Todd,

I'll keep ya' in the loop. Consultation is between FERC, SCL, and the federal services, but it looks like SCL is planning on an open process.

Invertebrate production was a thesis project by Graybill, summarized in Graybill, Burgner, Gislason, Huffman, Wyman, Gibbons, Kurko, Stober, Fagnan, Stayman, and Eggers. 1979. Assessment of the reservoir-related effects of the Skagit project on downstream fishery resources of the Skagit River, WA. UW-FRI/SCL. It's been treated to far more than a sentence. I just don't have the typing fingers to do it justice here.

The dams make the Skagit very dissimilar to the Sauk in stream hydrography and accounts for glaring differences, both positive and negative. Although subject to more flow fluctuations, but tempered by license restrictions, the upper Skagit between Newhalem and Marblemount is exactly where egg to fry survival is highest for all salmon species, and reduced flood scour is the reason. A disproportionately high % of the pink, chum, and chinook runs spawn upstream of Marblemount because of reduced loss to flooding. Pinks, chums, and to a lesser degree, chinook get creamed on the Sauk -- due to flooding. Steelhead fare better in the Sauk system because they are spring spawners and are spared from winter floods which are much higher flows than spring floods, excepting 1997, which hammered Sauk steelhead fry.

Yes, it's funny about floods and pinks and chums unless a fuller context is provided. Pink, chum, and chinook survival in the upper Skagit is good almost every year, although extreme floods affect even that reach. Pink, chum, and chinook survival in the Sauk and the Skagit downstream of the Sauk are highly variable and directly and inversely correlate with peak winter flood flow. I don't know enough about didymo. I don't even know if I need to know more about didymo at this point. And if I did, I still probably couldn't do a thing about it.

Aunty,

I wish I could do it all, but I'm still trying to build a house in my spare time and occasionally go fishing. Researchers are looking into juvenile steelhead survival in the early marine environment. So far they've documented that the survival rate appears low. Finding out the cause, whether it is food or something else, will be a next step. The pace of scientific inquiry is almost as slow as democracy. It takes time.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.