Coquille Tribe release – COQUILLE, Ore. – Students at Coquille Junior/Senior High School welcomed 5,000 tiny Chinook salmon this week, reviving a tradition 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 remembers working at the school’s hatchery as a teen. “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.” Students will feed the fish, clean the facility and monitor water quality. They’ll 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 Coquille school’s salmon program went idle three years ago, when broodstock and egg supplies dwindled. Egg production bounced back in 2022, thanks to cooperative efforts by the tribe, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, STEP volunteers and the broader community. 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. John Ogan, who leads the Coquille Tribe’s Natural Resources Office, described 2022’s broodstock collection effort as “marvelously successful.” It doubled ODFW’s goal of 75 breeding pairs and yielded more eggs than expected. The extra eggs went to the school and to four streamside incubators (traditionally known as hatch boxes) in the Coquille River drainage. Ogan praised the STEP volunteers for renovating the school’s hatchery. Using donations from local businesses, STEP replaced pumps and rebuilt the aging system. Restoring the hatchery was worth the cost and effort, said STEP’s Dana Mills, who led the project. “The economic impact it has on our small community is huge, and we need to get that back,” he said. “We had the opportunity to get it back up and running, and now we’re going to pass the torch to the kids. They’re the ones who are going to run it.” Making a personal investment in stewardship can turn teens into lifelong advocates for salmon, Ogan said. “They’re the next generation of caretakers,” he said. Local donors: The hatchery at Coquille Junior/Senior High School was rebuilt by STEP volunteers using donations from local businesses, organizations and individuals, including: * Coquille Carquest; * Roseburg Forest Products; * Bay Area Sportsman Association; * Lloyd Electric; * Ron’s Oil Co.; * Coquille Supply.
