I sent out the closure information yesterday so I thought I would follow up. I have the Chehalis & Humptulips Steelhead models for the coming season. The Summary tab is best for a quick look but the RR tab is run reconstruction which allows one a look at actual impacts in previous years. If you want them PM me and I will send them to you.

So what next is the question I keep getting? Well a lot really and I have simply told folks that for the REC fisher statewide it is time to go to war. Your target? WDF&W's budget! The REC fisher has been paying the bills and frankly getting screwed. Oh the usual organizations will pig pile into the fight ( which is good ) but they will not carry the day. It is you folks the average fisher that can. How is the question and the answer is if folks go right at YOUR local legislator and take the time to write in a informed manner, it makes a difference. Gone this next session needs to be the rubber stamp bit that the Democrats have done with WDF&W budget for years. The Republicans in the Senate are going to have a huge say so that is where the best opportunity resides. Guys that agency cannot survive without REC dollars as they are broke and going to come wanting your money again! This time we must extract reform for the REC fishers with penalties if the agency does what it has in the past, which is grab the money and just continue on as always with lip service all over that says everything and means ZERO.

Now for us INLAND Communities Chehalis folks it is the same on steroids. In the past all have pretty much depended on the Coastal Caucus but for us it is presently dominated by three legislators from the South Coast that are D's. Which by the way are rather severely aliened with commercial interest and directing the vast majority of harvest to the estuary based fisheries. Gone are Rep Kessler, Senators Owen & Snyder and frankly the North Coast Legislators are not that effective on fishery issues let alone think about the inland communities of the Chehalis Basin which are represented by Republicans. So for the inland folks your legislators to talk to are Senator John Braun, Rep. Richard DeBolt, and Rep Ed Orcutt. I have been asked to help and I will. I and others will take the time to work a timeline of just how this falls salmon season was mismanaged to the point of total failure that we now have. I have a Public Document Request in and frankly it is in a three week period of time in October that the agency has refused to define what on earth they were doing that created this problem to the degree we have. When I have the information you all will get it too.

It will be a difficult effort for you folks in the inland community but the mess the agency made of the Chehalis salmon fisheries actually can be used to benefit a reform effort. What WDF&W did this year for once left them no place to hide. To be sure they will try use the usual verbiage that says & does nothing but try to evade responsibility for this fiasco. This time around it will not work as others and myself are going make a real effort to get information out to you folks in a timely manner to insure you're not buried in BS by the agency.

BUT do not do a Dave. By that I mean fight like hell for your rights to end the discrimination that WDF&W heaps on the inland community and fish in the Chehalis Basin. That said do not do what I did yesterday. I blew my top at Steve Thiesfeld and provided him a rather rude conversation. Now that I disagree with what the hell happened this fall is a given but Steve did not deserve that. He has done nothing but work his butt off since taking that miserable job of Region 6 Harvest Manager. He has the right to expect better from all of us but especially someone like myself who has been around the block more than once with them. So Mr. Thiesfeld you have my sincerest apology for my outburst as it was uncalled for. ( again ) For all of us this old rule from Bristol. " blows above the belt, do not give a inch but keep it civilized." Do not do a Dave as it not necessary to get your point across. That conversation folks was not my finest hour, learn from it.

So it begins for us in the inland Chehalis communities. RECS, the guides, the property owners who shoulder the cost of habitat preservation, the Chehalis Tribal fishers and the fish . EVERYONE in the inland communities are taking it on the chin in this salmon harvest allocation. For the inriver REC to be treated fairly the non treaty Chehalis Tribal fisher has to get their share also. We are all tied together and we must begin to work together if we are going end the practice of directing the vast majority of harvest to the estuary fisheries. We have done it before and it is time to do it again.

It is truly " game on " time folks.
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in