During the initial WB policy development period, I made the argument that there was not any stream on WB worthy of prime designation based on habitat considerations.

I was told that was an unacceptable position by WDFW staff. That we had to have a prime designation for WB.

I then asked for their current habitat evaluation and they trotted out some stuff from the 1970s and said that was the best they had and we would have to make the decision in the absence of current data.

The upshot is Willapa R was chosen as prime because we had to have a prime, but its basis was not in the ecology of the habitat, but simply that it was viewed as most likely to avoid gear conflicts.

Of course the rest of the story is that Willapa as prime exquisitely does avoid gear conflicts by eliminating the rec fishery altogether.

Go WDFW!
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Dig Deep!