Originally Posted By: kevin lund
Jake,

This is only one example, but the little north fork of the Wilson flows in at mills bridge. You should remember where that is, as we fished just above the bridge for steelhead two years ago. Anyway, the little river or creek has a smolt trap that counts smolt that outmigrate the stream. The numbers are staggering. It appears the adult fish are doing their part in making the little ones. You tell me what the next part to eliminate is.........maybe the Ocean.

here ya go.
http://nrimp.dfw.state.or.us/CRL/Reports/FinPro/tbnep99-3.pdf

Keep in mind this little trib put out 1.2million fall chinook smolts on it's own in 1998. it is only one of many tribs that get fall fish from the wilson. There is data to shows that the river are putting out tons of smolt. Just look at how many the birds are eating in the Columbia.



So the smolt migrate into the mainstem Wilson, then turn down river, where they encounter rip rapping, dikes and stabilized stream banks, the riparian zone from Mills Bridge to the mouth is nonexistent, now the smolt enter the estuary where there is zero cover, avian predators are now feasting on the smolt because all the structure has been removed from the bay.
I think the problem is most folks don't really know anything about what habitat salmonics need to thrive, and your a classic example.
You make your living from the resource, yet you don't even know the basic habitat requirements for a healthy stock.