Plunker,

I haven’t checked out the HSRG report in regards to the Skagit, and I’m not going to comment on it here. I don’t know what the HSRG did or did not consider.

However, how would redistributing hatchery steelhead to the middle Skagit benefit wild steelhead spawning in middle Skagit tributaries? Wild steelhead tend to spawn earlier in those tributaries than in the mainstem Skagit, upper or middle. Hatchery steelhead have been observed spawning in middle Skagit tributaries that they weren’t stocked in. Ergo, we have hatchery - wild interactions that the HSRG suggests will be reduced by a middle Skagit rearing, release, and recapture facility. So will it or won’t it benefit wild steelhead? My opinion is that hatchery steelhead programs do not benefit wild steelhead. I also think the Skagit hatchery steelhead program has no more than a small, or moderate, adverse effect on the Skagit wild steelhead population, given that a significant and genetically distinct wild steelhead run has persisted over time with a large hatchery program being operated in the basin. That doesn’t mean that the presence of the hatchery steelhead hasn’t adversely affected wild steelhead, only that any effects have probably been no greater than moderate.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.