State, county planning chum rearing project

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to open a chum salmon rearing project this summer at the now closed Elochoman Salmon Hatchery.

The department is working with Wahkiakum County on the project. County commissioners urged the department to establish the program, which will help re-establish chum salmon, an endangered species, in the Elochoman. Project planners envision students in Wahkiakum High School's environmental and vocational agriculture classes will take part in caring for the salmon.

Regional Biologist Pat Frazier said Tuesday that the department has received a grant from Bonneville Power Administration to help with funding. The department has submitted applications for all necessary permits. They will soon dig test holes along the planned channel to determine water quality in that area is adequate or if it will be necessary to upgrade the closed hatchery's water sources to supply water to the channel.

"We'll proceed with construction as soon as we get the permits and test results," Frazier said.

Frazier said chum eggs would collected on the Grays River, which has one of the two naturally spawning chum populations in the Columbia River system. The eggs would be incubated and brought to the Elochoman chum channel to be reared and released. In three or four years, adult chum will return to the channel to begin natural spawning in the Elochoman.