"The Friends of the Cowlitz get the staff

Well once again WDFW have managed to put the screws to our Cowlitz Summer run fishery. For almost 20 years now the Friends of the Cowlitz (FOC) has reared hundreds of thousands of summer run steelhead in their off station rearing sites so that sport fishers could spread out there fishery instead of the zoo zones around the Cowlitz Hatcheries. They have been tremendously successful at doing this with net pen projects at such places as the Askins Gravel pit just above the Toledo Bridge and the Wallace Gravel pits down below the I-5 boat ramp.

Hundreds of thousands of summer runs have been imprinted to these local areas where these pits are located along the edge of the Cowlitz River so that sport fishers could get away from the zoo fishery at Blue Creek and the Barrier Dam. The FOC has spent hundreds of thousands of both man hours and funds so that we sport fishers could have the opportunity to enjoy these fish that are meant for sport and harvest needs on the Cowlitz. During the development of the new Cowlitz River Fish hatchery Management Plan (FHMP) the WDFW asked for public impute and developed a group of sport fishers and small business owners to represent the sport fishers best interests in Cowlitz River Advisory Group. That group had well over 16 separate meetings lasting at least 4 hours or more each.

They had the "fishing guides" and all the "local sport fishing groups" and local fishing merchants and even fishing lobbyists to represent all of fishing interests on the Cowlitz. Never once did the WDFW mention anything about eliminating the FOC's summer runs rearing projects in any of those 16 different advisory meetings. In fact, members were even asked by the WDFW staff to locate new offsite rearing areas along the Cowlitz to raise additional fish for sport fishing needs. All Advisory members were given a copy of the new FHMP (the August 5, 2011 Draft) to read and to make comments to, but the WDFW did not support giving the public any more then two weeks of time to make any public comments on the new FHMP. The August n5 at was the only FHMP that the public was ever allowed allowed to see, read, or to make public commit on.

Now, we have just found out that the new version of the FHMP that was turned into FERC is a different FHMP version then what was given to the Advisory Group members to read and make comment to. Apparently, behind closed doors, in some special secret dealings, our dear WDFW has now approved a different FHMP that puts all of there eggs into one basket and eliminates all rearing of the FOC summer runs on the Cowlitz. This deal was all done in secret, without any public viewing and some WDFW heads should now fly! How on earth can we support our trust our WDFW when they do secret back door deals such as this one? This game is not over, and there are people and groups that intend to take this to the commissioners if these secret deals are not corrected.

According to the story that WDFW is telling us now, is that they are now concerned about summer runs "straying into a couple of the Lower Cower Tributaries". That story may carry some weight if it was true, but here's the kicker and the facts to their story! WDFW told the advisory group that THIS WON'T BE ANY PROBLEM IF THEY GOT FUNDING TO PUT IN THEIR NEEDED WEIRS IN THESE TRIBS. The advisory group accepted their BS and blindly supported WDFW requests for these weirs, and WDFW got the money from a special Lower Columbia fund that all sport fishers had to purchase if they wanted to fish in the Lower Columbia or its tributaries for the past two years now.

WE were told by WDFW that these weirs would stop any straying with hatchery fish and that we could continue to increase the numbers of hatchery produced summer runs from 550,000 thousand to 650,000 if the weirs were in place. But they flat out lied! Now WDFW is telling us that they are afraid that the off site summer runs will "stray" and that they now must raise all of them at their hatcheries that they get funded to run.

Maybe some of you can tell us why the FOC summer runs stray more then the WDFW summers runs do? The FOC summer runs are reared at River Mile 28 and River mile 35, while WDFW summers are at River Mile 42 and 49. What kind of a fish biologist with a degree can support such ludicrous assertions that a couple miles difference in a fifty mile stretch of river is really going to matter when you have weirs in place at the tributaries of concern?

This may be one of the WDFW biggest blunders ever on the Cowlitz when it's all said and done!"Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook?

You have to wonder how much more pressure this will put on the remaining OP and northern summer run rivers as fisherman branch out in search of summer fish.

Is anyone on the Cowlitz happier with less fish?

yeah, its gonna make things way worse....

it all comes down to money now, noone gives a crap about the fish... wild or not....

its all about cash dividends...

Well they are dead set on screwing up our fisheries up here in the north end so I would assume the same incompetence prevails down there also!


Fishy

2Many... I moved down here in 1994. Was invited to a monthly meeting at FOC HQ in Toledo by a nice guy who was using his bulldozer to clear my stump and brush like yard..... One meeting at FOC, I'm now on the Board of Directors. WTF ? Corky, Reid, Becker, Glaser, Westergard, Mako..... R U Kidding me ? That only cost me a few thousand bucks in the seperation lawsuit.

Welcome to region 6 fisheries management!

It's cheaper and more fruit for the buck to just head up north anymore to get a quick fix.......May need to start only fishin once a month instead of every weekend possible.The once a month trip would involve a airplane ride up to AK in the spring / summer early fall.Then late fall winter / early spring the plane ticket would be for some place down south to warm up and get the moss off my back...........This states fisherys are suckin.Good luck,
SZ

Black Bart when your naming name don't you think you should give up your name.Thats the norm for WDFW if TP tells WDFW to jump they ask how high.This is not the first time this has happend.

