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--> --> ODFW donates salmon to hungry PORTLAND (AP) - The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will donate 40,000 pounds of hatchery salmon filets to the Oregon Food Bank on Wednesday, an unprecedented donation in the agency's history. The department can make the donation because its hatcheries had more returning salmon than it needed for harvesting eggs. About 280,000 more salmon and steelhead than needed are returning this year to the state's 34 hatcheries. State officials say the food bank contribution is one of many ways the agency deals with excess hatchery fish, including placing salmon bodies in streams to add nutrients and releasing live fish in rivers to give sport fishers an extra chance at catching them. Trent Stickell, the department's director of fish propagation, said the donation wouldn't be possible without the enormous number of wild and hatchery fish returning to Oregon's waterways this year. The boom is most apparent in the Columbia River, where more than 3.1 million adult salmon and steelhead are projected to return, the most since record-keeping began in 1938. State officials think the record run resulted from heavy rain and snow several years ago that swelled rivers and carried young fish safely to the sea. Officials fear that this year's drought will sharply depress future returns. Rachel Bristol, executive director of the Oregon Food Bank, said her agency needs food more than ever. Oregon's recession was worsened by the Sept. 11 attacks, she said, and demand for food aid across the state is far above the same time last year. "Salmon is an item that everyone here in Oregon likes," she said. "It is a high-quality, high protein food item that is going to be just wonderful for us." Department officials say they destroy the excess hatchery fish to prevent them from spawning in areas where they might hurt wild fish by taking their habitat, introducing diseases or weakening the gene pool. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing