Bob All 3,
I keep hearing this about WDFW. It's sad. The only way to fight it is by joining with others and being an incredibly squeaky wheel! Having the mainstream fisheries biologists and ESA on your side doesn't hurt either.

LtlCleo,
Unfortunately, getting the facts made into decisions is political to the core. The powers at be cannot even decide what the facts are. Here in Oregon, we have some very vocal pro-native fish organizations. They must exist in Washington too, right? These groups are pretty connected with managing fish biologists, and some have the ear of the governor. Afterall, we have a flyfishing, pro-environment, pro-native fish governor here in Oregon 7 years running. Maybe that's where the difference lies? I don't know enough about the situation to say. If Gov. Locke were concerned about the extinction of native salmonid runs, maybe your cause would be in better shape.
This probably is completely incidental, but I wrote a very pointed, but respectful and eloquent letter to Oregon's U.S. senator Smith regarding his labelling anyone who supported an environmental cause an "extremist" a few years ago. He had been using that term frequently to defend the natural resources industry from a variety of environmentalist initiatives aimed at protecting certain threatened forests, animals, and fishes. Anyone who didn't agree with him (and the industry) got labelled an "extremist". After my letter, I never heard him use that term again and he's since taken a much more moderate tone toward the environmental community. I think his change of tone was mainly influenced by Slade Gorton's defeat and by his then-potential U.S. senate race with Gov. Kitzhaber. I do wonder if my letter may have touched a button in his mind though. Sending letters to those in power cannot hurt and might help. If an organized group sends a few hundred letters, all the better.