I find it odd that freshwater habitat continues to get blamed for why steelhead won't recover.

Anadromous cutthroat and anadromous native char seem to be rebounding pretty well. They spawn and rear in freshwater areas similar to steelhead and yet the are increasing. But, they don't have the take that steelhead do. And, they manage to do this in the horribly polluted and dieing Puget Sound.

Steelhead are telling us, by their lack of recovery, that we have not dealt with the issues that are keeping them down. The other species, whose life histories are similar to steelhead, are showing what works.