Larry,

It depends partly on your definition of "wild." Not everyone uses the same one. If you mean native to the Chehalis River basin (genetically) and wild in the sense of not having any artificial rearing in their life history, then yes, I believe there are a lot of steelhead in the Chehalis that qualify. Probably most of them. The Wynoochee is stocked with hatchery fish of native stock and non-native winter and summer fish, but there likely isn't much inter-breeding between the natives (hatchery or wild) and the non-natives, due to the difference in time of spawning. The Skookumchuck is stocked with hatchery steelhead, also from native broodstock.

If we had genetic samples from 100 years ago, I doubt we would observe much or any genetic difference between those fish and the wild steelhead returning today. Hatchery culture modifies steelhead a lot, but nature selects heavily against those traits when the hatchery fish spawn naturally. Studies in other river systems indicate a very low rate of successful reproduction for hatchery steelhead.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.