Finally, within the last few days it has quite belatedly occurred to me that the fish holding in Big Bend Pool for the spring, summer, and fall do not comprise a single deme, or local breeding population. There are undoubtedly separated demes for each of the tributaries of Steamboat Creek and for Steamboat Creek itself. There are demes of wild summer steelhead minimally from Big Bend Creek, Cedar Creek, Little Rock Creek, City Creek, Horse Heaven Creek, Steamboat Creek itself, the East Fork of Steamboat Creek, all of which local breeding populations probably have representatives in Big Bend Pool during the low water and warm water time of the year.
One of the consequences of this is that, should a serious poaching event occur at the pool, even with fish left in the pool, one of these local breeding populations may be dealt a quite serious setback. Likewise, if five or six hatchery fish end up in one tributary, then there may be a serious loss of adaptive resilience in that deme. Previous to this, I have characterized hatchery fish as ticking sticks of slow dynamite.