Riverguy,

I completely agree with your outlook. We disagree some, but mostly it doesn't matter. The policy is done and we've launched into an fisheries managment experiment where the one certainty is there will be more attention paid to NOR fish.

I think our difference comes for the fact that I have a higher tolerence for self criticism and I understand that when someone has invested as much as you and I have in the process we want to believe we've done good. Unfortunately I view my involvement in the processes as an abysmal failure, personally.

For example, the only habitat consideration in the aha model is a single integer input as a factor representing habitat quality. No actual quantitative modelling of habitat was ever made (unlike on the Big C). I think when AHA is used in this way, it is not much of an improvement over the previous models because habitat is not even really considered in a meaningful way.

I've argued all along that the WB stream habitat is margninal chinook habitat at best and that we should pick the very best habitat in the basin and focus on that stream. The 2010 plan did the same in theory (with primary naselle designation), but in practice WDFW didn't do anything to reduce harvest then declared nasselle primary a failure and bought the gilnnetter argument that it was habitat that was the problem.

The upshot is we gave up on arguable the best habitat in the naselle and switched primary to the Willapa for the sake of harvest expediency. This decision was not driven by any habitat analysis whatsoever.

I asked repeatedly for serious analysis of habitat quality and economic impacts of various allocation decisions, but failed to get any traction as the department didn't want to do either. Rather the focus was on getting to a policy that met management expediency criteria as quickly as possible without considering anything that might derail staff's management considerations or cause legal questions to arise.

As a scientific endeavor the process sucked. As a public policy exercise I also found it to be disappointing. I wish it could have been done better.
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