Micro

I appreciate you seeing the need for hatchery reform and spedning the rime to think about the issue.

let me make some statements and suggestions not for the sake of argument but for the sake of actually coming up with a viable hypothetical "plan"

1. In most cases hatchery stocks are not native to the system they are planted in. For instance lewis river summer runs are not lewis river stock they are Skamania stock which is a combined Klickitat/ Washougal stock. Most summer runs planted in the state are Skamania stock . Just because you spawn fish with one hatchery with thoes in another hatchery doesn't mean that they are different stocks. Also there is the issue of local adaptation which was addressed above.

My solutuion for this would be for hatchery workers to spawn ever fish they have at the hatchery each male with one female and keep a certain percentage of each breeding pair. This would be expensive..

2. I also would like to see some sort of stagered release timing to avoid mass swarms of smolts which are in fact voraious eaters. Also I'd like to see an all out reduction in the number of fish planted and eliminate plants in streams without collection facilities for adults.

3 step up stream fertilization as you mentioned.

4. I'd like to see hatcheries very low in the system!! This will help to eliminate some hatchery hatchery fish from the wild spawning population. This separation is absolutely critical for the longevity of the wild population.

5. hatchery effectivness has always been measured by egg take or the number of fish they raised and planted. the success needs to be measured by 1. the quantity of fish it returned as adults for harvest. 2. how limited it's impacts are on wild fish. and 3 the quality of the fish as a sport fish.

i think the one thing that we as sport anglers should be united on and working toward is the fin marking of every single hatchery fish that gets planted.. The agencies complain about this because they say it costs too much but go look at the catchable trout plants that they did this spring.. all of thoes are fin clipped...