Of course the private sector can do it, too. What they don't know now, they will learn. Nobody thinks government employees are somehow more capable of aquaculture (or anything). That's never been what this is about.

I think people that think this is evidence that we need to get the government out of operating hatcheries would do well to consider what's happened to public access to fish and wildlife since the State saw fit to lease all our land to private logging companies. It's not hard at all to imagine a time when our WDFW license won't entitle us to any hatchery fish, and with the wild fish circling the bowl, just what do you think that leaves us?

Private companies exist for the sole purpose of creating profits. Creating hatchery fish for sport fisheries doesn't create profits. So just what do you suppose any self-respecting company would do when given the choice to sell their fish for commercial harvest or just create them so sport fishers can have an opportunity to catch them?

The government work that is most valuable to citizens is the work that pencils out on a corporate balance sheet most poorly. Seek to make that work "more efficient" at your peril.

The mitigation requirements would be the same, right? I don't see how it makes a difference to our fishing rights (or lack thereof) if WDFW gets paid to raise the fish or if someone else gets paid to raise the fish. Either way, they are just acting as a contractor to produce fish that are required to be produced.

The problem with WDFW is there isn't much honest, institutional desire to get it right. Failure is fine as long as the money was spent, everyone followed the process that's in place, and everyone collects their paycheck.

Mitigation fish are just that and who raises them is not really a issue to the mitigation only the ones paying the bills and the ones raising the fish. I find it amazing that someone would think that WDF&W could do anything cheaper than the private sector. If the facility is intact and the NPDES permit ( discharge permit ) is in the owners name then it is just moving bodies. Frankly the private aquaculture folks have way way higher standards as if they screw up they loose money. If you have not noticed that is not the case for the state employees.

To the bit back some on wages. The state facilities are manned per union contract. Private facilities have skilled positions and unskilled. Skilled positions pay reasonably well but the non skilled positions much lower. This is the case with the state as they contract out mass marking manning so those folks get around minimum wage. The average hatchery for WDF&W pays up for all positions if they are full time. Do the job requirements require that wage structure. Nope about 50% of a state hatcheries positions pay way more than skills required for many things.

Think of it this way. To build a 777 requires huge investment in people and skills cost so the planes do too. Can Boeing build a business jet as Gulfstream does? Yup but lord at what price? That overhead load cannot compete in thin margin highly competitive aircraft. WDF&W's structure by itself dictates that they are very pricey.

After that this. The state hatchery folks were and are some of the greatest folks to work, ( mostly ) It is not them it as they do their jobs but rather that cumbersome top heavy system that is process driven rather than results orientated. That simple.

Even if a private company were to take over operations, it'll still be funded by the state & feds. If you've seen how public funded construction by private companies is constantly going over budget then you'd know what would happen to our hatcheries. Anytime there's tax dollars funding whether by gov employees or a private firm being contracted there's always bloat and waste

On construction cost the state is way way past private as they do the designing. Any changes required are not the contractors but rather within the design. I have seen projects blown by contractors but it is usually a design flaw or management failure. State projects run with prevailing wage that applies to the contractor also. Any construction project designed and built privately is going to be way under state cost as long as it is free of the state government. Hell the admin on a state funded anything can run between 25% and 50% and gets worse if federal funds are involved.

The old joke was if the state did a pamphlet on how to use ass wipe it would be 50 pages long, color photos, and cost 10 million to design before publishing. It is what it is.

i wonder if a private entity be allowed to work employees 10 days in row without overtime like wdfw does now? ...

LOL

Little lipstick on the pig would help the optics!!!!

this is why i feel sorry for anyone entering fisheries or aquaculture nowadays...especially since most of these people have degrees of some sort and have student debt...the people you work for hate you,think you're a bunch of lazy ,undeserving scum...you wonder why you didn't get the raise the bios and techs got(10 percent raise )and you didn't? as a tech and bio i'd get OT after 40 hours...even in private aquaculture i'd get OT after 40 hours...get out while you can....if you have a CDL you can make more driving for safeway....i know someone that quit wdfw and drove for safeway and retired 10 years earlier than if he'd stayed in hatcheries...

it's a dying career unless you can be the one guy at the top.....

I need an experienced dump truck driver in the Olympia area.
Pays well, health insurance, and 401k.

Nearly impossible to find a decent dump truck, lowboy, side dump driver in Central Washington now...private scale $25/hr (and Davis Bacon work depending) with medical and 401k also. Our guys are getting max hours also...

I have a masters of science and help manage restoration projects. My typical day this time of year is driving a dump truck or excavator, spraying herbicide from a huge truck tank and just doing grunt work..In the winter I do a lot of site visits, planting, and set up the new projects for the summer construction season. We have lots of hours, good benefits, and steady work. It feels like we are working for a noble cause and we are typically contracted and need to do good work to get work.

Anyway, we have a hard time finding good workers because everyone qualified coming out of college thinks they should not be doing the types of tasks we do. Seems like every young gun just wants to work with fish and wildlife and design and plan but not sweat and get dirty. Its pretty sad that so many in the environmental movement have this short list of what they find acceptable tasks. I wonder how bad gov is this way.

Ive always jumped at the opportunity to get paid to learn any skill since I feel it makes me more valuable, but sometimes when I am being interviewed for my dream job I feel it is a knock that I do what I do because I must be dumb to not get paid to sit at a desk and email all day.

There are bigger problems than budget in the environmental type job area. The key employees that get the work done and dirt under the nails are greatly undervalued and the people who email all day are over valued and kid themselves that they are irreplacable or the most important. The more I see it the more I want to start my own contracting company. I think I could easily lap many of the gov government subsidized companys I see.

Absolutely true!!

The constant pounding on public sector employees as a group by politicians as well as individuals ultimately ends up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When I started out in the business you started in the field. That did include some construction of needed equipment, trap installation, and all sorts of data gathering.

Not to pick on WDFW (but it so much fun and so easy), look at the org chart. Where did folks come from?

Used to be that you started at the bottom and worked your way up. And the stairway could lead to the Director/Deputy Director level. Now, if you start as a Tech or Bio 1 there is often a ceiling at the divide between science and policy. Policy folks come in as low-level policy folks and move up.

But, before we blame WDFW, how many colleges have field courses where you actually handle the animals? The UW hatchery is now closed, at least the salmon part of it. Too much learning is looking at a computer screen.

Unfortunately the only fish exist in the office so there is little work to be done in the field.

time goes faster when you're outside......that's what i always liked...screw the office..

lots of new folks have gone to hood river or bellingham tech etc...where they do get to handle fishes a little...or worked in alaska or oregon and lots have volunteered/temped before getting on too......the UW people seem to end up more on the fisheries side of things ...

there's also turf wars between the fisheries side and hatchery side....not much crossover allowed...if you were in hatcheries it's hard to get a bio/tech gig...and vice versa...


another tough aspect is that hatchery folks in general seem to be a bit more conservative.....lots of hunters/gun rights types and not a lot of fans of wild fish...and some dislike of big government and 'socialism'(even though they're benefiting from 'socialism' by working for the gov't) so they vote conservatively. unfortunately, the people they vote for are the same ones that don't want to give them a raise....or get rid of them altogether...

Bottom line is you cant save fish or grow fish at a desk, and thats where budgets are going.

If you want to work outdoors and be close to the fish and other critters, you need to get into enforcement. It's dangerous, but never routine.

no doubt about that... the only boats on north puget sound are ferries, game wardens and poachers...

Tug was a good one.

Ain't many left.