reiter ponds steelhead

some of you may be aware that the funding for reiter ponds has been in jeopardy for quite some time now. i attended a meeting in snohomish this morning with 2 wdfw reps,rep hans dunshee, and the aide to rep koster. the govenor has included funding for reiter in his supplemental budget which the legislature will start addressing on monday(01/10). unfortunately the budget only calls for about 90k(40k below waht is needed per year). if you fish any system planted w/reiter summer runs it is imperative you contact your representatives and urge them to allocate the full 270k required to fund reiter foe the entire biennium. this will cover the 130k wdfw has taken from the wildlife fund to operate reiter this year and fund it for 2001 as well. if we lose reiter summer run fishing as we know it will cease to exist and we will never get it back. there was also talk from us sportsmen that the dept should bring the steelhead permit back with wording that the money from them would be dedicated to steelhead hatcheries and not go into the general fund. any thoughts and feelings?

I think it would be great if the monies from a steelhead permit went back into the steelhead fisheries and not the general fund. If you could post or email contact numbers, I would appreciate it.--mike

i think we should start returning the steelhead like the cowlitz.i once checked into this and they said it takes more money to release the fish than to kill them.how much more does it take to lift the gate and let the fish out.zero.once they spanwn the fish they go to the food bank or the mission and sometimes the food bank doesn't even take them. where do they go garbage.that rite there would cut back on funds and still let us have our fish in the future. we should talk to bob drewll of sno county and see if can get future funding.i have a prviot meeting with sno county this coming week on some other steam projects i'll see if i can make some waves on this matter.

Isn't it funny how years ago Gov. Gardner made a deal whereby if he got to choose the WDFW director, the dept would have "steady, reliable funding" from the general fund. That funding philosophy still exists today even though the director is now voted by the commission(people). Really paid off didn't it? The money is there-it's all (and always will be) political and politics will always dictate what the dept. gets and doesn't get.

I've argued and bitched about adequate funding for years to no effect. There are SO-O-O-O-O many options to raise dollars for hatcheries and broodstock programs. Steelhead tags, $1.00 tax each time you buy fishing gear, lotteries, raffles....it's all been proposed to the commission, gov., legislature but that doesn't seem to be what they want.

There is a hidden agenda when OUR commission, dept, gov. and legislature has no ingenuity or desire to pursue innovative funding options-it's not hard!

Maybe it all comes back to sportfishers inability to unite as one voice statewide to get what we want?