Isochrome - I suspect it is because at some point in the distant past, the Game Department decided - as have many wildlife agencies - that there was a "need" for a species to occupy a niche that could be accessed by sport fishers. One only has to look at what we've done to our native fishes over the years by bringing brown trout from Europe, brook trout from the east coast, carp, shad, stripers, smallmouth bass, crappie, bluegill, walleye, northern pike, grass carp and others to meet someones demand for fish from there home state or country. Then we toss in our hybrids - tiger muskie, splake, tiger trout, wipers because they can reduce rough fish populations or are fun to catch/pretty to look at.

On a local level, someone saw a "need" for an early run steelhead so folks could be out on the river in November, December, and January before the "wild" fish started showing up. Chambers Creek had an early run and now that stock is "locally adapted" to almost every steelhead river on the coast and in to Puget Sound. The same holds true for the summer run steelhead using the Skamania stock to "supplement" an existing run or build a new run.

Fortunately, although probably too late to effect any major shift/change in our lifetimes, the Dept has been re-evaluating its process and is now trying to use "locally adapted" stocks rather than moving fish between drainages. One example, for the early run component, is the cessation of Bogachiel-Chambers for the rivers on the Straits. It looks like they'll be using Elwha stock for future plantings from the Hoko east to the Dungeness. Dungeness fish might also be considered at some point.

As for "wild" stock, I fully agree that the Dept should be using local "wild" fish as the base stock and not import fish from other drainages.