Cohoangler,

Historically Willapa Bay produced very few Chinook, and that was when the watershed stream basins were pristine. The dominant species were coho and chum salmon because the habitat was (still is in relative terms) very well suited to them. The current WB plan is fatally flawed in that it intends to have the Willapa River naturally produce a significant self-sustaining run of fall Chinook. In my best estimation that cannot happen. None of the basin watersheds are remotely near pristine. Given the locations where Chinook could and would spawn, redds will be silted in with fine sediments and the eggs and alevins suffocated. The Willapa basin will never recover to the point where it could be a good Chinook producer because the land use foreseeable for the next 100 years is tree farming for timber and agriculture. This assures that potential Chinook habitat is compromised to the point where a self-sustaining run is extremely unlikely.

WB could continue to produce natural origin coho and chum salmon for the foreseeable future - although not at anywhere near historical levels - because they spawn and rear in different locations and times that are more compatible with contemporary hydrologic conditions.

And Rivrguy is right about the Naselle. Although its headwaters are also a tree farm, it has stream channel attributes that are slightly to significantly better for natural Chinook production, and certainly better than the Willapa River. So WDFW proposes to move most all the hatchery Chinook production to Naselle, which has been a troublesome hatchery since it opened in 1978. Throwing good money after bad appears central to the WDFW hatchery program.