Please read the following . I feel this is great news for steelheaders . I hope that we can all show our support .

NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT
OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, Washington 98501-1091
Internet Address: http://www.wa.gov/wdfw

June 17, 2002
Contact: Chuck Johnson, (360) 902-2653

Meeting set on scoping notice for draft EIS on
Grandy Creek steelhead enhancement project

OLYMPIA * The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has scheduled a public meeting July 1 to gather public input on a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for a project to provide additional steelhead fishing opportunity in the Skagit River watershed.

The meeting is part of the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) public review process for the proposal in which WDFW is examining options for a steelhead-rearing facility in the Grandy Creek area, including building an acclimation pond where up to about 500,000 juvenile steelhead would be placed each year to imprint on the unique characteristics of the water before being released. Grandy Creek is a tributary to the Skagit River.

When the fish return as adults a few years later, they will home in on the Grandy Creek's "scent," providing increased local fishing opportunity for recreational fishers and treaty Indian tribes.

The meeting is set for 6-9 p.m. in hearing Room C of the Skagit County administration building. WDFW staff will have aerial photographs, maps and other information available about Grandy Creek facility options. The Skagit County administration building is located at 700 South Second Street in Mount Vernon.

Those interested in reviewing the documents online can do so beginning Monday, June 17, on WDFW's SEPA web page, at http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/hab/sepa/sepa.htm , on the Internet. Comments on the project must be received by July 15, and should be sent to Cynthia Pratt, WDFW, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA., 98501-1091, or via e-mail at prattcrp@dfw.wa.gov

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I think releasing more and more hatchery fish is just a way to cover up the real problem of declining populations of native salmon and steelhead. Sure you will get more fishing opportunities but if you ask me, this is just a sign of worse and worse salmon and steelhead populations. As more and more native stocks decline more and more hatchery fish will be released in hopes of boosting returns of fish... but the boost will be in the form of hatchery fish, not native fish which is the real problem.

Sounds like bad news to the fish, but good news to the meat fishermen and native Americans.
i think more research needs to be done and better management of our rivers needs to happen or before long we wont have much fishing left....

sigh

Fishinsinsation

Thats the most intelligent thing anyone has said in a very long time!!!

Why stick another hatchery there. They already have one at Barnaby Slough that I think that they don't use any more. And I also noted that they are doing this for sportsmen and treaty indians. If fishing license fees are to be used,why inclued indians. Don't they get enough of our fish.

I don't know if I could go for the state building another hatchery with all the closures they are having.

The (federal) funds for the Grady Creek Hatchery were appropriated many years ago by former senator Slade Gorton...needless to say, the 'climate' has changed since then.

The idea behind Grady Creek Hatchery was that it would be much lower in the system and eliminate the potential for cross-breeding between hatchery and wild fish.

And they plan on cranking out TONS of fish something like 500,000! Whats so bad about that? Just think runs like the Cow.

runs like the cow? That would be great. than i would no longer be picking up flatlander garbage down around the barrier and blue creek. Its got my vote, being a cowlitz LOCAL.

Being like the Cow is a good thing!? I guess it depends on how you look at it. How many wild steelhead are left in the Cow and I would speculate the hatchery factory had a part in it's wild fish demise.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that hatchery fish have a place for various harvest opportunities, but we need to be smarter about the role of hatcheries and utilize them so they don't further impact the wild fish(hatchery reform). A river system will only support a certain number of smolts, it's not always the answer to build another hatchery and dump a huge number of smolts which exceeds the available habitat in a system. Remember, in history, that hatcheries were typically put into place as a concession for something that has been lost. We need see the forest for the trees here.

Good point DH, Although I believe the usual habitat degradation, over harvest of wild fish over the years, and most of all the Giant cocrete road block, assisted in the demise of the Cowlitz wild fish as well.
I would really like to see a thorough study done before any more hatcheries are planned on the Skagit system. We must protect the genes of those upriver beauties!!

The Grandy Creek Hatchery (GCH) has been studied to death! I was involved with the local group that lobbied the legislature for funding back in the early 90's. The money was later put on hold when the Washington Federation of Flyfishers (WFFF) and the Sierra club requested an additional EIS (environmental impact statement) which was nothing but a stall tactic to delay constuction of this facility.
With the WFFF knife still hanging out of it's back, the Wildcat Steelhead Club (WSC) persevered in it's pursuit of this hatchery and now success is once again near.
If the WFFF has come to the WSC with it's percieved "problems" with the GCH that would have been one thing but for the WFFF to take the underhanded EIS through the back door was a true insult to the only private group who has ever lifted an enhancement finger in the Skagit watershed.
So now you know why -for years now- it's been open season on the feather flingers for the Skagit sleds. The locals have a good memory and truly want the hatchery and the economical boost for a community that really needs it.

