A little more than two weeks before she abruptly cancelled licenses for Cooke Aquaculture' s two remaining steelhead farms in Washington state, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz received a letter from a high-ranking delegation of state lawmakers urging her to renew the netpen farming licenses.

The bipartisan delegation also asked Franz to approve a pending lease application for Salish Fish, a joint venture between the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and Cooke, which is looking to build a new steelhead farm in Port Angeles, Washington, that would replace a former Cooke farm the company removed several years ago.