Juvenile salmonids do pass downstream at Wynoochee Dam. However, the mortality rate is very high. There are a couple of studies - I don't have them handy, but if memory serves, the mortality rate may be in the 50 to 60% range. Generally we would consider that rate to be too high for a population to be self-sustaining if it has to pass through all the usual intercepting fisheries.

I have a thought. You know how various boards and commissions solicit grant applications for salmon enhancement and recovery? Maybe a group could cobble together a grant proposal for a downstream passage facility at Wynoochee. Most of the recovery and enhancement funds are spent on projects that generally cannot be shown to produce measurable results. A downstream fishway at Wynoochee - with monitoring as part of the proposal - would document how many juveniles are passed downstream annually. Coupled with the existing data collection of upstream migrants, a good production data set would exist to validate - or not - the value of the fish habitat in the upper Wynoochee River basin.