Too many things are being manipulated for salmon to survive. Fed money using science fiction losing fish. After behind-door meetings about the Cowlitz above-dam projections, old mitigations were removed and a new dam was built. Salmon/steelhead numbers fell.
In 1997, the Cowlitz Falls dam began using wild fish to abide federal treaties. The goal was to nurse them back to historical numbers; 2017 required improvements of $40 million to capture enough smolts, but still didn’t. Smolt count for 2022: 118,000 smolts, by far the lowest, along with adult returns for 2021.
Habitat restoration to make up for this failure is another failure on a brain-dead list. North Lewis River alike. Failure predetermined by many anglers before it happened, lost old court actions. Old anglers had it right. Now Cowlitz ancestor fish will be more imperiled. Our rivers all face effects from dictated insanity. Fish and fishing piece by piece are spiraling down. Federal management sinks below zero improvements.
How did hatchery success get replaced by this? Down beat repeats are predictable.
