first off let me start by defining restoration.. the only form of restoration that should ever be acceptable for anyone interested in wild fish..

if a hatchery program was successful in restoring a wild run it would have to

1, have to use fish that are from the river in question.. NO outplanting of any kind.. not even with similar stocks they have to be exactly the same..

for instance, upper skagit fish cannot be used to restore Sauk river fish... thats replacement not restoration!

2. hatchery planting has to end and the run must be completely self sustaining.. if you keep planting them it is impossible to determine th effectivness of wild spawners..


anything that does not meet these two criteria cannot be viewed as a successful hatchery restoration of a wild run..
to my knowledge that has never taken place..
I talked with a Bio from loong live the kings and at that time she was very uncertain about how successful the hatchery summer chums were at reproducing...

by all other accounts even wild brood stock IE first generation hatchery fish have a reduced level of productivity compared to wild fish so much so that they produced at the same or nearly the same poor rate as regular hatchery fish...

in short the only way a restoration hatchery can be viewed as a success is if the fish planted are exactly the same as what was origionally there and if thoes hatchery fish are able to maintain a population all by themselves

anything else is a failure and a waste of money that could have been better spent buying body armor my the boys and girls in Iraq