Friend of mine did lots of steelhead aging and management for the Nisqually. Long ago, like the 70s/80s, there were a lot of steelhead smolts that came out of Muck Creek. It was, then, warmer that the mainstream, lots of habitat, and productive. It has now gone intermittent, too warm, and weed-choked. He thinks, and I concur, that the Nisqually lost its most productive trib, and that is one reason for the crash and lack of response. Muck also suffers from excessive groundwater withdrawals.

An interesting aspect of groundwater is that lots of our groundwater is from septic tank recharge. When houses are connected to STPs that groundwater input ceases.