duroboat,

As I said, it's not that relevent to the realities of harvest/hatchery management today, but here is a basic timeline of hatchery history in WA:

1872 First west coast hatchery
1895 First WA hatchery
1920 17 hatcheries in WA
1960 56 WA hatcheries
1990 75 WA hatcheries: (producing 70% of salmon/steelhead in Columbia)
2000 Almost 100 WDFW, 30 tribal, and 10 Federal facilities in WA
TODAY:
313 salmon/steelhead hatcheries in the Northwest

This data refers to hatchery FACILITIES. Keep in mind that many facilities acount for more than one PROGRAM. For instance, the Wallace Rriver hatchery produces fall fingerling chinook, fall yearling chinook, and summer yearling chinook. Many hatcheries produce more than one species.

My only point here is that hatcheries have been in WA almost as long as we have, and weren't necessarily "invented" solely as a "response" to salmon declines.

Ramon Vanden Brulle,
Washington Trout