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FISHERIES Oregon faces timeline on limiting hatchery salmon in river Comment By The Associated Press MailTribune.com By The Associated Press Posted Mar. 18, 2015 at 8:56 PM By The Associated Press Posted Mar. 18, 2015 at 8:56 PM » Social News EUGENE — Oregon wildlife officials can release hatchery salmon in the upper reaches of the McKenzie River for now but have three months to set a deadline for scaling down the number of fish competing and breeding with threatened wild salmon, a federal judge has ruled. The upper McKenzie in the Cascade Range outside Springfield is one of Oregon's last strongholds for wild chinook salmon. Two sport fishing groups sued the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, arguing it is violating the Endangered Species Act by not doing enough to prevent hatchery fish from cross-breeding with threatened wild chinook, which diminishes their ability to survive. McKenzie Flyfishers and the Steamboaters wanted a court order barring the department from releasing more than 360,000 young salmon into the McKenzie above Leaburg Dam until the department finds a way to limit the number of adult hatchery salmon that spawn with wild salmon to 10 percent. "We didn't get everything we asked for," said Dave Thomas, a biologist and member of McKenzie Flyfishers told The Register Guard newspaper in Eugene. "But we now have all the parties agreeing the fisheries need to be managed for the conservation of these wild fish, which has not been the case in the past." While the department has a policy favoring wild fish conservation, it is under strong pressure to produce hatchery fish that people can catch and kill, rather than catch and release, as they must with protected wild fish. Wild fish have diminished as they lose habitat to dams, logging, agriculture and urban development, and hatchery fish now make up the vast majority of salmon in Oregon rivers. Research has shown that wild fish survive in rivers better than hatchery fish, and when hatchery fish breed with them, the wild fish decline. U.S. District Magistrate Judge Tom Coffin found that the department is complying with plans to reduce harm to wild salmon, releasing fewer young hatchery salmon than federal fisheries managers authorized last year. But he told the department it cannot continue to kick the can down the road and gave it 90 days to set the deadline for reducing the effects of hatchery fish on wild fish. "The court intends to oversee this process to ensure that the target is met in a realistic time frame," Coffin wrote in the opinion issued Friday. Deputy fish chief Bruce McIntosh said the department could comply with the 90-day order but that the actual deadline is likely to be some years away. "The context for that is we've been taking actions the last couple of years to reduce those impacts," he said. "It takes four or five years for those fish to come home. It takes four or five years to see the fruits of those actions." By The Associated Press MailTribune.com By The Associated Press Posted Mar. 18, 2015 at 8:56 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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