The following article is an excerpt from the Friends of the Cowlitz monthly newsletter Riverwatch. Although it appears the plans for the hatcherys have not been finalized there is still a need to be concerned. If Tacoma Public Utilities has their way there will be no fish in the Cowlitz to worry about. It seems to me the director of WDFW has sold out to big money. Politics and fish, the fish always lose. Talk about Microsoft being a monopoly, how many power companys offer you a deal to switch to them? The Cowlitz is where I caught my first and come to think of it my last steelhead This river has been the number 1 and 2 producer of steelhead in the state for years, almost all of you I'm sure have heard of or fished the Cowlitz. The E-mail address for Friends of the Cowlitz is foc@quik.com Web page is www.friendsofthecowlitz.com Lets get together guys and gals and make sure the big money doesn't do any more damage than they have already done.
RAMPRAT
Tacoma Power Relicensing; How many times has that been written about and discussed in the pages of Riverwatch over the past four years? Quite a few times, as editorials and just informative articles in order to keep you informed as to what progress was being made, if any. Well it is time to bring you all up to date again. Our complaint that we filed with FERC over the original license issued to Tacoma for Cowlitz Project 2016, Mayfield and Mossyrock Dams, and the failure to meet mitigation on numbers of returning adult salmon and steelhead has progressed to the 9th Circuit Court (Federal) in San Francisco, with oral arguments probably sometimes this fall. We are going to follow this one through to the end result, whatever it turns out to be.
As far as the present relicensing is concerned, I for one am very unhappy with the wording in some of the sections of the latest draft of the Agreement In Principle (AIP). Tacoma is still attempting to include the discontinuation of the rearing of what they call exotic fish (summer-run steelhead, early winter-run steelhead, tiger muskies, smallmouth bass, etc.) Within the Cowlitz Hatchery complex. They would also like to decrease the coho numbers being reared and released into the Cowlitz because of the large numbers that are returning as adults to the system. The only species that is doing even remotely close to mitigation numbers, and then only the last couple of years, and they want to down size the program. This type of thinking, quite frankly, makes me angry as Hell! The Cowlitz River has always had summer-run steelhead and early winter-run steelhead and historically was one of the largest producers of coho in the Columbia River Basin. To even discuss cutting back on any segment of the steelhead runs and to think about downsizing the commitment to coho productions is absolutely ludicrous to my way of thinking. The Cowlitz River has had all of it’s fish runs decimated by the hydro-electric dams that Tacoma Power built in the early 1960's and Tacoma should do whatever it takes to restore these runs to as near historical levels of returning adults as possible. Anything less would be a gross dereliction of their duty to the resource. And of course there is our dear Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), who seem to be afraid to exercise their right to enforce the original mitigation agreement when it comes to the numbers of returning adult salmon and steelhead to the system. They should be holding Tacoma responsible for the lost numbers of fish over the period of the existing license at the very least. Instead, the director of WDFW seems to have ignored his own staff people and signed the AIP that went out May 8. His own staff people are wondering why he did this without consulting the people who have been working on the issue. The director of WDFW and his staff from Region 5 should be standing firm and together when it comes to hatchery rebuild and configuration, hatchery production, volitional passage, instream flows and a genetics program. Instead, at this point anyway, it looks as if the director has caved into Tacoma and is allowing them to call the tune. This is wrong, as WDFW has the statutory authority to enforce the old mitigation agreement until a new one is signed and / or until a new license is issued by FERC. Why are they allowing Tacoma to call the shots? Are we, the sport fishers who call the Cowlitz our river going to sit idly by and let Tacoma kill our summer-run and early winter-run steelhead production and the tiger muskies in Mayfield Lake? I certainly hope that the sport fishing community has enough backbone to stand up to Tacoma Power over these issues and will make themselves heard in the halls of the state legislature and in the Senate and House of Representatives in Washington DC.. Maybe legislative pressure will do what public pressure seemingly hasn’t. And while we mention elected officials, we would be remiss to fail to mention our own Lewis County Commissioners, who while they did negotiate a settlement of an agreement between themselves and Tacoma Power over property taxes that were lost due to the two large impoundments on the Cowlitz River, totally ignored the anadromous fish resource that is the heart of the Cowlitz. In the past the Cowlitz River and the runs of anadromous fish that swam in it supported one of the wests’ outstanding sport fisheries for steelhead, sea-run cutthroat trout and three species of salmon (coho, spring chinook and fall chinook). At one point in time there were four sporting goods (fishing tackle) stores operating above Toledo that catered directly to the people who came to fish the Cowlitz from, literally, all over the world. And that didn’t count every grocery store in every small community along the river selling fishing tackle and groceries to people who came to fish the Cowlitz. It would be interesting to know how much tax revenue has been lost to Lewis county due to the lack of anadromous fish in the Cowlitz River. There are only two of those four tackle shops I mentioned still in existence, the others closed up for lack of customers. There used to be probably forty to fifty guides who called the Cowlitz River home. Most of them are either gone somewhere else or have had to get into another line of work. All of this because, for whatever the reason, that adult returns of anadromous fish to the Cowlitz River have essentially disappeared. It is time for WDFW and NMFS to hold Tacoma Power’s feet to the fire and make them repair the harm they have wreaked to the Cowlitz River sea-run cutthroat, salmon and steelhead. We have more listed (ESA) species in the Cowlitz Basin than any other river in Washington State (maybe on the west coast) and no one seems to be overly concerned with this fact. How can WDFW, NMFS, USFWS or any other agency even think about allowing Tacoma Power to downsize any rearing effort that would support sport fishing on the Cowlitz. You know we can have both the preservation and rebuilding of naturally spawning fish and hatchery produced fish to augment the sport fishery in the lower river (below Mayfield Dam). I think it is time for our membership to unlimber their collective fingers and write to the Wildlife Commission about this attempt to do away with so-called “exotic” fish from the Cowlitz. Part of Tacoma’s mitigation has to be the continued supplementation of a sport fishery for salmon and steelhead, and sea-run cutthroat trout, in the Cowlitz Mayfield. The Governor’s office should be made aware of this blatant attempt by Tacoma to dodge their responsibilities on the Cowlitz, which is detrimental to everyone in Washington State, not just those of us who live and work in The areas adjacent to the Cowlitz basin. If you belong to other sport fishing groups, such as trout Unlimited and Puget Sound Anglers, get your local charters to write letters in support of the resource. Everyone needs to come out smokin’ on this issue or we will see our fishing opportunity on the Cowlitz river disappear.. And make sure that everyone knows that downsizing the coho production at the hatchery isn’t an option at this time. If this message sounds like a plea for help that’s just what it is. We need letters from everyone to stem the Tacoma movement to get rid of so-called “exotic” fish. If we lose the summer-run and early winter-run steelhead there won’t be much left to fish for on the Cowlitz with any regularity of opportunity. Contact Friends of the Cowlitz office if you need addresses or information to write those letters. This is a battle we can’t afford to lose, and of course Tacoma feels that they have to win this one also, so don’t let up on the pressure that you can bring to bare.