This is my assumption also. If Idaho cuts smolt production because of the lack of dams, I worry we won't have lower spring Chinook fisheries and very limited to non existent steelhead fisheries. I don't think wild production will keep up with demand, but I may be wrong.

You're not wrong. Wild production, under current management paradigms, is insufficient to meet demand. Actually, demand probably exceeds the ability of the natural system to produce harvest.

The hatcheries I was talking about are Federal hatcheries funded as mitigation. If Idaho is self-funding then they can keep doing it, similar to how WDFW operates most of the western WA facilities.

Have a friend who used to be able to watch a river. He could tell when the hatchery Chum ( and others ) out migrated as a substantial numbers of birds noticed also. He didn't think much of it from a conservation point of view until they stopped hatchery production. Dawned on him that now birds had only wild Chum ( and others ) smolt but same birds. Not a good scenario.

Living on the river myself one can tell when smolt show by the birds and more smolt more birds.

Well, yeah. Basic biology 101. Not all that complex to understand.

WDF at one time conducted some research on the downstream, survival of chum fry releases. Night releases, which oddly enough coincided when the wild fish went downstream, had higher survival than the daytime releases. WDF continued daytime release so that they didn't have to pay OT.

It always pisses me off seeing a flock of birds diving for smolts when I ain’t catching [Bleeeeep!]. If I could pop a 12 gauge off every time I saw that a few more fishes might make it back. Till then count on extinction.

Some guides on the North Coast obtain cormorant kill permits each year.
https://www.chinookobserver.com/news/loc...fea809b88f.html

Let's see. We kill cormorants and other competitors for salmon, even though they are genetically programmed to eat fish. Maybe we have too many people, and they have choices of what to eat.

We build islands via dredging and create ambush launching pads for the birds.
Then we haze them off of the islands and they perch on the bridge that we built.
Our activities seem to provide unnatural, enhanced habitat for the birds, close to smolt traveling lanes.

So with our man-made islands, bridges and pilings maybe there are now too many cormorants as well ?

Or not enough fish because we destroy their habitat or harvest them. Not disagreeing that we enhance the predator habitat but they have no choice what they eat.

I cant believe that they were actually built in the late 60's and early 70's...... Mind blowing, I hunted all that country as a kid and I remember my grandpa bitching about losing alot of prime quail, chukar and mule deer habitat to 2 of those Dams........ should be a no brainer ! easy knock downs except it might effect 4 families ........ LOL
Peace Fly