Rivrguy,

Maybe you can shed some light on this. I'm not intimately familiar with all the Willapa Bay watersheds, but it seems like the intended management configuration is out of whack. I thought that the Naselle system is probably in the best habitat condition compared to all the other tributaries. And Dept. bios have mentioned that the Naselle hatchery is a piece of crap, as hatchery facilities go. If those two things are true, wouldn't it make more, most sense to designate the Naselle as a wild Chinook sanctuary of sorts, and stop raising hatchery Chinook at Naselle? The Willapa River is generally degraded, and doesn't seem like the best candidate to me for natural Chinook production. If that is true, it seems like Willapa's Forks Creek hatchery is the best candidate for hatchery Chinook production, and we take whatever the Willapa can naturally produce as "contributing" to overall Chinook productivity.

Historically Willapa Bay was primarily a coho and chum salmon factory, with comparatively little natural Chinook production. It seems like the salmon management plan is trying to make the river basins do something that is out of synch with their natural capabilities.

The Nemah River - a creek really - is naturally best suited to coho and chum salmon production. Is it even remotely logical to focus on producing hatchery Chinook there?

If there were a Willapa Bay Salmn Czar, would the present configuration of natural and hatchery salmon production and management even be on the table for consideration? Wouldn't it be a more responsible use of taxpayer funds to shut down Naselle and Nemah hatcheries, raise hatchery Chinook at Forks Creek, and focus on producing as many wild coho and chum salmon as the available habitat can support? I think, but am not certain, that arrangement would support a decent recreational fishery, some, but not a lot of commercial fishing, and do it at far less cost to Washington taxpayers.

Sg