TAKE ACTION: Help Create Wild Steelhead Sanctuaries in Washington

A VERY important action alert from the Wild Steelhead Coalition

Help protect and recover threatened populations of wild steelhead in once prolific Puget Sound rivers by telling Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to establish strong, effective wild steelhead gene banks.

Among other culprits of steelhead decline, hatcheries are a contributing factor to why Puget Sound steelhead populations have plummeted to roughly three percent of their historical abundance. Decades of management that prioritized hatchery plants at the expense of wild steelhead returns are part of why these incredible fish are now listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  

Recognizing this problem, the Wild Steelhead Coalition and its members have worked tirelessly since its founding to mitigate the negative impact that hatchery steelhead have on their wild counterparts, including seeking to reduce or revise hatchery plants in watersheds with sufficient potential for wild steelhead recovery. But now more than ever before, we need to take action.

Through years of hard work and extensive collaboration with Native Fish Society, Wild Fish Conservancy, and the Conservation Angler, we have been able to take important, incremental steps to help reduce the negative impacts of steelhead hatcheries. However, in all of our years of work, we have never before had an opportunity like this in Puget Sound to use public input and the best available science to transform rivers into wild steelhead gene banks where the harm of hatchery steelhead will be forever eliminated.

While the creation of at least three wild steelhead gene banks is required under Washington’s State Steelhead Management Plan, WDFW has significant latitude over how many rivers and which rivers they designate as gene banks. With hatchery proponents working furiously to limit these designations to three smaller tributaries, it is critical that wild steelhead advocates make their voices heard and establish river basins that have diversity, abundance and will provide refuge through a changing climate.

Over the next two weeks, WDFW will be hosting three meetings for citizens to express their opinions publicly on the designation of Wild Steelhead Gene Banks. Please attend one of these meetings and make your voice heard.  

• Public Comment Meeting – Tuesday, July 21 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM in Seattle at the Phinney Center: Room 7 (6532 Phinney Ave N)  
• Public Comment Meeting – Monday, July 27 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM in Mount Vernon at Skagit PUD (1415 Freeway Dr.)
• Public Comment Meeting – Tuesday, July 28 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM in Sequim at Trinity Methodist Church (100 S Blake Ave) 

A comment form is also available online for those of you unable to attend the meeting but wishing to submit comments.