Milt -

You are correct, I didn't present a "Why" in my original post because many of the local folks who fish the lake and oppose the closure already know why. And my post was designed to provide an easy way that those people could help us stop this closure.

However, I have written and posted a 6-page explanation "why" on my blog. You can read it here:

Why the proposed Lake Sutherland closure isn’t really about the lake at all

And before you all toast me, let me point out that at the bottom of my explanation, I've posted the following:

"This information is the result of the composting process that has happened in my head over the past year. It may be wrong. It may be uninformed. It is most certainly opinion. Where I took information from other places, I have tried to provide my sources. It is not complete, it is not perfect, and it is most likely that in several years I will look back and think, “What was I thinking?” That’s the nice thing about opinions, they can change over time if we allow it."

And as I wrote in the online petition, "While we support the restoration of the Elwha river, including the Sockeye, we do not have sufficient scientific evidence to support the closure of Lake Sutherland." And I believe this to be true.

The Lower Elwha tribe has been studying the Lake Sutherland Kokanee for 5 years ( LEKT Studying Lake Sutherland Kokanee), which is more than WDFW seems to have done, and even their Fisheries Biologist is quoted as saying, "It’s possible that the kokanee may leave the lake and head for the Strait of Juan de Fuca after the dams come down, but it is more likely the fish will stick to the freshwater."

I attended the meeting at Peninsula College on December 15th, and I attended the Commission meeting in Olympia on January 7th. And neither of those meetings provided the sound science I think should be required for this kind of extreme closure.

All I'm asking is that we do our data collection and research first, and then if we determine that a closure is necessary, let's at least wait until the dam removal is complete in 2014.