From our friends at Wild Steelhead Coalition…
Dear Friends and Supporters of Wild Steelhead,
Some of you may already be aware but the BPA has proposed funding a significant expansion of hatchery facilities on the Klickitat. The programs which alleges to be designed to reduce the impact of non-native fall chinook and coho on ESA listed wild stocks would actually lead to an overall increase in the total number of fish released in the watershed, including continuing to release 4 million fall chinook. Equally disconcerting, they would expand the number of skamania smolt released annually to 130,000 and possibly (likely) initiate a wild broodstock steelhead program with a production goal of 70,000 smolts. They also plan to expand the spring chinook hatchery program by 200,000 smolts taking broodstock from the extremely fragile spring chinook stock. The YKFP with the free money they get from the BPA is completely out of control with pro-hatchery mania and in my opinion this proposal would place the future of wild summer steelhead and spring chinook in the basin in serious peril. Any idea what we might do to stop it?
Here’s a link to the EIS on the proposed changes, none of which result in a net reduction in hatchery releases:
http://efw.bpa.gov/environmental_services/Document_Library/Klickitat_Hatchery_Program/
Thank You,
Jim Schmitz
V.P. Membership
The Wild Steelhead Coalition
www.wildsteelheadcoalition.org
