Carcassman,

I don't think either WDFW or NMFS have a goal of eliminating hatchery steelhead. The department is wedded to hatcheries when they make sense and when they don't. (Tradition, status quo, bureaucratic inertia, etc.) NMFS has federal trust responsibility to treaty tribes, and hatchery fish are essential to providing treaty harvest whether it's cost effective or not. There's a fair amount of internal friction about the appropriate role(s) of hatcheries.

Wild steelhead recovery needs those marine derived nutrients for sure, and in large amounts. It also needs restoration of habitat complexity, which will take a long time in mid and upper watersheds and will never happen in confined lower basin channels.

Sg