Jayjos,

Treaty tribes fish the areas they are legally entitled to. Hatchery fish are included in their allocation. If you want to increase your understanding of how and why this occurs, read U.S. v. Washington, known as the Boldt Decision at www.ccrh.org/comm/river/legal/boldt.htm
The court found that the state and federal government developed and operated salmon hatcheries to offset losses caused by overfishing by non-treaty fishing, not by Indians, since the state generally did not allow Indians to fish according to their treaties.

PSE put up one half the money used by the Puyallup Tribe to build a fish ladder at the Electron dam. I think the SURF Board provided the other half, which is a mix of state and federal money. The real question is why didn't PSE pay the full cost? It's their dam.

And Timber Man, yes, PSE has a diversion dam across the upper Puyallup River. That is how they get the water into the flume that leads to the hydro project powerhouse. It's worth noting that PSE has no fish screens on the diversion flume, and monitoring by the Puyallup Tribe has found that the project illegally takes ESA listed chinook salmon and bull trout. The type of turbine at this project has zero fish survival. We'll probably be hearing more about this in the near future.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.