In response to Kalamageo's question, I think that more likely than not, Chambers Creek steelhead are not inept, except when referring to their ability to reproduce in the natural environment. The demise of the stock seems likely due to multiple factors.

I haven't read the Crawford report in probably 10 years or more, and it sure helps set the stage for any discussion. Given that so many of the fish releases in the early years were fry and sometimes fingerlings, and that we have learned that the survival to returning adult of fry and fingerling releases is very, very low, it appears that the endemic Chambers Creek fish formed the bulk of the hatchery stock, with some contributions from other PS and HC hatcheries. Reports I read suggest it was Pautzke and Meigs who pieced together the sequence to make the Chambers Creek hatchery steelhead program successful. Producing viable smolts in one year was key, and that meant selecting for early return and spawn timing, the latest and best in trout hatchery feed rations, and the warm spring water supply available at the S. Tacoma Hatchery. The resulting fish became known to many fishermen as "Pautzke's Pets." Pautzke may have had a larger than average ego, but he did rise to become the Director at WDG in the 1950s, I think it was.

As Carcassman posted above, Chambers Creek was the Mother Station for all of PS and I think the coast as well. I'm not sure about lower Columbia. So the broodstock collection, spawning, incubation, and early rearing occurred at S. Tacoma. Advanced fingerlings were then transferred to all the other rearing stations for final rearing and eventual release come the following spring. Combined with favorable marine survival conditions, the resulting adult returns were surely outstanding by today's measure.

Sometime in the mid to late 80s - Smalma might remember this better than I - the decision was made for each station to begin collecting its own broodstock and do the entire freshwater life cycle in the basins where the fish were going to be released. This was supposed to be an improvement. But most, maybe none, of the other stations had as warm a water supply as S. Tacoma. And this change is correlated with what appears to be declining smolt to adult return rates. However it is also correlated with the increasing number of harbor seals and other pinnipeds and cormorants in the PS region.

Gradually Chambers Creek itself couldn't get enough spawners returning to maintain the program. Use of copper in the lake probably didn't help. The Puyallup Tribe's decision to net Chambers Creek certainly reduced the escapement, and maybe that contributed to the decision to move away from the Mother Station operation concept to every hatchery doing its own broodstock collection; I don't know.

The combination of factors have led to the situation whereby it is all most stations can do to collect sufficient broodstock to keep programs going. A lot of hatcheries have been at less than full production because of lack of returning broodstock. Consequently, no matter how badly anglers and even managers want to produce and stock more hatchery steelhead, it is a physical and biological impossibility under current survival condtions. The egg supply might possibly be augmented if one or more of the hatcheries were to try a captive broodstock strategy. This is an extreme measure usually used when we are trying to prevent a population from going extinct. I haven't tried to think through or do the math to estimate whether this would be a viable approach to increasing the hatchery steelhead supply.