I'd pay just about any price if it would really help the upper columbia. HOWEVER, it's kind of a farce when you consider that the main problem with the upper columbia, at least the Reach, is downriver and ocean harvest, NOT habitat or upriver harvest. Consider: estimates of prime spawning habitat in the Hanford Reach indicate that it could handle 60-80,000 spawning salmon just utilizing primary habitat, not considering marginal or secondary areas. However, the newly established escapement target for McNary Dam is 60,000 fish. Not too far off, right? Unless you consider that the number of fish going up the Snake and up past Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia have been steadily increasing, meaning less fish percentage-wise stay in the Reach to spawn. For the past two years the spawning recruitment in the Reach itself has dropped to less than 25% of the total McNary escapement. For each of the past two years, the local WDFW biologist estimates that less than 20,000 spawners have utilitized the pristine habitat that could handle four times that many. In fact the numbers are 18,767 for 2008 and 13,887 for 2007, and the forecast for 2009 is looking pretty grim. We are being told to expect an early closure of fall fishing in the Reach this year, likely September 30 instead of the usual October 22. So... needless to say, the prospect of getting to pay an extra $25 for the privilege of fishing a shortened season while watching slaughter occurring below McNary doesn't sit well with folks up here.

It's clear to me that the McNary escapement target should be set based on a calculated (variable) level considering a true minimum escapement target for the Reach (which ought to be in the 40,000 - 80,000 range at least) PLUS whatever is forecast for Priest Rapids passage, Ice Harbor passage, PRD hatchery return, and Prosser (Yakima R.) passage.

Here we have prime habitat, great genetics, sufficient numbers of fish reaching the estuary ... and we can't seem to allow enough fish to reach the gravel to do their thing. And we wonder why the numbers keep spiralling downward. This is crazy.

Watch and see, when the URB forecasts come out in the next few months, the press release will indicate a large number of fish headed for "the Reach". But look closer at the numbers and remember that less than 25% of the McNary passage is really going to spawn in the Reach, and officially anything over 60,000 fish at McNary are "surplus" so we'll intentionally under-escape the spawners in the Reach...again.

Sorry to come across as a rant, but it's incredibly frustrating to see the wild spawning escapement drop from 80K in 2004, 64K in 2005, 47K in 2006, 14K in 2007, 19K in 2008... and nobody notices or cares because we still have 100K fish crossing McNary so we still have "surplus" fish.