Cryin' Shame

Closing hatcheries is a bad idea. I think Oregon is headed in the wrong direction.

My Central Oregon .com

It will take a helavalot of effort to build up the fisheries in the light of things. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Looks like even some hatcheries have a date with a toe tag. Sometimes problems are too big to fix.

http://news.opb.org/article/34658-butte-falls-hatcherys-days-are-over-future-still-doubt/


Production other than rainbow was shifted to another hatchery 4 years ago.

Not every fish hatchery ever built has been a good one. Water supplies vary in quantity and quality. That and other site specific characteristics cause some hatcheries to be very productive and some to be marginal, at best. But because hatcheries are generally popular, no legislator wants the hatchery located in his district closed, even if it's the least productive hatchery in the state. And legislators use their political influence to get hatcheries built and to keep them running, even when the hatchery is a poor investment of public funds.

If there is some good to come from the current recession, it is forcing state agencies, like ODFW and WDFW to prioritize which facilities are most important, and the most cost effective in productivity, because budget cuts are going to force closures. I hope the hatcheries that survive the cut are the most productive ones, rather than the ones with the most political backing.

Sg

My favorite is a South PS hatchery that had a guaranteed water supply that was perfect. Then the supplier backed out so the hatcheries chief said dump and move on.

Well here comes the head of engineering and he came up with a surface water thing and got the Director to sign off. Bloody thing has been a piece of crap from day one but the people responsible for that bit of stupidity are gone. The hatchery is still there though and gets pointed to as a waste so the hatcheries get a black eye along with the staff.

You have got to know the history of any hatchery to know why things are what they are. By the way your correct, legislators have screwed up more culture things, other side is agencies have used closures to get votes for funding. Rep. Blake gets to experience this every funding cycle on the Willapa.

No fast & easy answers.

Amen brother.

Rivrguy's description happens more than once. This sounds like the old McAllister Creek hatchery that had planned to use the McAllister springs which are/were one of the water supplies for the City of Olympia. Only problem was that Olympia wasn't on board so they had to move downstream. Ended up with nearly every kind of disease known in fish culture including saltwater diseases (because of tidal influence in the creek). Despite being operated by some really good fish culturists, the place never really could be effective. It finally closed with a lot of the WDFW folks kicking and screaming all the way.

Hate to see the money go to a demolition project, but in the long run, they would look for a new site rather than try and resurrect the old site. Sucks but it probably pays prevailing wages too. Spendy.