"No hatchery has ever aided in the recovery of a salmon or steelhead species." YET.

How about we be fair and open minded? Until recently, hatcheries were invariably used for other purposes, so why would anyone expect them to aid recovery of threatened and endangered wild populations? Now there are several hatchery programs that are being utilized either just for recovery or recovery and supplemental harvests.

Just the other day, Smalma described the situation of Stillaguamish River chinook. The spawning escapement had been in a declining trend since WDFW began keeping escapement records. The Stilly Tribe began a native chinook broodstock program in the 1980s to supplement and recover the population. Escapements have improved as a result. However, when biologists examined the survival rates of the strictly wild chinook, the return is still declining. This is due almost exclusively to degraded habitat conditions, not overharvest.

Given the present situation, closure of the Stilly chinook program would more likely than not result in the eventual extinction of the population because the rate of habitat recovery in the watershed is just too slow. There really isn't anything significant anyone can do about that. What can be done, is to continue the hatchery program that can help the population persist well into the future, so that, if and when the habitat does recovery sufficiently, there will still be Stillaguamish chinook around to utilize that habitat. Without this hatchery program, there may not be any possibility of recovery.

Hatchery programs have and are being used in Hood Canal to aid summer chum salmon. Returns have been very good for several streams. I'm not sure of the present status of those programs, but I heard that at least some of those hatchery programs will be terminated to test the hypothesis that summer chum have recovered in some key HC streams. If so, that will be evidence that hatchery programs aided recovery of ESA listed salmon.

Hatchery programs haven't yet recovered chinook and steelhead in the mid-Columbia, but without the hatcheries, those fish would have faced certain extinction. At least the possibility of recovery still remains.

Hatchery chinook, coho, and steelhead are being used to reintroduce anadromous fish into the upper Cowlitz River basin. They have not "recovered," but significant numbers of wild coho and steelhead are now returning to the Cowlitz. In a few years, these fish may recover, due to the aid from hatchery programs.

At this time, it is speculative to say that hatcheries will aid recovery, but I can say that hatcheries are essential to the possibility of recovery of several ESA listed species.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.