This information was included in presentation by Bill McMillan and thought it interesting to inject and maybe help gain some perspective.

The economics of hatchery programs: "What you spend is what you get". WDFW is heavily invested in hatchery programs, much more so than in habitat/wild stock programs. In the early 1990's, WDFW was spending about $26 million a year on hatchery steelhead programs, but only about $1.5 million on wild fish programs.



I dislike loosing opportunity because of budget cuts. I am not totally against hatcheries and the harvest opportunities they provide. But, let's think about this, Washington has the largest number of hatcheries than any other state or province in North America. So isn't fair to question if this system, the way it is now, really adding value and working improve the future of the wild fish? Or is everybody just happy with hatchery fish?

In my own opinion I can't help but think that the majority of anglers can't look past our own self interest of just catching a fish (any fish) and start looking at the big picture and seeing the forest for the trees.

it's a tough question.....