Below is a reply from Rep. Anderson and my reply back to him. Don't give up, keep sending those e-mails and letters, let them know who the customer is!

Dear Rep. Anderson, Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your candor and your efforts on researching other sources for funding of the Reiter Ponds facility and helping save our puget sound summer run program. Please keep up your argument, many of us value this sportfishing opportunity and the WDFW and other legislators need to be made aware of
this. It seems like a sportfishing opportuniy this popular should be reviewed a little more prudently, It seems pretty hasty to fund new
inititives when there's one that already provides a very popular opportuniy for many of us sportfishers. Thanks for your support!

Sincerely,

Rich

--- "Anderson, Rep. Dave" <anderson_da@leg.wa.gov> wrote:
> Dear Rich,
>
> Thanks for forwarding me your e-mail message to Senator Loveland.
I have been arguing in the House Natural Resources Committee (of which I am
a co vice-chair) that it was silly to fund new initiatives for warm water
fish without first revisiting the taking away of funding of Reiter Ponds. I was gaveled down and glared at by the chair of the committee for even bringing it up!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Dave
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich s [mailto:rks57@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 5:39 PM
> To: Loveland, Sen. Valoria
> Cc: Jacobsen, Sen. Ken; Regala, Rep. Debbie; Buck,
> Rep. Jim; Chopp,
> Speaker Frank; Snyder, Sen. Sid; Anderson, Rep.
> Dave; Sump, Rep. Bob;
> SOMMENS_HE@LEG.WA.GOV; Huff, Rep. Tom
> Subject: Reiter Ponds Hatchery Funding for Summer
> Run Steelhead
>
>
> Dear Sen. Loveland,

[This message has been edited by Rich (edited 05-18-99).]

Heres a reply I got. Dear Bruce,
Thank you for your e-mail message regarding Reiter Ponds. I appreciate your
support of hatcheries.

I have been working with Ed and Gail Stein on this issue for many months.
While we still do not have any solid solutions, we are getting closer to
finding a long-term solution. We have not stopped working on the funding
for the Reiter Ponds Hatchery.

Representative Edwards and I are now working with Representative Dunn, the
Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Snohomish County PUD to create a
long-term solution. Snohomish County PUD is under contract with the
Department of Fish and Wildlife to contribute fish stock and help with
hatchery maintenance costs. We are hoping to renegotiate their contract to
keep Reiter Ponds open. We are currently organizing a meeting between these
parties and will hopefully have some answers soon. We only have until July
1 to come to an agreement.

If this long-term solution does not work, we also can work with the
Department of Fish and Wildlife's operating budget or the capital budget to
fund the hatchery short-term. This is an option we've only begun to look
into.

Thank you again for your message.

Sincerely,
Senator Rosemary McAuliffe
District 1

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Sent: Monday, May 03, 1999 7:43 AM
To: McAuliffe, Sen. Rosemary
Subject: Good morning.


Good morning. I'm back to ask you to help fund Reiter ponds hatchery. The
WSDFW says the funding has been cut and the summer run hatchery will be
eliminated. Many of us that grew up in this state remember the GREAT fishing we
used to have. Why do they keep closing hatcheries? We used to have the funds
and the state economy is very healthy right now. Too many breaks to big
business? Do you have to spend the money on the Puget sound chinook we have
been asking to save for 20 years? Salmon/steelhead should not get by with
minimal funds! We should be investing in the future and expanding
enhancement and dramatically increasing funding. They talk about commercial
fishing but what about the sports fisherman? Whole communities have been
ruined. Sekiu, Ilwaco, Westport (the salmon capital of the world..remember?)
Many of those same areas lost logging too. Sports fishermen out number the
commerial by aleast 100 to 1. All those taxable sales of hotel, gear, gas,
food, boats, motors, repairs etc is lost, not to mention the state is not
selling 1/2 the licenses it used to. Save our salmon/steehead. The sportsmen
probably spend enough in sales tax on coffee, lures, etc on the Skykomish to
pay for the hatchery. Thanks for your time.
Bruce

From Rep Hans Dunshee written
May 18th 6:00pm.
Things are not going well here, the house Republicans are on board, but the
senate is breaking down and becoming nonfunctional. Our Snohomish county
senators are advocating for Reiter hard but the leadership is from Pasco and
Longbeach and just aren't listening. As of this moment I am not as
optimistic as I was yesterday. We may have to work on the agency again who
express some realization of the importance. I will keep you informed.
Hans

Dunshee said it was important to contact Senator Harriet Spanel
concerning Reiter Ponds. If you can find time to call or email her it might
help our cause. Senator Spanel e-mail address is: spanel_ha@leg.wa.gov
(Harriet Spanel)
or her phone # is: 360-786-7678.

I wanted to let you know that I am doing everything possible to secure
funding for the Reiter Pond Hatchery.

Sincerely,

John Koster

PS. Here is the text of a memo I sent to the Governor's Chief of Staff
today:

5/18/99

Office of the Governor
Attn: Marty Brown/Deputy Chief of Staff

Hello Marty,

Reiter Pond Hatchery is located on the Skykomish River just a few miles east
of Monroe. It is responsible for collecting brood stock and taking eggs for
all Puget Sound summer Steelhead trout. Without continued funding the
summer Steelhead program in Puget Sound will be terminated starting July 1,
1999. In addition, approximately 20 % of the winter Steelhead production
will be terminated with the closure of Reiter Pond. The cost to operate
Reiter Pond is $130,000 annually.

Marty, in a year when we are being asked to make multi-million dollar
investments in salmon habitat, it is incomprehensible that we cannot secure
funding for a relatively inexpensive hatchery operation that is a proven
success.

Again, Reiter Pond affects the entire summer Steelhead program for all of
Puget Sound. I urge you to do everything within your power to encourage
Governor Locke to support the allocation of the needed monies to continue
this worthy operation as a line item in the reworked Capitol budget during
this special session.

Sincerely,

John Koster
786-7816

That doesn't sound good if Harriet is the one we need to get on our side. Isn't she the one who introduced the bill to effectively end all catch and release steelhead seasons with the Wildcats backing her? We helped kill that lousy piece of legislation and this may be her revenge. Yes, it's f@#$ed up logic but it may be the case. Has anyone ever had a reply from Harriet about Reiter?

Bruce

Kind of a weird democracy isn't it? one person (Spanel?) can carry so much clout and power to make a decision that effects 200,000 steelhead anglers. That's twisted!

Maybe in our lifetime we will get people making reasonable decisions who understand the issues. Decisions made by outdoorsmen that effect outdoorsmen.

Whatever happened to a stable funding of programs that offered opportunity which increased license sales which made for a positive public image of our officials which made all sides happy?

Pretty sad!

I sent Senator Spanel an email anyway. I know she supported fish bonking but isn't that what you do with planted steelhead anyway? Have a hatchery and give them something to bonk!

They got what they wanted. The Grandy Creek Hatchery, as I understand, was funded during the last session.

TK

Just happened to notice the state approved more funding for capital improvements to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. The final budget that emerged from Olympia includes 2.6 million for capital improvements for the hatchery bringing the total now to 6.6 M. With all this money available for hatchery programs, seems like they should be able to come up with the measly $130,000 to fund Reiter. Oh well, if the summerun program at Reiter gets shut down, at least we can look forward to fishing those old black smelly kings in Lake Sammamish for years to come.