You mean that Lamarck wasn't right after all? How about that...

For those who say that hatchery fish don't return...how do you explain the Cowlitz? There hasn't been a substantial run of natives in the mainstem for over 35 years. Yet it's one of the top producers...

I think there is a LOT to learn about salmon and steelhead restoration, and Ernie Brannon is someone to listen to. His father started, I believe, the Elwha hatchery system waaay back and did his utmost to preserve the genotype in that river--to the point he would go out in an old Indian dugout and gaff returning kings, tether them to a bush until they were ripe and then spawn the fish. If his son has the same commitment and common sense, then his word and his thinking is worth a lot.

I was at a presentation Ernie Sr. gave in the '70s, and he pulled out a freeze-dried carcass of a chinook typical for the Elwha. I can't remember what the said it weighed, but it was well up there-- something like 80 pounds or more.

Keith