WDFW invites public participation in annual salmon season-setting process

North of Falcon process kicks off Feb. 27 with hybrid statewide salmon forecast meeting in Olympia

OLYMPIA – Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fishery managers have scheduled opportunities for the public to provide input in 2026-2027 state-managed salmon seasons, beginning with a hybrid statewide forecast meeting on Feb. 27 at 9 a.m. in Olympia.

The meeting, part of the season setting process known as North of Falcon, is just one of more than a dozen in-person, hybrid, and virtual meetings scheduled over the next two months to discuss Washington salmon fisheries. North of Falcon refers to waters north of Oregon’s Cape Falcon, which marks the southern border of management of Washington’s salmon stocks, including Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Columbia River, and coastal areas.

WDFW will consider input from recreational and commercial anglers and those interested in salmon fishing, while state fishery managers work with tribal co-managers to craft 2026-2027 fisheries.

“The Washington salmon season-setting process is an important time for us to hear from the public as we develop the upcoming season alongside tribal co-managers,” said WDFW Director Kelly Susewind. "Salmon recovery is our top priority and drives how we implement these sustainable salmon fisheries. We will continue to provide recreational and commercial harvest opportunities where salmon populations are healthy enough to sustain them.”

"Every year the treaty tribes and our co-managers face increasing challenges during the North of Falcon planning process as we divide up diminishing numbers of salmon," said Ed Johnstone, chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. "We make these tough decisions as we continue the work to restore habitat and increase hatchery production. We have to address the ongoing threats from habitat degradation, climate change and marine mammal predation. Harvest management alone will not rebuild our runs."

WDFW will present initial salmon forecasts developed by WDFW and tribal co-manager fisheries biologists on Feb. 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Office Building 2 Auditorium, 1115 Washington Street S.E. in Olympia. The main session of the Feb. 27 meeting will be available to watch via Zoom webinar. Participants must register in advance online.

WDFW and tribal forecasters use a suite of scientific data, including watershed sampling and monitoring, ocean indicators, and previous year returns, to estimate the number of salmon and steelhead that will return to Northwest waters, and how many fish will be available for harvest.

In addition to attending meetings, the public can participate in the state’s process including:

• Online comments: The public can provide general comments on potential 2026-2027 North of Falcon recreational fisheries, coastal commercial fisheries, and Puget Sound commercial fisheries. Additional comment opportunities on specific seasons and fisheries will be available as forecasts and proposed season summaries are made available.

• Virtual meetings and daily briefings: During the final days of negotiations at the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting, WDFW fishery managers plan to hold briefings each day, which will be available via virtual meetings.

For a full timeline of the state’s North of Falcon process, including a public meeting schedule with opportunities to participate in meetings and provide public feedback, refer to the WDFW North of Falcon webpage. WDFW-hosted meetings will be held in-person or in virtual and hybrid formats for the public to watch or listen. For key terms, suggested resources and a North of Falcon overview, refer to the WDFW’s North of Falcon FAQs and Glossary Information.

This process occurs in tandem with PFMC public meetings to establish fishing seasons for salmon in ocean waters three to 200 miles off the Pacific coast. The PFMC will discuss preliminary options for ocean salmon fisheries during its March 4-9 meeting and is expected to adopt final fishing seasons and harvest levels at its April 7-12 meeting. For more information on meetings refer to the PFMC’s website.

All members of the public are invited to share their perspectives and participate in WDFW public feedback opportunities regardless of race, color, sex, age, national origin, language proficiency, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, or basis of disability.

WDFW works to preserve, protect, and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities.



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Request this information in an alternative format or language at wdfw.wa.gov/accessibility/requests-accommodation, 833-885-1012, TTY (711), or CivilRightsTeam@dfw.wa.gov.

FROM BARB REGION 6

Hello,

As you may be aware, the 2026 North of Falcon (NOF) salmon season setting process has begun. The public is invited to join WDFW at various public meetings throughout the NOF process to discuss fishery related issues and provide fishery suggestions or comments to help the Department draft recreational and commercial fishery regulation proposals for the 2026 salmon fisheries throughout the state.

Our 2026 North of Falcon regional fishery discussion public meetings are scheduled as follows; these meetings will include a trend and status review, 2026 Salmon forecasts, management objectives, and time for public input/comment.

February 27: Statewide Salmon Forecast Kickoff Meeting: Hybrid - in person (Olympia) and virtual 9 – 3 PM. This meeting will include a dedicated coastal breakout session with our regional staff who will be available to answer questions and provide valuable insight into coastal fisheries for Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor, and North Coast tributaries. This meeting will be hybrid, giving you the flexibility to join in person or virtually.

March 12: Coastal Fisheries – Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor, and North Coast Joint Fisheries Discussion: Virtual Zoom Meeting 6 – 8 PM

March 26: Strait of Juan de Fuca and Hood Canal Joint Recreational Fisheries Discussion: Virtual Zoom Meeting 6 – 8 PM


The full 2026 North of Falcon public meeting schedule as well as links to register for any public meeting during the North of Falcon process can be found on our website, 2026 North of Falcon public meeting schedule | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Regional staff created a new NorthCoast@dfw.wa.gov email that we will use to share fisheries related updates for the North Coast areas, similar to the emails we use for Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. If you know of anyone interested in receiving emails from the Department regarding Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor, or North Coast fisheries, please forward this email and have them to reply to WillapaBay@dfw.wa.gov, GraysHarbor@dfw.wa.gov, or NorthCoast@dfw.wa.gov (depending on your interest) stating they would like to be added to our email distribution list and provide which areas they are interested.

