Wildfires are tearing through the western United States, incinerating public lands, wildlife habitat, and towns in their path. Over 1.7 million acres have burned in Oregon and Washington alone, and while rain is predicted to bring some relief over the coming days, the fires have already destroyed critical infrastructure supporting our salmon and steelhead populations. Several Oregon fish hatcheries are in areas that were burned or evacuated. The Rock Creek Hatchery on the North Umpqua River sustained the most severe damage.

Today, we launched the Oregon Hatchery Recovery Fund to support rebuilding projects at hatchery facilities that sustained significant damage in Oregon’s recent wildfires. The fires leveled Rock Creek hatchery and severely damaged Klamath and Leaburg hatcheries. While ODFW staff were able to release or transfer millions of fish, hundreds of thousands perished. As ODFW transitions from emergency response to recovery planning, we will use this dedicated fund to help pay for the infrastructure projects necessary to get these facilities operating again.