Carcassman,

Continuing with your thoughts on the spring flow regime for Brewer's further edification, spring runoff under natural hydrologic conditions begin decreasing after the end of June, when mykill fry begin emerging from the gravel. Irrigation management sustains high flows in July and August for crops, thereby minimizing the hectares available as critical fry colonization habitat (< 1' deep, < 1 fps velocity). Large steelhead and rainbow productivity is impossible in the flow-controlled Yakima and tributaries. Whether resident or anadromous, mykiss reproduction in the basin is associated with tributaries that have the most normative spring and summer streamflows. All those rainbow trout that make the Yakima Washington state's only blue ribbon trout stream, they come from an assortment of small tributary streams. And there are a lot more steelhead spawners in the Naches than the Yakima for this reason.

Getting back to Brewer's allegation that wild steelhead gene bank designations are a joke, I disagree. In each region where WSGBs are designated, streams that have the best extant wild steelhead populations and have the best habitat - looking forward - are the ones being selected. This makes me wonder what criteria Brewer would use to make such designations.

Sg