$240 Million For Northwest Tribal Hatcheries Announced

Federal officials yesterday announced nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in funding for tribal salmon and steelhead hatcheries in the Northwest and Alaska, with an initial $54 million made available to 27 tribes for maintenance, modernization and capacity.

The money will be disbursed by the Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce, flows from the Biden Administration’s Investing in America efforts and comes as the US government has made major commitments to restoring Chinook, coho, summer steelhead and other stocks in the Columbia River and is focused on empowering tribal communities.

According to the Associated Press, there’s a $1-plus-billion backlog of needed maintenance at tribal hatcheries – a Makah facility has a tarp for a roof and a Lummi one that rears Nooksack spring Chinook is in disrepair, Jennifer Quan, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s West Coast region administrator and a former WDFW official, told a news conference.

With dozens of Northwest salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act or not doing well, hatchery fish provide the vast bulk of the annual harvest. They are produced at not only tribal but federal and state facilities, the latter two of which are often the subject of lawsuits by environmental groups.

A Seattle Times story on the new funding quotes Lummi Nation’s Lisa Wilson as saying “disproportionate burdens” are placed on the tribe as it attempts to uphold its treaty rights to harvest salmon. The new funding will be awarded through contracts and compacts administered through the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which “will lift a significant administrative burden from the awardee Tribes,” according to a joint federal press release.

“Tribal fish hatchery production in the Pacific Northwest benefits subsistence fishers as well as both local and global markets, supporting commercial, subsistence and recreational fishing, tourism and the broader ecosystem from California to Alaska. Millions of fish are produced in Tribal hatcheries each year, driving Tribal employment and subsistence, nutrition for Tribal families, and the preservation of cultural traditions and recreation. As habitat is restored and reconnected to better support natural fish production, hatcheries will remain a critical tool to supplement fish for Tribal and non-Tribal fisheries, as well as other salmon-dependent animals and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest,” the press release also states.

The balance of the $240 million being made available will be awarded competitively “to help Tribes address the long-term viability and effectiveness of critical infrastructure for the propagation of Pacific salmon and steelhead.”