"Our goal is to ensure that our hatcheries are operated on
the best scientific principles and contribute to sustainable fisheries
and the recovery of naturally spawning populations of salmon,"
-Dan Diggs, (retired) Assistant Regional Director, Pacific Region Fishery Resources Program
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Overview: In the past 150 years, habitat alterations, hydroelectric development
and consumptive fisheries
have impacted most of the salmon and steelhead populations in the
Pacific Northwest. To mitigate for those impacts, hatcheries have
been used to increase the number of fish available for harvest. However,
long-term conservation needs of natural salmonid populations and
their inherent genetic resources require a re-examination of the
role of hatcheries in basin-wide management and conservation strategies.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) initiated a
series of hatchery reviews in May 2005 to assure that its hatchery
programs in the Northwest
are part of a scientifically-sound and integrated strategy — consistent
with State, Tribal, and other Federal strategies — for conserving
wild stocks and managing fisheries in watersheds within the Region.
The reviews, tailored after a successful process implemented
in Puget Sound and Coastal Washington watersheds, examined 53 hatchery programs at 24 federally-owned hatcheries in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. They were completed in January 2011. The first of
these reviews as a pilot in May 2006, of the Warm Springs National
Fish Hatchery; a spring Chinook hatchery located in the Deschutes
River Basin of central Oregon.
Visit the Reports and Publications page of this website to view draft and final
reports and supporting documents.
The Team: The Hatchery Review Team, comprised of Service and other federal
scientists (NOAA & USGS) conducted field tours with hatchery
managers and their staffs, reviewed hatchery operations, and met
with the comanaging agencies and tribes to gain a clear understanding
of the
goals for and status of each wild and hatchery population and associated
habitat and management strategies. The Review Team applied the
Puget Sound and Coastal Washington Hatchery Scientific Review Group's scientific framework and hatchery review tools to develop reform
recommendations for each hatchery program.
Our Method: We believe the hatchery review process developed in western Washington provided both a solid template and operational tools (e.g., software
spreadsheets, population dynamic models) for reviewing Service hatcheries
in the Columbia River Basin and on the Olympic Peninsula. We also
have found that much of the background information necessary for
reviewing Service hatcheries in the Pacific Region had already
been compiled in Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans, Comprehensive
Hatchery Management Plans and the Artificial Propagation Review and
Evaluation (APRE) database developed by the Northwest Power
and Conservation Council (NWPCC).
For more information about the Pacific Region Federal Hatchery review, contact Don Campton
at 503-231-2386 or by e-mail at don
campton @fws.gov.
