Thanks Rivrguy. That point about fall Chinook not wanting to enter Forks Creek is significant. The Willapa just seems like the location best suited to raising hatchery Chinook without adversely affecting a wild population, even if what we really mean is restoring a wild population from the extant hatchery stock, given that all WB Chinook are the same genetic stock.

Functional weir or not, it seems like having a restored Naselle wild Chinook population and a significant hatchery population is working at cross purposes. If Chinook return well to Nemah, and the Nemah hatchery is in or could be made to be in good enough shape, maybe it would be the logical location for hatchery Chinook production. It's such a creek though, I figure it may contribute to a lot of Chinook straying.

Figuring out what to do obviously depends on the management objectives and what I like to describe as "the desired future condition." In my desired outcome, WDFW would quit pissing away tax dollars on 3 hatcheries for the primary purpose of enhancing BC ocean fishing, WA coast mixed stock ocean fishing, and the welfare gillnet commercial fishery in WB. Next, I would like to see WB used to maximize its natural salmon production potential, which mainly means coho and chum, with NOR Chinook as relatively incidental, if we let Mother Nature tell her story. My inclinations are not a very good fit with the preferences of WDFW and the welfare gillnetters.

Sg