Steelhead are not much different than any other species and I say that because be it a fish, reptile, or mammal, they all have one very real thing in common, if you take a abundant population and for what ever the reason reduce it to remnant populations the odds against that species recovering are very low. If you take extreme actions ( such as the Condor ) it can be reversed but it takes a long time and it cannot happen if you are harvesting that species. From Sealions to fur seals to birds if you want to save a species he first thing that must go is human impacts such as harvest. Then you have to figure out if it is also biologically driven by habitat degradation and human encroachment in the creature's in question habitat and to what degree. It is then that it can be determined if it can be restored to its place in the natural order.

Pick a species of fish, any damn species, and you will find that at the heart of the problem is human activity be it harvest or encroachment from human activity upon the environment it uses to survive. For Steelhead use Chinook as an example with populations plummeting all the things that surround the fish are in play right down to our Senator seeking billions of tax payer dollars to save the fish. Yet the destruction of salmon runs by over harvest from the Bering Sea right to the terminal fresh water continues and that is the first requirement to changing the outcome you have to stop killing the creature, period. It is then that you take on the difficult environmental issues but frankly the odds against Steelhead being anything but heavily protected remnant populations are slim.