We can blame Locke, the liberals, the conservatives, the tribes, just anyone at all regarding the budget cuts and I'm talking about hatchery cutbacks and WDF&W budget cuts....or we can do something about it.
We the sportsmen in Washington have never ever established the importance of our monitary contribution to the economy of the state. The commercial fishermen have lobbied to beat hell and have hired expensive lawyers to carry their message to the state legislature and they have almost always carried the day when it comes to allocations and hatchery support.
Sportsmen take a very small percentage of the total catch of salmon and steelhead but still generate an equal amount of dollars for the state general fund as the commercials.
License fees probably need to go up even more than that have and out-of-state fishing licenses and day-use fees should be at least as much as British Columbia charges us to fish the Dean, Sustut or Thompson rivers. I pay $155.00 per year to fish British Columbia for trout, salmon and steelhead.
The WDF&W needs a stable budget that is part of the total Washington State budget and the money needs to be targeted to the Department. The amount should be enough to run all of our programs properly. Sportsmen should pay their own way for fishing and hunting. We simply have to address this issue in the near future and show bureaucrats that our stake in the state ecomony is very important and that cutting it is penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Whining isn't going to do the job. It takes effort and financial support to make our point in Olympia.
It is OK to think about where we are going to fish next weekend, but we need to be thinking about where we are going to be fishing in five or ten years. With the projected increase in population stacked against the projected loss of habitat, we will never again see the "good ol' days". We can however make it as good as it can be and that requires sacrifice such as catch and release of wild steelhead to ensure their future, increasing license fees substantially, making sure that all river access properties owned by the WDF&W are utilized (and they aren't now), buying your groceries and lunch and gasoline at the places where you fish. It all adds up to establishing the importance of sportfishing to the people and the economy. If we accomplish this you can bet that the state bureaucrats won't be whacking away at the corners of the WDF&W budget.

Les Johnson