I talked to a couple of fishermen this weekend who were under the impression that because Reiter has been saved(for now) that the summer run program on the Stilly would continue. It is my understanding that no summer run smolts were planted this year on the Stilly and that there are no plans to continue the program. Does anyone have any official word on what the status of this fishery is? If this is true, and additional funding is nessesary to keep Reiter going, are there plans to raise money for some of the rearing ponds Reiter supported?

You are one hundred percent right on that. I spoke to Kurt Kraemer, WDFW fisheries biologist for the Snohomish and Stillaguamish drainages, and was told that there are no plans to reactivate the summer-run rearing program at Whitehorse. There were none reared there this year, and therefore no smolt releases this spring(meaning no two-salt fish in 2001). The apparent reason is that there has been "no input from the flyfishing community". The result of this policy will be no summer-run steelhead above Deer Creek and a lot more pressure (and incidental mortality) on the native Deer Creek fish. All of us fly guys and anybody who fishes the mainstem Stilly have to write Director Jeffrey Koenings, Deputy Director Larry Peck and Region 4 Director Bob Everitt. If you can find out who has replaced Bruce Crawford as Fish Management honcho in the latest purge, you might write him too.

------------------
PS

Preston, I've been beating a drum on this. The first thing we had to do was keep Reiter from dying because most if not all summer plants come from Reiter. Now we need to make sure other systems in the PS area get summer plants and not just the Sky. It's especially difficult for the NF Stilly because if you don't fly fish for steelies there's no concern about. And then there's the elitist group of flyfisherman who view all hatchery fish as evil, but they can't see the forest for the trees on the Stilly. The Big News is WITHOUT THE HATCHERY PLANTS ON THE NF THERE WON'T BE A OPPORTUNTY FOR SUMMER STEELHEAD IN YOUR FLY ONLY WATER! Without the summer plants they will not let us fish the NF because all that would be fished on is depressed wild stocks. Ask Kramer how many hatchery stock mingle with the wild stock on NF and I bet he will tell you zilch. Any way enough ranting. It might be a good idea to put your above post on the virtual fly shop pacific NW BB. Maybe some of the fly fishers will be able to see the forest for the trees.

I don't think that you will find many fly fishermen on the N. Fk. Stilly who oppose the stocking of hatchery fish. I would say that at least 90% of the fishing pressure on the Stilly is above the mouth of Deer Creek and, therefore, targeting hatchery fish. The Whitehorse Rearing Ponds are a perfect example of the proper uses of hatchery fish; to provide an excellent fishery that would not otherwise exist, with no impact on the river's native stocks. As a matter of fact, Kraemer told me a month or so ago that there is virtually no interaction between the wild Deer Creek stocks and the Skamania-derived hatchery fish. I, like most other people had assumed that funding of Reiter Ponds would mean funding of the satellite rearing pond facilities as well. At the moment, Whitehorse Ponds will remain in use as a winter steelhead rearing facility only.