Yes there were a number of us there however there seemed to be more WDFW employees then sports fishers and it also seemed that a lot of the WDFW employees were getting some of the information first hand like the rest of us. You should have seen some of the jaws drop when Ron Warren (sp?) from WDFW indicated that a decision on Tokul's future might be made in as little as three weeks.

Anyway, the proposal basically is for the end of plants of 20K winter steelhead smolts in the Raging River and also the Tolt River and there seemed to be no problem with that from anyone in the room. The "bombshell" was that they will transfer the production of 170K winter steelhead from Tokul Creek to the Wallace River on the Skykomish AND RELEASE THEM IN THE WALLACE. So now the Skykomish (Reiter & Wallace) will basically get a majority of the hatchery production of winter steelhead except some small plants in the Sultan, Pilchuck etc. Can you even begin to conceive what the fishing pressure is going to be like on the Sky during the drop after the first high river flows of December? Picture combat fishing at its worse.

Anyway, a number of us made the case that the Tokul hatchery winter steelhead stock is a segregated program (Chambers Creek stock) and that interaction with Snoqualmie wild winter fish is insignificant. We also pointed out the success of the Tokul program with respect to smolt to adult percentages as compared to other winter steelhead hatchery programs within Puget Sound. A number of us made the case that the Tokul facility is so close to a major urban area that the loss of recreational opportunity would be drastic.

The Trailblazers, who are volunteers that stock alpine lakes with trout supplied by the Tokul facility, made a good showing and indicated they were concerned with having to go all the way to Arlington to get fish for stocking in the Snoqualmie drainage.

Ron Warren closed the meeting indicating that whatever decisions that are going to be made at Tokul are being made for CONSERVATION concerns not BUDGET constraints. This is a big deal. In the past, like with Reiter, it was all about needing the money to run the facility. Now that the conservation card is being played how are you going to argue against it? Heather Bartlett from WDFW indicated that there is some proof of hatchery fish of Chambers Creek stock "blending genetically" with wild fish in certain areas which is not a good thing. Proponents of segregated programs have always argued that genetic blending was not occurring therefore the segregated winter steelhead hatchery programs were not adversly affecting wild fish.

Some people at the meeting argued that the winter steelhead hatchery program should be switched to an integrated program using "river of origin" broodstock but I can't see that happening because you don't have enough wild fish to justify taking broodstock. The Snohomish system wild winter steelhead haven't made escapement goals for something like ten years and are currently listed under ESA. The HSRG is against taking broodstock from depressed runs and I doubt that the Fed's would allow it either.

In the end, and this is just my opinion, if WDFW wants to eliminate the Tokul facility's winter steelhead program to show the Fed's that they are trying to invoke hatchery strategies that comply with the listing of Puget Sound steelhead...that being the segregated hatchery programs are significantly harmful to the listed wild stocks....then we are in deep.....

So I hope a lot of you can attend the meeting thursday night at the hatchery in Issaquah. Talk with your contacts. Think about it and show-up and make a case either for wild fish, hatchery fish, fishing opportunity or all the above! Hell...in my opinion if it nots broken then don't break it.

Beezer