Do you care about the Snoqualmie anymore?

[mrprohde]

Folks,

Not sure how many might be aware of this issue, so I wanted to shine a light on it.

I used to spend a fair amount of my free time searching for steel on the Snoqualmie, especially loved the section between plumb landing and Fall City. That section of river is now just an unnavigable shit show of happy splashers courtesy of the business exploiting the public land and resources there. This in my mind needs stopped.

More troubling for me today is that King County Parks is in the process of creating another poo parade business on public land a few miles down stream. The boat launch in Carnation (mouth of the Tolt) is about to be taken over by a paddle board rental business. The shipping containers are already onsite messing up access to the single lane dirt ramp. Carnation Paddle Sports is the proposed business.

I know the Sno doesn’t have fish any more like it once did, but I am not going down without a fight on this and could use the help of other concerned users.

There is a petition being circulated to lend voices to the notion of getting this stopped.
https://www.change.org/p/fair-use-for-carnations-natural-resources

King County Parks seems to think it is a great idea, see note below.

If you ever cared about the Sno, still do, or hope to one day when the fish return we need to let King County know that this is not acceptable use of an existing access point.

Please add your name to the petition, remind parks that this isn’t public use and should not be allowed. Let’s get Carnation saved then attack Fall City, the river and the fish would benefit.


Paul Rohde

Note back from Parks below:

Hello Paul:



Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns with us regarding safety at Tolt-MacDonald Park boat launch. We appreciate your concern and have been working with Carnation Paddle Sports (CPS) throughout our permitting process to discover and mitigate issues like those you have raised.



The owner of CPS are Carnation residents familiar with the property and its use throughout the year. While CPS will undoubtedly attract new visitors, we view this as a positive for the local business community. It is also our belief that CPS’s presence will offer the added benefit of providing additional eyes, ears and voices to curb undesireable behavior and improve awareness of park rules and water safety best practices. Considering the area is unsupervised and users are left to park as they will, we feel the introduction of CPS staff and some of the changes we are implementing can bring order and efficiencies to the site user’s experience.



For example, Parks staff will be marking the lot to identify traffic flows, ‘keep clear’ areas, and parking zones for vehicles, as well as truck with boat trailers. The parking plan (see image) was developed by CPS in consultation with Parks Division staff, and it takes into account the turning radius of a truck and trailer. CPS understands that Parks may request modifications to the layout if we determine improvements can or should be made in the future.





CPS is also encouraging patrons to make reservations online in advance and plans to release customers in timed intervals in order to mitigate vehicle traffic in the parking lot and to create space between participants on the river.



As for the comparison of CPS to recreational river floating that takes place in Fall City, the reality is King County Parks and the other agencies involved (WDFW, Puget Sound Energy, Fall City Community Association, Fall City Metropolitan Park District) all benefit from the presence of the vendor, Fall City Floating (FCF). In fact, several agencies within the County are actively considering contigency plans in the event that Covid-19 related impacts preclude FCF from operating this season. Such is the extent of FCF’s positive impact on the Fall City community in terms of reducing trip traffic, parking congestion that would otherwise flow into local neighborhoods, and collecting/disposing of literally tens of thousands of pounds of waste and recycling from our park, local boat launches, and the river itself.



The business owners fully appreciates the fact that this site is and will always remain a point of public access to the river, and have acknowledged that their business cannot interfere with the public’s right of use.



We hope some of these points address some of your concerns.



Sincerely,

Rogelio



Rogelio Diaz (He/Him)
Parks and Recreation Division

201 South Jackson Street, Suite 700

Seattle WA 98104
www.kingcounty.gov/parks | Facebook | Blog
200 parks, 175 miles of trails, 28,000 acres of open space

 

[steve s]

I used to love fishing the Snoqualmie in both winter and summer. The float from Plum to Fall City, was a nice quick float with a number of decent runs. I had to stop floating and fishing in the summer about 7-8 years ago because the tubes were too thick. You might be able to get one cast, let it swing and then wait 10-20 minutes for the next break in tubers.

