Really Rob Allen, how rosy are your glasses?

You think we can just give the fish good habitat?

I would exstatically trade in all the salmon hatcheries in the state for pristine river habitat for our salmon, but it will never happen.

Even if there were the political will to restore good habitat (there is not), the costs would be prohibitive.

Hatcheries are a bandaid covering a grievous wound to the environment. Removing the bandaid will not heal that wound. Neither will the wound be healed by the bandaid as grandpa2 implies.

The only thing that will heal what we have collectively done to the salmon habitat is sacrifice and time. So far I don't see anyone volunteering to pay more for electricity or limit their consumption of fresh water. Thus the immediate prospects look grim indeed.

Without a fundamental change in the way people think, we cannot hope for anything better than the status quo.


The action that we need to take first is to stop all habitat destruction currently underway. It will be easiest to preserve what has yet to be destroyed. After we have stopped current and future habitat destruction, then we can worry about the task of restoring degraded habitat. This will take lots of time and plenty of money.

All this talk about hatcheries just diverts energy and resources from the crux of the problem--HABITAT. I know talking about habitat is not so exciting for many and doesn't get much money in the bank for WT (not to mention headlines).

Salmon recovery =good habitat!