I'm having a hard time understanding how a few dozen fish (the Stilly wild chinook), that have shown no signs of recovery since being listed, are worth bringing the entire system to it's knees for. I do realize that's not a decision WDFW can make.

I mean, maybe they are worth it. Can somebody tell me a reason, or at least play devil's advocate? (though in this case I think I am the devil for suggesting we should throw in the towel on an endangered species)

Our state is growing which is probably better than shrinking...and habitat loss is a big downside to that. Its obvious we can't have a growing state and retain habitat, it's one or the other. And, isn't this what hatcheries were originally intended to mitigate?

I liked Curt's idea of just taking all the 200K-ish Stilly hatchery Chinook and releasing them without clipping. AFAIK that's something like what was done on the Nooksack for Springs, and it's showing success.

I also liked Curt's query as to why this wasn't addressed years ago. It seems like not all options have been tried and exhausted before writing a 10-year plan that will cripple sporfishing.