non-selective non-tribal salmon fishery columbia river "now": Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

FishNorthwest was created by the NMTA. Their purpose is to support the PNW boating industry through lobbying natural resource policy makers to maximize and even increase fishing and shell fishing opportunity. Their original message was that they could do this working in cooperation with the tribes and commercial fishing interests. That message changed quickly to exclude the portion regarding the tribes and commercials when some of us publicly questioned the sanity of such an insinuation. There is little if any details available regarding this organization and boater and I both spent quite a bit of effort looking for it. I do know that Tony Floor and Curt Smitch are part of the organization. Curt was the former director of the WD of Game then WD of Wildlife. During his tenure in that role he was officially petitioned by the Quillayute tribe in the early 90's for foregone opportunity access to the states unharvested share of the Quillayute wild winter steelhead. He granted them permission to do so and justified it by stating that sport fishers were unable to fully harvest their share due to their harvest methods. What he chose to do set a legal precedent for foregone opportunity. After merger of Wildlife with Fisheries into the current WDFW he then became the governors natural resource policy advisor. During those years he opposed the Stordahl gravel mining proposal on the Lewis watershed due to environmental concerns. Following this he became involved with the Fed's in the PNW salmon policy arena where he was instrumental in assisting Stordahl with acquiring a Federal Habitat Conservation Plan(HCP) which would essentially allow gravel mining from the river without any environmental restrictions to speak of. He is now a partner in a natural resource consulting firm which includes Stordahl as a customer. I don't know about anyone elses opinions but I have my doubts about any organizations, including the NMTA, concern for the fish that has as part of it's leadership a politically influential person with such a track record. I also wonder about the NMTA position in regards to commercial fishing as that industry is a customer of many of that trade associations member businesses? I suspect that FishNorthwest is also supported by the back room influences of the Washington state Salmon Mafia who really like their special catch and bonk trophy Chinook fisheries in Grays Harbor and Willapa bay and elsewhere.

Any questions?

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