This is from a post I put on another site...

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

Preliminary information is that the ODFW Commission will be having a public hearing on this issue in the first couple weeks of January, and that the WDFW Commission will follow suit about the same time, perhaps a little after.

It will be very important, besides writing letters to both Commissions and both Governor's offices, to go to those meetings, sign up to testify, and testify.

We really need to pack the places with people against this increased impact, and remind them that no matter what NOAA-F rules about the increase, that they alone are responsible for protecting wild fish runs and fishing in their respective states, and to not let parts of the LCR ESU go extinct, and to let decades of sportfishing restrictions, hydropower, and habitat work result in a short term economic benefit to very few people.

Biologically, economically, and culturally this proposal has very little, if any, merit.

At the meeting, after a few people testify, they will generally ask, due to time constraints, that if more people are going to come up and testify to the same thing as previous testifiers, to agree to not testify.

Don't take the offer.

If they have to stay for eight hours to allow each and every person to go up and have their say, then demand that they do just that.

Unlike the LCR managers from both states, who have been, and really are here, going to bat for the commercial guys, I think that the Commissions would like to do the right thing, and it would really help them out to give them a crutch to lean on, namely that overwhelming public sentiment has forced them to NOT authorize fisheries that will take advantage of any increases allowed by NOAA-F.

This also is not a "home state" issue...anyone from Washington, as I am, that can make it needs to go down to Portland and testify at the ODFW meeting...after all, they are making decisions that affect "your" rivers and fish...same with the Oregon folks, as many of you who can need to drive up to Olympia and protect "your" rivers and fish, too.

The last few years, and especially the last few months, make it very clear that we in the PNW are not going to get any help from the powers that be in D.C. in protecting our culture and our fish...we need to make it clear that we expect our State Commissions to do it.

Fish on...

Todd Ripley
VP Political Affars
Wild Steelhead Coalition
http://www.wildsteelheadcoalition.com
c_n_r_nates@hotmail.com