Bad news for the Chehalis River system!

[PolarBear]

If this goes through it has the potential to be devastating to the fisheries on the Chehalis River system.  The tribe in question is notorious for it's horrible fish and wildlife practices.

 If you fish in WA St. you might want to pay attention to this:
There is an emerging event on the Chehalis River Basin that could have far reaching effects on the resource and fishing regulations and allotments. The Skokomish Indian Tribe has recently made a claim to "usual and accustomed grounds" on the Satsop and Chehalis Rivers. IE: They are asking for fishing rights in the Chehalis Basin. They have scheduled a "meet and confer" with other parties to US vs. Washington State including other tribes for Nov. 4th. A Meet and Confer is usually a precursor for court proceedings and an opportunity for parties to reach a settlement. At this time it is unknown what evidence there is for this claim and it is unknown if it will be presented on the 4th or if they will save it for court.
Its pretty much wait and see but something you might want to keep an eye on...

[lokidog]

 

What a bunch of crap!!

[DIYARCHERYJUNKIE]

Lmao. Didn't they just close the skok down to everyone except the natives.  Power play to try to increase revenue.  How can usual and accustom change.  Seems they always would have fished there. 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

If it does happen. Hopefully they the tribe will use Billions of FED money to build massive state of the art fish hatcheries and everyone will bennifit.

[PolarBear]

Don't hold your breath!  The Squaxins have the perfect opportunity to reopen the hatchery on Skookum Creek but every time they are approached about the matter their answer is they are more focused on the golf course, smoke factory and casino.  The Skoks built a hatchery at Saltwater Park mainly because it was given to them by Tacoma Power.  Remember folks, the Skoks are those who you see with nets completely blocking the culvert under 101 going into the Purdy Creek Hatchery.

[Antlershed]

All the while the state is getting ready to shut down the entire Chehalis River basin for sport fishing....

[Sitka_Blacktail]

If they were given fishing rights, it should come out of the already allocated tribal shares. The losers would be the tribes already fishing the Chehalis.  The Boldt decision interpreted "in common with" as a 50-50 split between treaty tribes and the rest of the citizens of the State. It doesn't mean that the Quinaults and Chehalis tribes get 50% ad then if a new tribe gets fishing rights they get 50% of the common property fish that are left over after the local tribes take theirs.

I would think the local tribes would be against this.

[Antlershed]

The Quinaults dont get 50%, they get however many they want.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

The Quinaults dont get 50%, they get however many they want.

Believe what you want, but there is a formula for figuring out how many each side catches.

If they caught however many they wanted, they would be on the river 365 days a year.

[Antlershed]

And the QIN's have made it very clear they don't believe the sports can catch 50% so they will take what they deem as "surplus" fish for themselves. Sports and white commercials have to stop fishing all of Grays Harbor effective 10/26. Are the QIN's going to stop netting as well? They already went waayyyy over their chinook quota while we are releasing them...

[Ridinshotgun]

River and all tributeries close  10 / 26 15

[Westside88]

Mismanaged by all parties. Inexcusable how many fish are taken by net each year, regardless of who is doing the netting. Doesn't take a genius to figure out if you take out entire schools of fish for many days in row year in and year out the result will be disastourous. Managing by estimates of fish that you can't confirm? They need to have periods of net free days spaced out to allow some escapement.........what a waste of a good fishery

[Crunchy]

Mismanaged by all parties. Inexcusable how many fish are taken by net each year, regardless of who is doing the netting. Doesn't take a genius to figure out if you take out entire schools of fish for many days in row year in and year out the result will be disastourous. Managing by estimates of fish that you can't confirm? They need to have periods of net free days spaced out to allow some escapement.........what a waste of a good fishery

Well said.  Look what they have done to the coho/king runs in both the Nisqually and Puyallup. Chehalis system will be fished out in 5 years with little to no returns if they net it the same way.

[BigGoonTuna]

If they were given fishing rights, it should come out of the already allocated tribal shares. The losers would be the tribes already fishing the Chehalis.  The Boldt decision interpreted "in common with" as a 50-50 split between treaty tribes and the rest of the citizens of the State. It doesn't mean that the Quinaults and Chehalis tribes get 50% ad then if a new tribe gets fishing rights they get 50% of the common property fish that are left over after the local tribes take theirs.

I would think the local tribes would be against this.

that is true, but currently there is no netting on any of the tributaries.  if they let the skoks loose on the satsop, that one is done for.

[HntnFsh]

Don't hold your breath!  The Squaxins have the perfect opportunity to reopen the hatchery on Skookum Creek but every time they are approached about the matter their answer is they are more focused on the golf course, smoke factory and casino.  The Skoks built a hatchery at Saltwater Park mainly because it was given to them by Tacoma Power.  Remember folks, the Skoks are those who you see with nets completely blocking the culvert under 101 going into the Purdy Creek Hatchery.

TPU is building  and managing that hatchery as part of the relicensing agreement with the Skoks for Cushman dam. That's all the Skoks have to do with it.