I don't think the Ringold hatchery is closing, I think it's changing the proportions of the fish that it is releasing. I don't know any more than that, so if anyone has some info I'd be interested to hear it...is it steelhead or salmon that they're changing?

The Skokomish hatchery might stop planting hatchery steelhead, but will continue doing silvers and other salmon. The hatchery steelhead run there is almost nonexistent, in spite of the dollars being spent to produce all the smolts they release.

The Cowlitz may reduce the amount of steelhead they produce. Even if they get the most reduction that they are hoping for, they will still be largest steelhead hatchery in the world, producing more smolts than any other steelhead hatchery in the world.

There are hatcheries funded by power companies and the feds and tribes, but WDFW runs the ones funded by the power companies, and even if you don't count those, the feds' , or the tribes', over 80% of the hatcheries are strictly WDFW hatcheries. The power company hatcheries are also run by WDFW, and some of the federal/tribal hatcheries are cooperatively run with WDFW.

Fish on...

Todd.