URGENT!
We severely need you to send a letter to WDFW Director Jim Unsworth, Guy MIller Skokomish Tribal Chair, Will Stelle Previous NOAA West Coast Administrator, and Barry Thom newly appointed NOAA West Coast Administrator and tell them to fix the Skokomish River Fishery and reopen it to all!

As all of you know and recognize the growing loss of recreational fishing in our great state. The recreational community is getting severely damaged in the fight to save our fisheries. We are seeing unprecedented moves to take our fisheries away. Thanks to those of you that showed up at the Skokomish Rally at the George Adams Hatchery, protesting the removal of sport fishing on the Skokomish river.

To date nothing has changed and we need you to send as many letters and emails as you can by Sept 20th at the latest. Your letter has to state that these fishing representatives must get together to get the Skokomish River reopened to recreational fishing for the 2017 year. It can be done!

We are seeing a growing trend of fishery closures being forced upon the recreational community as these power plays continue. This is not a conservation issue but a fishery takeover. An opinion from the Solicitor General told the Skokomish tribe that the division line in the middle of the river be moved over to the Hunter Farms side of the river. This is a travesty and the state is planning on challenging it. This will take time and this river needs to be open for the 2017 season.

Please write an email today. It does not have to be long but persuade them to do the right thing. Ask Director Unsworth to meet with Guy Miller, Tribal chair, for the Skokomish Tribe to work together and reopen the fishery for 2017. We have many more upcoming issues and WDFW is asking for quite a large increase in our license fees while our fisheries are in a death spiral. We cannot agree with this. Don't sit by and do nothing. You don't want to look back at this day and say I should have acted. These are your fisheries! United We Stand, Divided We Fall!

Thank you for your support.

These are the names to cut and paste in your email address.
barry.thom@noaa.gov, will.stelle@noaa.gov, gmiller@skokomish.org, jim.unsworth@dfw.wa.gov,

Follow up PSA Letter by Ron Garner and ideas for you in it:

August 15, 2016
Dr. Jim Unsworth, Director, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
1111 Washington St. SE
Olympia, WA 98501-1091

Mr. Charles "Guy" Miller, Chairman, Skokomish Tribal Council
Skokomish Indian Tribe
80 North Tribal Center Road
Shelton, WA 98584

Mr. William Stelle, Regional Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115

Gentlemen:

This is in follow-up to my June 27 letter to Mr. Miller on behalf of the Puget Sound Anglers and other groups protesting the closure by the Skokomish Indian Tribe of sport salmon fishing in the lower Skokomish River. The letter (copy attached) sought a meeting with Mr. Miller and requested that the Skokomish Tribe reconsider their historic decision to deny non-tribal recreational fishing for hatchery Chinook salmon in the lower Skokomish River. Unfortunately, and disappointingly, no meeting or other direct communication was achieved. The closure was very difficult to understand and accept because it was arbitrary and unjustified. There was no conservation reason for the closure. The result is a windfall harvest by the tribe of wild and hatchery Chinook.

A well attended citizen's protest gathering was held on Saturday, July 30 at the George Adams salmon hatchery. It was covered by the media, including the Kitsap Sun and other publications. On Tuesday, August 2 KOMO 4 NEWS aired an excellent report with footage of the Skokomish River teeming with Chinook. It was announced at the gathering that no recreational fishery would occur this year, because the Skokomish tribe would not allow that to happen. Attendees were understandably very angry to hear this. The loss of sport fishing opportunity is significant and has set in motion very negative public expressions and demands that the fishery be restored.

This letter is a direct result of the July 30 protest rally. We agreed to ask your three entities to begin working together now to insure the Skokomish River is open in 2017. All of you have a key role. Once the co-managers reach agreement on a fishery we understand that NMFS has to approve that fishery before it can be pursued. The future of the George Adams hatchery is at stake. Keeping this hatchery operational is in the mutual interest of us all. In order for the hatchery to continue it must provide significant benefits to the public which is paying for its operation, either by utility rate-payer mitigation monies, general fund tax dollars or sport fishing license sales generated wildlife funds.

Another issue that surfaced during our July 30 rally was the proposed transfer of eyed sockeye eggs to the new Skokomish Tribal sockeye hatchery from the Baker Lake sockeye hatchery. This too is contrary to public interest. Brood stock was taken from the Baker River fish trap at Concrete this summer to produce eggs for the Skokomish sockeye hatchery at the expense of the Baker Lake recreational fishery and possibly other higher priority conservation needs, including sustaining the Cedar River sockeye run in the Lake Washington basin. We believe the priority must be saving and restoring existing sockeye runs before pursuing a startup of a new and very uncertain run in the southern Hood Canal basin. This is an issue that should have received public airing and discussion, and covered in a formal agreement.

We sincerely believe that cooperation is in everyone's best interest as we must all strive together to save and restore fish habitat and maintain hatchery salmon production - as Lorraine Loomis said earlier in the year, which I covered in my June 27 letter. The public, under the leadership of three significant sport fishing organizations, should be accepted as an important partner in the making of fish management decisions. We are in a position to influence the outcome of much of fishery management because our representatives serve in the state legislature and we help elect the governor. This is especially true now that the state is considering hefty sport fishing license fee increases in part to keep hatchery production going. Those hatcheries where the state receives little public benefit will be expected to rank low on the funding priority scale.

Puget Sound Anglers are working closely with the Coastal Conservation Association and the Steelhead Trout Club on the Skokomish River recreational fishery closure issue. Our three organizations collaborated very well with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, NMFS and three northern Puget Sound Indian tribes this past year to successfully overcome the Wild Fish Conservancy's legal challenge to the Puget Sound early winter hatchery steelhead program. That cooperation should be viewed as a model for resolving other fishery issues.

We respectfully ask that you advise of your intent regarding reopening the Skokomish River next summer to recreational fishing. We need to know that by October 1 as we prepare for the 2017 legislative session. Obviously, we would welcome a meeting with you or your representatives to discuss what it will take to reopen the river to recreational salmon fishing.

Sincerely,
Ron Garner
President
State Board
Puget Sound Anglers
206-730-0469

Cc: Lorraine Loomis
WDFW Ron Warren
Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission
Senator Maria Cantwell
Senator Patty Murray
Congressman Rick Larson
Governor Jay Inslee
Senator Kirk Pearson, Chair Senate Natural Resources
Senator Pam Roach, President Pro Tempore

Just a quick correction about who provided this opinion for the Skokomish Tribe. It was not the Solicitor General, a law officer with the U.S. Department of Justice, but simply a solicitor for the Department of the Interior. Two completely different folks.

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