The Federal agency’s budget has just come out, and it’s SHOCKING. Shirking its mitigation responsibilities in the Willamette Valley, here are the proposals for salmon, steelhead and trout in the basin:

Cutting spring Chinook production by 172,000 fish!

ELIMINATING the summer steelhead program by 2025

Reducing trout plants by 65% in the Willamette Valley

In the face of already diminished returns, reductions of this magnitude would effectively bury sportfishing in the Willamette River Basin.

The Willamette River once saw wild salmon and steelhead returns exceeding 1 million adults annually back to the basin. When the US Army Corps of Engineers cut off spawning and rearing habitat by constructing the dams in the upper basin, these wild fish plummeted to around 3% of their historical abundance.

Without hatchery salmon, steelhead and trout, there would be very few returning to the Willamette Basin for sportfisheries that fuel a robust sportfishing industry and enable families to recreate together, outside, in a healthy and productive manner. Furthermore, spring Chinook are a critical forage species for Southern Resident Killer Whales, headed toward extinction.

Our community MUST protect this production, or face drastic losses of opportunity where 70% of Oregon’s population resides and recreates.

NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!