Community Invited to Town Hall to Discuss Future of Rock Creek Fish Hatchery on March 11

The Douglas County Board of Commissioners encourage residents to attend and participate in a Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in the Community Building at the Douglas County Fairgrounds starting at 6:00 pm. The topic of discussion will be the future of the Rock Creek Fish Hatchery. Representatives from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), as well as the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians, Senator David Brock-Smith and State Representative Virgle Osborne will serve on a panel to discuss the future of the Rock Creek Fish Hatchery. The public will have an opportunity to comment. Sadly, the Rock Creek Hatchery was consumed by the devastating Archie Creek Fire in the Fall of 2020. Even though there is nearly $17 million in insurance funding specifically for Rock Creek Fish Hatchery, as well as access to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding to rebuild the site, ODFW has yet to rebuild or offer an opportunity for the public to provide their input. We lost a valuable resource; what do we do about it? This is an opportunity for anglers, students, teachers and those who care about fish in the Umpqua River to have their voice be heard. The intensity of the Archie Creek Fire led to such high-water temperatures in the hatchery’s raceways that thousands of steelhead and salmon smolts were killed. Thanks to local efforts, close to 700 adult salmon were saved and transported to Cole Rivers Hatchery in Trail for spawning. The century-old hatchery site also included four on-site residences, two full sets of rearing ponds, a hatch house, supply houses and garages. All were casualties of the Archie Creek Fire, which also destroyed the supplies, equipment and fish food. The only structure that survived the fire was the Rock Educational Building. Rock Creek Fish Hatchery was originally constructed in 1925, is one of the oldest continuously operating fish hatcheries in Oregon, and is the progeny of North Umpqua hatchery operations dating to before 1900. This location sits across the Umpqua River from the first trout hatchery built in this section of the North Umpqua River in 1920. It is located about 23 miles from Roseburg up the North Umpqua Highway near the community of Idleyld Park. The Rock Creek Fish Hatchery has been an integral part of supporting hatchery releases of Spring Chinook, Fall Chinook, Coho Salmon, Winter Steelhead, Summer Steelhead and Trout. Its fish production has provided tens of thousands of catchable and harvestable fish with a high benefit/cost ratio every year for the past century. It is also a well-visited location for hands-on educational tours with local school kids and teachers, as well as families and tourists, to learn about the local watershed, wildlife and the process of sustaining and spawning summer steelhead. Students, families and the public have learned about the valuable contribution the Rock Hatchery has made, providing hatchery fish for sport angling, subsistence fishing, commercial fishing, and for local wildlife. Rock Creek Fish Hatchery is an important part of our community contributing to education, tourism, local jobs, volunteer opportunities, cultural significance, and a healthy and thriving watershed. If nothing is done and it is not rebuilt, we will see the end of fish spawning and seasonal fish runs in this section of the Umpqua River. Join us on Tuesday, March 11th at 6pm at the Douglas County Fairgrounds! Via Douglas County Gov press release