By Patrick Lair
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 12:00 am
Hatchery ships thousands of steelhead for release
On a rainy morning in March, Roaring River Fish Hatchery manager Tim Schamber can be found wading through a holding pond with something that looks like a screen door in his hands. Slowly moving toward the corner of the pond, he herds thousands of juvenile steelhead into a suction tube that will ferry them out of the pool and into the tank of an ODFW truck, waiting to haul them away.
It's shipping time for the summer steelhead at Roaring River Fish Hatchery, 18 miles east of Albany.
From March to April the hatchery will ship around 121,000 juvenile steelhead, each weighing around four ounces, for release in local water.
About 55,000 summer steelhead are shipped to Minto Pond, outside of Gates, to await release into the North Fork of the Santiam River. Another 66,000 are destined for release into the Willamette River in April.
The hatchery, a 41-acre operation, consists of 23 gravity-fed holding ponds. In operation since 1924, the hatchery receives its water from the Roaring River, a tributary to Crabtree Creek that feeds into the South Santiam River.
"It's probably the only river that feeds into a creek," Schamber said with a grin.
With a year-round staff of four fulltime employees, and two additional seasonal workers, the hatchery provides summer and winter steelhead, rainbow trout and trout eggs throughout the state.
In fact, the Roaring River Fish Hatchery provides trout eggs for the majority of stocking programs in Oregon.
"About 70 percent of trout stocked throughout the state originate here as eggs," Schamber said.
The hatchery rears about 85,000 juvenile winter steelhead for release in the Siuslaw River system, at Whittaker and Greenleaf creeks, in mid-April.
It also produces nearly 75,000 pounds of rainbow trout for stocking streams, lakes and ponds between January and August.
Additionally, close to 3,500 pounds of trophy-sized trout are shipped from the hatchery to local water, nearly 2,000 pounds of legal-sized trout for the South Santiam, Bonneville and Cedar Creek hatcheries, and close to four million eggs are provided to ODFW and private hatcheries throughout the state.
The Roaring River program is aimed at producing fish recreational fishermen can catch and take home. The programs are geared toward moving fishermen away from protected native species.
The hatchery receives 75 percent of its budget from federal funds through the Sport Fish Restoration program. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife program is funded by a federal excise tax on fishing rods, reels, creels, lures, flies and artificial baits. The other 25 percent comes from state fishing license fees.
Despite its rural location, the hatchery receives about 15,000 visitors each year. New to the property is a seven-hole Frisbee golf course constructed along an intepretive trail.
The hatchery is on the eastern end of Fish Hatchery Drive, off Brewster Road, northeast of Lebanon.
Patrick Lair can be reached at patrick.lair@lee.net or 258-6441.
STOCKING SCHEDULE
Are you looking for opportunities to catch trout in local lakes and streams? Then check the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Web site at http://www.dfw.state.or.us
/resources/fishing/2007
_stocking_schedules.asp for the weekly statewide Trout Stocking Schedule. The site contains the most current stocking schedule for 2007
in the Northwest, Southwest, Willamette, Central, Northeast and Southeast Zones. Stocking occurs during the week of the date listed.
Anglers in the northwest part of the state are invited
to call (971) 673-6000 after
2 p.m. for a list of water bodies stocked each day. The schedule is subject to change due to water conditions or equipment malfunction.
- ODFW