Jacob, I don't disagree with your conclusion, I disagree that sports fishers are not contributing to the problem. The 4 H's really sum it up for me and I will try to order them in the priority that I feel is correct (although really they are equally important).

Habitat - It's pretty easy to see the challenges here, one only needs to look at the population increases to see this one.

Harvest - Here is where we as Sports Fishers contribute to the problem. For the year spanning 5/1/1999 - 4/30/2000 (the last year I can find data) here is the breakdown:

Tribal catch: 43025
Sport catch: 77986

The sport catch total included 6,802 wild (unmarked) fish. We do not know how many wild fish were caught and released to even make an approximation of mortality. Now there is a legitimate arguement to be made on the accuracy of these figures and clearly the tribal catch is not broken down by wild & hatchery but to say that we are not part of the problem makes us, as a community, look silly. We must own up to our part of the problem before we can credibly ask anyone else to do anything.

Hydro - Clearly a huge factor on the Columbia/Snake system.

Hatcheries - We need to get a handle on this part of the equation as well. I believe that well run hatchery programs can contribute to succesful recovery of our fish, however, there are not enough well run hatchery programs to point to. I would recommend that you look at Long Live the Kings as a possible blueprint for success.

So, that is my position. If we point to one part of the Harvest situation as being a "magic bullet", I believe we are kidding ourselves. And I would say that CnR falls into this category of not being a magic bullet equally with Tribal Harvest restrictions. All 4 H's have significant challenges associated with them. Do we as a citizenry have the will to tackle all of them? Some days I doubt it, other days make me feel confident. Time will tell....