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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 19, 2005 Hatchery programs face streamlining Corps budget cuts will mean cheaper food for fish at Cole Rivers By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Salmon, steelhead and trout raised at Cole Rivers Fish Hatchery will get cheaper food pellets and adult spring chinook will get fewer fungus treatments under new budget cuts brought on by Hurricane Katrina relief and other federal spending needs, authorities said. Hatchery manager Randy Robart had to trim $54,000 from his current $1.6 million budget because of less money available from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the upper Rogue River facility. The Corps funds almost all of the operations and maintenance at the 33-year-old hatchery, which was built to mitigate for native salmon, steelhead and trout losses by the Corps’ building of Lost Creek, Applegate and Elk Creek dams. "They’ve really asked us to pare down, and there’s not much left to pare," said Robart, who submitted his trimmed budget to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials this week. "When we cut down to this level, we’re only operating. We’re not maintaining or replacing 30-year-old items that could fail or are failing." Similar cuts have occurred to the Corps budget for operations and maintenance of facilities across the country, including Lost Creek and Applegate dams. Advertisement "In the big picture nationally, every Corps project took a 10 percent reduction and we’re part of that," said Jim Buck, the Corps project manager at Lost Creek Lake. "Congress wanted the Corps to gain additional efficiencies." John Thorpe, the ODFW’s Fish Propagation Program manager, said the Corps has asked agencies like the ODFW to "shave" their budgets amid a need to funnel money toward other big- ticket items such as hurricane relief. The cuts also came as the agency raised the cost it charges agencies like the Corps to administer those federally funded programs, Thorpe said. "We’re stuck in a situation where they don’t have as much money to give us and we’re costing more than we thought we would," Thorpe said. "We’re operating as efficiently as we can." To save $42,000 this year, Robart dropped the hatchery’s regular food pellets in favor of a less expensive brand that might result in slightly smaller growth rates in the juvenile fish, he said. "It’s unproven, so we’re kind of taking a gamble," Robart said. Another $12,000 was saved by trimming from five to three the number of days each week that adult spring chinook that return to the hatchery will be treated for fungus outbreaks that can kill the salmon before spawning. Any future cuts would result in the hatchery shaving off some of the fish it raises annually, and the hatchery coho program — considered to provide the smallest benefit to recreation and commercial fishing interests — could be the most likely candidate, Robart said. However, the salmon and steelhead programs were created as part of the congressional authorization for building the dams. Therefore, any changes would require negotiations between the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Corps, or even possible congressional action, to occur. Historically, the hatchery coho program fueled the commercial ocean fishery crippled by the threatened species status of wild coho in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Now, the facility collects thousands of excess coho annually, with about a third of them killed and donated to the Oregon Food Bank. "The coho program is one that stands out as one that doesn’t give us all that much bang for the buck," Robart said Thursday. "That stands out as one that could be renegotiated." Cole Rivers is one of seven Oregon hatcheries either fully or partially funded by the Corps, which spends around $6 million annually at those hatcheries. Cole Rivers Hatchery raises 1.82 million spring chinook salmon, of which all but 200,000 are released into the Rogue each late summer and fall. Those not destined for the river normally are released into Lost Creek Lake. Along with the 200,000 coho smolts released annually, the hatchery raises 244,000 summer steelhead and 172,000 winter steelhead for release into the Rogue. Another 166,000 winter steelhead are raised and released into the Applegate River. All of those are Corps-funded. The hatchery also raises about 366,000 rainbow trout annually, and two-thirds of them are Corps-funded, Robart said. At Lost Creek dam, this year’s operations budget is about $3.58 million, of which all but about $1 million comes from the Bonneville Power Administration for the dam’s hydropower contract, Buck said. Of the Corps money, about $322,000 goes for the recreation program at the lake, and $676,000 goes toward the dam’s flood-damage reduction and natural resources programs, Buck said. The Corps originally had the recreation budget up 10 percent for this fiscal year, but that increase since has been dropped, Buck said. Thorpe said the hatchery program faced similar cuts last fiscal year, but they were averted. "If we don’t have any killer hurricane next year or something like that, I think we can get back on an even keel again," Thorpe said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail Hatchery programs face streamlining ">[email protected] . 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