Stadle and Bruce Gray are right about the strong need for all of us to write your state reps. Tell them you want your licence fees, fishing tackle taxes, and general taxes used for funding properly run hatcheries (cleaned of diseases, all smolts finclipped, and using broodstock from rivers for progeny to be planted in same rivers). Don't wait until someone like Bob makes it easy for you to sign a form letter. Get after this in big numbers if you want to protect your fishing opportunity. If fishermen appathy and laziness aren't overcome, we lose! Les Johnson and Aunty M have good posts along these lines also.

Drifter, in our ANWS meeting this evening we had a ODFW rep there that informed us of likely significant cuts in hatchery funding; closing some of them. And we have income taxes in Oregon. It's about the general fund level and how it is going to be used. Revenue is down due to the recession. Makes it important to write and speak out to our state reps to get our fair share of whatever funding is there in any given year. Hatcheries are due to close to keep some unecessary things afloat (and the usual 'pork' Dan S. refered to). Are you going to sit around and whine and lose, or are you going to take a half hour and write some reps?

RT