March 23, 2023 3:30 a.m.

Students at Coquille Junior/Senior High School welcomed 5,000 tiny Chinook Salmon earlier this week, reviving a program that had gone dormant in recent years.

With salmon hatchlings provided by a new partnership between the Coquille Indian Tribe and state officials, and with help from Coquille’s Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program, the school is resuming a salmon program that reaches back to the 1980s.

Principal Jeff Philly, who worked at the school’s hatchery as a teen, said, “I think if you live in the Pacific Northwest, you need to understand the salmon, you just do.” Philly said, “It’s an important part of our environment. It’s fed a lot of families for a lot of years”.

The Coquille Indian Tribe release said that students will feed the fish, clean the facility and monitor air quality. They will also learn about the salmon’s life cycle, along with the importance of keeping the river system cold and clean.

The fish will be released to the river system around the end of the school year.

The school’s salmon program went idle three years ago, when broodstock and egg supplies dwindled. Egg production bounced back in 2022, due to efforts by the tribe, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, STEP volunteers and the broader community.

The release said salmon enhancement is part of a cooperative management agreement signed by the tribe and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission last summer. The pact covers natural resource management across five counties in southwestern Oregon.