Decision due Saturday on Columbia River salmon reforms

Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission will vote Saturday in Vancouver whether to push ahead with full implementation of the most sweeping reforms in Columbia River salmon management in decades.

The nine-member citizen commission will meet Friday and Saturday at Heathman Lodge, 7801 N.E. Greenwood Drive. The commission will receive a briefing on the lower Columbia River sturgeon population at 9 a.m. Saturday and consider the salmon reforms at about 10:15 a.m.

Reforms adopted by Washington and Oregon in early 2013 allocated more chinook salmon to sportsmen in the main Columbia and restricted gillnetting to off-channel sites like Youngs Bay near Astoria.

The reforms also called for commercial fishing that remained in the main Columbia to be done with live-capture methods — such as purse seines and beach seines — designed to harvest hatchery stocks and release wild fish.

A four-year transition period to phase in the reforms ended in 2016.

Change on the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission appear to have lessened Oregon’s enthusiasm for full implementation. Oregon is scheduled to make its decision on Jan. 20.

A month ago in Olympia, sportsmen urged the commission to move ahead with the reforms, while commercial fishermen called for their postponement.

The Washington commission’s agenda on Friday includes a briefing, public hearing and decision on various land transactions; a briefing, public hearing and decision on status reviews of three state-listed species; a briefing by Capt. Jeff Wickersham of Stevenson on wildlife law enforcement and a briefing on wolf-livestock conflicts.

On Saturday, public testimony will be accepted following the annual review on lower Columbia sturgeon and before the salmon reform decision.