I worked for the dept. for awhile on the construction crew about 10 years ago. Got to meet a lot od WA managers all over the state. The guys I worked with, for the most part, were the same way, hard working and gave a damn about what was going on... It seemed to me that most of the working folk were that way, and a good majority or the supervisors too. The observation I came away with was that the higher up the person was the more they were concerned with personel changes, appointments to different echelons, and budget cut backs! When I worked for fisheries in the early '90s it was the same way( or so it seemed to me). I was always amazed at the information that the hatchery level biologist would send up the chain of command, and the decisions that came back down. Made for a lot of very interesting conversations and fustrated biologists and hatchery managers.

Having worked side by side with a lot of very intelligent biologists (wich I am not(insert joke here)) with reams of accurate data, I have always figured nothing could ever get done just because of the political infighting that goes on in the upper levels! And from what I see with the states bias towards the commercial boys, it kind of makes sense! The upper level managers have to cater to the money to keep their jobs, and commercial licenses are revenue AND political power. Recreational revenue is just revenue and they can abuse the hell out of us and we will keep right on buying licenses and permits, and catch cards, and....... That is the one difference that I see with recreational fishing revenues vs commercial revenues. If we tax ourselves the dept. can re-apropriate that money to just about anything and while a few of us get pissed, they are not really held accountable to any degree, We all know what happens when they try to do anything with any money or earning potention of the commercials...you'd think hell froze over!
Sorry didn't mean to rant, I think most of the folks doing the work are good folks...and the fish rots from the head back!

And while I was pounding this diatribe out Eric posted it in a much more concise way...I don't think I know Mike personaly, but he sounds like many guys I do know!