Regarding the Cowlitz and changes to the steelhead program, the decision to discontinue using early timed Chambers winter steelhead stock was not the product of NMFS alone. When Tacoma received a new FERC license for the Cowlitz hydro project, a fisheries advisory committee (FAC) was created (along with some other committees). Because of the ESA listing, the FAC thought that using only late timed winter steelhead (that exhibit a genetic profile more like native wild steelhead) would be better suited and prevent introgression of the Chambers fish with the late timed stock being reintroduced to the upper watershed upstream of the dams. IMO, what the FAC failed to consider is that the Cowlitz barrier dam provides the perfect means of separating fish and preventing Chambers stock from spawning with restored wild stock in the upper watershed.

But that's in the past. Currently, the fish managers have the option of selecting broodstock from all parts of the adult return, including the earliest returns. If they want to, they can recreate early timed winter fish from the existing stock, just as the old WDG did at Chambers Creek in the 1940s and 50s. As for the number of hatchery steelhead reared, last time I checked, they were rearing and releasing 600k or more of both winter and summer smolts, about the same as 20 years ago. The reason for the poor adult returns to the Cowlitz, just like every other river in the state, is because ocean survival has dropped to a small fraction of what it was not so many years ago. Providing large returns of adult fish is simply not possible until ocean survival rates increase significantly.