Salmon River Fish Hatchery Closing

Photo: Getty Images

ODFW’s recent legislatively adopted budget did not include funding to continue the operation of Salmon River Hatchery, one of more than 30 hatcheries that ODFW maintains in the State.  

The cost of operating and maintaining the hatchery exceeded available revenue, but funding is just one of the issues facing the State’s hatchery system. Impacts from wildfire, decreasing stream-flows, rising stream temperatures, and a large deferred maintenance backlog are other challenges.  

“Closing a hatchery is a very difficult decision, and it’s also very rare. In the past three decades or more, ODFW has closed only one hatchery, and that was because of ongoing disease issues,” said Shaun Clements, ODFW Deputy Director. “Today however, the system faces many challenges, including funding shortfalls, and we are working harder than ever to continue producing fish and delivering fisheries.”    

Salmon River Hatchery has been raising fall Chinook for Salmon River, coho for the lower Columbia, summer steelhead for the Siletz River, and rainbow trout for mid- and north coast locations. After carefully considering these and the hatchery programs at other facilities in northwestern Oregon, ODFW has developed a plan for hatchery production that maximizes opportunity in ongoing fisheries while serving cultural interests and international treaty obligations.   

“Robust fisheries are extremely important to us. We’ve been working hard to maintain as many of the fisheries as we can in the face of these challenges by shifting the hatchery’s production to other facilities,” said Clements. “We are also working to keep the facility open for fishing and public access.”  

“No hatchery program will be eliminated as we shift production to other facilities, though some production will have to be reduced,” he added. 

Under the plan to shift production to other facilities: 

• Salmon River fall Chinook and Siletz River summer steelhead rearing will be moved to nearby Cedar Creek Hatchery in Hebo. No changes will be made to the release sites for these stocks.  
• There will be a partial reduction of stocks reared at Cedar Creek Hatchery (Nestucca spring Chinook and Nestucca and Wilson summer steelhead) to allow the two Salmon River Hatchery programs to be reared there. Annual Cedar Creek spring Chinook production will be reduced from 230,000 to 185,000 smolts (20 percent) and summer steelhead will be reduced from 100,000 to 50,000 (50 percent). These stocks cost the most to produce relative to their return to anglers and are also the most susceptible to ongoing and future warming conditions. 
• Lower Columbia coho will be moved to a Columbia River hatchery (likely Clackamas Hatchery). 
• Annual State funded rainbow trout production across the mid and north coast as well as the N. Willamette will be reduced by about 11 percent (the amount that was reared at the hatchery), a reduction of 20K pounds (split between legal and trophy size fish) out of the total 183K pounds produced and released. 

Some work will continue at Salmon River Hatchery for the next five years to collect brood and acclimate and release fall Chinook smolts in Salmon River. The Salmon River fall Chinook program is used as an “Exploitation Rate Indicator Stock” under the U.S./Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty, making it vital for managing fishing in international waters and assuring Oregon’s fish are not over-harvested and return to Oregon in sufficient numbers. It will take time to transition away from using Salmon River Hatchery, and ODFW will work to identify a new location or stock during the five-year time period.   

ODFW is also working to keep parts of Salmon River Hatchery open to the public while it continues limited operations for the next five years (or longer, depending on the final decision about the facility’s future). The site is a popular place for fishing, and ODFW wants to keep fishing access available. The agency plans to maintain a volunteer host at the hatchery, along with limited staff.  

Originally built in 1975, Salmon River Hatchery now has a number of problems. Its water supply is at risk due to aging diversion infrastructure and high water temperatures in the summer that make it inhospitable to fish. The facility is also already prone to flooding, which is only expected to worsen with anticipated sea level rise and increased winter flows from a changing environment. Given these ongoing and long-term challenges to keep the facility raising fish, Salmon River Hatchery was selected for possible funding reduction when ODFW developed its 2025-27 budget.  

Hatcheries are critical to providing fishing opportunities and conserving fish species. They are also a very expensive part of ODFW’s budget, representing over one-third of Fish Division’s budget (~$95 Million/biennia). Because of this, the Department, with legislative support, has invested in gathering information to inform where and how future investments can be made to make the system more sustainable in the long run.  

A legislatively mandated and funded Oregon hatchery vulnerability and resiliency study, completed last year, is helping inform the strategy for investing in a more resilient hatchery system moving forward. The study identified Salmon River Hatchery as one of the state’s more vulnerable hatcheries. 

Source: ODFW