I am a resident of Hood River and have some more information about the Hood and it's fish.
I went to a couple of sites that describe the management of the river and, in a nutshell, here is what I learned.
The Hood used to have an ODFW hatchery that was shut down in the late 80's, i think. This hatchery used out of area stock for it's fish. ODFW realized in the early 90's that these fish were far inferior to the wild stocks and weren't working out too well. They then began to implement wild brood stock programs. They are able to gather very accurate data from the returning fish by using a trap at the Powerdale Dam which is located at rivermile 4. At this site, they take DNA samples which makes it possible to see which fish are surviving and doing well by comparing the returning fish's DNA to their parents. They are finding that the wild broodstock offspring is far superior to the out-of-basin hatchery fish (duh). All of this broodstock work is being performed at the new hatchery that you all are mentioning as the one the Warm Springs Tribe owns solely. They do not own it. It was funded by ODFW, BPA and them. It is being used to see if the river can someday support itself with a "wild" population. Although not widely known, the Hood River has been doing a broodstock program for over ten years now. I am excited for the folks on the coast who are just now seeing the positive effects of such a program that we have been enjoying for about 5 years. There has been a marked improvement in the quality of the fish here. I am willing accept decline in the run for the quality that we are seeing by not just dumping fish in the river for the sake of having "record runs".
Please read these links, I'm sure I missed something.
www.efw.bpa.gov/Environment/EW/PROPOSALS/AIWP/1999/8805303.pdf
http://oregonstate.edu/~blouinm/pdf_...ort%205-03.pdf
FF
[ 03-13-2004, 03:39 PM: Message edited by: FISHFINDER ]
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