Salmo g. I love your posts... a great explanation up there.

so I have a question. I was talking to the owner of the Drift boat place in Monroe back about 10 years ago. and while talking he made the point that to get less destructive hatchery fish, we should build a better hatchery. in your post you said "Rearing the juvenile fish in a hatchery environment unavoidably selects for traits that are conducive to survival in the hatchery environment, not the natural environment. Why? Because the two environments are significantly different."

so how about this for a solution. I fish up by the Wallace hatchery all the time. its close I have friends there... not the pristine natural environment, but there are fish there. anyway on the way back to the access point we cross May Creek. this little spot above the rack has no fish that I can see, I know there are trout above that but not my point. is there a way to raise the number of babies in there with supplemental feeding and planting of in basin broodstock in the natural creek on the property? could we raise the density enough to gain more then ma nature would provide, while still keeping it as natural as possible. making the difference between nature and hatchery smaller. that way we would get more fish back and less differences, thus less problems, back. its not going to produce Cowlitz type numbers, but it is also not chambers creek stock type problems. if we can improve your .085 to a .095 productivity this way, even if it cost us 30% less smolts for the cost. it could help give us more fish to catch, and less damage to the wilds/natives if they strayed.

in other words can we use small creeks, that have no access to the sea now because of blockages. as hatcherys to broduce a better plant then would be provided from the tanks at the hatchery.

and yes it might just be better to unblock that stream so it could repopulate with wild fish, but I do not think that is coming soon.