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The status of salmon in Washington state is not good and will not improve markedly without a substantial, sustained increase in funding, Gov. Jay Inslee’s Salmon Recovery Office State of Salmon in Watersheds report summarizes. The status: “Fourteen population groups of steelhead trout and Chinook, coho, chum, and sockeye salmon in Washington State are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.”

The assessment is blunt: “No salmon species have been removed from the federal Endangered Species Act list in Washington and most of the species on the list are in crisis or no...