DH,

My strategy is one of incremental change. It won't be long before WSC and its allies get statewide WSR. Then I'm expecting we'll get WT to shift gears from sensational conservation to effective conservation. Then we'll do the near impossible and unite the majority of the fish conservation interests. Then we ally ourselves with a like-minded deep pocket. Then CFM will, one-by-one, buy every Columiba River gillnet license that can be purchased on a willing seller basis. Oh, while we're tapping that deep pocket, we lobby the legislature to amend state law pertaining to viable fisheries for commercial interests. Another arm of the alliance will seek to further marginalize the economic feasibility of the salmon net fisheries, as if it really needs it. After we have state law reading that commercial net fishing can be allowed only on stocks that cannot be sufficiently exploited by recreational fishing, we can reasonably turn our attention to improving Treaty fisheries.

I don't mean eliminating Treaty fisheries. I mean developing alternative harvest strategies and facilities for the Columbia treaty harvest, so that surplus hatchery fish can be harvested while wild fish are released. On Puget Sound, changes in the treaty fishery should be persued on a business basis - buying allocations from tribes when there is greater economic value associated with increased recreational exploitation, and there likely will be as the human population continues to grow. I'm fairly convinced that these changes are only going to occur when there is a mutual economic benefit.

And, oh, let's see . . . I guess I'll be able to stay busy after retirement after all.

Sincerely,
and only slightly t.i.c.,

Salmo g.