Todd,

You only have to smell my post at all if it stinks.

Yeah, planning to make the show in Bremerton. Every bit of support helps.

RK43,

I don’t have a problem with you being selfish, as you describe it. You like to catch lots of fish and bonk many. I’m not going to judge that, but I’ll just remind you that it might be your problem and not necessarily Tacoma’s. Tacoma has a legal obligation to mitigate project impacts. They don’t have an obligation to satisfy your self-described selfishness. As I mentioned, I like to fish for summer runs also, and I like to BBQ them too.

You may want things to stay the way they are, and I might like the summer run program to continue, but we both know that doesn’t mean it will. Seems I’ve heard that the only constant is change; maybe that’s relevant here. Clearly, as our human population continues to grow, things are going to change, and many of those changes are going to affect fish and fishing.

I agree that the Cowlitz isn’t going to be the way it was before the dams, and I don’t think many people are expecting it to become that way, or are trying to make it that way. The reasons for the reintroduction of anadromous fish into the upper Cowlitz are twofold that I know of. First, local fishermen and the FOC initiated the interest and got fishery agencies involved. Then along came the ESA listings of lower Columbia River chinook and steelhead. Because of that, NMFS is required by law to try to recover wild (or natural production if you prefer) populations of those species in the Cowlitz if it’s feasible. It’s more feasible in the upper Cowlitz than in the lower Cowlitz, and particularly so if good downstream smolt passage efficiency is achieved. This results in a mix of wild and hatchery fish, not unlike what we have in numerous rivers in this state.

The Cowlitz hatchery system isn’t going away. I expect that it will continue to be the largest, or second largest, hatchery program in Washington state. I expect that fishing will remain good on the Cowlitz, and may improve in some respects. That is, it should become more diverse with the presence of wild fish, not all cookie cutters. Spring chinook and late winter steelhead fishing should be better, on average. The sea-run cutthroat program may go away, last I heard, tho. Too bad; I like to fly fish for ‘em.

An important point I never see mentioned in this topic is that there can be hatchery alternatives that do not involve Tacoma. For instance, if the Cowlitz historically did not host a summer steelhead run, and WDFW choose not to culture summer runs at the Tacoma hatchery complex, there is nothing preventing (with ESA as a possible exception) WDFW from initiating a summer steelhead enhancement program on the Cowlitz independently of Tacoma, just as WDFW does on many other rivers in this state. Tacoma may not have a legal obligation to mitigate for summer steelhead that were not impacted by the project, but that doesn't mean that such a program isn't socially or economically desirable. It simply means that Tacoma wouldn't be obligated to pay for it. I recall that WDFW didn't have a summer run program on the Sky or Snoqualmie all that long ago. And no power company came along to create those programs. WDFW developed them, like most of their fish culture programs, using state funds. If that's what the agency and the public want, they could do the same on the Cowlitz.

You said the summer fishery puts money into the local economy, and you’re sure “they” have a stake in it too. Do you mean Tacoma? Perhaps, but I doubt it. Tacoma is a public utility that describes its sole reason for existence as providing the least cost energy to its residents. Tacoma does pay some money into Lewis County, and they may pay some lip service to the local economy, apologies for political incorrectness, but I think the Lewis County economy is officially irrelevant to the City of Tacoma. How does Tacoma benefit from the Lewis County economy?

Just a last thought on selfish motives. When selfishness last rule the day under the federal power act, utilities stole public rivers, destroyed public fisheries and other public resources, and provided something between little or nothing in the way of mitigation. Personally, I think the present balance is a helluva’ improvement.

Luke,

Fish ladders are not the key to restoring wild fish runs on the Cowlitz. I don’t think there’s going to be a “mile long fish ladder” anyway. Downstream passage of juvenile fish is the key to whether restoration can be successful or not. You don’t have to believe that trucking fish upriver will work, but it has been successful on the White and Baker Rivers for about 50 years. Both of those river systems have had problems with fish production related to hydropower, but it wasn’t because trucking the fish around the dams doesn’t work, because it does.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.