A wdfw employee told me that the state may settle out of court to avoid court costs and close some hatchery steelhead releases in the state to conform to the Washington Trout Lawsuit. Some of the rationale is to save money by not going to court and not having to pay for steelhead production. Any one with an opinion or heard anything like this???

Interesting. Now if this is the case, let's hope the future regulations reflect the sport(not closing all fishing etc.) without damaging what is leftover -in terms of wild steelhead numbers.
Darin

Opinion? Yes, sure, but remember, it's worth just about what you're paying for it. WT can do as it wishes, but if trout and salmon conservation are really its priority, I think there are other proceedings they could be involved in that will result in more future trout and salmon than these lawsuits will. Hatcheries do reduce wild salmon production in some regions, but Puget Sound chinook, altho close to WT's headquarters, isn't where the most serious problems are. My opinion.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Yeah, ain't this great. While WT fiddles around with one of the more benign impacts to our salmon populations our legislators are pushing Port of Tacoma and agriculture lobby sponsored bills through that would limit WDFW authority to regulate projects like dredging, pile driving, tide gates, and bulkheading. No habitat = no fish. An no intervention in this madness by WT or anyone else who supposedly cares about fish means no habitat. While Nero fiddles, Rome burns

with the politions of Washington forced by the voters to do more with less funds things like sportfishing will always be some of the first things cut

I think a sportfishing lobby is in order........



Good Fishing,Darin

Gerorge "i hate the environment" Bush increased funding for the national hatchery programs from 15 mil to 58 mil to mislead americans into thinking that he is for sport fishing. of course this will do nothing and conditions will worsen due to the deluge of anti environmental legislation going thru congress right now(pushed by both the repubs and dems) Gale Norton is the single largest threat to our fisheries and when they get done with their "timber practice reform" we will be back to 100 to 500 year floods every year due to dramatically increased flooding that washes all eggs out to see!

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