This morning Gov. Locke released his version of the 03-05 Budget, which closes three hatcheries: Naselle, Coulter Creek, and Hurd Creek.

http://www.ofm.wa.gov/budget03/recsum/477rs.htm

What is the matter with this State? Why do the hatchery programs keep getting the shaft. This absolutely pisses me off. The Naselle is an excellent river and to remove the hatchery would be ridiculous!!! Gov. Locke needs to pull his head out of his ass and quit the bull****... We need more funding, not less. The Salmon is the Northwests greatest symbol. Why take away such a great thing?

I believe the state wishes to eventually turn over all fish production to the federal government (via Indian programs). It will be a slow process, but that is what I think these "North of Falcon" proposals and other initiatives are all about.

It amazes me that the only way they know to save money is to cut back and remove services. They have absolutly no idea on how to cut costs from their budget. If i am paying to much interest on something I find a cheaper interest rate. Long distance to much new long distance company. I think they should look at these types of things to save money. Does every building they build have to be a show room . Does every school have to have an archatect design it differently from the last. How bout a cookie cutter design and save. Maybe some laws protecting liability of our state setting some reasonable limits. Time for a new govenor.

Wow, that's really too bad, I like the Naselle fishery a lot, and to close the hatchery down will spell disaster for that river. Cut hatchery programs, cut police and fire jobs, cut education funding, etc,etc, etc.... I've got a better idea on how to save some money..... Let's cut some jobs at the Capitol Building, let's quit taking all of the money that's supposed to be going for fish and game enhancment and just throwing it into the general fund. I mean, look at the outragous prices we pay for our lincenses, tags, etc. Is this what our hard earned money is going to? I'll tell you what, I'm right on the verge of saying "screw the licenses and tags" and "screw the stupid ass rules and regulations" and just start hunting and fishing wherever and whenever I want, keeping the Native fish and the whole nine yards. If our state can't do any better than this, then what is the point of even trying to be a sportsman? What's the point of even trying to put anything back into the resource if it's just going to go to hell anyway?

http://www.ofm.wa.gov/budget03/reductions/reductions.pdf

They saved $1,285,000 by closing hatcheries and allocated $1,000,000 to implement the recommendations of the Hatchery Scientific Review Group whatever those may be.

it is much better to feed, cloth, shelter, provide medical assistance, & entertainment to murderers & rapists for the rest of their lives than it is to buy a $ 50 rope, get rid of millions & millions & millions of dollars worth expenses in a single day than it is to spend a single penny on such a trivial thing as recreation ...

in summary, it is pretty silly to spend money making fish just so people can recreate when there's the serious issue of criminal justice i.e. we need to spend our dollars coddling all these worthless unsalvagleable bags of crap where probably have access to better medical care than most people who log onto this BB

For a different perspective check out the Something to Ponder thread. I don't like the state cutting funding for opportunities, but maybe the funding pie could be shared a little bit more for wild fish programs, something to think about, kinda like seeing the forest for the trees, my opinion anyway.

:p it would be ineresting to know if the money that we all pay for our tags/fees etc could support our hunting/fishing/habitat programs.maybe we should get a law suit against the gov, saying our fees support our progams so spend the money on our interest!

Hey, also read "SOMETHING TO PONDER", right down the page from this, it also discusses abot hatcheries, funding. etc.

I totally agree bigone!!! Our money=our interests!!! Where do i sign?!?

Well at this rate all that will be swimming in our rivers in the future will be chubs, pikeminnows, mud doubbers and suckers!!! Get out your ultralights everybody!!!

This is not an original idea( have heard many fisherman suggest it),what about bringing back the 18$ steelhead punchcard,with the monies to go STRICTLY to the enhancement of steelhead. I realize the arguements against this.Mainly the effects on wild fish. That aside I support this idea.

I think dedicated user fees tied to licenses and punch cards is the way to go. This money should only be directed to sport fishing behalf to include hatchery programs. As it is now our license fees go into the general budget for the politicians and bureaucrats to use as they want. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Contract to a private company to raise our fish. They could do it for half the money and do a better job. Nothing like not having a competitor to keep you honest washington state.

Hatchery Reform is a federally funded look at the hatcheries in Puget Sound, how they're not working and how to make them better

http://www.lltk.org/hatcheryreform.html

Mccallister Creek near Nisqually was shut down on Hatchery Reform recomendation, and they don't raise chinook at Coulter because of it. The Hatchery Science Review Group, the brains behind the project released their first recomendations last Feb

http://www.lltk.org/pdf/HSRG_Recommendations_Feb_02.pdf

THey were for the strait of JDF, South Sound and the Stilly/Sno

Troller, I have never even thought of that idea. Higher private contractors. With all of the money that is spent by the state on fisheries you would think that these guys would use the best method. To me the best method would be private contractors. Theres always somone out there giving a cheaper bid isnt there? I think the people up at the capital have their heads stuck too far up their asses to even consider such a worthwhile method!!

Right on Max!
Cotton or Hemp?

Wow! It's amazing at how poorly you understand our legal system and the reality of the death penalty.

At last check, there are about 1300 inmates on death row in the entire United States. While the average cost to taxpayers for a death row inmate is more that a life-imprisonment inmate due to the lengthy appeals, it still represents a miniscule fraction of the total state budget.

Suspending the legal rights of people just because you want to afford a fish hatchery is example of just how misplaced peoples values have become in this country.

Let's face it, people. If you have voted for repeals of taxes in recent years, you might as well have put the padlock on the hatchery door yourself. If you don't want to pay, don't expect the services.

Well, a couple things about the Naselle and Willapa Bay. First, the Naselle has no dams and very good habitat. It should be raising wild fish for free and not hatchery fish for mega-bucks. Also, the fish raised in the Naselle very rarely contribute to the sports fishery, and instead are caught by gillnetters and sold for 20 cents per pound - these are fish that cost $2 per pound to produce. Finally, a very interesting study was done on Willapa Bay several years ago - someone looked at hatchery returns, the sport and commercial catch records, and returns dating back to the early 20th century and before hatcheries, and determined that even with hatchery supplementation the run size never increased, all that happened was that more coho returned and fewer chum, and the chinook stayed the same. Except now we have 3 hatcheries on the Willapa and spend a million bucks a year running them. This tells me that the ecosystem itself is a limiting factor - not surprising since half the esturary has been diked for agriculture, a large portion has been turned into an oyster farm complete with carbaryl spraying, and spartina has converted much of the rest of it into an exotic jungle not necessarily conducive to salmon production. So yeah, cut our losses, cut the hatchery program on the Willapa, and most importantly cut out the goddam commercial fishery

Oh yeah, and what is the matter with this state is that most of you penny pinchers vote for whatever hairbrained tax cutting measure Tim Eyeman comes up with, and you vote down any measure to raise money. So the Gov is doing what you want - cutting back government. Why aren't you all happy