I believe we accomplished our goal yesterday of showing support for the statewide release of wild steelhead with no exceptions.
In a packed room at the Cascade Park Inn, the commission began taking public testimony at 1:30pm. It was scheduled to go until 3:30, but due to the number of speakers, it lasted to 4:30. The people for wild steelhead release far outnumbered those for killing. I don't think there were more than a dozen of them. One by one, fishing clubs from Bellingham to Vancouver, fishing guides from Puget Sound and Forks, Trout Unlimited, and the Wild Steelhead Coalition stepped up to voice their support - gear fishers and flyfishers, people wearing flannel, people wearing fleece, elitist-liberal-flyfishers and gearchuckers, radical-right-flyfishers and gearchuckers, Orvis types, Loomis types, St. Croix types, Cabela types, Sage types, along with cityfolk, countryfolk, suburbanfolk. The parking lot was filled with new SUV's, pickups, small cars, and big cars in various colors and shades. And sitting behind the speakers, I believe I saw just as many red necks as white necks. We were all united behind this single issue. It was great to see and hear. Additionally, the commission received hundreds, if not thousands, of letters, email and written testimony from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, British Columbia, and the east coast as well as numerous position papers, including the 100-page paper from the Wild Steelhead Coalition. This should provide a lot of late-night reading for the commission members. The commission will vote on the 2002-2003 sportfish rule proposals February 8-9. Keep your fingers crossed. We're gonna win a biggie. Leland.
