Marsha,

You're trying too hard...of course lawsuits can get things done, but only if the entity you're suing has broken the law...and of course policies can be illegal, but the great majority of them are not, and if those are to be changed, it's not by threatening to sue them for something.

You seem pretty peevish in this thread...maybe you feel like you're being heaped upon, I don't know...but do think that you are fairly well mistaken on several points, and if your support of the CCA is based on those mistaken points you, and others I'm afraid, will be very disappointed.

On a different board you opined that CCA would be able to first get rid of non-tribal gillnets, and then that would somehow open the door to getting rid of tribal gillnets...really? You don't really believe that...do you? CCA, nor anyone else, will be able to do that.

I'll repeat my point from above...you can't just sue people to make them do things, unless they are legally mandated to do them and are not...you also can't sue people to make them stop doing things, unless what they are doing is illegal.

Take the crab allocation issue...who do you sue? How? Under what law? The only way to change that is to either get a law passed, or get the Commission to change Dept. policy...and that happens by getting involved in the policy development/change/implementation process...which is what the WSC is doing with the Steelhead Management Plan, the topic of this thread.

Now maybe the CCA will get involved in crab allocation...they'll put together an alternative policy/plan, give it to the Commission, and persuade them that it is the best way to go...but that will entail doing exactly what you claimed has never worked...

On the issue of steelhead management, the policies have changed drastically in the past six or seven years, and are changing still...and I can guarantee you that it did not happen because of anyone in the Department.

It has happened, and is continuing to happen, through the diligence of citizens and citizen groups...and we've managed it the good ol' fashioned way; being very squeaky wheels, armed with facts and figures rather than emotion and unrealistic expectations.

Fish on...

Todd