Sportsmen, wildlife commission honor Larry Cassidy

• Two terms (12 years) on the state Game Commission from 1973 to 1985, including four years as chairman. He was 33 when appointed. The next youngest member was 62.

• Ten years on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a major player in Columbia River fish and wildlife issues through its relationship with Bonneville Power Administration and access to ratepayer dollars. He was chairman for three years.

• Five years on the John Day-Snake River Commission for establishing policy on leasing public lands by private ranchers. He was appointed by U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

• Service on the Washington Salmon Funding Recovery Board, Pacific Salmon Commission and International North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission.

• Chairmanship of the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project, which is designed to develop and promote the application of acoustic tagging technology to study the life history of Pacific salmon and other marine life.

• Chairmanship of the Columbia River conference in 2014 regarding the water treaty between the United States and Canada.

In his remarks, Cassidy reminisced about his time on the commission, then turned to the topic of the day — Columbia River salmon management.

“Our biggest problem as a commission was, we had great difficulty getting the staff to implement the policies we set,’’ he said. “We had a serious issue with that when I became chairman.’’

It took about year to fix that problem and some Department of Game staff members “went down the road because they weren’t getting the message,’’ Cassidy said.

A major issue during his time on the Game Commission was the revamping of elk-hunting rules, where sportsmen had to choose one of four sections of Washington to hunt, rather than statewide.

It was a long time ago, but a hot-button issue that filled meeting rooms in many locations around Washington.

The key to salmon management is getting wild fish to the spawning grounds and selective harvest methods where hatchery salmon are taken and wild fish released are essential, he said, lauding the commission for the Columbia River reforms initiated in 2013.

Part of those reforms is the switch in the lower Columbia from gillnets to seines, which allow for live release.

Initial assumptions were only 5 percent or so of the wild fish released from seines die, but later research has found mortality rates ranging from 21 percent to 38 percent.

“I think your study is wrong,’’ Cassidy said. “I think you need a new one. I think you need to find out what the mortality is on seine fishing in the lower Columbia River.’’

He volunteered to help Washington and Oregon approach Bonneville Power Administration about financing another study.

In October, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee reminded the commission that recreation license fees “increasingly represent the largest single portion of revenue for the department to manage sustainable fisheries and other activities.’’

Cassidy was president and owner of Flo-Rite Products Co., an international distributor of plumbing and hardware products.

“I was in the plumbing business all the time I served in public service and I always took care of my biggest customers first,’’ he told the commission.

Cassidy’s lifelong contributions were not lost on the crowd of mostly sportsmen at the Heathman Lodge.

His remarks complete, they gave him with another round of applause.