Chinook Salmon Chinook salmon have seventeen distinctive runs in California. These runs vary in many ways, and are categorized into six evolutionarily significant units. Some units have been listed as threatened species. Feather River Hatchery salmon spawn, rear and release spring- and fall-run Chinook salmon of Feather River origin. Steelhead Trout Steelhead trout are an anadromous form of the rainbow trout that go to the ocean for one or more years and then return to spawn upstream, similar to a salmon. They differ from salmon in that a steelhead may spawn and return to the ocean, and then spawn again in another year. Feather River Hatchery main page