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stock of fish that is highly adapted for one and only one stream. 

 Hatcheries have disrupted this system of natural selection and 

 replaced it with "unnatural" selection. Hatcheries have not 

 traditionally chosen stocks for their ability to survive in the 

 wild or to return and spawn naturally. This practice also has 

 negative consequences for wild populations of salmon. Hatchery 

 fish can interbred with wild fish and thus may reduce surviv- 

 ability of the offspring if the life history traits of the wild 

 and hatchery fish are dissimilar. 



There has been a recognition of these problems by some hatchery 

 managers, and this has lead to reform in recent years. The term 

 "supplementation" has been given to describe some of these 

 reforms. Supplementation means the artificial propagation and 

 stocking of locally adapted juvenile fish into the natural 

 environment to increase wild, naturally spawning populations. 

 This procedure has been successfully utilized for a variety of 

 stocks in diverse areas including: fall Chinook salmon in the 

 Hanford reach of the Columbia River; Chinook in the Frazer River 

 of Alaska; sockeye in Alaska and Lake Washington, Seattle; 

 American shad in the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania; and 

 Atlantic salmon in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. 

 Furthermore, the Fish and Wildlife Service, in a 1990 study, 

 identified 26 true supplementation projects (as distinguished 

 from harvest augmentation projects) . Of these 26 supplementation 

 projects, 25 were considered successful by their principal 

 investigators . 



These examples appear to offer a role for hatcheries in the 

 restoration of declining populations of salmon in the Pacific 

 Northwest provided that appropriate habitat is protected or 

 restored. One must remember that some of the problems with 

 hatcheries (e.g. disease) are inherent — they can only be reduced, 

 never eliminated. However, the salmon populations of the Pacific 

 Northwest are so severely degraded, it appears that properly 

 managed hatcheries can play some role in their restoration. 



WATERSHED AND HABITAT ISSUES 



Can naturally-spawning salmon populations be restored without 

 riparian habitat protection? Can we identify the riparian 

 habitat that is critical to salmon restoration? Are the lessons 

 learned from the experience of the Pacific Northwest applicable 

 to river ecosystems nationwide? 



While management of river systems seems to be a practical, 

 "common-sense" solution, it remains unclear how this will work 

 operationally. What are the attributes of a healthy watershed? 

 What solution are available to us for habitat restoration? How 

 will "watershed management" differ from the present management 

 system? 



The present system of riverine management involves many over- 

 lapping jurisdictions, including tribal, state, and federal 



