Freespool,

Please take note. Please realize that sometimes I have supported your conclusions, and sometimes I have contradicted you. Even so, I have been consistent. You are not. You lay out a blanket response as though it were applicable to every and all situations, but it is not.

As noted in NMFS' ESA listing document for Puget Sound steelhead, habitat degradation and marine survival are the proximate causes of decline. However, within Puget Sound there are exceptions, and those exceptions are stream basins in Hood Canal, a narrow fiord-like water body that is geographically distinct from, but considered for fisheries management purposes as part of Puget Sound.

The tributaries entering the east side of HC are small streams that formerlly had densely forested watersheds. It's all been clear cut, much of it is developed for other uses, and some is timberland in regrowth. Over harvest may have played a part in the near extirpation of these steelhead populations; I can't say for sure. But habitat degradation is without a doubt a primary if not the proximate cause of decline.

The tributaries entering the west side of HC have their watersheds in the Olympic National Park and are pristine (not all of them, but the preponderance). Attributing the near extirpation of these steelhead (and some salmon) populations to habitat degradation is a stretch and passes neither the chuckle or red face tests. Don't ask WDFW for the answer to why these populations crashed. Neither the Director, any Deputy Director, or any Assistant Directors know. But several biologists who have been around a while and are infinitely more familiar with what has happened in HC would inform you, off the record I suppose, why these populations crashed, and it wasn't habitat degradation.

This thread is about HC steelhead, which most of us who are local, or nearly local, consider distinct from the major part of Puget Sound. You get yourself at odds with those who know when you cite a source that while generally applicable, is distinctly not applicable to the rivers and populations that are the subject of this discussion. Exceptions abound, and it is good to be aware of them so that you don't make an azz of yourself by using blanket statements that don't recognize that there are exceptions.

Sg