FISHING — The Chief Joseph Hatchery, designed to release up to 2.9 million chinook salmon into the Columbia River, will be dedicated and tours will be offered on Thursday (June 20) during a celebration organized by the Colville Confederated Tribes.

The $50 million state-of-the-art hatchery, between Bridgeport and Chief Joseph Dam, has been built with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration in cooperation with state and federal agencies. It will be managed by the tribe.

 The facility will provide chinook for the tribe, boost Columbia sport fishing and facilitate reintroduction of spring chinook to the Okanogan River.

Read on for more details and a schedule of events and tours for the Thursday ribbon-cutting celebration.

FISHING – Construction on a once-abandoned sockeye fish hatchery project in eastern Idaho intended to bolster Idaho’s breeding program is back on schedule, Idaho Fish and Game officials said.

The $13.5 million Springfield Fish Hatchery between Aberdeen and Blackfoot should be finished by November.

Hatchery manager Doug Engemann said the hatchery is intended to boost the number of endangered sockeye salmon returning to Redfish Lake near Stanley in central Idaho. The Bonneville Power Administration is paying for the hatchery that’s being built on a 73-acre site.

“We’re moving past the genetic conservation component of the program into a bonafide stock rebuilding, stock recovery program,” Engemann said.

FISHING — The BPA-funded upper Columbia River salmon hatchery being built near Bridgeport and managed under the direction of the Colville Confederated Tribes is scheduled to go online in May.

The Seattle Times posted this update on the project, which should greatly enhance salmon fishing potential in the Columbia and Okanogan rivers.

FISHING — The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today approved the sale of the state’s Colville Fish Hatchery to Stevens County, which plans to use it as an educational and vocational learning center.

•  I looked into the potenial benefits of this sale in my Outdoors column last week.

The commission approved a proposal to sell the 95-year-old trout hatchery for its appraised value of $150,000 during a public meeting in Olympia.

“This is really a win-win for the department and Stevens County,” said Commissioner Gary Douvia, who lives in Colville and helped to champion the sale. “While the hatchery may be past its prime, it’s still a real asset for the community.”

Dan Budd, WDFW real estate manager, said the state acquired the trout hatchery from Stevens County in 1933 and operated it for nearly 80 years. WDFW closed the facility last June and moved most of the fish production to the Spokane Hatchery to cut costs in response to state budget reductions, he said.

Douvia said the county plans to create a non-profit organization to work with area schools to operate the facility and use it as a learning center. Students will learn hatchery-management skills at an on-site classroom affiliated with the Spokane-based NEWTECH Skill Center and supported by local Stevens County school districts.

“The last time I checked, 22 students had signed up – and the program isn’t even up and running yet,” Douvia said.

Trout produced by the students will provide additional fish for local lakes and boost the local economy, he said. In addition, the terms of contract allow WDFW to credit Stevens County for the value of those fish toward the amount owed for the hatchery.

The current 19.4-acre property includes water rights and a small house. The Colville Confederated Tribes provided operational funding for the hatchery from 2010 through 2012, before it was closed last June.

FISHERIES — Recent reports from a new fisheries study goes against the grain of previous science by suggesting there's no harm in hatchery salmon spawning with wild salmon — at least not the first time.

See Columbia Basin Bulletin's detailed report.

FISHERIES — The first observed spawning sockeye salmon in the Metolius River in more than 45 years was reported on Sept. 27 by an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist. 

The Metolius joins the Crooked and Deschutes rivers in central Oregon’s Lake Billy Chinook above the Pelton-Round Butte hydro project, which has for that half century blocked upstream passage of anadromous fish – salmon and steelhead that are born in freshwater, mature at sea and then return to spawn in their natal streams.

The three rivers become the Deschutes, which flows about 100 miles downstream from the dam complex before entering the Columbia River.

Seet the Columbia Basin Bulletin's detailed report.

FISHING — Scientists are rewriting some of their findings regarding the competition in native streams between wild and htchery salmon.  See the report from the Oregonian:

Idaho study: No problems with hatchery, wild salmon interbreeding

A long-term study of summer chinook in Idaho's Johnson Creek found that the interbreeding of hatchery salmon with wild salmon had no ill effects, thus supporting “hatchery supplementation” of salmon populations done by tribes in the Northwest for years.

BOATING — Dworshak Reservoir is within 5 feet of full pool today. That's lower than normal for the Fourth of July holiday, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still leaving room for the unusually high, late snowpack to pour out of the mountains.

Officials flew the headwaters Tuesday and determined about 10 percent of the area was still snow covered.

“We’ll be at about 1 foot from full pool (1,600 feet) on July 5, and anticipate reaching full pool by July 10,” said Steve Hall, Corps reservoir manager.

All campgrounds and boat ramps are open.

Info: Dworshak Dam Visitor Center, (208) 476-1255. 

Dworshak Dam Visitor Center is open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

FISHERIES — Managers at Dworshak National Fish Hatchery say they have destroyed 332,000 juvenile summer steelhead since April to protect the rest of the hatchery’s fish from a deadly virus.

In April, 240,000 steelhead were destroyed after IHNV was confirmed in some rearing tanks by the Idaho Fish Health Center.

Officials say they still expect to have enough fish to meet their requirements for mitigating the impacts of Dworshak Dam on wild fisheries.

Read on for details.

FISHING — The race is on between wild rainbow trout and hatchery-raised trout, as Washington State University researchers measure their speed to see who's fastest — and most likely to survive in streams and lakes.

Which fish do you think wins most of the races at the WSU lab?

Check out the video above, or read on for more details.

FISHERIES — This is a good time of year to see how trout are produced in Spokane for the updoming fishing season:

It's before the fair-weather rush of school groups and prime time to see fish in all stages, including the egg stage.

The Spokane Fish Hatchery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week year-round for self-guided observation of fish and fish-rearing activity.

While Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife hatchery workers do not have time to show visitors around, trained volunteers can be scheduled to give guided tours for groups of 15 or more.

• To schedule a tour, call  (509) 892-1001.
• To volunteer to be trained to help with tours or to donate to the hatchery tour program, contact Mike Coyle, (509) 220-3004.