Steelheadman,

It's about $money$. Hatchery summer steelhead smolt plants in the Puget Sound and coastal rivers are funded with our license and general state tax revenue. Plants on the lower Columbia River tribs are funded in very large measure by mitigation (thanks Pacificorp and Tacoma) and Mitchell Act funds for the federal dams on the Columbia. That's why the dinky little E.F. Lewis R. and Washougal R. used to get hatchery plants in the 70,000 to 100,000 neighborhood. So you can see it had/has nothing to do with the amount of summer stream flow. I recall that in 1979 on the Kalama there was a summer-run behind every single rock! I take that back; there weren't enough rocks for all the fish to have one to hold by. The big fish were kicking the smaller ones out of the best lie spots; it was so rediculous.

Cutbacks have occurred for 3 reasons that I can think of: Wild Salmonid Policy, ESA, and higher costs of raising hatchery fish.

As for results, you might consider that coastal rivers usually have higher smolt to adult survival rates than the Columbia, so they're still worth a shot.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.