Thank you for your interest in our coastal salmon fisheries.

Just remember to bathe the dog and curry-comb the pony before attending.

02/07/2026

"Just remember to bathe the dog and curry-comb the pony before attending."

No need, I predict 100% of meetings with the public will be "zoom meetings", no chance to "see the whites of the enemy's eyes as you fire questions, while on the phone or computer". If you ask a question, that they don't like... you are probably done asking questions for that zoom meeting.

We'll never really know but I think that most of the "general public salmon season, is pretty much "already done before the 1st meeting, ????"

What the state and the tribes "agree to" is what it will be regardless of public input.

No, think its more of what the Bolt Tribes agree to and the State trys to justify for sports and commercial...

Yep. That was why "agree to" was in quotes.

Again, no surprises in this reality for over twenty + seasons now and counting ? A bit silly to waste sunny daze and spring time with venting old NOF gas here. ( although I just did again...)

Eventually you will just get a notice to cease and desist until further notice.

Control over our resources and all policy has been captured via election fraud... The Banking Cartel owns the entire game board,, all the property,, all the players because they create and issue the money... Jeffrey Epstein did not run a honey pot,, blackmail operation for governments,, he worked for the banks who own and control all governments...

When it comes to fish policy,, the tribes and the states look no further than the banks,,, everything is manipulated,, noting is free market,, nothing happens by the peoples choice... All shortages and scarcities are manufactured via policy administration... The ESA is a tool of manipulation to assist in policy administration of manufactured shortages for the purpose of control and extortion...

If you have not figured it out yet,, environmental controls and policy is fake as well,, based on lies and fake science/math... A method to create shortages and scarcity of naturally abundant resources...

Its like fish passage on creeks that do not have fish,,, you spend lots of money on problems that do not exist to expose shortages that do not have the capacity to exist,, only to spend money and not to produce abundance,, so the shortage perpetually continues,, so that the measure of control and extortion continues...

The only way to achieve abundance of salmon/steelhead is to either stop/curtail commercial fishing or to enhance hatchery production.. ultimately what it comes down to is that the rivers are not cultivating enough fish because not enough fish are planting their seeds on the spawning beds...

Right on SRG! I think forty years of failure for "Recovery" is enough. WDFW science has failed. To cut to the short of it, we need to have strong, healthy hatchery fish spawning with the weakening so-called- wild fish, which there really aren't any. Survival of the fittest and the natural laws of evolution work, and have for many eons. I looked up some numbers for the heck of it. The Skokomish River has miles of prime spawning water upstream of the hatchery. One hundred eighty one (181) were released upstream while about twenty seven thousand (27000) were surplused.

I think it is bit more complex, but only a bit. They gotta put more fish on the grounds.

Given what I have seen about steelhead these pretty much have to be wild fish; certainly not something like Chambers. For pink and chum let them all go and let Darwin sort them out. Chinook, especially Falls incubated and reared on surface water should go up. Springers and coho, who are both reared a year would need some more care. But we need about 10X+ escapements in the wild.

We KNOW what to do, the science has been there for decades but the political will is lacking.

And I seriously doubt that the recs are willing to forgo fishing on immature coho and Chinook anytime soon.

C-man,

Of course it is more complicated, just as you have said. But we have gotten nowhere, really, after forty years. We salmon advocates need to get together and speak LOUDER ! but we don't. Heck, PSA and CCA can't agree. I think those two organizations ought to at least agree and demand the elimination of a lot of sealions and seals. I'm guessing the tribes would agree, too.

A better polltical strategy would be for the organizations to hold WDFW accountable for certain actions, along with attendance of state reps and senators at OUR meeting rather than the home court advanteges held by WDFW at Commission meetings. We need Town Hall style meetings.

I very much agree, Tug. I wish that we, the voting public and tax-paying and license-buying public would hold government to specific goals. If, as you note, in 40 years we haven't put the fish on a significant road to recovery (significantly larger runs than 40 years ago) that we admit defeat and do something radically different.

Same holds for education, infrastructure, mental health, homlessnessness, drugs, whatever. We must demand results at the ballot box.

If the system was managed for a quality recreational experience and natural abundance via both natural and hatchery production... If the rivers were viewed as fish farms to produce recreation/enjoyment for the people and sustainable food for the land and animals we would have no problems and no need to regulate the resource...


open the hatcheries again,, pump up production with mostly wild brood stock... allow private hatcheries and fish farms both small and large scale.. Like Carcassman said make the goal 10x increase in spawner escapement regardless of origin...

No limits,, no seasons,, no regulation and no commercial fishing as an issue of national security...

Abundant food available for the people for self harvest should be the highest priority...

