If I recall for tribes Steelhead are Steelhead so in the Chehalis that is something one would have to work out. The other side is if no hatchery winter Steelhead then not much to harvest as to winter Steelhead. There would be issues to work around such as Springers Porter up and certainly Newaukum and Skookumchuck were they mainly spawn. Lower tribs no issues and if thought out the upper basin is doable just have to think things through and no willy nilly crap.

I imagine the tribes would want there share but that is doable. Looking at the escapement numbers if we did everything right and nature cooperated it would take the better of 10 generations to maybe get the Chehalis Winter Steelhead healthy. Late Native Coho which are tangled up with Steelhead longer. For those that think the Steelhead crisis will be over in a few years you would be wrong.

It might take some horse trading such as you get summers we get winters (at least to a 50:50). Might be an opportunity to work with the tribes on a long-range actual recovery program for all the stocks. Maybe, with the right folks involved, one could trade this for that and get larger easements and resulting runs.

Rather than always putting patches on a sinking ship, why not build a whole new one?

Closed winters with an increase plant on summers? Sign me up.

Sounds like some momentum building on a shift to Summer's at least in GH. How can we turn that momentum into action? I'm getting ready to retire and want to finally start to get involved. Or, as I hear all the time, is it a waste of time/effort?

The conversation has been around for years but never went far as the agency pulled by commercial and tribal interest have to much clout. In fact there was the time when Mr. Peck was Deputy Director that staff and locals tried to chart a new direction. To accomplish such a thing would not happen over night that is for sure but numbers wise it is possible. With Winter Steelhead in the dumpster and not likely to recover any time soon to continue to produce even the mitigation fish is going drive harmful harvest. Now I am not advocating relieving WDFW of there responsibility but rather redirect harvest. So Steelhead Nooch mitigation, Nooch Summerrun program, Steelhead Skookumchuck Mitigation, drop Late Coho at Bingham as wild Late Coho are just hurting like hell and with out looking up the numbers would put us at about 400k.

Skookumchuck Coho Mitigation is another 300K late timed that frankly it is doubtful anyone will have access to. If normal timed Coho were done instead it would be of little use to either tribal or non tribal fishers. So right there your at 700K with no monies needed that are not already being utilized. Other options are available but one could get to close to a million with some normal timed Coho changes.

Additionally a low cost change that would benefit tribal and bay fishers is Aberdeen Lake Hatchery move to Chinook production and I think they could do about 2.5 million release. Some Wynoochee Chinook follow the Van Winkle water as the industrial pipeline from the nooch flows into the lake which gives you a zero loss brood. Years back TU and others purchased equipment for the hatchery and they got to 400k release in short order, the hatchery manager Robert Paulsen received an award for a WDG hatchery doing Chinook, and the WDFW harvest managers creamed their collective shorts and that was ended.

Hatcheries can be used to produce fish for harvest and not destroy native or wild runs, it just takes a different mind set. Different mind set being key words as if WDFW was the Titanic they would 500 ft under still telling the passengers don't panic that they got it under control!

About the mind set thing. Those who follow the Chehalis will recall I cleared the moon when Regional Director Larry Philips advocated and pressed for changes to Wynoochee Coho mitigation. Not no but hell no was where I was after damn near 30 years of WDFW failure to meet its obligation. Well after some time and looking at things in a different way I realized I was wrong. The nooch wild Coho could not take the additional pressure and doing the required yearly numbers on the nooch with the make production for years not done on the Satsop is just about the only way to get it done. You see it is the mind set thing we are all guilty of it!

Summer run are better eating and far more fun.
Sign me up.

I guess my question would be, how do we get the ball rolling of at least vocalizing our opinions to Region 6? I understand these wishes would be going against commercial and tribal net fisheries, but it’d be good to know that the department is aware of the interest in such an endeavor.

Simple as calling the Region 6 offices?

