Carcassman,

I included sea-run cutts with the Deschutes because of Percival Creek, a small tributary downstream of Tumwater Falls. Residents that found themselves downstream of the falls likely became anadromous, resulting in escapements to Percival well above what originated there naturally. Or they also likely strayed to other south sound tributaries.

I wasn't there, so I don't know. I think that historical populations of PS Chinook included springs, summers, and falls, varying according to each river system's hydrograph. Rivers with low and warm summer flows probably didn't have significant runs of summer Chinook, and instead had later returns of true fall Chinook, running a month and a half later than most contemporary GR and descendant summer-falls. I don't understand the reason for PS spring Chinook, except in the SF Nooksack because none of the other places they for sure or likely occurred don't have seasonal migration barriers. Oops - I take that back - the barrier falls that used to separate the upper and lower Cascade River in the Skagit basin, until it was blasted by WDF in the mid-1950s.

The Samish, Lake Washington, and the Green River look like basins that have always had low and warm flows when hatchery GR Chinook return - that return timing being the product of selective hatchery breeding where the first returns were always taken as brood and spawned. Contemporary GR temperatures in Aug. and Sept. and probably not that much warmer than historically, considering watershed elevation, hydrograph, shade, and gradient. Cooler and more water in Aug. and Sept. occurs only in the Skagit upstream of the Cascade, the Baker, Sultan, and Nisqually.

The PS fall Chinook is characterized by the GR hatchery critter, whose timing is totally out of sync with hydrographs due to selective breeding of the earliest returns to the GR hatchery and most of the hatcheries they were shipped off to. So I think the situation is different than that of the Sacramento River.

Sg