Local, state officials discuss fishery issues

Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday hosted Jeff Koenings, head of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and state Representative Brian Blake and Senator Brian Hatfield in a discussion of fishery issues.

Commissioners had requested the meeting in response to two major issues that occurred this year--the reduction to 12 days of the spring salmon recreational fishery on the Columbia below Vancouver and the decision announced this summer to install fish trapping weirs to eradicate hatchery chinook salmon in the Elochoman and Grays rivers.

Schuyler Hoss, southwest Washington public liaison officer for Governor Chris Gregoire, said the commissioners got the governor’s attention this summer with resolutions from Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, and Pacific counties and several municipalities and port districts complaining about the adverse impact of the reduction. She formed a harvest advisory group which includes county Commissioner George Trott, and she asked Koenings and his staff to address the issues.

Koenings said he and the department staff understand the feelings of local officials and residents, and they’ll try to support them.

The department’s mission, Koenings said, is to provide use of the resources and to maintain and enhance the resource.

Unfortunately, the issues regarding salmon are complicated with many factors coming into play.

In regard to the short salmon season, in which commercial fishing only occurred upriver from Vancouver, Koenings noted the closure was negotiated with the state of Oregon, which wanted to protect a small hatchery run to the Willamette River.

That was a major concern of lower river fishermen, both recreational and commercial, commissioners said, for Oregon allowed continual recreational fishing on the Willamette until fish managers realized the hatchery run was going to be smaller than they expected.

“The problem is the urbanites,” said Commissioner Dan Cothren. “We co-exist on the lower river, commercial and recreational fishermen. But the urban population in the I-5 corridor is continually after all the fish.

“This urbanite deal, what you saw last year, that can’t happen again.”

“We have to work together,” Koenings said. “We’re here trying to let you know that there are constraints that you can help us with. Money is a concern.

“Oregon produced the fish; they felt they should have a chance to realize the economic benefit, but they realized that downriver people were affected.”

“After that fiasco on the Willamette--we can’t let that happen again,” Cothren said.

“I don’t think it will be as one sided,” Koenings said. “We as a department recognize the value of the fishery to the communities on both sides of the lower river.”

Commissioner George Trott added that the Oregon fish managers “short changed their constituents” by limiting fishing to the Willamette Valley.

“Yes,” Koenings, Oregon fish managers realize the move was a mistake and that there will be different rules next year.

As for weirs and eradication of hatchery salmon, Koenings said the federal government is driving that through enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.

Federal fish managers want wild spawning fish in lower Columbia tributaries, not hatchery fish. It will take several years, but by eliminating hatchery fish from the spawning beds, naturally spawning salmon will recover, the federal officials say.

Federal funding is also part of the picture, Koenings said, and there isn’t funding for improvements to the Elochoman Salmon Hatchery, which is being closed and forcing the relocation of four families of staff members. The department will re-open the Beaver Creek Hatchery for limited steelhead production.

Koenings called the overall plan a good plan for getting the hatcheries and department in compliance with the ESA.

“Without the changes, the federal government has let us know they would reduce harvest rates,” he added.

The proposals have drawn much opposition from Wahkiakum residents.

Western Wahkiakum residents recently collected 96 signatures on a petition for the department. The petition simply states, “No weir in Grays River. We, the undersigned, say no to the installation of a weir near the Covered Bridge in Grays River for the purpose of killing more salmon by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.”

Commissioners Cothren, Trott and Blair Brady expressed displeasure with the Grays River weir.

Cothren said the program was poorly publicized.

Blake and Hatfield asked for reports on the returns to the weirs, and they said they would be aware of department funding needs in the coming legislative session.