Thursday February 13, 2025
Columbia Basin Bulletin —
A federal judge in Oregon has ruled that releasing hatchery-raised, non-native summer steelhead into the North and South Santiam rivers in the Willamette River system harms the river’s wild winter steelhead and violates the federal Endangered Species Act.
However, Oregon Federal District Court Judge Ann Aiken did not choose to vacate a NOAA Fishery biological opinion covering the hatcheries’ operations or rule on a remedy, such as closing hatcheries, and is instead awaiting briefings from the parties involved in the case before determining how the issue will be settled. A status conference is set for Feb. 13.
The Jan. 21 opinion and order comes in a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and intervenor Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. It was initially filed by The Conservation Angler and Willamette Riverkeeper in 2017, with a follow-suit filed in January 2021. The conservation groups alleged in both lawsuits that hatchery summer steelhead harm the native wild winter steelhead and have led to their decline. Willamette winter steelhead were listed as threatened under the ESA in 1999.