It is not much of a secret of what the root cause of salmon habitat loss has been and without dramatic changes will continue to be.

When Puget Sound Chinook were ESA listed in 1999 the Washington State human population was estimated to be 5.79 million; today it is estimated to be 7.17 million. That represents a nearly 20% in our total population; much of which occurred in the Puget Sound region. That is a significant increase in man induced pressure on the habitat. Without a concerted effort to both increase the pace of habitat restoration and at the same time reducing new impacts the habitat so critical to the long term survival of our wild anadromous stocks the future of the resource is indeed bleak.

The only real question on the current population trends (both human and fish) is how soon will the Status such as Puget Sound Chinook upgraded to from threatened to endanged or more wild coho populations be ESA listed.

Curt