This is a response to the press release that a Willapa Adviser sent to other Advisers and staff. Frankly folks I think comments to staff are a waste of your time and a better use of your time would be to direct your comments directly to the Commission.

From a Willapa Adviser:
After due consideration, I will not be participating in the virtual public meeting tomorrow night. I have decided my time would be better spent monitoring a batch of beef jerky in my smoker and considering the contents of the comments that I intend to provide in short order directly to the members of the Commission.

I do raise a point of contention with the press release language shown below. Ron Warren is quoted saying this policy review draft was "Developed with guidance from our Willapa Bay Salmon Advisory Group". As an Advisor who attended every meeting held, I don't remember the staff lead ever asking for or receiving guidance from the Advisors or other members of the public. To the contrary, when one Advisor sought to provide comments on the now infamous "white" paper that staff had released unforseen by the Advisors, he was publicly chastised and told his lack of education disqualified him from providing comments. It is important to note that this Advisor graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in oceanography and when combined with his career in the nuclear industry creates a resume that I believe would top any of the WDFW staff present. At that point the process ended and all activity went on behind closed doors and if any "guidance" was provided by Advisors the public was not aware such had occurred. The draft report recently released is simply an "in-house work product" that is the sole responsibility of WDFW.

I raise this point, not to create conflict, but rather to insure that no one reading the press release would envision that I approved of the review process utilized by the Department and more importantly, that I had participated in the drafting of this review document in any fashion. I therefore ask that this communication be placed into the record of these proceedings.

On a side bar, the draft created is 229 pages. By comparison, the Warren Commission Report on the assassination of President Kennedy was 366 pages. Besides length, the other similarity between these two documents is the controversy that will surely follow.

Respectfully,