Krijack,

My information is not current, but I think Chinook management remains the same. The Skok Tribe would like to harvest more Chinook since the terminal run is so large. NMFS has required them to reduce their harvest rate from what it used to be in order to protect "wild" Skokomish Chinook. However, genetic information has improved to the point that we know that most of the wild Chinook in the Skok are the product of hatchery fish that strayed into the North Fork and spawned. Given that George Adams hatchery has been in operation for over 50 years, and a high harvest rate was applied to ALL of Hood Canal for Chinook, coho, and chum, it's not a stretch to guess that all the wild fish were extirpated long ago. That's not to say there isn't any wild genetic material remaining from endemic runs if their timing was earlier or later than the main hatchery runs, but there isn't much.

The Skok Tribe wants the best of both worlds. They have introduced spring Chinook from the Skagit. They are hatchery fish now, but they want to develop a wild run that goes up the NF and is passed upstream of the Cushman dams. They also want to develop a later timed fall Chinook run that mimics the run timing of the historical Skok fall Chinook, which were later than the George Adams Green River hatchery stock. They want those to also be wild Chinook eventually. If that works then they could go back to the wipe-out fishery for Geo Adams timed Chinook. Of course there would be mixed stock problems with that later timed fall Chinook because they would overlap with the coho and chum, which the Tribe wants to harvest at a high rate because most of them are hatchery fish.

My contention is that WDFW should disregard the Skok Tribe's claim of river ownership based on a court decision long ago (I have a copy of it here somewhere), and open the usual salmon fishing season that they used to. Then let the Tribe take WDFW to court and see if they get the old ruling over-turned. Acting like the Tribe already won demonstrates that WDFW doesn't give a hoot about non-treaty recreational salmon fishing in freshwater.

Sg