Positively. Yes. They do. Despite a century of attempting to “improve” on mother nature, there still exist genetically distinguishable, highly productive, native, indigenous steelhead populations spread across Washington, Idaho, California, and Oregon. Same deal for salmon. Ditto for trout.
Yes, our wild anadromous and resident salmonids are in trouble. Yes, our legacy of messing with rivers, harvesting fish, and playing mad scientist (some would say, playing God) with hatcheries has taken a terrible toll on our wild native fish and their home waters.
Point here? There is hope. It ain’t too late. We still have wild steelhead, wild salmon, and wild trout. They are resilient creatures. They have been on the receiving end of our best and worst intentions – and still survive in many places around the lower 48. Not everywhere. Some runs have perished. Some runs are on the brink.
As passionate anglers, it is crucial to understand that we could loose it all. We could loose our wild steelhead runs. Dang it, we could loose our hatchery runs too. The best hope for conserving wild steelhead, salmon, and trout into this century is for us all to understand the both the biology and management politics – and advocate for the conservation, protection, and restoration of our wild native fish here in our home waters.
For a little more discussion on this issue, check out my recent wordpress post on wild McKenzie River rainbow trout. This is a river that has been stocked with hatchery catchable trout for many decades, yet behold, wild rainbow still flourish in the McKenzie.
http://fishingwithjay.wordpress.com/category/salmon-conservation-issues/
JN