USACE Portland District Grant for Hatchery Operation and Maintenance

USACE has constructed approximately 20 dams and related hydropower facilities along the Columbia River, Willamette Valley, and Rogue River Basin. Under common law and statutory law, wild fish belong to the states. Because of this ownership and control relationship, the federal laws authorizing the 3 Columbia River, 13 Willamette Valley, and 3 Rogue River dams in Portland District all authorized hatchery programs jointly owned and operated by the Federal Government and the respective state fish agencies – in the case of Oregon – ODFW. The common factor in these Portland District hatchery operations is that the Corps dams inundated fish spawning grounds and affected or impeded fish passage, resulting in the hatchery mitigation requirements.

The hatchery mitigation program is responsible for mitigating impacts from the construction and operation of dams built by USACE. This entails raising more than a million pounds of fish to be released in various water bodies in the Willamette, Rogue, and Columbia River basins to mitigate impacts to lost salmon and steelhead, including impacts to lost spawning and rearing habitat. More specifically, activities include collection of brood stock, spawning of returning adults, rearing of juveniles, and the release of fish into appropriate water bodies. Other activities include outplanting of adults at strategic locations to aid fish in their upstream migration and to improve fish populations.