CATHLAMET — In a sharp letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire, two Wahkiakum County commissioners are blasting the chairwoman of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, whose recent comments on Columbia River salmon fishing amount to “a doomsday address” for lower river gillnet fishermen, in the words of one commissioner.

Wildlife Commission Chairwoman Miranda Wecker distorted facts and admitted the commission favors sports fishermen over commercial fishermen a during an Oct. 12 presentation to officials from four lower river counties, according to commissioners. Some officials and commercial fishermen came away from the meeting wondering how much longer the commercial spring chinook fishery would exist on the lower river.

“It was like a doomsday address to the commercial fishermen,” Wahkiakum County Commissioner Dan Cothren said this week. “I was astounded that she would say what she said. She just pretty much said that commercials are basically done.”

Wecker spoke to the Lower Columbia River Joint Fisheries Coalition, a group of officials from Wahkiakum and Pacific counties in Washington and Clatsop and Columbia counties in Oregon. The coalition was created to strengthen the voice of the lower river in salmon catch allocations.

Wecker told the group to expect tighter fishing restrictions this March and April. If early returns indicate a strong run, more fishing opportunities would open in May, she said. But she warned that the last two years’ forecasts grossly overestimated the size of spring chinook runs, leaving upper-river and tribal fishermen with fewer fish once restrictions were put in place.

“I assume (commercial fishermen) would like the kind of allocation they’ve had in the past, and I just frankly don’t think that’s going to be in the offing,” she told the group.

The three-page letter offers a point-by-point rebuttal to statements Wecker made at the meeting. In the letter, officials claim Wecker understated the size of the Columbia River gillnet fleet to support her view that sport fishermen should get a greater share of the spring chinook run. The letter goes on to say Wecker suggested the Puget Sound commercial fishery was of more importance to the commission.

“When asked if she wanted a healthy commercial fishery, she replied that Washington already had a healthy commercial fishery in Puget Sound,” according to the letter, sent Monday. “Aside from whether this is true or not, the implication that a commercial fishery in Puget Sound should suffice for Washington … is an embarrassment to the State of Washington.”

Wecker, a Naselle resident, said Tuesday she just wanted to give commercial fishermen an honest forecast of what to expect.

“It’s gloomy,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s the death knell. I don’t think (a complete shutdown) is going to happen. But I think there are going to be years in which fishing will be very limited.”

Commercial fishing makes up about 5 percent of Wahkiakum County’s economy and brings about $5 million into the county each year, according to David Goodroe, executive director of the Lower Columbia Economic Development Council. Goodroe said the county still has about 60 commercial fishing families, although those numbers are declining as restrictions increase.

“The impact over the last few years has been pretty dramatic,” Goodroe said.

He said most of the county’s fishermen also fish in Alaska.

Wecker said in years of smaller spring chinook runs, it is possible that no commercial fishing would be allowed.

The Columbia River spring chinook allocation process is a complicated one, involving two states and a need to balance the interest of commercial, sports fishers and tribal fishermen while still protecting wild salmon. Last year the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission allocated 65 percent of the non-Indian catch to sport fishermen and the rest to commercial. Commercial fisherman get a greater percentage of the chinook catch during the summer and fall seasons.

At one point during the presentation, Wecker was asked whether she felt the Fish and Wildlife Commission “is biased toward the sport fishery.”

“I would say in terms of the spring chinook season, yes,” she said.

When asked Tuesday about that response, Wecker said there’s no question the split is tilted toward sport fishermen.

Wecker explained that sport anglers make about 180,000 trips to the river per year. She told the coalition there are fewer than 50 active commercial licenses on the Washington side of the river.

“It just struck us all as fair to give (sport fishermen) two-thirds of the fish,” she said Tuesday. “To give 50 people a third of the impacts seems to us to not be a reflection of hostility to commercial fishing. That just sounded equitable.”

In the letter, officials call Wecker’s figure of 50 active licenses a “distortion of fact.”

Of the 257 commercial licenses held in the Washington for fishing the Columbia River, 65 were used to fish the river this past spring, said Marian Snyder, spokesperson for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Cothren said he’s not sure whether the letter will lead to any change in policy, but he said he feels like the county is running out of alternatives.

“We have to be really loud,” Cothren said. “If we’re not loud, we’re gonna be overlooked.”

The commissioners nearly sent a less pointed letter to the governor, and Commissioner Lisa Marsyla declined to sign the one sent to Gov. Gregoire, who appoints wildlife commission members. Cothren and fellow county commissioner Blair Brady, still irked by Wecker’s address, agreed Monday to send the more direct message.

“From my experience, the only way we get any attention from her is if we rock the boat,” Brady said Monday.