Since 2010, this project has implemented a genetic technology for tagging hatchery steelhead and Chinook salmon in the Snake River basin, referred to as Parentage Based Tagging (PBT).  PBT provides a powerful tool to meet Fish & Wildlife Program objectives associated with tagging hatchery stocks, evaluating integrated and segregated hatchery programs, and enforcing salmonid fishery management measures. This project genotypes approximately 20,000  samples annually to create PBT parental genetic baselines for hatchery steelhead and Chinook salmon in the Snake River basin.  This includes ~1,500 Fall Chinook salmon from the Lyons Ferry Fish hatchery. In doing so, it effectively, permanently genetically marks ~12 million smolts, per species, per year. This project works closely with an existing BPA funded project (2008-907-00) to ensure that genetic marker sets used in the Columbia River basin are standardized, providing unprecedented genetic tools for managing wild and hatchery stocks in the basin: with Genetic Stock Identification techniques segregating adult wild runs by stock of origin, and Parentage Based Tagging technologies identifying the stock and age of sampled hatchery fish. Importantly, a significant portion of hatchery adults that return to the Columbia River Basin each year are unmarked/untagged using conventional tagging methods (e.g. adipose clips, CWT, PIT).  Implementation of sampling and genotyping programs at Bonneville and Lower Granite Dams allow the identification of these unmarked/untagged hatchery fish and significantly improve estimates of wild escapement.