I'd be real careful with this. Aside from the difficulty with timing and the proper dosage, adn the risks of BOD that have been brought up earlier, there are dramatic changes in biodiversity possible from such a sudden input of nutrients. Matching the time-release of natural process like the decomposition of fish carcasses and the distribution of the waste products of creatures that utilise these carcasses is difficult if not impossible. Different organisms are likely enhanced by sudden jolts of processed fertilizer, and sudden differences are not good in nature. Add to this the possibility that reaches that run through commercial forest lands may be fertilized to grow doug fir clones better at any time and you have a real risky situation.

That being said, I think Goose has a point - particularly since the Dose and Duck steelhead populations have not responded to several years of C&R - although the coho seemed to a little bit this year . We long ago lost the upriver stocks in these streams, and they have gotten horribly sterile - might be a good place to try fertilizer, say in one and not the other and compare the results.

Also, I once read a study done on the Cispus that pointed out the dramatic decline in size and numbers of native trout brought on by the near total loss of nutrients provided by now extinct Cispus salmon runs. Now this is one that you would really have to be careful with - the lower Cowlitz is way eutrophic and may even be on the 4d list. But still, maybe a good place to experiment, lots of still water for biodegredation to go on anyway.

The lack of salmon problem does more than just make rivers nutrient poor - gravel becomes cemented with silt if it is not turned over several times by many fish spawining on top of each other. The "criminal excess" of overspawning salmon also produces lots of eggs and fry for consumption for ESA listed and proposed species, like Bull and Cutthroat trout, and is likely the single most significant reason these fish are going extinct. The rivers are also unable to support resident rainbow, which are simply a river form of steelhead that never leave for the ocean and are the basis for run perpetuation in terrible El Nino ocean years. Basically, there are no MSY numbers of fish and W.E. Ricker was an idiot - the what to our eyes appears as overspawning and individual fish survival reduction would never have developed naturally if it was a detriment to the species. Unless we leave wild fish alone to spawn to their maximum excess they are doomed. So, oppose commercial fishing and release anything with an adipose fin, and encourage the rest of the world to do the same