Clackamas River is one of the largest urban rivers in Oregon. As a home river to Trout Unlimited's Clackamas River chapter, the "Clack" receives a fair bit of attention from those guys, including contracting with prison work crews to eradicate invasive species, planting trees in conjunction with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, helping capture fish for genetic testing, and even running a kids camp, all in the name of protecting, conserving and restoring fish in this mighty river. With six ESA listed fish in the system, there's a lot of protecting, conserving and restoring to be done. To help with those efforts, TU's Portland office added our support to the relicensing of Portland General Electric's hydropower dams on the river, reaching a settlement agreement in 2006. The river above the dams is now managed as a wild fish reserve, and changes to the dams, hatcheries and habitat through the settlement agreement, will only add to the improvements. In addition, we're currently working with the federal regulators and other stakeholders to write a recovery plan that will guide the river and fish back to health for future generations. We think the totality of these actions is a major step forward towards recovery, but more still needs to be done.
One critical area for improvement is the operation of Eagle Creek Hatchery. Eagle Creek is a major tributary to the Clackamas, located in the lower river below the dams. The hatchery there (one of two in the watershed), has been in operation for over 50 years and has gone through many changes. Today it produces coho and winter-run steelhead to support fisheries in the Clackamas, Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the hatchery has an obligation to support the river restoration efforts. Thus, we were incredibly surprised by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's recent review of the hatchery and the continued emphasis of harvest opportunities over restoration and recovery of wild, ESA listed fish in the river. It is, in our view, an opportunity lost.
The Clackamas River and its tributaries are critical to the long term sustainability of certain species, including coho and spring chinook. Splitting the river in half and forcing those fish to recover only after passing by multiple dams twice - once up and once down - is simply not enough. The entire river must be treated as a sanctuary for these wild fish until they get to the point at which we can open up a sustainable harvest on them. There are ways to continue to support harvest opportunity, especially in the Lower Columbia River and Willamette, but continuing to overrun the Clackamas with hatchery coho and winter-run steelhead from Eagle Creek Hatchery undermines many of the recovery efforts being taken throughout the river. We will continue to push for added protection throughout the entire river, so that in the end, even our kids will enjoy fish and fishing in the Clackamas River.
For more on our response to USFWS Eagle Creek Hatchery review, please watch for our comments coming soon.
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