I'm not understanding a couple things in this thread. What's the remark about non-native trout? Both cutthroat and rainbow trout are native to the Yakima, as are bull trout (a char). A major factor limiting trout recruitment is the unnaturally high flows for irrigation during the early summer just as juvenile trout are emerging from the gravel. That seems to be why trout spawning is limited mostly to tributary spawning habitat. Otherwise the river could apparently support more juvenile trout. The Yak won't be very suitable to juvenile coho either.

The coho broodstock mix is strange to say the least. I thought Klickitat were the brood of choice for east side restorations. I don't think restoring coho to the Yakima is wrong headed. I do think the Yakima Tribe's preference for integrated hatchery and "wild" stocks is. That's a policy decision since the science doesn't support it.

An integrated program permits higher harvest rates and doesn't really develop a wild run. In the case of coho it increases the likelihood of over-harvesting Yakima wild steelhead. And I'm uncertain of the ESA status of Yakima steelhead at the moment; too many to keep up with any more.

LB mentioned relicensing. There are no FERC licensed hydro dams in the Yakima basin. All the irrigation dams (Keecheless, Kachess, Cle Elum, Easton, Bumping, and Rimrock) are Bureau of Reclamation pieces of the Yakima Basin Irrigation Project. Federal dams are not licensed, since they are federal. Wapatox on the Naches was owned and operated by PacifiCorp, but has been decommissioned last I heard. None of the dams in the Yakima basin have fish passage. A smolt slide has just been added to the outlet at Cle Elum for salmon re-introduction. I haven't seen it or the design package, so I don't know if it's a POS contraption or the real thing.

Sg