An article was written in Saturday’s Dec. 28 edition concerning state monies being awarded to salmon recovery in Lewis County. The Cowlitz Tribe will be receiving close to $600,000 to restore habitat on the Cispus River and Yellow Jacket Creek. For salmon to reach these locations, they first must be collected at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery near Salkum, then trucked miles past three man-made lakes and deposited back into the river in East Lewis County, near Packwood. After these fish spawn, the smolt have no path back to the ocean. This does nothing to enhance salmon runs.
The state officials allocating these funds know nothing about restoring salmon runs. They are being manipulated by lobbyists to gain state funds to line their own pockets with useless projects such as this.
If the state really wanted to increase fish runs on the Cowlitz River, two major things must occur. First, the fish hatcheries must increase smolt production to 110 percent. Second, predators such as sea lions, seals and fish-eating birds need to be reduced in numbers. Until these two things happen, fish numbers will continue to decline. Time is not on our side. Over the last decade, fish numbers on the cowlitz River have declined to alarmingly low numbers. If state officials continue to be in the dark to solve our fish decline, our fish will be no more.
Mike Barnett
Winlock
