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Oregon officials outline multi-site plan to restore Umpqua Basin hatchery production

Natural Resources Subcommittee (Oregon Legislature) · February 9, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

ODFW told the Natural Resources Subcommittee it favors a 'resilient' multi-site approach — including a new South Umpqua facility on tribal land — over a full rebuild of Rock Creek Hatchery after the 2020 fire; insurance proceeds and FEMA public-assistance could cover most construction costs but a biennial operations gap remains.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials told the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Feb. 9 that restoring permanent hatchery production in the Umpqua Basin will require a multi-site, partnership-driven approach rather than rebuilding Rock Creek Hatchery to full pre-fire capacity.

“We were here today for another installment of hatchery budget notes,” said Sean Clements, deputy director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, opening the department’s presentation. He said Rock Creek Hatchery, which supported Chinook, coho, steelhead and trout programs, was “almost completely destroyed” in the Labor Day 2020 fires and that production has continued only by using other facilities.

The department cited a 2023 statewide hatchery assessment funded by the Legislature and said that assessment highlighted environmental vulnerabilities at Rock Creek — including high summer water temperatures, fire risk and reduced flows — that make a single-site full-capacity rebuild costly and risky.…

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