The Sandy River's fishing guides see the hatchery's results firsthand. They also help frame the debate.
Jack Glass, 55, has guided on the Sandy for 28 years, catching spring chinook but mostly focusing on hard-fighting winter steelhead.
Glass' fear: Pressure on the hatchery, combined with tighter budgets, will further reduce releases and cut fishing even more. Given limited habitat, he says, the wild fish "won't return in sustainable numbers that would allow any kind of harvest fishery."
"We're OK with catch and release of wild fish, but we want to have the opportunity to retain a few hatchery fish -- that drives the industry," Glass says.
Anglers are required to release wild fish. Within limits, they can keep hatchery fish -- distinguished by a clipped adipose fin.
Fish and Wildlife reports about 2,100 hatchery steelhead caught on the Sandy in 2009. The spring chinook catch dropped to 324 that year, down from numbers in the thousands up to 2005, in part because of the cuts to spring chinook hatchery releases.
Jeff Hickman, 29, has guided on the Sandy for a decade, after years of fishing on the river before classes at Sandy High School. His clients are fly fishermen, who favor catching and releasing more aggressive wild fish.
Hickman's fear: Hatchery fish will depress or eliminate the wild population.
In Puget Sound this February, Washington abruptly shut down all steelhead fishing -- including catch-and-release -- on four key rivers because of low returns of wild steelhead covered under the Endangered Species Act.
"Hatchery fish are kind of a dead end street," Hickman says. "I think we need to give the river a chance to prove itself."
Fish and Wildlife estimates about 1,300 wild spring chinook and 1,400 wild winter steelhead -- both listed under the Endangered Species Act -- returned to the Sandy last year. Steelhead numbers dipped into the 600s in 2005 and 2006, when counts at the now defunct Marmot Dam allowed more accuracy. Both counts are far below historic run sizes.
GS.71SALM116.jpgView full sizeDan Aguayo
In its latest review, Oregon classed the Sandy's spring chinook at "moderate" risk for extinction; winter steelhead ranked "high."
But wild fish numbers appear to be trending up, in the Sandy and basinwide, says Todd Alsbury, a Fish and Wildlife fish biologist. And more nests in the Sandy's spawning beds in 2010 indicate habitat improvements and dam removal are beginning to pay off.
"I think we're going to see recovery sooner than a lot of people think," Alsbury says.
Jim Lichatowich, a former chief of fisheries research for Oregon, says he's seen a handful of hatchery reforms in 40 years as a fishery biologist with minimal results.
"I'm withholding judgment," he says, "until I actually see the words converted to action.
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