January 2010 Email Blast

Greetings Steelheaders!

It has been an interesting month since your last e-blast. Our Executive Director has moved on to a new job, CCA has filed an initiative to remove the commercial gillnets from the Columbia River, and we have quite a bit of legislative activity going on.

Auction

How you can help-

Our 50th Anniversary Banquet Auction - April 10Th 2010 Location is the Holiday Inn Portland Airport

8439 NE Columbia Blvd
Portland, OR 97220
(503) 256-5000

Some simple facts about this event-

Funds from this event support the general costs of maintaining the organization to the benefit of all chapters. So let�s do it together!

                  What chapters can do to help

  • Reserve banquet tables at the event as soon as possible so we have a better idea of our �count�. Please contact me with this information.
  • Single tickets are $50
  • A  regular table of 10 is $450
  • A  Patron table of 10 is $550, and includes complimentary wine and one Patron series art print (retail value $250�)
  • Request donations of items from chapter members (jigs, flies, spinners, or other items they can make).  These would make good additions to the Dutch auction bags; we�re always looking for good items for the bags. Other sorts of donations are welcome of course!
  • Please forward contact information about likely donors to me. Guided trips and hotel accommodations are very useful, as well as items that our members� wives like as well. (Yeah I know�they really want a new salmon troll outfit�)
  • Request donations of Fishing Trips with skilled members to be part of a reward drawing for event volunteers. Both Joe Domenico and I are doing this. You can too!
  • Get your friends to attend! It�s April 10th at the Holiday Inn, Portland Airport  8439 NE Columbia Blvd. Doors  open at 4:30 PM
  • Ask for your chapter members to volunteer at the event. There are lots of easy jobs, and they�ll still have plenty of time to visit and bid. We can find a job that will work for them, and show them all that is required to do it. Have them contact me.
  • If you have members who are used to talking to the public on the phone, I can use a couple of callers to make follow up calls to our auction donors. The donors will have already received a donation request letter, so they won�t be making �cold calls�. Have the volunteers interested in this contact me.

palmerlarryd@yahoo.com, 503-286-2093 (home), or 503 793-9225 (cell)

  • This year significant items for the auction will be posted to our website, along with progress updates. Check them out at-http://www.nwsteelheaders.org/
  • Send your donated items to- The Association office at-

Assn. of NW Steelheaders

6641 SE Lake Road,

Milwaukie, OR  97222

 

Thank you, Larry Palmer     2010 Auction Co-chair

 

Legislative

 

We are busy getting ready for the February off year (or special) session of the Oregon Legislature. Budget issues will dominate this short session and we will carefully monitor any that affect our interests. Moreover, a number of priority or emergency bills of possible interest to us and other members of the conservation community are expected to receive attention. Approximately 200 bills could be introduced in this session and so far about half of these bills have been released for public review--complicated or controversial bills are likely to be held over for further committee work between now and the 2011 legislative session.
 
High on the list is our river rights proposal which is intended to codify and place in state statutes the right to use the banks o f state waterways up to the high water line. (This bill is SB 1060 and is being introduced by Senator Alan Bates of Ashland). We also expect to see measures that will change how water rights are utilized and what additional water can be extracted from rivers. Also of interest will be proposals to change or waive regulations over low impact hydro facilities and related water district cannel projects. In addition to bills intended to control harmful toxic impacts on consumers and the environment, there will also be good and bad bills involving liquid natural gas (LNG) permitting processes.
 
Other routine interim measures were listed in the last edition of ANWS magazine. Within a few days we will know more about the particular issues that will soon be facing our legislators in Salem in February. You are encouraged to make contact with your legislators in order to find out what conservation issues they are working on and what new items they think you should be following for both the special and regular sessions. Please let ANWS government relations consultant Bob Oleson if you have comments or questions: you can reach him through the association office or at  boboleson@hotmail.com.

 

FEMA Suit to protect our estuaries from development is now in the second phase of negotiations.  We are working toward a settlement that will require a biological assessment of any development on at risk species and the overall habitat and require mitigation for any adverse impact.

 

Senator Jeff Merkley signed on as a sponsor of the Mining Reform Act that will protect riparian habitat and in stream water quality. This was a direct result of our meeting with his staff.  Staff pointed out that the Senator was very impressed with the Steelheaders because of the extent of the membership�s volunteer effort in their own watersheds.  Strong chapters with members active in their areas make the Steelheaders unique and we are able to leverage your on the ground effort to advocate for the things that are important to you.

 

Our Spill � Not Kill campaign continues with a new court case.  Oregon and Federal agencies agree the science shows a higher level of maximum spill will be beneficial to out-migrating salmon & steelhead, but Washington state wants to retain the old standard (presumably to retain more water for the turbines).  We are suing Washington State to acknowledge the higher standard, so BPA will manage flows accordingly.

 

The Klamath Basin Agreement is moving forward thanks to our efforts in getting funding legislation passed in Oregon�s last legislative session.  Some environmental groups are complaining that the agreement does not provide enough in-stream water needs.  We would all like to see more for fish but the agreement does provide a reasonable compromise in this area and removes the dams.  Also, the agreement does not prevent future agreements to improve water management.  We will continue to support the agreement at both the State and Federal levels.

 

The Columbia BiOp can still be improved by the Obama Administration and we continue to push for higher fish population thresholds to initiate alternative actions and drive a faster   more decisive response should those thresholds be hit.

 

We are pushing the US Bureau of Reclamation to drive Bowman Dam modifications because the reintroduction of salmon and steelhead above Round Butte Dam creates a great opportunity and responsibility to make or prepare to make the project modifications part of the basin�s restoration effort.

 

The Clean Water Restoration act still needs our support to insure the headwaters where salmon & steelhead spawn have the same protections as the lower basins.  We need Representative De Fazio to join others in supporting this bill.

 

There is considerable interest in the Protect our Salmon Act being proposed for the ballot by CCA. It is important for you to know that NW Steelheaders is leading the current effort in the conservation and angling community to get answers about the specific provisions and implications of moving this expensive campaign/program forward. As always we like the concept of trying to eliminate destructive practices associated with commercial fishing and fish farming. But the devil is in the details and we need to know much more about what is behind the CCA press releases and their yet to be shared organizational strategies. It is not possible to make an informed judgment about the proposal until additional information is acquired and assessments are made by affected parties, including var ious governments, agencies and budget officials. In short, the following kinds of questions need to be fully answered:

Will this conserve wild fish? 

Will this improve sport fishing opportunity or hatchery fish harvest? 

Will this impact Tribal Fisheries? 

What is the effect of diverting the sport angler fees? 

In Closing

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me directly at gun_dog@msn.com with your concerns, views, and/or suggestions on how to improve this monthly email blast to our members.  Also, you can email me if you would rather not receive this monthly e-blast newsletter in the future.

 

Thank you for your continuing support of the Association.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jay Burris

President

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