This is excellent food for thought! Please, keep it coming!

Yes, Esshup, WA and OR have very similar climates West of the Mts. vs East of the Mts. The western sides of the mts. squeeze out most of the rain, so there is a major rainshadow on the eastern sides of the mts. Temperate rainforest on one side, semi-desert Sagebrush-Steppe on the other!

We live in the rainy, temperature rainforest zone.

Burton, thank you for the local knowledge! Since FHM are illegal, do you know of another species of small minnows we could stock in my friends pond? Some native 3spined sticklebacks would be awesome, but dunno if any hatcheries raise them.