Couple of things to keep in mind about St Helens and the WDF hatchery there. State Law is if you don't use your water right for its defined use for 5 years, you lose it. Must us it all. The lease for the land had a similar clause; no use you lose.

It would have been better, in my opinion, to have gone with totally natural recovery but that would likely mean the permanent loss of the hatchery if one ever wanted re-open.

Second aspect of recovery is that all native species upstream of a natural barrier were permanently lost, never to be recovered.

It was a more complex decision than just plant the **ck out of the system.