Jim,
I was just thinking these guys might see you as a source to get their finger on the pulse of the sportfishermans opinion. Since I haven't heard much from you on the issues I was wondering what angle they would come away with. I'm not worried any more. Thanks for the E-mail.

Salmo G
Since the salmon hatcherys were mainly built to mitigate damage done by dams,agriculture ect., I see the cost of these $40 fish as a subsidy for these dam related industries, not the sport and commercial fisheries. If these salmon were reproducing in a natural river,they would cost $0. Another thing related to this that I am troubled about is the cutbacks and phasing out hatcherys. I know they have real problems producing fish, but what will take there place? We traded wild salmon runs for dams and hatcheries and now the hatcheries are going away but the dams shure aren't. It is getting hard for me to see where this salmon recovery mess is going. Got any glasses?

Neanderthal, Excellent point the only problem is when the hatchery fish create the illusion of abundance and the managers allow too many wild fish to be harvested, All that could be worked out I'm sure but as of yet it has not and until they can come up with a cohesive plan for managment I for one will continue to call for reductions in hatcherys.
I will also try and keep focused on the biggest problem facing the continued exisitence of wild salmonids and that be it dams or other exploitation of the riparian zones is going to have to be addressed by the executive and legislative branches of the state government.
At present there is no clear leader in the goal of riparian restoration someone will at some point come forward I hope it will not be too late.

Jim, the problem is finding a candidate who is not tied to big buisness. I guess I would ask them if they gave damm at all about Salmon. Of course you won't get an honest answer. Any body who runs for a high political office in this state will have close ties to big buisness. And big buisness doesn't give a hoot about Salmon or any environmental issue. Sorry to be so negative.

Ask them if the huge influx of people to WA state has changed the values of the F&W dept.
Are there so few "native" Washingtonians that remember how it was that no candidate cares? I would venture to say MOST voters have no idea how much we have lost or don't care.

jim, many of these questions are great, but many are out of the realm of control of any governor. remember, we voters took the power of appointing the WDFW director away from the governor and gave it to the commission. the main questions need to be about policies that they can control or have funding decisions about. hatcheries and enforcement are two funding issues they can deal with, along with fully funding the department. also, the next governor will have some say in what habitat measures will be taken to ensure wild salmon don't slip into oblivion. another good question is what type of people will he appoint to the commission, and imo this is the most important regarding day to day management decisions within WDFW. will he appoint commercial fishing representatives, recreational fishing interests, environmental interests, industrial interests, etc?

cb