they provide employment and welfare, while increasing food sovereignty and maintaining communities in coastal areas. The recent worldwide focus on SSF derives from their environmental sustainability, which distinguishes many of their activities from those of large-scale fisheries. This book analyses the diversity of SSF and shows how fishing communities have sometimes developed successful governing models, demonstrating social and economic resilience. While the book emphasizes the strengths of SSF and the synergies that occur with other marine sectors, it also presents cases of failure, in which collective action and policy have actually contributed to a weakening of the sector. In this context, the book shows how governmental policies toward SSF vary considerably from country to country, in a way that is not entirely consistent with European policies.