I think that this firestorm at Fork's has been brought on by your own actions guys!

In many peoples mind, it's not really about the "fish"; it's about the "process" that many of you are responsible for doing. Like it or not, many of those folks in Fork's are pi$$ed off because you didn't include them in an open public process. You claim that you have, but the facts show different! Instead, you purposely went through the back door process to get this new rule implemented. That may have been the biggest mistake of all that you have done. Even though your motives may have been noble, your approach to achieve it was not!

I understand their concern's, and feelings, and in part, that is why have taken the stance that I have. I care about both people and the fish. You really didn't play by the rules, and allow those people the same opportunity to voice there concerns to the commission as you did. I already know what your response is going to be on that one; they had the same opportunity as you did to come to the meeting and make their concerns known to the commission as you did. Anybody that has read the "other thread" (Wild Steelhead Kill Outlawed in WA for 2 Yrs!) knows that's all a pile of bunk!

In the end, you may get it your way, it all will depend on how the ATG office views this decision. Either way, you have again succeeded in dividing up the sport fishers into 2 separate groups again. That has been, and will remains to be, our fatal misstate to ever be able to come together as a single group and voice.

Instead of going through the back door process, as you've done, you could have included the people of Forks early on, and worked with them and presented them with why you believe that c&r could benefit their communities. You wouldn't change all of there minds, but you would have gotten a hell of a lot more of support from them then your now getting! Even if you do "win" your battle to keep it all WSR, you have turned the majority of the people in Fork's against you. Most likely the people who want to kill and eat a wild steelhead will continue to do so.


You have managed to turn people against your cause, and there are now rumors going around Fork's. The one I am hearing now, is that many of the people in Fork's now believe that this isn't really about protecting wild "fish" as much as it is about destroying the value of their land and property. The rumor I am hearing is that a bunch of rich city slickers are trying to destroy the local economy of Fork's so that they can come in later and get prime property located around these rivers cheaply, so that they will have a place of there own to come to fish and play.

I don't know if its true, but your going to have a had time convining them otherwise.

I could certainly see how this feeling may snowball. You have not been up front with those folks and they have a right to distrust your motives now. Your cause may have been noble when you first started, but now many people in Fork's, may be finding that pill a bit hard to swallow.

I guess it all depends now what the commissions decides to do and what type of damage control will follow. I would bet money that the people of Fork's are viewing this board and are even getting more pi$$ed off when they the way that this whole affair has been pushed down there throats. Time will tell!

I am fully prepared for all the harassment that will come to me on this board if this decision stays unchanged. To me that is not the issue here . . . for I have been there before! The issue here was that this process was NOT done fairly or OPENLY, and I will never change how I feel about that. If this rule stays, we will all have to live with it, but if it is changed or rescinded, that tells me that my efforts were not done in vain.

For years we have all complained about how the commercial boys have gotten away by do things in this order, and by going through the back door process. Maybe its time now that we all take the "straight face" tests in look into our own mirrors!


Cowlitzfisherman