Smalma

Look at South Prairie and the White. The steelhead have responded to the massive pink escapements. I know that much of the responding White is high elevation and protected but SPC sure isn't. Plus, one needs to get away from numbers and look at biomass-even though the numbers are scary then. SPC has had about 300-500K pinks in 15 miles of anadromous zone. A million in the Stilly, Snohomish, or Skagit is a drop in the bucket.

We first have to get the chum, pink, and Chinook numbers up, especially the first two. They will clean the gravel, improving egg-fry, and feed the system. As those numbers increase they will feed the extended rearing species. It will take time.

Plus, especially for coho, the area of primary smelt productivity was the lowland swamps, sloughs, lakes, and beaver ponds. Which won't be restored. Look at the Snow Creek system. The creek itself produced about 10K coho smolts. Crocker Lake, after pike rehab, has kicked out over 30K itself. Want a lot more coho? The data is out there....

As you note, the will isn't.