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Lack of money dooms hatchery after 85 years By Mark Freeman The Butte Falls Hatchery will close � probably for good � next summer now that the last two money sources have dried up for the old, beleaguered facility. The 85-year-old hatchery along Big Butte Creek was not included in the governor�s 2001-2003 budget proposal released this week, leaving the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife�s budget devoid of cash to keep raising fish in Butte Falls beginning July 1. The hatchery, the third oldest in Oregon, also has lost out to an Astoria-area hatchery for part of a pilot conservation program that will be considered by the Oregon Legislature next year. With no other revenue sources in sight, the leaky concrete ponds and wooden hatch-house nestled beneath old-growth Douglas fir will get their last flows of Big Butte Creek�s bottle-worthy water June 30. "I should say that I�m surprised, but I�m not," said Dan Murphy, the town�s postmaster who was one of several community leaders trying to keep their hatchery in operation. "Fancy that, that a (Columbia River) hatchery gets picked and not us," Murphy said. "That�s where the power is, up north. You get down to political power, and we�re a small area." Butte Falls residents have wanted to keep the hatchery in operation and to market it as a tourist destination for Rogue Valley residents looking to escape summer heat for this old timber town in transition. The facility rears fish released for other rivers and lakes across southwest Oregon. No fish grown at Butte Falls are bound for Big Butte Creek or the Rogue River; the closest contributions are in the form of fingerling rainbow trout to Hyatt and Howard Prairie lakes. But it is considered a potential tourist draw for Butte Falls. Local sentiment is to keep it as a working hatchery or transform it into a museum, a bed and breakfast or some other type of facility that could draw valley residents up the Butte Falls Highway. "I just can�t see them shutting down this wonderful source for water and fish," community activist Joyce Hailicka said. "We want to see that facility doing what it�s intended for, but we definitely want to see it used as something, not torn down." The hatchery was set to be closed last summer, but residents joined with ODFW managers in successfully lobbying the Legislature for money that has kept the hatchery going through next June. That money was seen as a safety net while the ODFW and a public task force put together a so-called Conservation Hatchery Improvement Program, called CHIP, that the Legislature will be asked to adopt next year. CHIP is considered a way for Oregon to help study how best to operate hatcheries for protecting or enhancing wild fish stocks. The $1.5 million program, if funded, will compare and evaluate native and hatchery fish survival rates, the interaction of hatchery and wild fish, and study fish genetics, nutrition requirements and gene control. Butte Falls was one of three hatcheries targeted in the early drafts of the program to serve as a conservation hatchery, where hatchery fish will be raised in a manner that more closely imitates fish in the wild. But a public task force and ODFW managers together chose the Gnat Creek Hatchery near Astoria, not the Butte Falls Hatchery, for inclusion in the bill that will go before the Legislature, said Chuck Tracy, an ODFW policy assistant working on the program. "We wanted at least one conservation facility out of the deal, and Butte Falls fell out," Tracy said. "It was a matter of prioritization, I guess, where we felt the money could do the best good." The CHIP money was the hatchery�s last chance, because the ODFW budget calls for closing the Butte Falls facility as well as the Rock Creek Hatchery on the North Umpqua River and the hatchery programs for some coastal streams like the Chetco River near Brookings. While other hatchery programs tapped for possible closing could return if the Legislature keeps the current hunting and fishing fees intact, there still won�t be enough money for Butte Falls, said Bob Mullen, the ODFW�s regional director in Roseburg. The facility is old and raises fish for release elsewhere, and the ODFW is giving priority to keeping open hatcheries like the Elk River Hatchery, which raises and releases fish into its home river, Mullen said. "That, and the age of the hatchery, makes it an easier one to shut down," Mullen said. Butte Falls Hatchery has three employees, and its operation is managed by employees at the Cole Rivers Hatchery on the Rogue River. It has on hand about 87,500 young coho set for release next spring in either Galesville Reservoir in Douglas County or into the Coquille River in Coos County, said Matt Frank, foreman at the Cole Rivers Hatchery. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.