SG, outta the park!! Very sad but true!

Being a "Eastsider" I've been exposed to long term river closures on my "home" rivers lasting over a decade. I remember sitting in a meeting in '96 or '97 hosted by WDFW explaining how/why these closures to the "Upper C and tribs" were mandated by NMFS for steelhead. I sat dumbfounded back then listening to some of the ideas WDFW had implemented to start satisfying NMFS in regards to the seriousness of the potential labeling of the Upper C steelhead as "endangered species ".

When Heather Bartlett stated that the first 250,000 steelhead smolts raised/released at Wells Dam were NOT to be fin clipped, I was flabbergasted! I thought to myself, "now we're raising FAKE" wild steelhead"..[Bleeeeep!]! In hindsight, did it work..IDK, about 8-10 years later there was a season for steelhead and it mainly continued for several more years. But, IMO it was a slippery slope...