Mike B. - At a recent presentation by a USFS bear specialist we were told that there were something like 6-10 confirmed grizzly sightings in the Washington State portion of the North Cascades over a period the last 50 years.


Salmo g.

I'm in agreement that July 12 is probably an average date for the peak of the run. My timing to target that fishery has always been the first three weeks of July with the expected peak during the second week.

It has been mentioned that the sockeye bite better when the dam is open and the water flowing. We know that the current power plant requires that the flow is either near none or around 4000 cfs with nothing in between.

That off or on regime is tough on the fish in the Skagit for quite some distance below the Baker's confluence and many people would love to see some kind of change in that. Do you forsee any improvement towards less abrupt changes of flow?

That question was asked of Jeff Koenings and some of his staff at the recent meeting in Sedro-Woolley and they hinted of improvement to result as part of the relicensing agreement negotiations but were less than specific about those improvements.

Somewhere I got the impression that the power plant might be modifed to operate efficiently at as little as half of that 4000 cfs flow rate.

I know nothing is yet written in stone but I wonder if you might be willing to outline some of the ideas being considered in respect to the Lower Baker power plant and its operation?