Re-print of my letter to Guy Norman of ODFW.
8/2/00
Dear Mr. Norman:

I want to thank you very much for taking the time to answer my letter pertaining to the negotiated Columbia River salmon and steelhead allocation issues. As mentioned, I will be posting it on the internet, first via our www.ifish.net Bulletin Board.
While your letter answered some of our questions, it left unanswered perhaps the most important question among most sport fishers. Why, under the infamous Judge Boldt decision giving Treaty Indians and non-Indians a 50% share each of salmon and steelhead deemed harvestable, do the Indians continue to come out with much more of the share of the Columbia fish (and other fisheries)? This is despite the fact they can both net and sportfish Columbia tributaries and most importantly cannot release unharmed the Fed.(protected) ESA fish that they inevitably net! While us sportfishers can release the percent of non fin-clipped wild fish (that are protected, and keep only the abundant clipped hatchery fish available).
As you are aware, sportfishers were not given any chance at the abundant Col. R. springers this year as the Treaty Tribes were. Now on the heels of that we are still not being given a fair allocation of the fall fish (that we mostly paid for)! Within your letter you stated your objective is "..... fair harvest opportunity for non-Indian and Treaty Indian fisheries." When and how will this be achieved?
Before I give your letter responses to our questions to other net and print media, beyond our net site, I will await your response to the 50/50 questions in this letter. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely, Steve Hanson (Ifish.net)

* Do you think they will anwser this appropriate question? Is there a coverup of Indian Treaty fishing abuses, enabled and abbetted by THE mysterious actions of the Fed. NMFS. Will Gov. Kitzhaber or Sen. Wyden, or Wash. counterparts, be able to help us? Will there have to be a citizen class action suit against the "Unfair Pair"? - We await the answers. - Steve