Are fishermen an endangered species?

I am completely confused regarding the actions being taken at the Hansen Wildlife Refuge. Supposedly there is a concern that the present road/dike will be breached by the Columbia River and there are no funds to fix it? Yet millions will be spent to build a new dike and road that does not go along the Columbia River.

In addition they have removed many deer that lived in the refuge and in so doing killed about 25 percent of the ones they tried to move and now I learn that many of the moved deer have died as well bringing the total lost to over 50 percent. Somehow none of this makes any sense.

Why are millions being spent to flood a small area of this refuge and lose the access that many fisherman have had to one of the best bank fishing areas in the whole county? Why not take a few dollars and repair the existing dike and not take the lives of this "endangered species?" Ordinary citizens can not hunt these deer yet government officials can kill dozens in the name of refuge repair!

Not only do I have these questions but I see the cars and trucks out at the refuge belonging to workers on this project and many of the plates are from California! Have they hired an out of state contractor? The dollars spent to "repair" our refuge will go out of state?

As I said in my opening none of this makes sense, I hope the Eagle does some investigative reporting to get to the bottom of this nonsense!

Eric Skemp

Puget Island