Cowlitzfisherman Just so you know where I am coming from, it is my opinion that the only way an experiment can be deemed a success is that at the end planting fish is no longer necessary. meaning that the fish from thoes plants are reproducing well enough to sustain a run that seeds the avaliable habitat.
For instance I would not say that the Umatilla river project has been a success as a restoration program. It provides plenty of fish for harvest but they have not restored anything except that increased water flows in the summer has been good for wild steelhead.
What concerns me is that someone will get the idea that just planting more fish equals restoration. There are already a lot of organizations pushing for that kind of managment, ehich is the same kind of management we have had since the first hatchery went in.
I am terrified by any project that does not have at it's core the preservation of exsisting stocks of wild steelhead. I understand that wild fish have not been allowed past the dams since they have been built but that is rare most streams do not have such barriers therefore what is done on the Cowlitz with hatchery stocks should not be attempted in other areas. In other words I would strongly oppose any plan to use hatchery stocks to restore a run of fish where there already exsists even a remnant of a native run.