The goal should be that the entire region smells like rotten salmon from September through January.... Until it does we do not have enough fish...

the people must become nose blind to the smell of rotten salmon...

if we have learned nothing else over the past 40 years its that judges are out of control and it was not the intent of the founding fathers for Judges and courts to establish policy via case law... Judges have phucked us and forced us onto this path of fraud and manufactured scarcity instead of common sense...

Tug, I'm surprised that you're giving accolades to RichG. Good ole Rich, always confident, nearly always wrong.

I have had a question about NOF for a few years now. I would ask WDFW, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't spend the time to run the numbers. I heard a few years ago that from mid-December to mid-April, about 40% of the work in the fish management program is devoted to NOF. That's a lot of resources, which is a lot of tax dollars. My question is: How different would our NT recreational salmon seasons look if WDFW didn't participate at all in NOF? We know the treaty tribes would still attend. And they pretty much call the shots for WA treaty and NT fishing. So how different would fishing be for you and me?

BTW, WDFW science hasn't failed. By my observation, WDFW science has continued to improve. Management has failed. Management has failed taxpayers and license buyers.

We may think we "need" strong healthy hatchery fish. Actually WDFW's hatchery fish are healthy for the most part. Hatchery fish health has improved greatly over the decades. What we don't have is the higher smolt to adult survival rates that were enjoyed when the ocean environment was a friendlier place for them.

You're wrong about wild fish. Although wild fish are missing from a lot of places, they still occur in enough rivers that they should be managed for their continued existence. Why? To preserve options for us and for future generations of managers, who I hope are wiser than the current ones. We still have native wild Chinook in the Snohomish, Skagit, and Nooksack River basins and most of the coastal OP rivers. We still have native wild coho in the Stillaguamish and Skagit River basins. And we still have native wild chum and pink salmon in most of the rivers where they have always occurred. And we have native wild steelhead in most Puget Sound and coastal rivers, even if that was mostly by happy accident.

I'd rather not have hatchery fish spawning with wild fish. For one thing, we don't need to. And for another reason, we know that hatchery fish breeding with wild fish leads to reduced productivity of the wild fish. The science is generally conclusive on this. I don't know why some people choose not to believe it, unless it's because they refuse to believe anything that doesn't fit their chosen narrative. (That would be called stupidity, BTW.)

Regarding your example of the Skokomish River, yes it has miles of spawning water, but it is not prime. Through political dealing, the Simpson Timber Co. was able for 50 years to clear cut that watershed like it was their private property. And they did. And that devastated the S. Fork for spawning and rearing. (You may know that the Skokomish is the most frequent flooding river in WA state.) WDFW responded with George Adams hatchery and managed all of Hood Canal for hatchery Chinook, coho, and chum salmon, wiping out whatever wild fish of those species remained.

Since just before and since the Cushman hydro relicensing around 2009 or so, WDFW, NMFS, USFWS, and tribes have been working to restore (and recover under ESA) natural production of salmon and steelhead to various streams in HC watersheds. The Skokomish Tribe wanted to restore spring Chinook and sockeye to the NF Skok and steelhead to both forks, I think. I retired almost 10 years ago and dropped the ball on following up when Covid hit. I keep meaning to check back in with my tribal and Tacoma Power contacts but keep procrastinating. The Tribe imported sockeye from Baker River and spring Chinook from the Skagit hatchery (Suiattle River stock origin). I don't know how those are working out. I don't know if fall Chinook recovery is feasible because the Tribe and WDFW want their cake and to eat it too. Meaning they want to retain the early timed segment of the fall Chinook run (Green River hatchery origin) while restoring the natural later timed wild fall Chinook run using the later returning individuals from the existing hatchery stock. Maybe it can work, but with the relentless harvest pressure in HC and in the river, I think it's a long shot.

Anyway, the Simpson contract ended a while back, and the SF Skokomish watershed has been recovering, but it will be a long while yet before it resembles "prime" salmon habitat. Fortunately it is becoming "OK" suitable habitat.

Anyway, just thought I'd help you out a bit regarding wild fish and the management intentions for the Skok.

Salmo G,

Thanks for a thoughtful response, however I disagree with much of your points. It sounds to me that you're espousing that we just keep doing what we've done for the last forty years. I suggest a near complete break from most of our failed salmon management, very similar to Rich G suggested. We need salmon on the spawning beds, with healthy hatchery fish. What I keep hearing from upper management at WDFW is similar to what the Biden administration kept telling us: "The border ii secure". We need bold changes. Honestly, I like catching hatchery salmon, and I would like to see an abundance of healthy salmon wild or not, spawning in good habitat just like it was in the '70's. I think the upper Skok is better habitat than a lot of others where we are protecting wild fish.

SG I agree with you but this, harvest has to be drastically reduced and commercial NT done away with tribal harvest reform. Exteme enviromental reform with the sound being target number one or nothing changes. You cannot say one million more folks in 20 years and think the results will be different.

As I believe that will not happen I think I got to go with Tug. Not the best solution but about the only one available.

Simply put first you gotta stop killing the creature from the ocean into the rivers and THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN WITH WDF&W AND NOAA!