Part one of a Crosscut series on the resilience of fish hatcheries despite the evidence they are detrimental to wild fish runs.
One might have thought, erroneously, that by the second decade of the 21st century, hatcheries would be on their way out. Decades ago, salmon advocates and detached scientists identified hatcheries as one of the “4Hs” — harvest, hydro, habitat loss and hatcheries — threatening the recovery and even survival of many wild salmon and steelhead populations.