ATTENTION
SANDY RIVER FISHERMEN
MEETING NOTICE

     There will be public meeting with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel at Clackamas County Bank Auditorium located a 38975 Proctor Blvd., Sandy, Oregon on Monday, February 5, 2001, 7:00 pm, to inform the public of their current proposal to end summer and early winter hatchery steelhead programs and drastically reduce all hatchery coho and spring chinook releases.
PLEASE ATTEND THIS MEETING!!! Spread the word and tell all your fishing friends.  If enough of us go to this meeting we can have some opposition to the fly-fishing groups that are trying to take over the entire Sandy River and all river systems in the state.  You can help keep the Sandy River open to all fishermen by telling ODFW in person that you want the hatchery programs to continue.

     These fly-fishing groups (Oregon Trout, Trout Unlimited, Federation of Fly Fishers, Native Fish Society, and Mark Bachmann and his cronies from the Welches Fly Fishing Shop and the Sandy River Watershed group.) have been bombarding the courts with lawsuits using the wild fish policies of the Federal Government to force the Government to list species of fish under the Endangered Species Act and force the state to close hatcheries, regulate streams with gear restrictions, and eventually lead to "fly-fishing only" regulations for their own selfish purposes.  These groups have also infiltrated the ranks of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Commission, National Marine Fisheries Service, Forest Service and local watershed groups and influenced decisions relating to hatchery production, gear restrictions and harvest opportunities.  Their goal now is to remove Marmot Dam, close the Sandy Hatchery and create a "fly-fishing only" wild fish sanctuary on the Sandy River.  They were already successful in the upper Sandy System.  This is just the first step on their ultimate goal of closing all hatcheries in the state and making the entire state "fly-fishing only"  Stand up for your rights as a taxpayer and fishing license purchaser.  This is pure discrimination.  We should demand our river back, including the upper Sandy.

     This is a chance for you fishermen to stop these purist fly-fishermen from taking over our river.  These jerks will do anything to get you off the river.  Lets make it a little more difficult for them.

1. to inform the public of their current proposal to end summer and early winter hatchery steelhead programs and drastically reduce all hatchery  coho and spring chinook releases.   
This is an ODFW staff proposal to bring the Sandy River in line with National Marine Fisheries interpretation of the Endangered Specie Act and Oregon's Wild Fish Policy.  In the 1970's Mark Bachmann worked very hard to bring about a water flow agreement with PGE at Marmot Dam to allow Spring Chinook and Summer Steelhead access to the upper Sandy River basin.  This same person along with the Mt. Hood Chapter of Northwest Steelheaders (212 members) petitioned for the removal of Marmot Dam when it came up for re-license in 1970.

2. These fly-fishing groups (Oregon Trout, Trout Unlimited, Federation of Fly Fishers, Native Fish Society, and Mark Bachmann and his cronies from the Welches Fly Fishing Shop and the Sandy River Watershed group.) have been bombarding the courts with lawsuits using the wild fish policies of the Federal Government to force the Government to list species of fish under the Endangered Species Act  
Wild runs of steelhead and Coho plummeted in the 1990's.  Some of the above mentioned groups petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act to focus Government attention on these problems.  The writer of the flyer seems to think that this is a bad thing.  Currently the State is planting more hatchery steelhead in the basin than at any other time in history (235,000 winter steelhead & 75,000 summer steelhead).  In fact returns of hatchery steelhead have decreased significantly through the 1990's in the Sandy River basin.  The last three years returns have been very small.  In the 1999-2000 winter season anglers polled along the river and using all fishing methods reported an average catch of about 8 to 1 wild over hatchery steelhead.  The entire run of wild winter steelhead to Marmot Dam for the season was about 740 steelhead (largest recorded return was in 1962 at 3,880).  Hatchery summer steelhead returns were far below the 10 year average.  No numbers appear to be available.  Numbers of wild summer steelhead returning above Marmot Dam was up this year with 115 adult fish reported.  Spring Chinook returns appeared to be down.  Since not all returning Spring Chinook are fin-marked the ratio of hatchery to wild fish is not quantifiable.  The 2000 hatchery and wild Coho returns were both up significantly over recent years.

