It has been a long time since I was around the QIN program ( back to the Manny days ) but it does seem to work. I have noticed that most other programs be it wild or hatchery managed by the state do not work. So how I look at it is simple enough, where in Washington can you go catch Steelhead in reasonable numbers that has a wild run other than the Quinault River? That the program likely has altered the wild run genetics has to be true but it is still there and if you stopped the program in a few generations the fish will sort themselves out to the environmental conditions.

So the Nation has developed a management that allows harvest with out destroying the wild run. I doubt any solution I have seen in this thread comes close to matching its success. To the purest again, your 4 million people and 200 years late.