 

[Yardus Maximus]

Link to petition not working...

 

[mrprohde]

Sorry for the bad link
Please try this one.

https://bit.ly/SaveTheLaunch

I hope that one day when the fish return we will still have access.

 

[Yardus Maximus]

Still no love on the link. Not on Facebook.

 

[Jake]

As a kid we would fish just below the falls. They stacked up there with nowhere to go, and the fishing always seemed good. I'll lend my name to it.

 

[mrprohde]

Obviously I am not a social media savvy person. Been a member here for years but have posted darn little. My wife is who sent me the petition link. It worked for me, however likely via a facebook login?
I really don't know, I just fish. I am fired up about another fall city experience coming to Carnation and am looking for help to slow or better yet stop "progress" that isn't fish first.

Anyone know how change.org works? The petition was started by a Benjamin Gay and titled
Fair use for Carnations natural resources -roughly 1250 signature thus far.

Sign the Petition

Fair use for Carnation's natural resources

www.change.org

 

[Derek Young]

I've fished the Snoqualmie since 1985, it's definitely changed over the last 35 years. I did some occasional guiding from Plums for trout, as it was a decent, close by system to catch eager little trout and in the Fall, very nice Coastal Cutthroat.

In 2012, I caught quite a few 18-20 cutthroat and a few hatchery steelhead that were still left. It has become a major shit show, without doubt. I think for me, a particular moment that stands out, is the day I showed up to launch to find several Tuna carcasses left on the ramp, with people wading, picnicking, and launching inflatable pool toys carrying open containers of fast food, etc.

I applaud your efforts to do something, if anything.

 

[Irafly]

I can empathize with your loss, but I can also empathize with others gain in all this. Unfortunately fisherman do not have a monopoly on resources.

 

[mrprohde]

I have reached out to King County Parks, WDFW who claims to not have any stake (although I swear you needed a wild ID pass to park there) Kathy Lambert representative, and BHA to see if they can help. Any other resource I could/should engage? Any wild fish group think more sewage and litter will be good for the fish in the Snohomish system? I get I am fighting for my little corner of the world. If the fish make a recovery Fall City is out for a launch, Neal rd was never repaired, and now the launch at Carnation being sold to the highest bidder. The few good things left in western washington seem to be going extinct like the fish, so sad..

Incredibly frustrated and opposed....

 

[mrprohde]

For what it worth I didn't catch my first steelhead on the Sno, my first swung fish, and my first on a waking fly though. Late summer afterwork probably around 02 or 3, between plumb and fall city. My wife hooked one once on a dead drifted chernobyl practicing with her 5 wt. Not landed. But still once upon a time we could fish for fish and enjoy the river, now we dodge pool toys and trip over the garbage left behind. Generally it is just practice fishing these days on the river, if you can find a spot.

 

[Salmo_g]

Ira's got a point in that anglers don't have a monopoly on a public resource like a river. You might, along with a good number of petitioners, talk to King Co. parks and explain the mutual exclusivity of productive angling and paddle boards and tubes during low summer flows, once the spring runoff subsides. Ask them for a compromise, conditioning the paddle board outfit to not allowing any launches prior to 10 AM. This won't stop private tubers and boarders, but at least it would partition the commercial use to after the most productive fishing time in the summer. Except evenings, but the floaters are either gone home or it's beer and party time in the park.

 

[Derek Young]

Have you contacted Dave McCoy, at Emerald Water Anglers? He's the Native Fish Society River Steward for the Snoqualmie.

 

[mrprohde]

Great Idea Derek, I will ring Dave.

 

[Yardus Maximus]

The Snoqualmie hold a special place in my heart. Both my mother and sisters ashes were spread over the falls as will be mine one day. I swung my first summer run, on a simple hand tied marron bugger, 35 years ago out of the cable hole. A beautiful little 24" 3lber that I can remember like it was yesterday. Just thinking about that day I find some irony posting in this thread, because I vividly remember some tubers cheering during on the fight as they floated by
Just miss the good old days I guess... You know, when there were tubers and fish.