I generally support Washington Trout. I certainly believe that Washington Trout has the wild fish's best interest in mind.

For the most part, this has been an interesting and informative thread and some good ideas/information have been shared.

One interesting point noted by many here is that there are SO many groups and activities negatively affecting wild salmon/steelhead. Dams, siltation, netting (whatever the skin color), sport fishing, and land/river use. Unfortunately, the WDFW belongs on this list. While I am not for "banning all hatcheries", I do believe that some hatcheries do more harm than good. For example, there are hatcheries the block upstream migration of fish. This is no different that a dam. If we can't agree that dams hurt fish, then the pro-fish/pro-fishing movement will get nowhere.

I think that one point that often gets lost is that Washington Trout would not sue if the WDFW was following the law. In many cases, they are not. If WT just frivolously sued to harass, they would not be winning!

Having said all this, I believe that Washington Trout has made a disastrous mistake with the scope of this lawsuit. I think that they have shot themselves in the foot and will lose supporters. I am not saying that the idea of going after some hatcheries now is a bad idea, but going after all of them (essentially)without the broad support of fishermen is a mistake. I do believe that they could have waited several years, and continued to gather public support as their credibility grew and as their progress in other areas became apparent.

Even with my reservations regarding the current law suit, I still support Washington Trout. They HAVE opened up miles of spawning habitat. They HAVE protected many streams that were improperly classified (talk about a "hidden agenda", who did the original classifications?). They HAVE identified, and thereby protected, genetically distinct resident trout in places that would have been destroyed. For these reasons, I support Washington Trout.