Ah ah, Jerry brings up a point

NO ONE can answer why for sure, but it's an observation that seems to hold true in most cases of a run's collapse. There seems to be some point of "critical mass" in which the population gets so messed up, that immediate recovery does not occur.

Perhaps it's because of the unique life cycles and importance of repeat spawning in a steelhead population that is modeled along the same lines as a salmon population without these characteristics?

The town of Forks will suffer tremendously should we lose these runs. One can look at the small towns along the lengths of some of the Puget Sound streams as to the impact of the closures. But one thing to keep in mind that will play even more of a factor is that in the winter months, we don't have the traffic already coming through town on 101 to help keep things going. In the case of the PS streams, many of these businesses still get outside dollars from being on a pass route or the thousands of skiers passing through as well.

Forks does not have that in the wintertime.