Larry B.,
My plan is to suggest to the WDFW Commission that the Department needs a new business plan. And a motto to go with it. The motto should read: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you!"
Most of WDFW's money comes from the General Fund and License fees, along with federal money via P-R and D-J. If WDFW wants public support for license fee increases it must stop biting the hand that feeds it and throwing sport fishermen under the buss in its effort to "get along with treaty tribes." Getting along with the tribes is desirable, but not by having the tail wag the dog. Closing the Skagit and Stilly to sport fishing for trout and steelhead for largely imaginary conservation benefits to coho and Chinook salmon, because tribes demanded it, is wrong-headed management. Closing the Skokomish River - which undeniably has negative social issues - to placate the Skokomish Tribe is also wrong-headed.
Continuing to charge us for the CRE, which was originally intended to fund monitoring of recreational angling so that seasons could re-open on the Methow and other mid-Columbia tributaries when those rivers are closed for years at a time, is disingenuous and does not win friends or favorably influence people. Use the money for its intended purpose, or don't collect the money - seems simple enough.
WDFW operates 82 hatcheries. The Department should audit each facility in terms of its cost and its benefits to Departmental constituents who actually pay the Department's freight. So benefits to Canada, AK, WA non-treaty commercial fishing, and WA treaty fishing don't count. The WA non-treaty sector pays next to nothing (annual license and landing tax) for the benefits they receive. It's time to join the 21st century and stop subsidizing commercial fishing. Same with treaty fishing, only more so - treaty fishing does't pay into state hatchery salmon production for the most part, but they will catch them just the same. Close the hatcheries that provide the least benefit to WA taxpaying and license buying constituents. (The $31 million funding gap might just disappear right there!)
When WDFW decides to market itself to the people who most willingly pay for its existence, they might just find it's a lot easier to get the Legislature to fund it.
Sg