Here is my letter. Come on guys, sing in and let us know you sent your too.


December 16, 2004

Please provide this letter to all commission members

Will Roehl, Chair
Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission
600 Capitol Blvd.
Olympia WA 98501-1091
f/c/o Susan Yeager 360 902 2267

Mr. Roehl:

Both as an outdoor journalist and as a sportsman I am deeply disturbed by the Commissions attempts to triple allowable mortality rates on endangered winter steelhead runs.

I believe your primary concern should be rebuilding wild salmon and steelhead stocks. This proposed action, which will be to the detriment of tens of thousands of current sport fishermen and untold millions of future Washington residents, is apparently being done to benefit the handful of commercial netters who profit at the expense of all other citizens.

I firmly believe the stocks to be impacted are much too fragile withstand such an onslaught. Your own biologists suggest that the proposed increase would likely result in the extinction of the Toutle River wild winter steelhead. In this time of extraordinarily favorable, ocean conditions we need to be doing all we can to rebuild these runs not to view this short-term phenomena as an opportunity to increased mortalities!

I beg you to listen to the will of the people and to your conscience and do the right thing. Withdraw this ill-conceived plan immediately. Can you sleep at night knowing that you put the final nail in the coffin of even one river’s wild steelhead? There is no cure for extinction!

Please know that I will be reporting on the commission’s actions regarding this mater in several region and national magazines. I am sure you will not mind the publicity if you know you are doing the right thing!


Dave Vedder
NW Regional Editor Salt Water Sportsman magazine