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

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. Tom Stahl, deputy administrator for inland fish at ODFW, said the agency is weighing two primary options: a full-capacity restoration at Rock Creek or a “resilient Umpqua Basin Hatchery” approach that spreads production across multiple facilities.

Under the resilient option, ODFW would return roughly half of spring Chinook production to Rock Creek but build a new South Umpqua facility on tribal property to rear winter steelhead and coho for their full life cycles. Some production would remain at partner facilities such as Elk River Hatchery and Coal River’s Hatchery. Stahl said the multi-site plan reduces mechanical reliance on chilling and recirculation systems, spreads environmental risk, and preserves culturally and economically important programs while lowering initial construction and ongoing operating costs compared with a single full-capacity rebuild.

Financially, Stahl said the state has “a little under 17,000,000 in insurance dollars” from the Archie Creek/2020 fires available for this work and that the State Office of Emergency Management is working with FEMA on a public-assistance claim. He said FEMA’s public-assistance program would cover about 90% of remaining eligible costs but leaves a 10% match the state must provide. ODFW expects to finalize design details this spring, submit required state-tribal agreements to FEMA, and that FEMA will take roughly 12–18 months to review, approve and appropriate funds.

Stahl also identified an ongoing operations and maintenance funding gap: existing mitigation dollars from Douglas County and the Pacific Corps total just under $150,000 per biennium, leaving ODFW with “a little under 2,500,000.0 per biennium” in unmet operating costs for Umpqua production.

Committee members pressed staff on technical and cost details. A committee member asked which species would remain at Rock Creek and where chillers would be sited; Stahl said spring Chinook are the most likely to stay at Rock Creek and that, with reduced densities, chilling needs would be lower but not necessarily eliminated. Stahl said fish experience stress above about 19 degrees Celsius and that 21 degrees Celsius is “really a top lethal level.” Representative Rob Dobson asked how construction dollars would be split between rebuilding Rock Creek and the new South Umpqua facility; Stahl said the split will be clearer once final construction estimates are complete and that building a new facility on tribal land will carry some savings (for example, reduced housing needs) but likely higher construction costs overall.

At the close of the presentation, the Legislative Fiscal Office recommended the committee acknowledge receipt of the department’s report; a co-chair moved the LFO recommendation, there were no objections, and the motion passed.

Next steps reported by ODFW include finalizing facility designs, negotiating state-tribal agreements required by FEMA for construction on tribal property, and submitting the public-assistance application this spring for FEMA review.