WASHOUGAL, WA – There will soon be fewer steelhead released into Washington’s waters due to the impending closure of Skamania Hatchery.
Located in Washougal, the hatchery produces summer and winter steelhead that are released into southwest Washington rivers for recreational fishing.
The hatchery produces 331,000 steelhead per year, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Operations at Skamania Hatchery will begin to slow over the next year, as the state Department of Fish and Wildlife begins the three-year process of closing the facility.
The Washougal and Beaver Creek hatcheries will take over some steelhead production.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that closure of the Skamania Hatchery will reduce the total production of steelhead in Washington by 161,000 per year after factoring in the increased fish from the other facilities.
The hatchery’s closure will most strongly affect southwest Washington recreational steelhead anglers, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife announced its decision to close Skamania Hatchery in June after not receiving its full two-year budget request from the state Legislature.
The agency had asked the Legislature for $1.9 million to maintain operations at the North Toutle and Skamania hatcheries, but only received $750,000 as lawmakers worked earlier this year to resolve a budget deficit in the $12 billion to $16 billion range.
“This funding is far short of the amount needed to sustain current hatchery operations at both facilities,” the Department of Fish and Wildlife said in its budget request for next year.
The North Toutle Hatchery produces Tule Fall Chinook and coho salmon.
With only enough funding to support continued operations at one of the two hatcheries, the Department of Fish and Wildlife determined that the benefits of keeping the North Toutle Hatchery open outweighed the benefits of the Skamania Hatchery.
Rather than asking the Legislature to backfill its initial request amid declining revenue forecasts, the Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking for $432,000 in the 2026 supplemental budget to start closing Skamania Hatchery.
“The Department recognizes the necessity of exercising fiscal restraint this year
considering falling revenue forecasts, rising caseload costs, shifting federal impacts, and
increasing tort liabilities,” Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind said in a letter to Office of Financial Management Director K.D. Chapman-See.
Two Skamania Hatchery staff will be reassigned to the Washougal Hatchery but stay onsite at the Skamania Hatchery to oversee the three-year closure process.
Those staff members will continue trapping and fish ladder operations for returning adult fish that were released from the hatchery as juveniles.
Staff will finish closing the hatchery and begin decommissioning it once there are no more adult fish returning.
Decommissioning the hatchery will involve removing any intake or other inwater structures, demolishing infrastructure and restoring habitat in the area.
That process may take an additional six years after the hatchery closes and cost roughly $8 million, which the Department of Fish and Wildlife said will need to come from a future capital budget.
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