What's not being made clear in this proposal is that no additional hatchery fish are going to be added to the system - they will release less at the Cascade Hatchery and instead truck them down to Grandy Creek to release there. So a bunch of extra money is going to be spent, and habitat damage is going to be done to the floodplain, in the Grandy Creek area for no gain in production. All this because someone thinks it's a good idea to spread the hatchery fish out a little, and that this will somehow benefit everyone. Stupid idea if you ask me. Fishinsinsation has the right idea - the Skagit is actually still capable of producing wild fish, whereas the Cowlitz is not, and money and management should be put in to wild fish habitat protection and restoration, and into better wild fish management on the Skagit. This project flies right in the face of that - by now concentrating hatchery fish in a second area, fishing pressure (including netting), and hatchery/wild interactions will occur in two places instead of one. But stupid ideas about where there is money and politics

I am a local and oppose the Grandy Creek rearing ponds. Not all locals agree with the wild catters.
Guides are just another form of commercial fishermen, turning tricks on the river.

Spawnout. You mentioned the hatchery on the Cascade river. That hatchery is a Salmon hatchery not a steelhead hatchery. So it wouldn't do any good to truck them down to Grandy creek.

Lets see,it takes about two to three years to build a new hatchery, another year to get it up and running and three years after that to get any returns. So if my math sucks it will take about seven years from now to turn out any fish. At my age I guess that I don't care as I will probly be to old to care or else I will be dead.

Though I had no direct work with it, I did work at the state during the initial Grandy Creek fiasco and one of my colleagues was lead counsel for WDFW's GCH efforts.

My conclusions from that experience...

1. There would be an increase in hatchery fish in the Skagit, and it would be considerable.

2. The great majority of the fish would be confined to the lower river, from Grandy Creek down, and the intent would be to create a terminal fishery there.

3. There are depressed, threatened, and endangered fish in the Skagit, and there is always an issue of hatchery/wild interactions when those fish are present.

4. The WDFW's EIS was very difficult to defend in court, and eventually was abandoned as being far too weak to support building the hatchery.

5. WDFW has been working on a new one for several years. The funding is still there, but won't be forever.

It is extremely unfair and selfish to blame FFF or WT for WDFW's failure to do a proper EIS. I also find it unfair and selfish to rely on a faulty EIS to increase hatchery production when the faulty parts of the EIS dealt with controlling hatchery wild interactions in the healthiest (thought far from "healthy") Puget Sound steelhead river.

I'd support anything that increases angler opportunity, including greater opportunity to catch hatchery fish for the BBQ, but I will not support it at the expense of wild fish. If an EIS that survives tough scrutiny is written, then I'd be all for the GCH.

Until then, no way.

Fish on...

Todd

My common sense tells me the money to build and operate the facility would be better spent on enforcement of fish and game laws. I'm not a fisheries bio so I can't say how wild fish would be affected by a new hatchery. But I can say that an increase in wardens would be a great help for the Skagit's wild fish--and not just steelhead. I say hire some new game wardens, outfit them with new trucks and guns, and give them a couple of new sleds.
And Jim, the Cascade hatchery does produce steelhead, but let's just keep that between the two of us.

So we all want our cake and want to eat it too .

I for one am a huge proponent for wild fish and do as much as I can for supporting them . You can not and will not ever replace the superior genentics that they possess .

The Skagit river was once the best of the best and is now ,for many reasons , only a fraction of what it was .

Many of the Puget sound streams were the same way .

As angler opportunity diminshed with the declining runs , hatcherys popped up all over to help supplement angler opportunity.

The one thing I can say good about the the WDFW is that they do have the hatchery runs returning quite early compared to the wild runs to help eliminate cross breeding .

We all hit the "traditional steelhead opener" right around Thanksgiving . How many wild fish are we actually expecting to catch during those first few months of the season , November , Decmber, January ?

I can't speak for you , but I am hunting hatchery fish during those months and am actually suprised to a wild fish during this time frame .

If we as sportsmen go out looking for wild fish twelve months of the year and expect to be catching any kind of numbers we are going to be very disapointed .

Let's face it . Wild fish timing is getting going in February and then picking up through March and April .Closed May and then reopening in June . Once again , what are we looking for ? Hatchery summer runs through the summer and then back to the hatchery winter runs returning in November . Full circle .

If we had to rely strictley on wild fish runs for all of our angling opportunity, how much opportunity would we really have ?

We want to do all that we can to protect our wild fish runs , and respectfully so , but at the same time the reason that we want to protect them is that so we can go out and fish for them .

The Skagit River durng the CnR season this past year was a hair away from being closed along with many other Puget Sound streams . It was kept opened much to the dismay of many anglers siding with the fact that if the runs were to weak to support a CnR season , the river should not be open at all .

Did this keep away all the wild fish Purists ?No . If any of you fished the Skagit/Sauk during the CnR season , you probably saw more angling pressure than ever .

This all on stocks that are supposedly "dangerously low " .

