I like Washington Trout.

They make it clear that they are not trying to hide their agenda: the preservation and recovery of Washington's wild fish resources, without favor to any stakeholder group.

Washington Trout is not anti-fishing. Nor is it pro-fishing. It is pro-fish. It does not advocate for animals' rights. It is advocating for the rights of PEOPLE who have not had the opportunity yet --that all have us on this board have enjoyed-- to derive benefit from this particular public resource (wild fish), either because they don't live here, or haven't gotten around to it yet, or because they haven't been born. Wild fish are a public resource; they belong to everybody. People who have already used that resource don't have anymore right to it than anybody else. WT is one of many groups fighting to preserve our public resources so that everybody will be able to enjoy those resources forever.

Washington Trout does not invent its positions based on ideology, whim, or any agenda other than preserving and recovering wild fish. It bases its position on established principles of conservation-biology, the preponderance of current science --based both on our own field work and the peer-reviewed, published work of others, and on our interpretation (shared by many others) of state and federal environmental laws.

Washington Trout does not focus on any one area that may impact wild fish declines and or recovery. It does not pick solely on anglers, commercial fishers, or even on hatchery or harvest issues. Washington Trout is working on issues and challenging policies across the entire range of practices that can negatively impact wild fish, including forestry, agriculture, development, hydro-power, and other habitat issues. it works with government agencies and sometimes against them. It cajoles, presses, sometimes strikes deals, and sometimes challenges, sometimes in court. It has gone up against nearly every interest group in the Northwest to defend Washington's wild fish, including private business, the Washington Departments of Ecology, Natural Resources, Transportation, and Fish and Wildlife, Tribal agencies, The EPA, NMFS, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Forest Service. It has also worked cooperatively with every one of those entities (and still does).

It has accomplished a lot. It has improved management practices in both fisheries and habitat regulation. It has saved literally thousands of salmon and steelhead streams that were incorrectly identified and that would have been otherwise damaged or destroyed by forestry, agricultural, or development practices. It has reopened hundreds of miles of streams that had been blocked to fish migrations by poorly designed culverts or other fish-passage barriers. It has designed and implemented habitat restoration projects throughout Washington. It continues to work on all these issues every day.

And it is working to improve hatchery practices so that they don't negatively impact wild fish, particularly wild fish listed as Threatened or Endangered under the ESA. It shares the widely held view that current hatchery practices are contributing to the decline of wild stocks and jeopardizing their recovery. It shares the widely held skepticism that those practices can be improved if hatchery management continues at is present scale.

It makes its hatchery position clear: If the agencies running those programs cannot or will not improve those practices, then the programs should be closed. If improvement of those programs means lowered production schedules, and that impinges on some commercial or recreational fishing opportunity, then that price should be paid to recover at-risk stocks, just as other prices will have to be paid on other fronts. Wild fish recovery will not come free or painlessly. The fish have been forced to accommodate us for obviously too long; if we want them to recover, we may have to accommodate them for awhile. The question is in what we value most.

When you feel your self-interest threatened, it is easier to challenge someone's motives or imagine some "hidden agenda." That saves you the trouble of having to listen to or intelligently debate their argument, to examine the evidence, or indeed, your own motives.

I like Washington Trout because I believe in its mission. And yes, it signs my paycheck. My job is to advocate that mission. Once again, I encourage anyone sincerely interested in learning about that mission, and all the work WT undergoes to achieve it, to visit the WT website (www.washingtontrout.org). Examine all of the research, restoration/preservation, and advocacy WT is engaged in. Decide for yourself if the long-term interests of wild fish are compatible with your interests.

Ramon Vanden Brulle, Communications Director
Washington Trout
PO Box 402
Duvall, WA 98019
www.washingtontrout.org