1st Washington wild steelhead management zone established

Wild Sol Duc Chrome

In a victory for wild steelhead advocates, Washington State has established it's first Wild Steelhead Management Area in the Sol Duc River. The WSMA is a direct result of the department's decision to end the Snider Creek hatchery program which was influenced by 400 public comments generated though the collective efforts of advocacy groups and media outlets, including this site. To those of you who took the time to submit a comment favoring ending the Snider Creek program, take pride in knowing that you helped make a difference for wild steelhead in Washington State.

Thanks to the Native Fish Society, Wild Steelhead Coalition, Osprey Steelhead News, John McMillan and Dick Burge who were on the leading edge of this effort.

NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
February 8, 2012
Contact: Ron Warren, (360) 249-1201
 
Sol Duc wild steelhead management zone
established; Snider Creek program to end
 
OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has announced it will end a hatchery steelhead program at Snider Creek next year to establish a wild steelhead management zone in the Sol Duc River.
 
After next spring, no hatchery steelhead will be released into the Sol Duc River, which will be the first wild steelhead management zone formally established in the state under the department’s Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, said Ron Warren, regional fish program manager for WDFW. Snider Creek is a tributary to the Sol Duc River in Clallam County.
 
Wild management zones, also known as wild stock gene banks, are designed to preserve key populations of wild fish by minimizing interactions with hatchery-produced fish, said Warren. Research has shown that hatchery fish are often less genetically diverse and can impact wild stocks through interbreeding or competition for food or habitat.
 
WDFW is also looking to identify other streams that could be candidates for wild management zones, said Warren. That effort includes working with an advisory group to identify specific streams in the Puget Sound region.
 
“Establishing wild management zones is part of a broad effort aimed at modifying our hatchery programs to be compatible with conservation and recovery of naturally spawning salmon and steelhead populations,” Warren said. “Shifting hatchery steelhead production away from the Sol Duc River – where we have one of the largest wild steelhead populations in the state – is an important step in that effort.”
 
Changes designed to support naturally spawning salmon and steelhead populations are driven by plans and policies adopted by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission, such as the Statewide Steelhead Management Plan and the Hatchery and Fishery Reform policy, Warren said.
 
The Statewide Steelhead Management Plan is available on the department’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/fisheries/steelhead/, while the commission’s hatchery and fishery reform policy is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/policies/c3619.html.
 
While the hatchery program will no longer take place at Snider Creek, WDFW is working with stakeholders to re-establish a similar effort in the Bogachiel or Calawah rivers, where the department already releases hatchery steelhead, said Warren.
 
The program will end next spring, when 25,000 winter steelhead smolts are released into the Sol Duc River, Warren said. Last year, WDFW also discontinued its summer steelhead program on the Sol Duc River, after releasing 20,000 smolts.
 
Before making that decision, WDFW conducted three public meetings and reviewed about 400 public comments on the future of the Snider Creek program.
 
While fewer and fewer hatchery steelhead will be returning to the Sol Duc River in the coming years, anglers will continue to have opportunities to fish for salmon and other game fish, as well as retain one wild steelhead per license year on the river, said Warren. 
 
The Snider Creek program was created in 1986 as a joint project with the Olympic Peninsula Guides’ Association to increase fishing opportunities for steelhead on the Sol Duc River. The program is unlike most other hatchery efforts in that it produces offspring from wild steelhead rather than hatchery fish.

TAKE ACTION FOR WILD STEELHEAD!!!!

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will soon be making a decision regarding the future of the Snider Creek hatchery on the Olympic Peninsula's Sol Duc River. This decision will be driven in great part by the comment process so please read the alert below from the Wild Steelhead Coalition and take action for Wild Steelhead.

Despite the overwheming evidence that hatcheries harm wild fish, the reliance on hatchery programs  continues unabated. After decades of failed steelhead hatchery management policies you have a chance to win one for wild steelhead. The period for comments ends on June 30th so act now and tell the WDFW to close the Snider Creek Hatchery.

Please note the automated comment option via the Native Fish Society link below the WSC alert. It just takes a couple of minutes if you prefer not to cut and paste your own message to the WDFW. Either way just do it!!

The Wild Steelhead Coalition is asking for your help to create a wild steelhead reserve in the Sol Duc River.
 
We need you and your friends that are interested in saving wild steelhead in this river to write the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) quickly and tell them it is time to establish wild steelhead gene banks and management areas where wild fish can reproduce without the impacts of hatchery fish.  
 
This action will allow the early run of wild stocks to recover genetically and productively to a level similar to those of the 1950s—prior to hatcheries—and create an early fishery as valuable as the late winter run.  
 
Over the last 25 years the Snider Creek Hatchery on the Sol Duc River has negatively altered the genetics of the population, reduced its productivity and encouraged increased fishing effort for hatchery fish, which has been detrimental to the wild run.
 
We must break the old and very bad paradigm today of hatcheries being integral to steelhead fishing on every river or sit back and watch wild steelhead continue to decline in Washington and possibly become listed in the remaining open rivers just as they have in Puget Sound and the Columbia River tributaries. That’s five out of the seven major populations in Washington where wild steelhead are in major trouble and as a result, the fishing effort on the Olympic Peninsula has increased rapidly as other rivers in the state are closed.
 
Only careful scientific management, as we propose for the Sol Duc River, can stop the downturn in the wild stocks and initiate rebuilding toward recent historical levels.
 
Send a short message to the WDFW today: snidercreek@dfw.wa.gov
 
You can cut and paste this into your own email or use it to write you own message:
 
1.   Close the Snider Creek Hatchery

2.  Establish a wild gene bank and improved wild stock management area on the Sol Duc River

3.  Conservatively manage the Sol Duc wild steelhead stock for stock rebuilding, including gaining information on how to manage other wild stocks. This should include a full season fishing to understand how to conduct a fishery in wild stock only areas.

4.  If politically necessary, provide hatchery fish during the month of January in the Bogachiel River by splitting the production of the Bogachiel hatchery, planting half timed to return in December and half to return in January.  This hatchery is in an over-production mode and this action will help remove more hatchery fish from the Bogachiel spawning grounds.  We do not perceive that this change will further damage wild stocks in this river or elsewhere.  

5.    Do not move the hatchery to the Calawah River or establish a wild stock gene bank in the Clearwater River, a tributary to the Queets River.
 
If we lose this battle, we can assure ourselves that wild steelhead will remain fully impacted and continue to decline everywhere over time. This is the time to win a battle in the closing of a steelhead hatchery and begin their removal or reduction on other rivers that use them for steelhead. This decision will set a large example in how hatcheries are regarded in the efforts to recover Puget Sound wild steelhead and how Olympic Peninsula steelhead are managed in the future.
 
The period for comments ends on June 30, 2011 so please take five minutes for the fish and do this immediately.
 
Together we can help improve the wild steelhead runs in the Sol Duc River and continue the fight for wild fish for the future.
 
Sincerely,
 
Richard Simms, President
 
Richard Burge, VP of Science
 
Discontinue the Snider Creek Hatchery! (Via: Native Fish Society)