Cncfish,

If memory serves, May Ck is blocked because it is the surface water supply for the Wallace hatchery. Allowing anadromous fish above the weir means increased disease problems in the hatchery. As for using small creeks above barriers as "nature scape" hatcheries, you have to consider the range of flows for 365 days, not just the days you observe it. That means flood flows in the winter and nearly dried up streams in late summer, both of which are serious problems to fish culture. I forget the name, but a side channel on a BC stream was used to raise more natural fish, with supplemental feeding to increase overall productivity. It works, sort of. That is, it is expensive, and if we applied today's genetics technology to the situation, I bet it would show we were still creating hatchery fish, not a fish comparable to wild fish.

Additionally, the Yakima Tribe used BPA funding to build and operate a nature scape hatchery at Cle Elum. I have not visited it, so I can't report on the design details, but the intent was to rear hatchery fish that survive as well as wild fish. The results I heard about so far: survival is comparable to other hatchery fish.

It appears we are a society accustomed to curing every ill with a pill, we cannot accept that technology cannot duplicate wild salmon and steelhead, at least not yet. I'm sure we will keep trying.

Sg