Originally Posted By: DrifterWA

Here I go.…...The Wynoochee salmon and steelhead suffer because the current hatchery is and has been to small, has warm water problems, this hatchery should be moved closer to the base of the Wynoochee Dam.

During the late 70's and early 80's, there was lots of talk about a hatchery below the Wynoochee Dam, there was even talk of a double water exit from the dam itself....1 pipe able to draw water from the lower part of the dam and another pipe higher up to draw warmer water that could be used to "speed of the growth of smolt to larger size".

Currently, Native steelhead, have to go to the trap below the Dam, then trucked to Lake Aberdeen hatchery to be used for brood stock, then as smolt they are trucked to different areas and released.....wouldn't it be better, to have returning fish actually go right to a "new hatchery", processed, raise to smolt size, then released right from the hatchery.

I've been told, over and over, that salmon don't take well to "trucking", either as adults or as smolt but this continues to be done, Again, how nice to not have to try and brood stock fish, let fish do what fish do...move up a river, go to a hatchery, have good water to be raised in, then just release the smolt, right from the raceways.

Heaven forbid, with good clean water, at the proper temperature, disease problems reduced, minimum human handling there might be salmon and steelhead at increased levels......QIN has it right, Wynoochee needs a hatchery, closer to the Dam,,,,WDFW shame on you for sitting on your hands for all these years, doing BS fish handling on the Wynoochee River. Current WDFW fish management has problems....change is needed!!!!!


the issue with this is $$$... we can do things better but to improve our hatcheries takes a lot of investment. this is both a governmental issue in failing to "sell" the idea and a public issue "no taxes, too expensive, etc". This is the same reason the sewer systems in many cities built decades ago that are leaking poo into the water table aren't being replaced. imagine being the politician who tries to spearhead the improvement of sewage infrastructure: everyone hates you because of traffic disruption from construction, costs will probably go over budget due to unforseen issues with a 100 year old system and you might not be in office by the time the work is complete and the public wont notice a perfectly working sewer system to boot because you only notice when its going bad. why would a policy maker, dept head or politician undergo long term investment into public goods under these conditions?

yes we could do better, yes we could improve things but how can you do it in a current climate where half the population will have an aneurysm at the very mention of budget increases and potential tax hikes. I'm 100% on board with what you're saying but its not 100% the WDFW's fault they have to take the lowest common denominator solution- the public, policy makers and politicians we elect also have a ton to do with the position we are currently in.