With a somber tone, Phil Anderson slowly recited the numbers.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife will have a $327 million operating budget for the next two years, a cut of $21 million.

Because of that, the department will lay off 76 employees and leave vacant another 67 positions, an overall 10.5 percent reduction in staff. The job cuts include 11 positions in Region 6, which covers Pierce and Thurston counties.

Salmon and steelhead hatchery production for Puget Sound and coastal regions will be cut 9 percent.

The number of Puget Sound beaches that will be managed for recreational shellfishing will be reduced by about a third, meaning there will be less opportunities at those beaches.

With a slight sigh, the department’s interim director ended his litany of cuts.

Yet as deep as the cuts are, they could have been worse.

“When the governor’s budget came out, it called for a $31.7 million reduction in our budget,” Anderson said in our phone conversation. “The cuts that would have been necessary to get us to $32 million, you start cutting off arms and legs.”

Easing the sting is a series of measures approved by the Legislature that should generate an additional $10 million over the next two years. Those include a 10 percent surcharge on fishing and hunting licenses and permits, expected to generate about $6 million. Anglers will be able to buy a permit allowing them to fish with two poles on designated lakes, adding about $2 million for the department. A new recreational stamp for salmon and steelhead fishing on the Columbia River and some of its tributaries will generate about $1.75 million.

“That extra $10 million was really big to allow us to continue to offer some reasonable levels of service,” Anderson said.

Even in the details, not every issue is fully addressed. One example is the future of the Voights Creek Hatchery. Located outside Orting, the hatchery produces fall chinook salmon, coho salmon and winter-run steelhead for the Puyallup River system. Flooding the last two years has all but wiped out the facility.

“Voights Creek was a great fish producer and had great fish returns. It was one of the better hatcheries we had in terms of production,” Anderson said.

He said the department’s capital budget includes money to explore the option of moving the hatchery to a new location on higher ground. Since that process could take years, Anderson said, the department is talking with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians about increasing production at the tribe’s Puyallup River hatcheries.

As he talked about the two-year budget, Anderson admitted it would affect department operations on a daily basis.

The outreach-and-education program has all but been eliminated. There will be fewer people to answer phone calls at the agency’s headquarters. There will be fewer staff to go in the field to review the need for hydraulic permits. The department has been ordered to sell its three planes, something Anderson hopes can be reconsidered. Without them, the department’s ability to conduct aerial wildlife population counts will be reduced.

“Given what it could have been, I still have a hard time saying $22 million (in cuts) looks good,” Anderson said.

Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640

jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com

blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure