Dear Editor,
My winter’s hope is to see wild steelhead my entire life. Living here on the Olympic Peninsula one may hope that will be true. I am 72 years old and plan to cast until I am lying along a river listening to crows.
But will I be able to cast until then?
Some places, sometimes, but not as I used to do I am sure.
Why is that?
What keeps us from the certainty that one of the iconic features of the Olympic Peninsula will always be here? I want to know. What are we doing to ensure that we know we are doing the right things?
When I returned home this January from attending the Boise, Idaho Fly Fishing Expo, having learned of all they are trying to do to save their wild steelhead, I was certain we could do more here than we are.
It certainly should be easier here on the Olympic Peninsula to be confident of our wild steelhead survival, than in Idaho, considering all those Dams and their wild steelhead traveling through the waters of the Columbia River to the Snake to the Clearwater, Salmon and other rivers all the way to NW Nevada.
What is being done here?
We need an ANNUAL REVIEW for WILD STEELHEAD on the OLYMPIC PENINSULA!
Thus the efforts to organize the 2019 Wild Steelhead Review.
I started contacting folks who know more than I do. Many of them have tried and tried, many ways, many times, over decades. Some agreed to collaborate to produce a 2019 Wild Steelhead Review for the Olympic Peninsula. There are lots of dollars, research projects, special interests and efforts along with varied ideas and perspectives expressed to this:
What is being done?
How to know what is being done now and to help was what we decided to do.
In this first year we will only begin to call out, comb out, and clarify what is being done and by whom and with what results.
The collaborators began considering locations for presentations on what/who/with what resources/what results/what research/what feelings/what needs unmet to ensure survival of those beautiful wild steelhead. Ideas for who may offer presentations were shared, contacts made and planning is underway.
Soon a schedule of presenters, programs and times/locations will be announced for the coming months. This is when the most wild steelhead fishers are visiting our communities. As well, intended participants will be local folks, scientists/researchers, agency staffs, and others interested in the survival of our Wild Olympic Peninsula Steelhead. The presentations will be videoed and archived along with documents. This archive will become a local resource for the public and researchers to know and study what is being done and needs to be done.
We hope to establish an annual Wild Steelhead Review for the Olympic Peninsula to continue through time to focus attention and actions to ensure survival.
Celebrating returning Wild Steelhead each year with an Annual Wild Steelhead Review will be good for wild steelhead and many other good things will happen as well.
There will be more to come on that in future letters and proclamations.
Look forward to the 2019 Wild Steelhead Review program schedule to be out soon.
Roy Morris
Sekiu, WA
