Tag Archives: JIM WELLS President

The Columbia River Reform Plan – Letter: Thanks for reporting facts

After reading the letter “Don’t support gillnetting” (The Daily Astorian, March 7), I felt compelled to offer a factual response.,, The statement that the Columbia River endorsement fee on recreational licenses was intended to buy out or eliminate gillnetters is simply false. The money has been used for overall projected improvements to fisheries, including researching new off-channel select fishing areas (none were found viable), testing alternative gear (none proved to be better than gillnets), research and monitoring commercial fisheries, additional hatchery production to benefit both recreational and commercial fisheries, and commercial and recreational fisheries law enforcement. I am fairly confident most of the hardworking blue-collar commercial fishing families in the lower Columbia don’t worry much about the economy in Vancouver, Washington, where the author lives, but they sure care about their own, and so does The Daily Astorian. >click to read<10:43