Those are good points, cohoangler, particularly the point about dam mitigation. Hadn't given thought one to hydropower implications, or how the hatcheries came to be in the first place, in my argument.

I understand that a hatchery can't go just anywhere, and that it's not a Home Depot or a Walmart (those are for building in flood plains, don't you know - Chehalis basin humor -). The locations I had in mind were some of the coastal creeks that have running water all year but have severely limited or virtually extinct salmon populations I'm not sure I can name any off the top of my head (I don't know 'em cause I can't fish there!), but I think some of those exist. The reason I singled out those locations was that there is a reasonable argument that fish harvested from the freshwater locations that currently exist aren't of marketable quality, and my thought was that reducing the distance from the salt to the hatchery would maximize quality. I'm not sure that does much to help my argument or refute your point, and I have been careful to admit that I know there are a lot of challenges.

I agree that the Tribes have shown little interest in changing what they do, but I'm not sure what I proposed necessarily requires them to do that. The concept of owning commercial hatcheries was only an expression of a possibility that might appeal to the side of tribal fisheries that is much more for the sake of money than any ceremonial purpose. The Tribes have consistently expressed that they want the State and the Feds to fund habitat improvements (or remove blockages to salmon passage our past logging practices created) as a means of helping wild salmon, so I should think the prospect of the State dedicating vacated hatchery funding to habitat work would be one they would be inclined to support. I also think they would respond very positively to a promise of more fish available for harvest in their traditional fisheries. That promise would not be a big stretch in the event there were no longer open ocean, mixed-stock fisheries catching the majority of the fish bound for all our rivers.

I'm sure I don't have all the answers, but I do believe we need to stop accepting that the best we can do now is always what gets done. We can do better, but it will involve some sacrifices, no matter how we slice it. The biggest problem is that the ones who can afford the investments don't want to make them.