Beezer -
I wondered if that was what you meant. I do recall that a dozen years or so ago that there was serious talked in integrating the Wallace coho by including wild broodstock. A well integrated hatchery program uses incorporates some wild brood (the percentage needs varies depending on the number of hatchery fish spawning in the wild) so that the resulting brood stock is "representative" of the wild population.

The Snohomish wild coho typically spawn from late October/early November through mid-winter (early February - though some years there still are active spawning wild coho in March). The peak spawning for those wild coho is usually late November/early December.

A review of WDFW's hatchery escapement report for 2013 showed that all the coho eggs at the Wallace hatchery (including presumably those for Eagle Creek) take for the year were done so by the 20th of November (with roughly 75% of the eggs taken in the week prior to the 20th). In other words the eggs were from only the front half of the wild spawn timing (much as they were 15 years ago). While some wild coho were included in the brood stock (167 wild fish out of 3,432 fish spawned) the failure to more broadly represent the characteristics of the wild population would indicate that the hatchery brood stock is a poorly integrated hatchery stock which has not substantially improved over the last decade.

In regards to the long term productivity of the wild population the concerns remain the same for either a poorly segregated or poorly integrated brood stock. The uncaught hatchery fish returning to the area near the Eagle Creek facility that spawn in the wild are contributing to the number of mal-adapted hatchery fish spawning in the wild and increasing that program only increases the impacts from that program.

The question I have for you and others is how important is having a productive wild population to the long term stability and health of the fishery that folks so enjoy?

Curt