Micro,

I believe that the major fuss over this has to do with habitat degredation. If fish don't need to actually spawn in the wild why protect the natural habitat? Does this mean more hatchery production? Probably, but that is not really a good thing. Hatchery fish are designed to support harvest and relieve some pressure from naturally spawning fish, not replace them and that is what will happen. In many PS systems naturally spawning chinook are in grave danger of reaching critical levels, or already there. There may be thousands of fish returning but only a small amount are spawning in a natural habitat while the gross majority swim back to the hatcheries.
This opens the door for even more logging, mining, development and countless other negative impacts. The ESA listed spotted owl is the only reason we still have old growth forest outside of the parks.
This is a victory for big business and big business only. If you believe you will be harvesting more fish, think again. And even if you do have a problem releasing struggling wild chinook when there are clipped fish bred for the taking I feel sorry for you.
As a lifer in Washington I hate seeing these types of decisions made outside, especially in Cali where it's all about money. I'd like to see this "science" if anyone knows where to find it becasue I can't.