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OVERCAST Temp: 51 °F Wind: WNW at 7 mph Wednesday, February 19, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend January 5, 2003 Butte Falls Hatchery Manager Devan Garlock creates a feeding frenzy among yearling rainbow trout. One of Oregon�s oldest hatcheries is back in business after a nearly $1 million renovation. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Butte Falls Hatchery is back after renovations Two ponds teem with trout and salmon eggs incubate in a facility that dates to 1915 By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune BUTTE FALLS — Devan Garlock has 250,000 new little mouths to feed, and he couldn’t be happier. Hungry rainbow trout bound for Lemolo Lake and other Douglas County waters are back now under Garlock’s tutelage at the Butte Falls Hatchery, where nearly $1 million has transformed one of Oregon’s oldest and most run-down hatcheries into a fish-friendly facility again. A seven-month renovation of the aged facilities, including a rebuilding of its antiquated water system to meet federal standards, has allowed state hatchery workers to return water and fish into the old concrete ponds that rest beneath old-growth Douglas fir just outside of Butte Falls. Now two ponds teem with tiny trout and 90,000 coho salmon eggs incubate in a facility whose fish-rearing legacy dates to 1915. "This is like a breath of fresh air," says Garlock, the hatchery’s manager. "It’s like we’re all in a better mood now that we have water and fish in our ponds. We had been getting to where we were really missing the fish." What Garlock and his two full-time employees won’t miss are the leaking water line, dilapidated ponds, poor fish screens and other relics that made the state-run hatchery a tough place to raise fish. But the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, through a special program aimed at restoring old hatcheries, pumped $875,000 of fishing license money into the Butte Falls Hatchery this year. The restoration was far enough along that the tiny trout, which had been living at nearby Cole Rivers Hatchery on the Rogue River since May, were trucked back to Butte Falls two weeks ago. The coho salmon eggs, which will grow into fish for release into the Coquille and Umpqua river systems, came by truck Monday. Now these fish thrive in a facility that is a mix of the very old and the very new. A high-tech water intake system funnels water through new lines into ponds, and every nook and cranny of the new facility is equipped with alarms that warn hatchery workers by walkie-talkie of any malfunctions. "It’s all pretty sophisticated stuff for this old place," Garlock says. But at least one thing is still done the old-fashioned way. The fish are fed by hand, instead of by electronic feeders that toss food pellets into the ponds at pre-determined intervals. "It just wouldn’t be right not to feed fish in this old place by hand," he says. Restoring the hatchery may be the equivalent of putting titanium knees in an 88-year-old man, but there is one very good reason for continuing to rear fish there for coastal streams high in the Cascades. It’s the water. The cool, bottle-quality Big Butte Creek water that wets Medford’s whistle also provides some of the best fish-rearing environment in all of Oregon. The water was the reason the hatchery was built there, and the reason it remains. "The one great thing we have here is an excellent water supply," Garlock says. "That’s why it would be ridiculous to close this place." That’s what Butte Falls residents believed two years ago when the ODFW announced plans to mothball the old hatchery instead of investing in its long-overdue maintenance. The logging town of 470 people, hard hit by changes to forest management, lobbied extensively to keep one of its last vestiges of its past. "You know the history of this town," resident-advocate Joyce Hailicka says. "There’s a lot of stuff we had that’s not around anymore. We really need that hatchery." The Oregon Legislature agreed, ordering ODFW to back off its plans to mothball the old facility and giving the agency $380,000 to operate it through this summer. But before they could run it, ODFW managers had to fix it. So the agency turned to the Oregon Restoration and Enhancement Program, which takes an annual $2 surcharge on fishing licenses and helps fuel restoration projects like this one. ODFW Director Lindsay Ball says the restoration work amounts to giving Oregonians what they want from their natural-resource agency. Even amid recent budget cuts, Oregonians have told Ball’s agency that keeping hatcheries open is a high priority in a state where a federal study concludes more than $600 million was spent on sport-fishing in 2001. "Fish and wildlife in Oregon is a big business," Ball says. "To invest in fish and wildlife is to invest in Oregon." The Restoration and Enhancement Program has since invested $875,000 on the hatchery, with $300,000 just on rebuilding the structure where the hatchery siphons water from Big Butte Creek. The water intake had to be rebuilt to include a state-of-the-art fish screen meant to replace an old screen that routinely killed tiny salmon smolts trying to swim past it. Water flowed back through pipes into hatchery ponds Dec. 13, and then came the fish. "It was strange not hearing the sound of running water, and it was really weird not having fish on site," Garlock recalls. The ODFW has asked Gov.-elect Ted Kulongoski for almost $400,000 to operate Butte Falls through summer 2005. Even though most of the Butte Falls fish get stocked in streams and lakes in Coos or Douglas counties, having these trout back in the Cascades satisfies Hailicka. "It’s very appropriate to have fish returned to our hatchery," Hailicka says. "It’s like the swallows returning to Capistrano." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S