Cowlitzfisherman-
Not tired of this discussion yet?

In your latest post you said quote -

"So there is really "no biological reasons" why the WDFW did not demand fish passage over Mayfield Dam for coho or steelhead. The only reason was the fact that WDFW would be loosing 10's of millions of dollars in operational funding that it gets from Tacoma to operate the Cowlitz hatcheries."

I seem to remember (read or heard) that the settlement called for fish passage (fish ladder/tram?) to be provided at Mayfield Dam very similar to what was there 40 years ago. If my memory is correct you seem to be getting what you want - what is the problem? Is it not occurring fast enough?

Trap and Haul facilities seem to have long been an acceptable alternative in those situation where ladders were not feasible. It seems to have fallen in the area were approval is at the Director's discretion. A number of trap and haul alternatives have been approved over the decades (a couple of examples - Baker, White River, NF Lewis). Is Koeings responsible for those as well?

So far you have focused on upstream passage but the establishment of self-sustaing populations requires both successful upstream and downstream passage. While standing at the base of dam intuitively it would seem the largest problem is to get the adults upstream. However that has not proven to be case. Getting the juveniles/smolts safely downstream through the reservoirs and pass the turbines and other problems has proved to the Achilles Heel to a successful passage program. I would be very surprised that the downstream passage questions were much more difficult then the upstream ones to deal with in your discussion and ultimately may prove to be more expensive for the utility. Because each of the various species behave differently durinng their downstream migration (different sizes, timing, and movement patterns) having a successful program will call for looking at each species responses to the measures being taken and may regard a give and take between them.


Regarding RCW 77.04.012 - WDFW's mandate- You seem to be suggestion that the preserving, protecting and perpetuating can be accomplished with a single species. Are you really suggesting that on at the State level just preserving, protecting, etc just a handful of speices -for example whitefish (game fish), rock sole (food fish), robbins (wildlife) and butter clams (shellfish) would satisfiy the mandate? Or for a river ecosystem taking care of single species (for example coho) is satisfactory for all other species found in the system?

My read is that it calls for much more than that. If you are looking for RCW 77.04.012 guidance on this issue I would suggest that it argues strongly for a multiple species approach rather than a single species.

Skydrifting-
While I'm not a fan of using hatchery fish to replace wild fish hatchery fish have been used successfully to establish wild populations. You have to look no further than your namesake system.

On the South Fork Skykomish river hatchery summers have successfully established a wild population. Several interesting aspects to that population - 1) over the last decade or so they have been more successful than the native winter steelhead found downstream in the main "Sky". For the last 5 years the winters have been returing less than 1/2 a fish for each spawner while the summers above Sunset have been holding their own or even increasing in numbers with recent numbers often in the 1,000 adult range. 2) They seem to be adapting to the local enviromental conditions - the donor stocks were January/February spawner the established wild fish have had their spawning timing moved much later in the spring with current timing of mid-March to mid-May similar to the native stocks in the region. 3) The donor stocks returned as mostly 2 and 3 salt adults. The retruning established wild fish are becoming young with ever generation seemingly hae more and more 1 salt fish - again like the native summer fish of the region.

Bottom line given a chance (without continous input of hatchery spawners) the local environment will rapidly select of traits and behaviors that are most successful and the fish quickly look and behave similarly to the native stocks.

Tight lines
Smalma