jay

As far as "native strains", I am not sure what anyone is talking about since of course all Browns in this country were imported and are not native to any U. S. watershed. I would guess that trout unlimited want to upgrade the stream back to natural reproduction standards, however with degraded watersheds that might be extremely difficult and costly to perform, or it may not even be feasible, whereas a good habitat can support great trout fishing with lots of carryover fish, while still not supporting natural reproduction. I am scratching my head over the inbreeding comment. They want one strain from a certain river vs. another strain which has developed in another river??? I do not understand how one strain is more inbred than another and question whether we are getting accurate quotes or somebody is science challenged in the genetics area. If they are selecting wild strains and replacing reproductive stock every couple years with new breeders from the stream population, the hatchery population should do a pretty good job representing the genetic variability of the stream population. Beyond that, what difference does it make with stocker trout? They need to be variable enough to survive and prosper, remember we are not talking about reproduction.