No argument but this. Willapa Chinook are an odd one. Other than maybe some remnants numbers the native Willapa Chinook where pretty much gone by the start of the depression and for sure by the late 1930's. The Willapa estuary was never a Chinook region but rather Coho and a massive Chum producer. What natural Chinook that remain are the descendants of large scale hatchery straying of a true mix of about everything genetics. So it becomes a philosophical argument as to just what a Chinook spawning in the gravel is. It takes about five generations minus human interference for a population such as the Willapa Chinook to begin to evolve with site specific genetics, which is 50 years in this case. Human intervention includes habitat and harvest which includes marine. We as a people have working on the habitat problem since the 1970's with modest success. Harvest on the other hand is just the opposite as the emergence of massive marine harvest has negated any gains from habitat reform and actually accelerated the Chinook decline. Pick your poison.


Edited by Rivrguy (04/05/20 06:44 AM)
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in