No Problem Fossil

My name is Marvin Pearson. FOC did not work out so well for me. I was always the guy from the Seattle area. Any Idea I had, just was not a good idea because it was not Corky's idea. Funny thing is, after the lawsuit, Corky, Becker, Glaser, Mako, Westegard and the rest of the fools, had FOC all to their own selves. Membership plumeted, angry, up in your face negotiations, were the norm for them. How's that worked out for ya?

I then spent two full years trying to help out Clancy and his makeshift band of misfits fishing guides in the late 1990's during the relicensing discussuions of Tacoma Power's Hydroelectric projects. I had no job and was one of the few of them who could even turn on a computer, so I volunteered my time.

Go ahead Fossil... Mention my name to any of the old FOC guys and any of the old Cowlitz fishing guides, I'm sure you will get a very mixed review of what people think of me.

Now if you carry with you this experience, can you believe the WDFW is interested at all in recovering runs of other species?

It is critical to NOT recover fisheries if grant monies and Fed support is the primary issue.

Did a light just come on?

Also, to recover any ESA listed species requires that the causes of listing be eliminated. Since the root cause of the listings can be traced back to increasing human population, so long as there are listings folks will be able to try and control growth, development, logging.

A delisting would get the Feds out of local managemnt. Lots of folks don't want that. being able to both blame and get money from Uncle Sugar is a "good thing".

Not like the south fork is in logging area....

2Many,

Since WDFW has installed the weirs in the lower tributaries to deal with any straying fish (that the steelhead genetics study shows wasn't much of a problem anyway), why don't you ask Pat Frazier what the real reason is for cancelling FOC's smolt rearing program? Saying it's to prevent straying doesn't pass the chuckle test now.

Sg

Everybody needs to be watching the stocking reports on there local rivers, WDFW is notorious for shaving off 10-15k fish each year until there isent any fish to catch in the river, then like cows all of us just move to another river following each other stupidly! They know that we don't pay very close attention, and that there is little we can do.

Friends of the Cowlitz has done so many wonderful things over the years for the river. This is so insane, I want WDFW gone and the hatcheries individually owned. We could save a ton of money and put it all into individual hatcheries on rivers, where there could be brood stock runs for wild fish and tons of hatchery fish. Pat Frazier is the absolute worst thing that has happend in the last 5 years to our fishing. He makes me absolutly sick!!! All Pat cares about is fish that no body can or wants to eat. Wild steelhead, Chum and Tules!

I don't want massive amounts more hatchery fish then we already have, but when you have fished 25 years around Vancouver, WA and now you look around and about the only rivers to fish anymore are the Columbia, it's sad, and we have Idaho to thank for most of those fish, a great state and wonderfully ran department of fish and wildlife. Our tributaries our really suffering. Prime example is the N.F. Lewis, big huge new hatchery, and almost zero Springers returning, they cut numbers off the winter steelhead, and made dramatic cuts to the Summer steelhead fishery. But they have tons of money to spend on a huge hatchery, and now have way less fish then when it was small??????? Wheres the sense in that?

As an FYI the hatchery(ies) on the Lewis are mitigation, paid for by the companies that built or operate the dams. WDFW puts little or no of its "own" (state taxpayer or license holder) money into hatchery maintenance/upgrades.

You caught how many,

Maybe Pat Frazier cares about wild steelhead, chums (LCR), and tules because they are ESA listed and it's his job to manage the region in ways that promote the recovery of those ESA listed fish. It's not reasonable to blame him for problems he didn't create.

Sg

Just read this thread, and Salmo here is a link to Tacoma power current draft FHMP: http://www.mytpu.org/file_viewer.aspx?id=2855

Section 3.4.1 states "Introgression from hatchery stocks is a significant concern in recovery planning for the ESA-listed Lower Cowlitz population. For this reason, the early winter-run program will be terminated."

This language implies that what you say above is incorrect. Don't know which genetics study you're referring to, but the FHMP in Section 3.4.1 goes into detail that the genetics of the straying hatchery steelhead in the Cowlitz are actually fairly expansive and problematic. At least that's the take I get reading through it.

The plan says "concern" I believe Salmo was referring to actual data. He was also talking about summers, not winters. The concern with summers is strays into tributaries. Fences across the trib mouths keep the non-local fish out.

So, what is the real reason?

Rojo,

I realize that is what the FHMP says, and generally speaking introgression of hatchery genes in wild populations is a concern, but the degree of introgression in actual wild steelhead sampled in the Cowlitz tributaries for the Cowlitz steelhead genetics study show very low introgression even though those streams had been stocked with hundreds of thousands of hatchery winter steelhead fry in years gone by.

And as Carcassman mentions, weirs have now been installed on these streams. So the state reason appears moot. Either there is a different reason, or the managers are ignoring what the data say.

Sg

Is this the genetic study?
Click: WDFW 2010 Cowlitz steelhead genetic relationships

No offense carcassman, but I believe this seems to be saying the same thing as the draft FHMP, and I would call it 'data'. Sorry if you were referring to summers, as I thought this was about winters, and if it was Page 14, 3rd paragraph: "The risk of future introgression and/or ecological impacts appeared to be greatest from the hatchery early-winter run stock" (Chambers, Puget Sound stock), same page 4th paragraph "We think our current results show that introgression has occurred."

Oh and by the way, do weirs stop returning unmarked fish who came from two hatchery parents spawning in the wild?

"Oh and by the way, do weirs stop returning unmarked fish who came from two hatchery parents spawning in the wild?"

I thought America had an open door policy?
This is about money and big business. On a local, state, and federal level. The ones that are profitting could give a chit about our love of fishing and catching.