Between 1952 and 1973, the WDF produced and planted 846,195,140 salmon, mostly coho and Chinook and put those fish into virtually every creek and river within driving distance of a hatchery.

From 1980 to 1987, WDF moved 277 million Chinook eggs out of basin of origin. Out of 40 hatcheries, 36 received out of basin stocks. Out of 27 river basins, only the Snake River did not receive transfers. The Green River hatchery alone transferred 40 million eggs to Chambers Cr, Coulter Cr, Deschutes R, McAlllister Cr, Minter Cr, Nisqually R, Nooksack R, Puyallup R, Samish R, Skagit R, Skokomish R, and the Skykomish R. These numbers don't include tribal, Federal, or co-operative facilities.

A hatchery is the most efficient tributary in the river basin it exists in. Hatchery fish don't all return to the hatchery. As Tug says, salmon are adaptable. One has to wonder about the influence of 125 years of hatchery production/releases. We have natural origin production that are now classified as "wild" fish because they have an adipose fin when they come out of the gravel. How do you tell whether the parents were WxW, WxH, or HxH?

In very broad terms, one can look at a graph of cuts hatchery production since 1989. There's been an almost 50% cut to protect "wild" fish. The graph roughly parallels the loss of natural spawning populations and, interestingly, the decline in the SRKW population.