The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and Tacoma Power unveiled proposed alternatives for improving the wild fish population on the Cowlitz River by reducing the overall role of hatcheries during a public meeting at Centralia College Thursday.

    About 45 anglers, residents and conservationists gathered for the meeting, which lasted about two hours and focused on potential changes to the state’s hatchery management plan.

    Tacoma Power funds the two largest hatcheries on the river — the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery and the Cowlitz Trout Hatchery — through an agreement aimed at mitigating the negative impact its dams have on the river’s fish runs.

    The production proposals were forged by the Cowlitz River Fisheries Technical Committee, an oversight group for the fisheries portion of Tacoma Power’s Cowlitz Hydroelectric Project License.

    Tacoma Power and WDFW are conforming to a settlement agreement that would cap production of smolt at 650,000 pounds per year for all stocks of fish. Tacoma Power fisheries biologist Mark LaRiviere said the hatcheries are currently producing about 670,000 pounds though that number was as high as 1 million when the agreement was originally reached.

    Additional proposals by the technical committee include the inclusion of using more naturally produced fish in hatchery broodstocks to improve the health and quantity of annual runs that include coho, steelhead, chinook and cutthroat trout.

    “It’s going to change. … But there will always be active hatchery production on the Cowlitz,” LaRiviere said.

    LaRiviere and WDFW biologist Pat Frazier walked attendees through proposed alternatives for most fish runs on the Cowlitz. The proposals include both increases and decreases to the production of specific species, but LaRiviere said the result of the plan update will be an overall reduction in production.

    He said hatchery fish impact the genetics of the natural-born fish population and that both Tacoma Power and WDFW are required to work toward restoring populations that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

    In short, coho salmon smolt releases could drop from 1.8 million to 1.1 million bringing the allowable catch for sports fishers from 22,200 a year to about 13,600. For fall chinook, the panel has decided to either increase production from 5 million to 5.3 million or reduce it to 3.2 million, depending on the amount of naturally produced fish in hatchery brood stock.

    Additionally, the early winter steelhead release in the lower Cowlitz would be eliminated or possibly reduced in the upper Cowlitz while cutthroat production could be halved.

    LaRiviere said that the goal of all of the alternatives is to comply with Endangered Species Act regulations and its settlement agreement which each require that Tacoma Power “restore natural origin fish to harvestable levels.”

    Frazier said there are few if any truly wild fish in the river, and defined natural-origin fish as those that were spawned on the river and not in the hatchery. He said those fish are usually stronger and more likely to survive and thrive.

    Many of the sport fishers on hand Thursday expressed frustration with the plan and feared it would harm fish runs, while others voiced appreciation for attempts to restore natural origin fish.

    Frazier said with most of the salmon listed as endangered species, the WDFW and Tacoma Power are required to act.

    “It’s not just something we can decide for ourselves,” Frazier said. “That is a legal and a binding obligation for us.”

    Eric Schwartz: (360) 807-8245