From Rob Allan email thread:

"If poor escapement can close a river down to all other species fishing, we are out of business."

No Sh!t Sherlock! This mirrors the 3 1/2 month closure of the Stillaguamish basin to all fishing. The Stilly has long been a popular summer fishery for summer run steelhead and sea run cutthroat trout. Fishing for Chinook has been prohibited for the last half century or longer. So we learned that the real reason for the sport fishing closure was because the Tribe objected to any and all sport fishing where even one Chinook might be inadvertently harmed, WDFW agreed to throw most of the sport fishing season under the bus, not to actually achieve increased conservation for Chinook, since salmon fishing is always prohibited, but because the treaty tribes control the Department's actions.

So a perfect conclusion is expressed in Rob's email, as the Departments jumps off the cliff of irrelevancy, it is rapidly approaching the day where it may as well turn off the lights and lock the doors to the anadromous fish section of the Fish Program. The upside is that the Department's budget crisis should be alleviated somewhat by going out of business.