RT - I'm 51 years old and have never been politically active in my life - until now. I am absolutely fed up with the treatment that sportsmen get. We need to get involved and turn this around. Until we do, there is no hope. Let me know where your next rally is, and if I'm able to attend I will!

I just sent the following to my new state senator. I know that he will read and respond to this. I'll keep you informed:
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Don - congratulations on your election to state senator.

I have a couple of issues that I would like to know your position on, and would like to request your support for. The first is nets in the Columbia. It's my opinion that they need to be removed - once and for all. I sent a note to the director of the WDFW protesting the nets in the Columbia, and received a response that basically said "sportsmen are allowed to fish every day of the month - so what's your problem?" My problem is that most of us work and can only fish on weekends. When nets are in the river Monday through Friday, fishing is over for the weekend. They basically sweep the river clean of fish - both in the Columbia and fish bound for the tributaries. My other problem with nets is that they do not discriminate. They catch all fish, both protected and unprotected stocks. When and how can we get them out of the river?

My second issue relates to fish allocation. Apparently, the NMFS is about to determine the allocation of next year's Spring Chinook for sportsmen. I've heard that it is some abysmally low percentage - in spite of the fact that the run is forecast to be quite strong. This just doesn't seem fair.

Please look into these issues and let me know what you can do to help out, or what we sportsmen can do to turn the situation around. There are hundreds of thousands of sportsmen in this state, and we seem to do a lousy job of getting organized. I often wonder what would happen if we just stopped hunting and fishing for a year; parked our boats and recreational vehicles and didn't license them; didn't buy hunting and fishing licenses, etc. The economic impact on the state and on businesses would be enormous - far outweighing the economic impact of commercial fishing. As a group, we haven't gotten mad enough or united enough to do this yet, but just maybe.......

Thanks for your help and best wishes for success as our new state senator.