Rich G -
Welcome back glad to see you posting again!

However, your recent post illustrates clearly why hatchery fish are needed in today's society. On the surface taking 2 fish a month doesn't seem excessive but consider the following: there are easily 400,000 anglers in the state (most likely over 1/2 million). At 25 fish per angler per year that would be 10,000,000 fish a year! Doubt that even Washngton's hatchery program can support that kind of consumptive recreation; the wild resource certainly can not. It seems to me that the first step in reducing the spiralling increase of hatchery production is to look at how the fish are allocated. This is even more critical if we want to intelligently reduce or change production levels.

Are there problems with the exist hatchery program? -certainly.
Are changes needed? - of course.
Do we need to eliminate all hatchery fish? - I'm not so sure.

This knee jerk reaction of eliminating all hatchery fish because of the problems (even wide spread problems) with fish is not neccessarily the most productive approach. Clearly urban sprawl, water issues, aggressive land management, etc have all contributed greatly to the current state of our wild fish resources. Should we stop all building, stop using water or electric, stop using wood products - off course not. What is needed is some careful thought and examination of all of the issues and starting down a more balanced path. In the hatchery arena that may mean examining the causes of the detrimental impacts on the wild fish by hatcheries and setting about reducing those impacts. Actions depending on the situation may mean elimination of some programs, downsizing others, changing brood stocks, planting strategies, etc. The specifics are for a later discussion. Once we as a group come to grips with the need for change we have made the first and hardest step.

Remember it took nealry 150 years to bring us to this state and it unlikely that there are any easy fixes. Likely it will mean careful consideration followed by changes in a broad spectrum of the 4 Hs. I would much prefer to see a more balanced in this rebuilding effort. Clearly adjustments in the hatchery and harvest arena is needed but the habitat arena can not continued to ignored. I've seem very little meaningful changes in land management issues - at best all that is being proposed is slowing down the destruction of key fish habitat.

I'm more than willing to do more than my fair share (reducing my fishing impacts!) but any fish recovery success is dependent on the rest of society willingness to meet me part way. Don't see that happening.

My 2 cents
Tight lines
Smalma