Funding To Hold Popular North Cascades Steelhead Fishery Cut In Proposed Budgets

Enjoy the last weeks of that Skagit-Sauk wild steelhead fishery – it looks to be on the chopping block for the foreseeable future unless anglers can convince state lawmakers otherwise soon.

Neither the state House nor Senate‘s proposed operating budgets for the next two years fund WDFW’s request for money to monitor the North Cascades winter-spring catch-and-release fishery.

It’s pretty simple: Given the overarching Endangered Species Act listing for Puget Sound steelhead and caveats in the federal government’s 10-year permit to hold a season on the Sauk and Skagit in the first place, no monitoring equals no fishing.

WDFW had asked for $1.6 million from state budget writers for salmon and steelhead monitoring, including money for the so-called Quicksilver Portfolio that supports steelhead spawning surveys, creel sampling and fishery planning in Pugetropolis.

The Quicksilver Portfolio was a coordinated effort between WDFW, anglers, guides and others to come up with watershed-specific steelhead fishing and hatchery production plans. It officially began in 2017, was funded by the legislature in 2021, and the C&R fishery on the Skagit and Sauk has been one of its triumphs.

But it’s not the only element that lawmakers concerningly have failed to fund.

WDFW had also asked for $1.4 million to hire staff to complete required paperwork for Columbia River fisheries held over other ESA listed stocks. “Consequences of not completing fishery permits includes increased litigation risk, inability to open new recreational fisheries, and not achieving conservation objectives for listed salmon and steelhead,” the agency warns.

With how many recreational fisheries in the Columbia Basin co-occur with listed species, and given the lawsuit-happy nature of certain organizations, trout seasons on the Yakima and Chinook and steelhead fisheries on the Klickitat are potentially on thinner ice if this one isn’t funded, one stakeholder worries.

A WDFW webpage tracks these and other budget-related requests and how they’re faring in Olympia as the legislative session moves toward its late April finale.

Indeed, following last week’s release of the House and Senate’s operating budget proposals, it’s getting down to scramble time. WDFW now must send letters to budget writers in both chambers to outline their preferred courses with funding packages for the next two years, but anglers, guides and businesses dependent on the fisheries can always contact their legislators to make their feelings known.

You can look up your lawmakers here. Click on the mugs of your smilin’ lawmakers and look for the yellow tab to email them your thoughts.

In other WDFW budget news, the House Appropriations Committee will hold a public hearing Thursday afternoon on a legislative proposal that would increase most fishing and hunting license fees by 38 percent. The hike has been baked into the Senate and House’s proposed operating budget proposal. While it would raise $19.3 million in new revenues every two years, an equal amount of General Fund support would be pulled out of WDFW’s budget.