Seabeck,
I usually email Larry Phillips or one of the bios at the Region 6 office. I have talked to Phillips and Curt Holt a couple of times on the phone. You can get their phone #s and email addresses off the WDFW website. In fact I just emailed Phillips today with some steelhead questions.

Awesome thank you. Good to know they are receptive to communication, even if it’s barking up a tree.

Thank you and I will follow up also. I think a shift from winter to summer Steelhead production could be a real shot in the arm for the recs state wide and would be so much fun! Why would the tribes object? Start with systems without tribal influence. Cowlitz, Toutle, Elochoman, Kalama, Washougal, some might have EIS restrictions? Give the tribes there winter allocation, which participation lacks anyway, and give them summer also. Oh, wait netting success for summers is a different game altogether. I like the ideas of trading. Rob Peter to pay Paul.

My suggestion would be for a group that is truly knowledgable about the watershed and stocks and issues to get together and begin to draft a comprehensive plan that includes Rec, Commercial, and Tribal. Ensure that the rec side looks at the whole river. Also, have some folks whose goal is to actually see fish on the grounds rather than in the bottom of any boat.

Get a plan together to where it makes some sense but don't worry about perfection. Then go to WDFW with a plan with numbers and have them tell you why that won't work.

The argument will be that much stronger if escapement numbers are much higher this year without tribal and rec fishing pressure. Definitely gonna be following them closely. Not a favorable comparison vs last year so far but it’s still very early.

When looking at escapement since 07 Steelhead have made escapement twice 2013 & 2016. The difference between Chehalis Basin Salmon and Steelhead is the upper Chehalis Steelhead are really hurting and the years we make or get close to escapement it is because the Chehalis tidewater tribs over perform and it is just the opposite with salmon. So even if the numbers improve one year you still have everything above tidewater in the dumpster long term. Also just because you see and increase in redds by no means does that automatically smolt out migration will do likewise. If anyone wants the escapement spread sheet let me know and I will get it to you. For some reason the Skookumchuck and Newaukum returns are grouped together and the Newaukum is the most productive. Even then since 1996 they have only made escapement twice.

Seabeck and RnG, I emailed Larry Phillips this morning with some Grays Harbor steelhead questions. He wrote back to me this evening wanting to talk and discuss the questions either by phone or in person in the next couple of days. He even offered me coffee if I met him down there at the region 6 office. I told him I would talk to him on the phone maybe tomorrow or the next day. He sounded like he was very receptive to the recs thoughts and feedback.

Rvrguy… yeah, I’d love any info you can provide. In my thirties now, and feel like I’m constantly making up for lost time/experience/knowledge when it comes to this stuff. Only got into volunteering and getting involved recently.

Lifter.. awesome. I’ll have to shoot him an email too. So good to hear they’re open to dialogue. If nothing else, to know where a portion of rec fishers stand on things.

Seabeck, he said he wants to hear from any recs. See if it does any good.

email address?

What you would need to do this or something.? Someone in the agency that has clout and is a forward thinker. When the team I was part off went at it we had Deputy Director Peck who was one of the most forward thinking individuals I have known. He brought in others like Hal Michaels, Jim Scott & Paul Seidel and lets not leave out our fave Sara.

So Mr. Philips appears to be willing to do something in the basin but this, he is regional Director and staff in the divisions report to the Olympia blockhouse. If he does want to try a different path it is a start.

What to watch out for? The infamous lets get all the stake holders together and meet several times a year which is a dead end which it is intended to be. Do not meet with anyone with out a written record that both parties agree is accurate or it is best minutes of the meeting. Stay away from phone calls as they are the best way to create confusion so use e mail so all see the same thing. This is important as our first meeting Mr. Peck stood up and said " we are here so everyone hears exactly the same as to what I am saying and no confusion exist among any of you " I think I missed a couple of words but I think you can get the drift.

A key player is the person who does the minutes. The staffer that did ours is known as Carcassman here and frankly he was great to work with! Now some in the agency did not share our thoughts in that way as he had this thing about capturing the full flavor of the meeting which is not the agency way.

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