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resources while Increasing concern about wild populations and genetic diversity 

 requires us to place significant resources into restoration of depressed stocks. In the 

 meantime, harvesters dependent on the resource for use and enjoyment suffer the 

 double sacrifice of constrained fisheries to protect weak stocks and budget-Induced 

 hatchery closures. 



Fish survival is affected by a wide variety of factors. Certainly harvest rates on some 

 wild stocks may be Incompatible wtth healthy levels of sustainable natural production. 

 And hatchery programs have generated much public debate, ranging from views that 

 fish culture represents the future salmon in the region, to beliefs that hatcheries are 

 the primary reason that many wild stocks have become depleted. While our views fall 

 in between these extreme perspectives, two things are clear. 



First, harvest management and hatchery production are technical fields fish managers 

 know something about, but clear public policy must be established to provide 

 guidance to managers in governing these activities. 



Second, it is clear that improved and better coordinated management of habitat 

 protection, harvest management and hatchery production programs will be the key to 

 designing comprehensive strategies to maintain and restore wild stocks and the 

 region's Important economies and public values they support. 



This challenging landscape represents the Impetus for the Department, in concert with 

 the Washington Department of Wildlife and Western Washington Treaty Indian Tribes, 

 to Jointly develop and implement a Wild Stock Restoration Initiative for the state's 

 salmon and steelhead resources. The initiative has two major thrusts: the hands-on 

 recovery of depressed populations and the development of a comprehensive salmon 

 management policy with which all future actions must be consistent. 



The first phase of the restoration Initiative, a straight-up inventory of all salmon and 

 steelhead populations in the state, is complete, and its extensive technical appendices 

 will be done this summer. Attached to my testimony is a summary of this report, the 

 Salmon and Steelhead Stock Inventory (SASSI). 



This month, the Department and the tribes are beginning Phase II of the recovery 

 Initiative « the Identification of restoration priorities. 



We feel confident the restoration Initiative will produce comprehensive management 

 approaches and a reasoned response to ESA petitions should they occur. Successful 

 comprehensive plans also should Improve long-term resource status to the point 

 where the potential for ESA listings Is eliminated. 



Within the Wild Stock Initiative, we are striving to look at stock problems within an 

 overall watershed context so that we may better define the Interrelated needs of 



