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Occupy Skagit III

19K views 189 replies 31 participants last post by  gone johnson 
#1 · (Edited)
Occupy Skagit III

The last couple of springs we have gathered at Howard Miller Steelhead park in Rockport to show support for changing the management paradigm for wild Skagit Steelhead. Currently, all of Puget Sound Steelhead are considered by the ESA as one Distinct Population Segment (DPS) and as such are listed by them as threatened to become an endangered species.

The decision can be read here:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2007-05-11/pdf/E7-9089.pdf

The decision covers all of Puget Sound from the Elwah to the Canadian border, every piece of fresh water between these two points that dumps into the sound is affected by this listing. The health of each individual run is not considered on its own merit, but instead the entire area's steelhead are tainted with the aura of "nearing extinction". While this may be true of many streams affected by the listing it is not true for all of them - the Skagit in particular continues to return healthy escapement numbers. These numbers can be seen to be fluctuating up and down in what many consider to be it's carrying capacity zone.

Scientists can argue over the numbers, their validity and what they mean but here they are in ten year increments:

1978 - 5,757 (the first year that I can find for WDFW escapement numbers)
1983 - 7,732
1993 - 6,900
2003 - 6,818
2013 - 8,800
Last season, 2014, the escapement was 8900+
The projection for 2015 is 9130.

The goal of Occupy Skagit is to restore the Catch and Release Steelhead season on the Skagit that used to run for Feb 1 - April 30.

In order for this season to be granted by NOAA and NMFS, a basin specific Steelhead Management Plan agreed upon by all parties, WDFW and Tribes, needs to be submitted and approved.

Is it possible?
Very much so!

Is it being done?
Well, not exactly. Although the major stockholders are all in verbal agreement that a C&R season will not impact the future of the run, apparently, no one is spearheading a mangement plan. This has to be unacceptable! We started this conversation with them two years ago!

Our goal this time around is to get this Skagit Steelhead management plan officially started. We need to have a WDFW employee attached to this plan. And we need it to happen now.

There is a new director in Olympia, and he needs to hear from Occupy Skagit. Send him and the Commissioners an email.Ask them who is in charge of writing the management plan and how to contact them/him about its progress. If you know how to contact any of the Commissioners personally, ask them the same questions. Push, push, push. Email: commission@dfw.wa.gov
Commission Website: http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/
We've never pushed an email campaign before but I think we need to now. Having met the commissioners several times, I know that a hand written letter to them will also go a long ways. Take five minutes out of your day and communicate with these officials.

The Commission hearing from you is the single most important thing you can do at this point.

There are two events scheduled; Rockport is fun, but the real deal is in Olympia.

Occupy Skagit III - April 4th 2015
Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport

Commissioners Meeting
Friday - April 10th
8:00 AM - Public Input
Capital Event Center
6005 Tyee Drive SW
Tumwater, WA 98512

Directions - http://waeventsctr.schoolwires.net/domain/97
 
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#186 ·
BBD -
A great question; there is only a decade left in the WFC/WDFW settlement agreement.

Two things are going on that will affect the answer to your question. The first is the "gene bank" question and what the final decision will be. The wild fish conservatives are pushing hard for the entire Skagit basin for a gene bank. If successful that would effective close the door for any other potential management options.

The other is the question about the development of a "wild brood stock" program as a replacement for the early Chamber's Creek program. So far that has had difficulty gain traction but does pose some interesting questions.

My best guess is that for at least this generation the system is locked in on whatever the natural production levels the basin can support. Long term the population will continue naturally ebb and flow just as steelhead populations have done for 1,000s of years. I also expect that we as a society continue to erode the productive of the basin through either degradation of the habitat or climate change both the highs and lows of that ebb and flow will continue to decline over time.

Curt
 
#188 ·
Thinking on Smalma's remark, TIC or not, I was thinking about all those thousands of wild steelhead that are going to be returning to PS rivers because of the termination of stocking hatchery steelhead. As it happened, today I had the good fortune to see and hear a presentation of an analysis of the effect of hatchery summer steelhead on wild winter steelhead on Oregon's Clackamas River. Since the beginning of the hatchery program, and it is a BIG program (mitigation by PGE for dams) they passed the hatchery steelhead above the dams along with the wild winter steelhead.

Research showed that timing kept the summer steelhead from spawning with the winter runs, so that is good, but the large number of summer steelhead escaping could have set up competition among summer and winter juveniles. They stopped letting the summer runs past the dams to avoid the adverse effect of the hatchery steelhead. ODFW (Kostow 2006) initially reported that the winter steelhead population rebounded. This is probably part of the support the Wild Fish Conservancy used to make its anti-hatchery case. Unfortunately, Kostow's report contains a significant error about the wild winter run escapment, and now with more years of data to analyze, the current researchers report no measurable effect as a result of keeping the summer steelhead from passing upstream of the dams. As it turns out, the Clackamas winter run goes up and down at about the same rate as other wild winter runs located in the same general geographic area. Sound familiar?

Sg
 
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