It sounds like nobody wants a fish in the river that is not of superior genetics , but we all want the most angling opportunity as possible . Regardless of what impact that we may have on wild fish .

Whether or not the Skagit can support the Grandy Creek Hatchery is ultimately up to the the State .

How much impact we as sportsmen place on the wild fish stocks is up to us.

Is supporting a hatchery like Grandy Creek good for wild fish because of the impacts that it places on the wild fish runs ? Maybe not .

The benefits that is introduces as far as additional angling opprtunity is for you to decide .

Do we target adult hatchery ? or adult wild fish ? Which one would you rather preserve ?

I think ReiterRat has a point. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

If the GCH is managed properly, it shouldn't have a critical impact on the wild fish. To me this means that all hatchery raised fish are "marked" and raised in ponds until they smolt. If they are raised to smolt then most should exit the Skagit upon release and have minimal impact on wild juveniles. If they are all marked, then they can be harvested selectively when they return as adults with minimal impact on returning wild spawners.

The key here is the tribes. Will the tribes fight 100% marking like they have on the Skykomish summer chinook? Will the tribes EVER try harvesting selectively via traps or fish wheels? This could be a good time to start pressuring the co-managers in that direction.

If these minimal conditions could be met I would buy in and let the meat fishers, guides, restaurants, hotels, gas stations...... have their day. Then rest of us can maybe have a little more solitude up river while fishing C&R.

Beezer

I hear a lot of talk about run timing. Run timing is absolutely irrelevant. Spawning time is what counts and even that is some what irrelevant. Wild summer steelhead spawn between December and May Wild winter steelhead spawn between November amd July. Although there are very few that spawn early and late they are still extremely important because they generate the biodiversity in the run. By all accounts early and late fish were once more numerous. They would be again and in short order if hatchery fish were kept from spawning in the system. Wild steelhead recover very quickly when we let them. WDFW has never let them. When WDFW quit letting hatchery fish above Kalama falls the wild steelhead rebounded dramatically. Same with wild steelhead on the wind river when that was no longer planted. The effects that hatchery fish have on wild fish during spawning is well documented and is no longer a theory it is a fact. According to genetic studies there has been no tracable interbreeding between hatchery and wild fish in theNorth Puget Sound ESU. That means that hatchery fish that spawn in the Skagit system never have adult offspring and when a hatchery fish spawns with a wild fish it's just like killing that wild fish because it will not successfully spawn and WDFW cannot control where their hatchery fish go on the Skagit.

Also The release of 500,000 ADDITIONAL( it cannot be fishing enhancment without more fish) steelhead smolts will add an unnatural number of juveniles to the system. The while it may be great for the larger dollies it will force all wild juveniles into poor quality rearing habitat and create an false abundance and increased predation.
There is also a small but growing body of scientific evidence that during years of low ocean productivity the overabundance of hatchery fish causes low wild salmonid survval at sea.
Then there is the money we all know the money could be better spent in another way. Enforecment, habitat, anything but another hatchery especially on a system that is already in trouble and during a time of WDFW budget cuts.

(((my opinion))))
Having said all that... The Cowlits is absolutely NOT NOT NOT NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a model of salmon and steelhead managment. I call it the worst possible senario. We do not need more rivers like the Cowlitz and i would fight to the bitter end to keep any other rivers from becoming that way.
The vast majority of Washington steelhead and salmon anglers do not fish in terminal fisheries yet that is where most of the money goes and where most snagging occurs The only reason more violations don't occur there is the numbers of people there. terminal fisheries promote bad things for our sport and for our fish. it's certainly not the case with people on this board but most people who fish at terminal fisheries would not fish at all if they actually had to work at it. Our rivers would be cleaner places for it too.

What if all hatchery production stopped on the Skagit for 4-8 years? Would the native fish start coming back earlier like they did along time ago? Seems to me like any money spent on the Skagit should be spent on enforcement, and habitat, and maybe buying out the fricken gillnetting bast*****. I hate to see that river turn into a Cowlitz North.

Tough subject,,,, We need more wild fish AND hatchery fish. If they would make a darn sterile steelhead like the triploids then we wouldnt have much to worry about.

From the Puget Sound Gillnetter's and local tribes's official dictionary:

Habitat: creative buzz word to feed to the media to focus the public's attention off of the real reason why we have endangered Puget Sound Chinook.

Buying out commercial licenses is the only way we'll get our fish runs back! Let's not kid ourselves here. Notice how abundant our coho runs have been since Canada started "buying out" and limiting the netting in neighboring Georgia Straight to the north?; and why do we have such an excellent summer run season and first time king fishery on the Sky this summer, because NO NETS are in the way!!!!

The Tulalips do deserve some credit here. They have every right to net summer and fall fish on the Sky, but they don't, because they are aware the impacts there nets will have on returning Snohomish system endangered native Chinook.

BD