Cowlitz River Project

My name is Danny Bender , I live in Spanaway Wa. I started the group Restore the Cowlitz on Facebook and also am the one who started the petition to bring back the early steelhead run that was recently ended by WDFW. I grew up fishing on the Cowlitz river. I have made friends with alot of guides and local business owners in the community surrounding the Cowlitz and I have seen first hand the negative impact the mismanagement of the system has had on there busineeses.  A few weeks ago I began filming and documenting the story of the Cowlitz decline to present to Senator Kirk Pearson to show the mismanagement of the Cowlitz river fishery and the negative effect it has had on the local economy. I have a few guides and business owners helping directing me on this project. We are focusing on the loss of half a million smolt , the hatchery only operating at a 1/3 of its capacity, closed door meetings , the elimination of the A run and corrupt practices between WDFW and TPU. I did not want to seek any corporate sponsorship or help with this project because I wanted it to be independent and not censored by any corporation. We want to tell the whole story. As I been to struggle to fund this myself I decided to turn to donations from other fishermen to help cover expenses. I decided to start a go fund me acct to make it easier for local sportsman's to donate to the project. The donations are going straight to me and I will be using the money to help fund this process. From upgrading some of the filming equipment and purchasing blank dvds and DVD cases to covering the cost of fuel to drive down to the cowlitz to do interviews with locals. Also making stickers and flyers to help get the word out there. At the end of this process there will be a full length documentary on DVD about the decline and mismanagement of the Cowlitz system. We hope that this project will help create more public awareness about this growing issue.