3. and force the state to close hatcheries, regulate streams with gear restrictions, and eventually lead to "fly-fishing only" regulations for their own selfish purposes. 
There has never been a proposal from Mark Bachmann or any of his associates to close any hatchery or regulate any part of this basin as "Fly Fishing Only".  In 1984 we did author a regulation change proposal termed "Deschutes Style Regulations" with the release of all wild fish and restrictions to single barbless hooks a artificial flies and lures only.  These regulations were proposed to alleviate the harvest and mortality on the wild fish species that eventually became listed under the Endangered Species Act.  It is not known if these regulations would have prevented listing.  Do to pressure by sport fishermen, these regulations were not adopted.

4. These groups have also infiltrated the ranks of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Commission, National Marine Fisheries Service, Forest Service and local watershed groups and influenced decisions relating to hatchery production, gear restrictions and harvest opportunities.    
To his knowledge Mark Bachmann has had no influence on the fishery planning process since his removal from the Sandy River Basin Fishery Public Advisory Committee in 1994 because of his unbending avocation for continued planting of hatchery Summer Steelhead and Spring Chinook in the upper basin above Marmot Dam.  Also sited was his confrontational nature when confronting ODFW for making management changes before providing research that the changes were the right ones.

5.Their goal now is to remove Marmot Dam, close the Sandy Hatchery and create a "fly-fishing only" wild fish sanctuary on the Sandy River.  
Marmot Dam adversely effects the water flow in 11 1/2 miles of the Sandy River.  It is and has been a fish passage problem since it was build in 1911.  The rest of the statement is a blatant lie. 

6. They were already successful in the upper Sandy System.  
This is a preposterous distortion of the facts.  Local residents in the upper basin had one of the States most prolific hatch box programs operating for 12 years which produced millions of steelhead, Coho and Spring Chinook fry from 12 STEP Program hatch boxes.  These same residents spent thousands of hours doing stream surveys, restoration work and advocating for more hatchery winter and summer steelhead, Coho and Chinook stocking in the upper basin.  However there is little doubt that the increased angling pressure that these projects caused also influenced the decline of wild fish in the basin.

7. This is a chance for you fishermen to stop these purist fly-fishermen from taking over our river.  These jerks will do anything to get you off the river.   
This is my reply to the gutless author who never signs his name to his hate mail. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You can hold fly anglers responsible for all of the angling problems that occur on the Sandy River.  With you it is always someone else's fault.  Have you ever done anything for the fishery except spread hate and discontent?"

1.  I am in favor of the survival and proliferation of all wild (naturally reproducing) stocks of fish indigenous to to the Sandy basin.

2.  I do not favor the elimination of any Sandy River hatchery programs unless they are proven to be detrimental to the recovery of wild fish populations.  However, The American Fisheries Society and most biologists agree that hatchery fish do negatively effect wild populations. Before Marmot Dam is removed and before any current hatchery programs are are changed, I favor non-lethal genetic testing of naturally produced juvenile and adult fish to settle the issues as to  what wild stocks are present and to what extent wild stocks have been crossbred by our hatchery programs.  

3. I do favor the removal of Marmot Dam.  I do not favor split basin management. It seems that whether most people believe that the retention of Marmot Dam is a good thing depends on whether you live upstream or downstream from it.

4. I have no intention of influencing for more "fly fishing only water".

5. I do favor gear restrictions that promote the survival of caught and released wild fish.

6. By definition the Sandy River is placed in the Lower Columbia River ESU (Evolutionary Significant Unit).  This means that until wild fish populations are increased in all of the tributaries to the lower Columbia River, Sandy River fish are likely to remain listed. The Endangered Species Act is "the law of the land" and the only way to make our hatchery programs more viable is to make our wild fish runs stronger. 

7. I think that all fishermen should work together to make fishing better in the whole basin and to remember that our State and Federal fishery managers have a nearly impossible task.  Managing fisheries is not a science where absolute predictions are possible.  The task becomes more complicated when anglers eliminate some of the management tools for their own bias.  We as sportsmen can get everything we want and still fail if mother nature doesn't cooperate.

8. The elimination of some hatchery programs might be necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.  Hatchery runs can always be restarted later. Extinction of wild runs of fish is probably permanent. 

9. The Sandy River is the best remaining anadromous fish habitat left in the lower Columbia River System.  If we can't save wild steelhead here, it is not likely that we will save them elsewhere in the Columbia basin.  As sportsmen, do we really want that result as our legacy?

Fish long & prosper,
Mark Bachmann