April 19, 2022 3:30 a.m.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is expected to decide if the North Umpqua summer steelhead hatchery production should continue, be modified, or be eliminated effective this month, as part of its meeting happening Thursday and Friday in Astoria.

A release said this is the first in-person meeting since the pandemic began in March 2020.

ODFW’s release said their recent status assessment determined that the primary cause of recent low wild steelhead runs in the North Umpqua was poor ocean conditions leading to low ocean survival. Secondarily, poor freshwater conditions likely impacted survival of both out-migrating juveniles and returning adults. The release said the assessment did not identify hatchery origin adult summer steelhead as a limiting factor to wild populations, although there are more hatchery fish on natural spawning grounds than the management threshold allows. The commission will be asked to modify the hatchery program with a reduction in annual smolt releases from a recent average of 70,000 to 30,000 in an abundance of caution for wild fish population.

Thursday’s agenda is a tour of local fish, wildlife and habitat projects in the Astoria area.

Friday’s meeting will begin at 8:00 a.m. The meeting will be live streamed at: https://www.dfw.state.or.us/agency/commission/minutes/22/04_Apr/index.asp. Testimony will be allowed via Zoom or in-person. Those wanting to testify must register by 8:00 a.m. Wednesday at this link:    https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_OjU8KUwMQJGgMyVe93emLg

Other items are on the agenda as well. The full agenda is at: https://www.dfw.state.or.us/agency/commission/minutes/22/04_Apr/index.asp