It's been a while, but when I still working all species with yearling smolts that were from areas south of the Tacoma Narrows did poorly with marine survival. At the same time, the smolts that stayed resident, the cutthroat, did just fine so the problem was in South Sound but in the Narrows.

At that time, Minter Creek was releasing yearling White River Springers. Their return rate was essentially the same as fingerings released from the Muckleshoot Hatchery on the White. I haven't heard if that has been fixed.

When I speak of "large" salmon escapements I am talking about 1-2 kg of carcases per square metre of stream at summer low flow. Those are the numbers supported by studies and are likely an order of magnitude or more greater than what a modern-day manager thinks is a large escapement.

I believe one thing that has hurt the Nisqually, in particular, has been the loss of Muck Creek as a steelhead rearing area due to flow decreases and warming. I was told that it used to be one of the key steelhead producing areas in the watershed.

Also, the Green River has, according to spawner surveys, lost most of the tributary spawners. Now, it's mostly mainstem.